Filmmaking

The Panamanian film will be screening at the Cannes Marché The audience at the Panama Film Festival is very engaged, interested and enthusiastic. The questions during the Q&A are unique. Not once did I hear that old chestnut, ”What was the budget of the film?” They care about the subject, the characters and the filmmakers themselves and often add to-the-point personal comments rather than simply ask questions. The multiplex Cineopolis is in the largest, most upscale mall I have ever seen. Th...

Today, we have something extra special for all our Stage 32 members! Below is the uncut interview that our CEO, RB did with Ron Dawson from the podcast, Radio Film School. They cover such topics as ethics, film history, provocative filmmaking, Tarantino, social media, whether or not Citizen Kane holds up, fan filmmaking, and much more. It's over an hour of filmmaking inspiration! You can listen to the podcast below, or click here to download the MP3. If you like what you hear, be sure to sub...

The bug for cinema and filmmaking hit me hard in the summer of 1970. On that hot July day I sneaked through the back door of the local theatre and ensconced myself into a rickety folding seat not more than 15 yards from the screen. The purpose of my stealthy activity was two-fold: first, I wanted to escape the oppressive heat outside and the theatre was an iceberg in the midst of a desert; second, and perhaps of greater importance, I could not just but a ticket and walk in as the show on offer w...

My team's latest short film, Trust, had a lot of firsts for us: First time, we shot in a location not owned by a team member and the first time we received sponsoring from a local company. But before that, we spent over two years just about filmmaking, hardly ever releasing anything. I'd like to share some of the most important things we learned about productivity over those two and a half years and tell you how we managed to get a location and a sponsor. First, let me tell you a little bit abou...

If you haven't signed up for today's free On Stage With RB online webinar broadcast, make sure you do soon. Only the first 2,000 Stage 32 members are able to attend the online broadcast for free. Only a few spots remain! As always, you are in for quite a treat for this month's On Stage With RB broadcast. In addition to interviewing 2 impressive industry guests, RB will be covering some of the latest and greatest site features, speaking to members of the community and spending at least 90 minut...

Tips on techniques I used on the feature film ON THE HORIZON. On The Horizon was a process that took four years. I’ve learned a lot in that period of time. For the past 12 years, I have been working on short films, music videos and now feature films. All my projects have always been done the same way, with barely any budget and no crew at all, but I was still successful. I won festivals around the world and secured funding for two feature films. I wanted to share with you some crucial tips on...

Greetings Earthlings!   What a great reaction for the first article - thanks to everyone for reading and commenting!   February has been a busy month for camera announcements. And I suspect March will be as well leading into major events like WPPI and NAB.   Canon, Nikon, Sony, and even Pentax had major announcements. And interestingly, only one of them was mirrorless.   I don’t know… seems like the entire planet is talking ‘mirrorless this’ and ‘mirrorless that’ but yet I also recently...

It's the moment you have all been waiting for! It's time to announce the Stage 32 4th Annual Oscars Contest winners! We thank everyone who participated.With more entries than ever this year, we had a grand total of 40 winners! First up, we have a 16-way tie with 16 correct for 3rd place and a 17-way tie with 17 correct for 2nd place.  And finally, with a BIG congratulations to our top prize winners, we have a 7-way tie for 1st place with 18 correct! Leading the group is our very own fearless l...

"We're going to have to let you go..." were the first words that prompted my acting journey. I had been working in IT for nearly 22 years when my company down-sized and, after a testing time personally, with a difficult divorce, I made a decision. They say that as one door closes another opens, well, the door to regular and comfortable salary-earning did slam firmly shut and like any redundancy, fills you with that initial fear and trepidation. What has happened since then has seen me expand m...

It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog – even for my own site. In all honesty there just hasn’t been anything that compelled me to sit down and put my thoughts out there… but as I had previously written about the death of camera assistant Sarah Jones, and as two years have now passed since the incident that took her life (she was killed on February 20th, 2014), I decided to revisit my feelings on the topic and look at what has come of that loss. Several months back, I was disgusted to hea...