Composing

Happy First Sunday of 2020! I hope everyone had a wonderful start to the New Year and is now ready to get to work and make some magic in 2020. I've got a hot cup of coffee and am ready to bring you some fresh content this Sunday.  2019 was a huge year for film and television. Among all the amazing stories told this past year, one epic tale also came to a close: Game of Thrones. While the series may be over, the theme song still plays on in our heads. Take a journey with the mind behind the m...

Happy New Year, everyone. Hope you all had a terrific holiday season and are now ready to launch into 2020. Those of you who have been around the site for a while know that on New Year's Day we utilize the Stage 32 Blog to discuss and share our plans for the coming year. So, what are you looking to accomplish in 2020? What are your creative goals? What skills are you looking to learn? What fears are you looking to overcome? What strategies are you planning on implementing toward reaching your...

Music can be an incredibly powerful emotional catalyst in a film. A well-placed song has the power to add that perfect little zest to our emotional response to certain scenes. When it comes to music in movies, John Williams is the Granddaddy of all film composition. From the unforgettable Indiana Jones theme to high-octane space chase music in Star Wars, John Williams has personally shaped the way we connect music to movies.  Classic FM took a page of sheet music out of John Williams' epic c...

A very Happy Thanksgiving week to you Creative Army! This Sunday, we've got some great content for all you filmmakers out there. My coffee's brewing, how about yours? First on the docket, can your project's title shape how you write your story? Writer/Director Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit, Thor: Ragnarok, What We Do in the Shadows) thinks so! Learn more in his interview with our friends over at IndieWire.  Next up, film editor Tom Cross (La La Land, Whiplash, First Man, Joy) tells the folks...

Let's rock and roll, Creative Army. We've been well overdue to get together live. I've got just the solution. Let's hang AMA (Ask Me Anything) style.   Since the last AMA in May, I've been running all over the globe fulfilling Stage 32 partnership responsibilities, conducting business, exploring creative writing/filming/producing opportunities, and mentoring in such places as Cannes, Budapest, Majorca, Paris, Dordogne, Trinidad and Tobago, London, Munich, Hamburg and, of course, right here i...

Greetings from London where we just finished our sold-out screening of our 4th Annual Film Program at the Raindance Film Festival.  It was fantastic to see so many of our educators and executives in attendance, at our afterparty, and during our meetings throughout the week.  We'll be sharing more here on the blog soon. Those of you who know me have heard me stress that too many creatives focus nearly exclusively on their craft.  They don't take the time to keep on top of what's happening in th...

For the past few years we've been doing a mid-year check in to see where all of you are at. What kind of projects are you working on?Have you been killing it with auditions?Where are you with writing? Networking? Pitching? Let's take a minute to do a mid-year check-in and see how - and what - you’re all doing thus far. Are you on track? Do you need a push? Did you change direction entirely?   Let's talk about it in the comments section below. And, of course, if there is the opportunity...

Welcome back, my spooky Stage32 Community!Summer is almost here and in this survival guide, I'll be focusing on a checklist of things to keep in mind when shooting a horror film. It's no surprise that horror films cost less to produce and shoot. A good example is Jordan Peele’s Get Out. James Wan made his career with the SAW franchise. Horror films bring in lots of money at the box office and audiences flock to the screen to get their fright on! With that in mind, lets dive right into the belly...

Single cover for Operators. Photo credit: Victoria Somers. One of the greatest aspects of creative projects in any discipline is the synergy and surprising turns that occur in the process. You start with a vision and then one happy accident after another takes you down a rabbit hole to something far beyond expectation. This was exactly true of my re-entry into the music world with the video for my act This Mad Desire's Operators Are Standing By. To date, it has been viewed over 200,000 times o...

Cannes is next week! As you all know Stage 32 has has worked directly with and have had an official presence at the Cannes Film Festival Marche du Film for the last 5 years. Also, for the 3rd straight year, Stage 32 is the official education workshop partner of Cannes and the Marche. This year, our role has expanded even further as we'll be helping to bring more of our executives and educators to the festival and conference. In addition every Cannes attendee will be receiving a free Stage 32 w...