Financing

In an industry where gatekeepers run the show, finding creative ways to get your work out there is not only a necessity, but a glorious way to take control of your career. No matter what hat(s) you were in the entertainment industry, launching your own YouTube channel is a fantastic way to flex your creative muscles - without needing permission from anyone. Sick of waiting to get cast in your dream role? Launch your own YouTube channel where you perform monologues weekly. Tired of not g...

Isn´t it funny how executives and studios are so quick to shoot you down unless you've got talent attached? Yet, it's the talent that are sometimes the ones that are holding you up? I graduated from a pretty intensive practical filmmaker course in 2008 at the Met Film School, which still ran rings around my University experience in Screenwriting & Cinematography barely 5 years later. Unfortunately, both never opened the door to a job for me despite my best efforts. I only ever wanted to wri...

Since my appointment as delegate of the Mexican National Chamber of the Film Industry (CANACINE) for the State of Quintana Roo, also known as the Mexican Caribbean, I have become familiar with the phenomenon screen tourism. In fact, screen tourism is becoming one of the key elements in policy making for the audiovisual industry in Quintana Roo, which includes what nowadays can be considered Mexico’s most important beach tourist areas. In this article I will explain what screen tourism is, h...

I’m Adrienne Arno. You can define me a lotta way— I’m the daughter of a hero-cop. I’m that neighborhood kid who befriended animals and always had her head in a book. I’m that weird but brilliant creative chick you went to high school with. I’m a criminal psychologist that spent my early twenties cutting my professional teeth on serial killers and rapists in New York’s largest maximum-security prison. I’m a woman whose been to dark places. I’m a heretic and a troublemaker and whistle blower and “...

It’s the tedious but oh-so-necessary maintenance of being in this industry: online presentation. Just as we once toiled over the formatting and tone of a resume and cover letter, so now must we polish our profiles. Selling ourselves can be exhausting, but look at it this way - your Stage 32 profile is your invitation to play! We all love what we do, and we love meeting people that make the experience magical. Here’s your chance to set the tone for your fantasy-project-made-real! So, pour your fa...

So you made a movie. You even have an offer from a sales agent to sell it worldwide. You are excited.Your film is selling in Cannes!It’s selling at the American Film Market!It’s screening at Berlinale!You're having viewing parties with friends and family, showing off the brochure or the listing of your movie in the Trades. You dream about the new movie you will make or the house you'll buy with the profits from the first one, and you're sure there will be so many dollars coming your way from the...

What started it all was the 2016 election. I was at the Napa Valley Film Festival showing my documentary The Lost City of Cecil B DeMille and I remember sitting in my hotel room watching the results come in and being devastated. While in Napa, it dawned on me that I had worked on many other people’s films and it was almost two decades since I had made a film of my own. I’d spent much of this time trying to get one particular project made and was not successful. It felt like I was running out...

DON'T STOP BELIEVING "I've written a play. Can you direct it?" AN OFFER! It was 2013. Two friends of mine recommended to playwright, Robin Pond, that he approach me to direct his play, 'The Retirement Plan', which had been selected to appear at The Toronto Fringe Festival. I had directed plays before, but all of them had been from scripts I had written. However, I was intrigued, and asked Robin to send me his script. I read 'The Retirement Plan', a dark comedy that dealt with a retiring...

I know a lot of people who live very small lives in very small places. The one I actually know the best is me. I’m the woman who was scared to not only leave her home state but also her town until I hit my 40’s. I was scared to fail at everything, including getting from A to B in a car. So I sat, safe, in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania. A divorce thrust me into a new life and I realized if I didn’t take risks that led to failure I was going to disappear off the radar, broke and alone. My first st...

There's only one way to break into the show business as a writer and it's different for everyone. My access point to Hollywood has a name: Alexia Melocchi of LITTLE STUDIO FILMS in Beverly Hills, my accomplished, dedicated Manager, a successful entertainment industry professional and a courageous visionary dreamer I was lucky to meet after connecting through a Stage 32 pitch session. Let me thank the entire Stage 32 Team for the great connections they helped me make and Alexia from the bottom...