Networking

I believe that no matter whether a piece of work is a full length epic novel, a screenplay or short article, if you're planning to present your work to a publisher, producer or any other form of media, your work should be presented at the highest standard possible. I get asked by a lot of writers, "does presentation really matter, as long as the content is great?" YES, it does matter, because if someone is reading your work and all they can see are glaring spelling, grammatical or formatting...

Recently, the nominations for the 74th primetime Emmy Awards were announced. Shows like Squid Game, Stranger Things, Succession, Ted Lasso, and Abbott Elementary led the nominees. But how does one get nominated for an Emmy? Who votes on it? Who submits me for it? In the era of streaming and prestige television, there are literally hundreds of performances each season vying for 5-8 slots for the best of the year. Like any awards season campaign, chances for getting nominated for something are...

The Wire. You’ll see the connection. I hope!! Extra. Extra. Read all about it! As well as being an author, I’m also an extra, otherwise known as a supporting artist on movie sets, TV series’, music videos and TV commercials. During my time on various sets over the last three years, I’ve worked with many famous actors from the UK and Hollywood, but this particular shoot of which I write was something else for many reasons and I will never, ever forget it. I hope you enjoy the read! Talent...

It actually makes more sense in the 21st century to be using the old expression, “Watching the phone.” In this day and age of smartphones we actually can see when a call is coming in. It makes you wonder what people were hoping to see when they’d stare at the phone on the wall or the unit that sat on the desk back in the day. But if you find yourself nodding off because your Android or iPhone is neither ringing nor having texts come in, it very likely could be due to the way that you’ve presen...

Humans are creatures of story. We have that innate desire to tell stories. Animation is one of the most useful means to tell stories. In what way? Take a look at beautiful, story driven animated movies that you've probably seen on screen past and present. I'm sure a number of them have come to mind by now. Many of these animated movies, some we've treasured since when we're kids. For some of us, we may have curated a list of best animated movies and series we've watched. What makes us...

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” - W.C. Fields When I read that, I think of the word perseverance. As in, do not give up. It’s easy to think that once you reach a goal, it’s all smooth sailing from there. That as long as you “try, try again” you will achieve the thing and that’s the end of it. However, in reality, that theme has been repeated at every step of my 20-year post-production career. It applies each and every day in the smallest of moments and will likely apply ev...

Happy Sunday Creative Army! First of all, congratulations to all of you who have already participated in our monthly Introduce Yourself Weekend! Thousands of connections have been made between entertainment creatives and professionals from every corner of the globe. Whether you are a long-time member, or brand new to Stage 32, take a moment to pop over to the Introduce Yourself Lounge and say hello before the end of the weekend. First up, Film Riot shares an interesting video featuring 5 cre...

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, ho...

THE PROBLEM Starting in 2002, for the past 20 years to the present, during the evenings and weekends, I have been feverishly writing, adapting, and pitching a number of feature picture screenplays with no success in getting the projects greenlit or optioned neither by buyers, agents nor producers. Meanwhile, all this time my day job has been in relatively non-creative realm of high-tech. Does this story sound familiar? Every writer/filmmaker I've run into experiences a closed and ineffic...

Imagine the scene. A film composer sits in the cinema. The adverts are rolling, the popcorn is flowing, the trailers are, well, trailering- then suddenly a familiar sound hits the composer’s ears. “Did I write this track?... No…. Hmm. What sounds familiar?... Something in there rings a bell…. Oh! The piano/strings/synths/drums. The composer is using X library!” Whilst there is a seemingly infinite number of libraries available for composers to use, there’s actually a very small pool of commonl...