Filmmaking

This past Saturday, we were proud to welcome 30-year film industry veteran, Jason Roberts, DGA AD, as he hosted a free 60-minute Q&A webinar for hundreds of members of the Stage 32 community.  In his over 3 decades in he business, Jason has amassed 70 credits as an Assistant Director or Second Unit Director. Just some of the big budget blockbusters, indiefilm darlings and well respected television shows Jason has worked on include Jurassic World, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Man of Stee...

Fundraising for a movie is the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life. I am an Emmy-award winning director and member of the Directors Guild of America. My films have screened at Cannes and I made a feature film in 35mm, yet, even with all I have accomplished, there has been nothing more difficult and, at the same time, more helpful for a director then a Kickstarter. Because it's not just about the money, it's all the PR packaging that a fundraise can give you. I knew about Kickstart...

Hey guys. Happy Friday. Also, Happy Introduce Yourself Weekend. I wanted to share a video I found most intriguing. It's a look at the elements of suspense within Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds screenplay, most notably its 17-minute opening scene. What makes this scene so effective? Why does it work so well? I look forward to your thoughts in the Comments section below.     Like this blog post? Please share it on social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, email etc) by usi...

Writing about oneself is sometimes challenging because you feel like writing your whole life on a piece of paper, at the same time you see limitations in writing. You want to write only what is necessary to fit the platform or your desired audience. My name is Michael Asonganyi and this is how I became a filmmaker in the African film industry. I was born and raised in Cameroon and at the age of 23, I moved to study in Sweden where I met my wife, a Norwegian national studying at the same Univer...

Last night brought us one of the most memorable moments in Oscars history when the wrong film was announced as Best Picture. Many anticipated a La La Land victory, but it was Moonlight, a film made for under $5MM, that brought home the top gold! 2016 brought on some of the most spectacular cinema we've ever seen. We want to congratulate all the creatives involved, including our 13 Stage 32ers who worked on films nominated (more on that here).  Ultimately we have 3 films that brought home the...

While today’s Oscars are shaping up to be a LA LA LAND love fest, there is still some intrigue involved in watching today’s ceremony: Stage 32’ers Michel Merkt and Max Karli are up for a total of 3 Academy Awards. Michel is nominated for producing Best Foreign Film nominee, TONI ERDMANN, which has won dozens of awards throughout the last year, including the Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film yesterday. Michel and Max are both nominated as producers for Best Animated Film with MY...

Stage 32 is honored to premiere the 2nd Stage 32 Short Film Program at the 2017 Richmond Film Festival. This program was curated by the incredible industry executives(3 who won Oscars!) who judged our Annual Short Film Contest and features 6 amazing directors (from 4 countries) all with bright futures ahead. Once again, congratulations to all the filmmakers and the Stage 32 team congratulates you on the screening!  Stage 32 Short Film Program @ RIFF Wednesday, March 1, 2017 at 2:45PMByrd Thea...

Stage 32, US/France-based Little W Productions, Scandinavian Locations, and the European Film Commission Networks (EUFCN) are pleased to announce the eight winning filmmakers of their Global Matchmaking Program. In addition to having the opportunity to present their projects presented at SXSW in Austin Texas during an Official US/European Co-Production panel, these filmmakers will also continue to receive coaching from Truls Kontny & Mikael Svensson, the President and the General Secretary of...

THE SILENT MAJORITY I was pleased that Hollywood chose to honor The Artist - a silent movie - in such grand fashion at the Oscars. Pleased and a little vindicated, I must say. Because it reminded me of a terrific project I worked on that never happened and of my favorite studio note ever. Here comes my war story: Fox Family Films had just discovered a wonderful new talent named David Shiner, an actor comedian entertainer who had come up as a street performer. He was at the time killing on Br...

You may or may not be familiar with producer Ross Putman's Twitter feed @femscriptintros. Ross, having been in the industry for many years decided that he would call out the way that female characters are portrayed in the scripts that he's reading. He takes actual script introductions of female characters and replaces them with "JANE" to protect the writers.  For those of you who don't know Ross, he's a Stage 32 Educator, and a successful producer having recently won the Sundance NEXT Award fo...