Advice

Delayed Gratification: A lesson in show biz. If I was able to teach a seminar in show business to my 22-year-old self it would all come down to two words: Patience and Persistence. Well that and be lucky, don’t be scared to ask for help, and be willing to work for free. A lot. Kindling The year is 2012. For the sake of context, I feel like I need to paint a picture of where I was in my career and mindset when things started to change for me. I spent the better part of a decade trying to...

Before I delve into the chronic misdeeds of our industrial showbusiness community, forgive me a paragraph or two to establish my credentials as your professor in this matter. Much of my life in showbusiness until now has been defined by the work nobody in Hollywood actually wants to do, but that everyone would gladly take credit and experience for having done, if they could. For ten years, I learned the risks and rewards of producing by financing other people's indie films with cold-calls to pot...

Prologue: Venturing Forth The PROTAGONIST. Often a simple, unassuming person at least somewhat content in their everyday life, is given a quest. A journey must be made—both physical and psychological. Leaving the familiar, they cross the threshold into a new and dangerous world, where they will be tested time and again. Allies and enemies abound. The stakes are high. Will they prevail?All fantasy is based on some form of this opening paragraph. Not coincidentally, it is also the “formula” for o...

If you read Part 1 of Breaking in with 'Break Even' by C Walley, then you took the first step of our next series post that follows a Stage 32 Screenwriter's Journey. We're following CJ Walley, an optioned screenwriter who is working with a production crew on his first feature script, 'Break Even,' which was written on assignment. Over the next month or so, we'll be taking you along on CJ's journey, starting with his flight from England to Los Angeles, to his experience on set, all the way thro...

It's the age-old question that writers, entertainers, and filmmakers ask again and again in one form or another: How do you vet a manager for representation in entertainment? In this special edition of AMA (Ask Me Anything), RB and Jason Mirch, Stage 32's new Director of Script Services, breaks down the how, the why, and the what to finding the right kind of representation. Also, learn what to do if you get a manager and it's not a good fit. Click Here For RB and Jason's Advice!    ...

When Hollywood first started making movies, everyone worked for the studios. Eventually, independent producers started making their own movies and it seems everyone with a typewriter started writing screenplays. Hollywood had to build a wall to keep all those people out they didn’t think belonged, which was just about everyone. That's when literary agents appeared on the scene. Hollywood would rely on agents to filter through all those screenplays to find one they could use. Things haven’t cha...

Good morning, everyone.  Greetings again from Chicago, where we have just finished work on Week 2 of filming RAIN BEAUS END.  The cast and crew (including over a dozen Stage 32 members) continues to bring their A-game.  I'll be posting some pictures and a summary of the filming here in the near future, but for now if you'd like to see some set photos and stories, you can check them out and follow me for Week 3 on Instagram here. Now let's roll with another edition of Coffee & Content. First...

The blog post that I'm about to share is from Homicide and The Wire creator, David Simon. Simon penned an incredibly eye-opening post that included his own story of how he was taken advantage of financially by an agent from the Creative Artists Agency's literary division with a product he was never even aware existed called "Packaging." It's a big, bad, buzz word right now for writers. If you know anything about David Simon, you know he was a newspaper writer and author first. And after spen...

I stood on the edge of a field at Houston’s George Bush Park, willing my legs to run. They refused. As best I could I scanned the short cut grass and saw no problems, but I knew I might have missed something, so I looked and looked and looked again. My wife, who drove me to the park, double checked for me. “All’s clear,” she said. “No obstacles.“ I nodded affirmation, but still couldn’t get my feet to propel me forward. In a few minutes, as we rehearsed for the commercial we would film...

In our next series post that follows a Stage 32 Screenwriter's Journey, we're following CJ Walley, an optioned screenwriter who is working with a production crew on his first feature script, 'Break Even,' which was written on assignment. You may remember CJ for his outspoken, yet truthful posts, including this one: How This Rejected Writer Optioned a Goddamned Feature Script. Over the next month or so, we'll be taking you along on CJ's journey, starting with his flight from England to Los Ange...