Advice

For the last month I've had the pleasure of working with Roger S. H. Schulman, the Oscar-nominated and BAFTA award winning writer of SHREK. Roger's impressive roster also includes being a scribe for Steven Spielberg Executive Produced BALTO, as well as two Disney films MULAN II, THE JUNGLE BOOK II, and plenty of other features and TV shows. I'm thrilled to bring in Roger as a special guest for Stage 32 THIS SATURDAY to teach a Masterclass on Creating Compelling Characters. I mean, the waffle l...

First of all, let me introduce you to the existence of Independent Film Predators. They are less-than-legitimate indie film distributors that want to distribute your film and unfortunately, there's a bunch of 'em. In fact I can vouch for their existence personally. 3 OF A KIND, my recently completed psychological thriller, premiered at the WorldFest Houston International Film Festival. It's a film we literally scraped and clawed financially to get done. We ultimately had to take out personal l...

What happens when you put 2 New Yorkers in Hollywood? Well, we found out in the most recent "On Stage With RB" special webcast - "2 New Yorkers in Hollywood". This fun, educational and definitely entertaining webcast featured our fearless leader, Richard "RB" Botto, and special guest Bradley Gallo, CCO of Amasia Entertainment. For those of you new to Stage 32 and may not know the hosts, RB is the founder & CEO of Stage 32, an actor & voice actor, producer (ANOTHER HAPPY DAY, (Demi Moore, Kate...

Happy Sunday to you all.  Hope you're having a fantastic weekend. In this edition of Coffee & Content, we go back to P.T. Anderson and a cut by cut breakdown of There Will Be Blood.  We also turn our attention to Dunkirk director Christopher Nolan and his pluses and minuses as a filmmaker and storyteller. As always, I ask you to share this content where you can on your other social media accounts through the handy share buttons at the top of this blog.  Pay it forward. Enjoy the content an...

This blog may be stating the obvious and I don't want to come across as condescending, but I just thought I would impart a piece of advice I have recently given to a client of mine. I have found while doing my job as an editor, that I have a great responsibility, not just to the authors I work with, but to the work itself. It's not just about spelling and grammar, it is also about what is best for the story and looking at something from the point of view of the reader. I do know of course that...

Happy Sunday, everyone.  Hope you've brewed some strong java because I have some inspiring and motivational content to springboard you into a new week. As you know, we've had some remarkable talent contributing to the Stage 32 Blog over the past 6 years.  Some of these terrific pieces have been buried (although you can always use the Blog search function!) and we've been reviving them and giving them a new audience on Medium. So without further fanfare, here are 5 fantastic and diverse blogs...

Today on Twitter and Instagram, it's #ShowReelShareDay - That means whether you're an actor, filmmaker, cinematographer or other creative with a reel, today is the day to showcase your talents to the world. Let's show the social world that we are the most creative community on the planet! We're asking all our members who have reels and either a Twitter or Instagram account (or both) to help promote Stage 32 while promoting yourselves!  All you have to do is share your reel link here on Stage 3...

There is a wonderful book written by the outstanding African author Tsisti Dangarembga called Nervous Conditions. The shocking first line of the book is: "I was not sorry when my brother died". She wasn’t sorry, because it meant she could now go to school. I feel like that about what is happening in our business. I am glad we are in a disruption and that the old model is falling apart, because I feel the new data driven e-commerce model allows more diversity and this gives advantage to the...

Happy Sunday, everyone.  And for those celebrating in the States, a Happy 4th of July weekend. For Coffee & Content this week, I'm sharing two terrific videos I'm sure you'll all find enormously entertaining and informative. First, it's the Personal Storytelling of INSIDE OUT.  I'm sure many of you are familiar with the painstaking process all Pixar scripts go through from concept to screen.  This video provides some more insight into why INSIDE OUT was Oscar nominated and works as well as i...

We see posts here on Stage 32 and elsewhere posing the age-old question of how critical it is to live in LA to be a successful screenwriter/filmmaker and the usual replies are that it is probably beneficial but not necessary. Kinda like if swimming in the ocean is your thing, you should probably live near one. But that overlooks a larger question: How do you define “successful”? If the Holy Grail is Hollywood, get your butt out there. But I’ve discovered other definitions and forms of success...