Filmmaking

It is very rare to read something that gives you an "aha" moment - that moment when you realize someone's words have impacted you in a way you could never have imagined, perhaps expressed your own deepest feelings more articulately than you ever could. Writer/director Ben Lewin had one of those moments when he read Mark O'Brien's essay On Seeing a Sex Surrogate. Just a few minutes later, and already convinced it would be our next project, my husband and partner of over 30 years (that would be Be...

On my social media rounds this morning, I read a quote by Alfred Hitchcock: "In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director." Certainly I don't fancy myself as a god -- if I were I would be using a RED camera instead of a Canon 60D -- however I do feel responsible for the worlds I decide to build and the characters I create. A little background before I return to Hitchcock and the divine attributes of filmmakers. Since I was but a wee lad, I have been a movie addi...

With the fall season on us, 'harvest' is an appropriate theme for this guest post. For a filmmaker, distribution is the equivalent of reaping a crop. But how do you ensure that you have a bountiful harvest, and not just a gathering of rotten fruit? Traditional distribution means many things to a filmmaker. It means finding an audience for your work. It means sales of your project, and perhaps pre-sales to trigger financing. In a nutshell, it means assigning the rights to exhibit your work fo...

Some weekend reading. Our CEO, Richard Botto, was recently interviewed by Stage 32 member Melissa Smith. RB touches on a number of subjects, from the history and future of 32 to why filmmakers and producers need to hone their marketing skills if they want to find success. Check out the interview here: Stage 32: The Inspired and Inspiring Enjoy and have a terrific weekend. - The Stage 32 Staff

Emily Shaules: Congratulations on a wonderful career and thank you so much for answering our questions. What is the one piece of advice you would give yourself if you could go back to the beginning of your career? TS: I guess at the outset I mistook the lock for the key; mistaking fame for craft. Having said that, when I began meeting masters of the art like Ustinov, Wyler, and Fellini I realized the real nature of the jewel. Unsatisfied with red glass, I focused on the star ruby. Valeri...

Guy Goldstein: Hello Mr. Stamp, What an honor to have an actor of your caliber here. Thank you so much. I would like to ask you about the importance of read-through rehearsals. I know every actor has to practice lines, etc., but how much of that is actual out loud practice, and is it better to read-through a script with other actors who are reading the other parts? How much time should actors devote to this? I'm looking forward to reading your book. TS: The learning of lines is something not...

Sue Scott-Escudero: My question is - What is the main thing you are trying to accomplish with your films.. when you die, what kind of message or influence do you hope to leave to mankind here on Earth? Thank you. TS: When I was first starting out, I wanted to be able to make people feel like I had when I watched Gary Cooper, Marlon Brando, James Dean. As I matured, I realized something inside me was beckoning. Trevor Mayes: Hello Mr. Stamp. What's your secret to imbuing your characters w...

What if you could have the ear of someone with decades of experience in the film industry? A Golden Globe winner...An Academy Award nominee. What would you ask him? What knowledge would you hope to gain? Well, this is your chance. Actor extraordinaire, and one of my favorite performers of all time, Terence Stamp, has graciously agreed to a Q&A with Stage 32. And here's the rub: You get to ask the questions. With over 70 credits to his name in a career spanning 6 decades, Terence has...

I love technology. Without it, I'd be unemployable. I'm a software developer, more precisely a back end developer. I write code that ties a front end or what we call the presentation layer to some form of business logic or middle tier, which then in turn saves its data to a data store - also known as a database - though it could be a flat file, xml document, or what not. What does any of this have to do with film making? One of the things that attracted me to screenwriting was the syntax...

Be resilient. If it's not already painfully obvious, you have to have thick skin. Perseverance is a very handy quality to have at this stage. I can tell you from experience it hurts to be rejected. And it really hurts to be rejected over and over; they add up and pile on and when there's nothing but bad news, you have to believe in your film, even when seemingly, others don't. Pig, for instance, has been a successful festival film by most measures, but we were rejected by eight festivals befo...