Advice

Happy Sunday, everyone.  Let's get to the action, shall we? We start this edition of Coffee & Content with a video from our friends at StudioBinder and Dan Harmon. Dan has been quite prolific over the last decade plus and here he explains his 8 proven steps to better stories. Next up, a look at cuts and transitions with examples from some iconic, classic, and recent films designed to help your editing skills. As always, I ask that you share this content with those you believe would benefit...

Hey, guys! Alex and Trevor here with a Stage 32 segment we'd like to offer you regularly: Ask us Anything. Nicole Punday asked a question about directing in the Filmmaking/Directing Lounge a few weeks back, so we grabbed our phone and shot a short video to answer her question. Nicole posted: This is a very interesting question that we think a lot of people have, especially when starting out. It can be very intimidating to hop on a set in any position because you think there is an en...

Samantha Tanner debuted her first feature film at Sundace 2018 as a co-writer of the highly anticipated A BOY, A GIRL, A DREAM, (Directed by Qasim Basir, and starring Omari Hardwick and Meagan Good). A native of Chicago’s West-side, she is also an accomplished actress with a BFA in theater from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Samantha steps into this new unfolding of her career as a screenwriter with joy. Her film credits include: COUNTER CLOCKWISE, PAIN N LOVE, and NITE STALKER....

To begin, My name is Mu-Shaka Benson. I’m an actor from Upstate New York and, like many others, I started my acting journey in my 30’s. When I began to pursue acting I heard an array of comments ranging from “don’t quit your day job” to “aren’t you too old for that?” It was a struggle to deal with in the beginning because a lot of those comments came from precisely the same people who you’d want to have your back. My family, my friends and loved ones. But my dream of acting, which had come upo...

Welcome to Sunday, everyone. And another edition of Coffee & Content. From our friends at IndyMogul, and for all those making or thinking about producing/filming a short film, it's the appropriately titled 7 Things to Know About Making Short Films! Next up, it's 5 Tips for Acting brought to you by the good peeps at Film Riot. There you have it...Short and sweet. A quick word of thanks to all who have taken the time in recent weeks to share and comment on this content.  While I get much s...

Hello, my fellow creatives! When I'm not working on a script or acting my little heart out on set, I'm actually ghostwriting books and blog posts for fellow creative entrepreneurs. Mostly it's books, because the authors are busy running their own business and don't want their clients to know that a secret-agent-guru-ghostwriter was behind the scenes penning their work of art. But I digress, which is often the case. Inevitably, at some point during the process, the author will ask me, "Shou...

“The whole idea of creation is mysterious and wonderful, it’s a bottomless craft, which is why I love it so much.” -Uta Hagen It is important for actors to look up to other actors as a source of inspiration and hope. But more than hero worship, they can serve to challenge us to greatness. I urge actors to keep a running list of other actors they admire and to seek out similar qualities within themselves. When I was first starting out on the acting path my heroes were Carol Burnett, Gilda Rad...

Read PART ONE HERE: The Come Down: Navigating Normalcy After Festival Wins & Losses Part 1 Read PART TWO HERE: The Come Down: Navigating Normalcy After Festival Wins & Losses Part 2 On the festival run, people want to talk to the actors, the director, the writer. As a producer, you’re usually a distant, distant third. Still, you get to chime in from time to time on the Q and A’s, and those Q and A sessions you did on the fest circuit give you a sense of the best stories to use as sound-b...

Read PART ONE HERE: The Come Down: Navigating Normalcy After Festival Wins & Losses Part 1  People want advice… they want to tell you about their stories. They give you their business cards with hope in their eyes that you’ll call… And for a year or so, as you run around with the film under your arm, people treat you as though there’s virtually nothing to hold you back from becoming the next Scott Rudin, Aaron Sorkin, or Spielberg. In fact, they often treat you like you already are Scott Rudin...

I haven’t written a blog in quite a while… To be honest, haven’t felt like I’ve had all that much to say about the film industry lately. Maybe it’s because I just have too many projects in development for such a small setup. Or maybe it’s because I’m too wrapped up in the absolute insanity that is the daily assault of news about Trump. Maybe it’s because I rarely get enough sleep. Or maybe it’s because I’ve recently become completely obsessed with podcasts like APM’s In The Dark which is absolut...