Advice

Writing about your experiences through fantastical worlds and characters is a way to explore, process, and share your emotions creatively and engagingly. By translating real-life events into storytelling, you can distance yourself from painful memories for therapeutic benefit and revel in the joys of imaginative storytelling. Let’s dive into how you can achieve this and examples of how to make it work. Therapeutic Expression Translating experiences into fantasy allows the safe exploration...

Hey, Stage 32 Community! The ONLY Period Piece Screenplay Contest in the World is Back! Ever dreamt of seeing your period piece script come to life on the big screen or streaming on flat-screens in living rooms across the country? This is your chance to turn that dream into reality! Our Grand Prize Winner will get a Career Accelerator prize package valued at $5,000 that includes script & career development, writer branding and an education package and will be flown to LA to meet industry pro...

Happy Sunday, Creative Army! Have you had a creative weekend so far? I have some content here for you that is sure to get the creative juices flowing, so grab your coffee, and let's dive in. First up, in this Film Courage interview, Carole Kirschner shares 5 traits that you need to succeed in the entertainment business. Carole spent fifteen years as a television development executive, former Vice President of Television for Steven Spielberg's first Amblin Entertainment, and a Comedy Developm...

So, you have sold your screenplay, and you have earned the right to do the first, second, and possibly third rewrite. You have received notes from producers, and directors and have revised the screenplay. The rewritten script has survived the task and has been green-lit into the pre-production stage! The information I will give you is an overview of a required process, not known by many writers. Below are 6 things you should know about script legal research. 1. What Are Script Legal Resea...

Happy Thursday, Stage 32 Community! Today, I'm excited to share some fantastic updates that we've recently implemented on the Stage 32 platform, to help our hardworking writers stand out with unique profile badges! The Double Recommend & Writer’s Room Badges Moving forward, any Stage 32 writers who are subscribed to the Writer’s Room or have received a “Double Recommend” in our system, will be spotlighted with a badge that automatically appears on their Stage 32 profile. The badge will b...

Happy Tuesday, Creative Army! As many of you know, I recently attended the 45th American Film Market (“AFM”)! This year was special for many reasons, it was Stage 32’s 10th year as an official education partner of AFM, my 11th year speaking as an expert panelist on the AFM main stage, and the 1st year that this prestigious market was held in Las Vegas, Nevada! Yet it was the overwhelming positivity that I felt from the professionals and attendees around me that stood out most this year. Buye...

To say the movie industry is in a transitional stage would be an understatement. Studios are still behind their pre-strike production output. Despite the outcome of the strikes, AI is still seen as an existential threat to professional screenwriters and the screenwriting community at large. The trend of studios staking all their output on tentpole franchises hasn’t seemed to lose momentum inside Hollywood studios, despite the fact that audiences speaking with their wallets want to see something...

Happy Sunday, Creative Army! Have you had a creative weekend so far? I have some content here for you that is sure to get the creative juices flowing, so grab your coffee, and let's dive in. First up, in this video essay by Thomas Flight, he’s breaking down the elements that make for great exposition in your dialogue. Exposition in film and TV has a mostly bad reputation, but it’s really just another tool in the writer's toolbox. This video examines examples of exposition, discusses common m...

I have been writing and publishing stories for more than 10 years, first as a novelist. I always wrote in a silo, never sharing my work until I had reworked it countless times. Heaven forbid someone sees my terrible first draft! After publishing two novels this way, I opened myself up to a trusted friend as my next story was more complexly layered. It all made sense in my head, but would my reader get the connections? By bouncing around ideas and sharing my drafts with this friend, I fixed plot...

Happy Friday, Stage 32 Community! Our Stage 32 Team has been working diligently to bring in new educational and mentoring resources and opportunities to this fantastic community! This December, you'll have the chance to learn from knowledgeable industry executives, film commissioners, financiers, award-winning writers, producers, directors, cinematographers, authors, actors, and representatives. Impressive creative professionals who have worked on or represented such projects as THE SANDMA...