Inspirational

Happy Sunday, everyone. Miss me?   All apologies for no new Coffee & Content last Sunday. We wrapped filming on Rain Beau's End in Chicago on Saturday and then, well, there was the after party. Enough said. Our shoot couldn't have gone better.  Eighteen days of shooting, nearly a month in Chicago, but it all came together. Our cast, including Ed Asner, Sean Young, Melanie Chandra, Janelle Snow, Amanda Powell, and a host of others knocked the cover off the ball. I'll be sharing more from our sh...

Discover the Introvert’s Yes I know what you’re thinking, “Umm, Cheryl, Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes came out in 2015. Eons ago in internet time. Plus it's the beginning of April." But when you find yourself immersed in what is now one of your fav books, all you wonder is, Why the heck didn’t I read this book sooner?In my defense, Year of Yes has been on my Read This Now (aka When You Finally Freakin’ Slow Down) List. It truly feels like it just released this month, in my Dr. Who timey-wimey u...

Happy Monday, Stage 32 Family! Let's kick off the week with another exciting Stage 32 success story! We are happy to introduce Caytha Jentis from New York, who is a woman of many talents. Caytha came to Stage 32 four years ago after having completed 3 feature films. Her first indie feature And Then Came Love was licensed to Warner Bros. and her last feature, Bad Parents is now on HBO and Hulu! But Caytha wanted to break into television with an original series. The problem was, she didn’t know...

Good morning, everyone.  Greetings again from Chicago, where we have just finished work on Week 2 of filming RAIN BEAUS END.  The cast and crew (including over a dozen Stage 32 members) continues to bring their A-game.  I'll be posting some pictures and a summary of the filming here in the near future, but for now if you'd like to see some set photos and stories, you can check them out and follow me for Week 3 on Instagram here. Now let's roll with another edition of Coffee & Content. First...

I stood on the edge of a field at Houston’s George Bush Park, willing my legs to run. They refused. As best I could I scanned the short cut grass and saw no problems, but I knew I might have missed something, so I looked and looked and looked again. My wife, who drove me to the park, double checked for me. “All’s clear,” she said. “No obstacles.“ I nodded affirmation, but still couldn’t get my feet to propel me forward. In a few minutes, as we rehearsed for the commercial we would film...

Good morning Stage 32! It’s Monday morning and time for another excited success story from one of our Stage 32 members. This week’s story comes from Danielle R. Erlich from Arizona who told us a fantastic story about how a Stage 32 pitch session with producer Miguel Valenti has the potential to turn into something much larger. “I only had 8 minutes, and he was my second professional pitch,” Danielle explained. “He was extremely friendly and just so happened to have started ASU’s film schoo...

Greetings from Chicago where we are now a third of the way through shooting Rain Beau's End, a feature film which has well over a dozen Stage 32 cast and crew in the mix.  Been a killer first week.  Hoping to share more with you soon.   But for now, let's roll with another edition of Coffee & Content. Our first video today comes from our friends at Film Courage and focuses on lessons that screenwriters should learn sooner than later. Next up, Whiplash has been lauded in indie filmmaking ci...

There is a quote by Winston Churchill that perfectly sums up why I have such fervor about giving, and it goes a little something like this:“We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.”  - Winston ChurchillSuccess is often measured by the amount of money one has, the title or status they carry, and the level of power they exude. Yet money, status, and power are merely social measures and don’t actually equate to true success. To me, success is best measured by the health of y...

Happy Sunday to all. Greetings from a very chilly Chicago where we're prepping our first day of filming for Rain_Beau's End, a feature film I'm producing with more than a dozen Stage 32 members, including my fellow producer and good friend, Joe Orlandino. I'll be making some more posts about that as filming progresses, but for now, it's time to get to another edition of Coffee & Content. First up this week, it's a screenwriting lecture with the legendary Paul Schrader. Those of you who have be...

Part 3 -In The Steps of a King If you've already read part Part 1 and Part 2 of my series, than you know I was fortunate enough to partner with the producers of The King's Speech and The Tudors to write a series called Magna Carta. As much as I love history, I didn't know much about King John. It wasn't until I picked up a book at the local library that the history of the King began to tug at me. He wasn't the nicest guy, I learned. From all accounts, he was rather evil. And while the book I...