Financing

Happy Wednesday Creative Army! Here's hoping you are having a creative and productive week so far. As you know, the Stage 32 community has recently been featured in news outlets like Entrepreneur, Forbes, and The Wrap (to name a few). Now, I am thrilled to present an amazing conversation I had with Dorie Clark on her Newsweek show, Better.  Dorie is one of the Top 50 Business Thinkers in the world, has graced the TEDx stage, and is a multi best selling author. In this live conversation, Do...

Controlled chaos. Calculated risks. Strategic fun. The juggle, the marathon, the tornado - whatever circulatory movement you visualize the entertainment industry to be, it entices us in and sweeps us off our feet. Our eyes bulge wide to look at it, swirling, bustling, booming with activity. But when you’re in it? It just feels like “the groove.” Athletes reference this term as being in “the zone,” which is often defined as “a state of supreme focus [that] helps athletes perform at their peak pot...

Stage 32’s Film Finance Summit rocked. The panelists were “unfiltered and unhinged,” said one of the Stage 32 moderators, Amanda Toney. Another Stage 32 moderator, Harrison Glaser called them, “unvarnished,” and personally, I loved the speaker’s honesty and transparency. With three panels on producing, finance, and distribution, the Summit took a complex and open look at the state of the film and TV industry in 2021. I’ve remixed the wisdom from all three panels together in a 3-part blog seri...

COVID-19 hit, and people stayed home. Content was consumed at a fever pitch. Platform after platform, people were running out of things to watch! And it wasn’t just movies and TV. Gaming was more popular. Just ask anybody who tried to buy a Nintendo Switch or a PS5 at the height of the pandemic. People even read more of their email than usual. And another industry that benefited from this frenzy of consumption? Podcasting. One of the key pieces of advice you hear as a writer is “Make your own...

Happy Wednesday Creative Army! Since 2011, the Stage 32 team has been working tirelessly to help you stay connected, creative, motivated, and informed. As always, we are committed to bringing you networking opportunities, education and mentoring from top-level industry executives and professionals, and access to decision-makers around the globe all from the comfort of your own home. Recently our efforts have been noticed by the media in a big way. We are incredibly proud and honored that Sta...

I just finished writing my memoir, The Unfinished Heart. It started life two years ago as a film script called BlackBird, which is currently being made (production is set to start in May next year). The script took me 24 hours to write, and 12 to edit, it has 116 pages and around 17k words. There’s a blog post - Ireland-Based Screenwriter Options her First Script through Stage 32 - about how that all went and came to be. Since this success story, that I would not have had without Stage 32,...

Happy Wednesday Creative Army! As you know, Stage 32's continued mission is to democratize the entertainment business and the industry is taking notice in a big way. We are incredibly proud and honored that Stage 32 has been featured recently in Forbes Magazine, Business Insider, Inc. Magazine, and now for the second time in recent history, in The Wrap. Senior Entertainment Business Reporter Diane Haithman recently featured Stage 32 and myself and in her article 'The Next Ted Lasso': After a...

I've made a lot of movies. I started off as a Runner and worked my way up. I worked on 13 movies as a 1st AC & 2nd AC and Director of Photography before I became an award-winning Director & Writer in my own right. Having gone from Runner to director I have experienced the whole gauntlet of film making from the biggest shoots (Harry Potter and James Bond) to tiny micro-budget one-man crew shoots. I have seen many ways to do things effectively and simply. There are 6 main areas of filmmaking for...

Happy Sunday Creative Army! Have you had a creative weekend so far? I have some content here for you that is sure to get the creative juices flowing, so grab your coffee and let's dive in. First up, Backstage shares an amazing and in-depth interview with Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt on the Making of Apple TV's TED LASSO. With a whopping 20 Emmy Nominations (including best comedy series and best writing in a comedy), there is a lot to learn from these talented folks. Both Brendan and Jason...

I moved to Atlanta a couple months before the pandemic hit to pursue acting and producing. Without knowing nearly anybody in the area, but with a newly created Stage 32 account, and the one-time experience on set as a PA, I found the way to self-produce my first short film. These are 10 things I learned during the process of pre-production and production. 1. Make Meaningful Connections I met the director of my short film in Stage 32! Chaun Lee is a member of The Writers' Room at Stage 32 like...