Networking

Looking back at the highs and lows of your journey in the industry, what was your turning point? Can you pinpoint when you made the decision to change your life? What small choice cascaded into a waterfall of "Universal Greenlights"? Today's guest credits Stage 32, the book The Artist's Way, and his tenacity to get his film into festivals as what resurrected his career. While acting and writing are certainly his talents, today we dig deep into the work required to make it a profession. We talk a...

Hello Creative Army! As you all know, Stage 32 Screenings was born in March of 2020 in the wake of the cancellation of SXSW. Our initiative has since been covered by Deadline, Variety, CNN, and dozens more. We are currently screening over over 200 features, shorts, and episodic pilots from SXSW, Tribeca, SeriesFest, Vail Film Festival, BFI: Flare London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival, and Telluride Mountainfilm Documentary Festival to our network of over 6,000 invited sales agents, distributors, manage...

Until recently, the TV movie business was non-existent outside of some kid’s fare on Disney Channel or the Bad Boyfriend of the Week genre on Lifetime. But that was then, this is now. The TV movie game has never been hotter and it can be hard for a new (or even seasoned) screenwriter to make a sale and, even more important, get his or her work produced. But even though the samples above are presented somewhat tongue-in-cheek, they point out a good reason that many would-be TV movie writers fail...

Screenwriting was not how I envisioned my profession; nor is it to this day, easy for me. I came to writing after years of honing my directing and acting chops in conservatories and out in the professional world of Chicago and New York. However, life throws you curve balls and one day you wake up and realize that world is not going to tell the stories that you are truly passionate about. If it’s really important to you, you have to take it upon yourself to create that vision. This is something t...

The Pass You did it, my friend. You wrote for weeks upon weeks, and rewrote it again. When it was finished, there it sat in front of you. Your most brilliant screenplay and or pilot. After reading it and congratulating yourself, you knew it was pure gold. A work of unending genius. There will be so many execs and producers lined up with bags of money and praise because they have never read anything like this before. You take a deep breath as you open your Stage 32 account to peruse who is look...

Imagine your shyest friend. The one who talks with you, and not many others. This person is probably really good at what they do – writing, directing, editing - but is terrible at putting themselves out there and meeting new people. Now imagine that friend finally working up the courage to type up a paragraph about themselves and post it for this community to see. Imagine that person discovering other creatives and striking up conversations with them, all because you took the time to lift them u...

Hey everyone! Harrison here, the Director of Education at Stage 32. As a lot of you know, I’ve been working hard this past year to put together new learning opportunities led by some of the top minds in the entertainment industry to help everyone in the Stage 32 community grow in their field, whatever that field may be. And I’m super proud of what the education we’ve been able to provide! We’ve programmed webinars, classes and labs that have helped writers, directors, script supervisors, edito...

I’ve been writing since I learned to read, and I’ve always dreamed of being a professional writer. I spent my childhood writing novels: Tolkien-esque fantasy knock-offs, historical fiction, and even a quirky murder mystery. In high school, I discovered my dad’s stash of classic sci-fi novels, and I fell in love with the genre. But I still stayed in my comfort zone, studying literature in college and then graduate school--starting a family--pursuing a career in academia. But through it all, I kep...

Happy Sunday Creative Army! I've got my coffee in hand and your weekly dose of content coming in hot - grab your coffee of choice and let's dive right in. First up, our friends over at StudioBinder has put together a great video about how to write a TV pilot that sells. In this video, they use South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone's approach to story structure to illustrate compelling story structure. Like our Christopher Mack does in our Netflix TV Pitch Workshop, this video uses t...

It is no secret that writing a TV show, or an animated series is not an easy task, especially if your story takes place in a complex fantasy, historical or science fiction world. However, tabletop role-playing games can help you with that. Right before we start, let me tell you a story. A few years ago, I started to develop an animated sci-fi series. I had the story and the characters, but despite all my efforts, the setting was still vague, and this made the writing difficult. The fact that I...