Producing

When my friend and creative collaborator Caroline Slaughter first pitched me her concept for the short film LAMB in late 2017 at the start of the #metoo movement, my first response was “Hell Yeah!” (actual response censored) and my second was “Here is a chance to create change”. LAMB is about an eager and trusting filmmaker who follows a female assistant from a hotel lobby to a secluded room for “a meeting” with the assistant’s boss... Were these female assistants who led Hollywood’s lambs to...

Of all the species on Earth, humans have a unique ability when it comes to communication. We have the gift of stringing together words and phrases into complex ideas that eventually become stories. And we’ve used stories throughout our history as a way to educate, inspire, entertain, and yes, even save lives. The problem, as I see it, is that society can easily undermine the importance of stories and those whose chosen profession is to create them. If you’re willing to join me on a journey of st...

Dialogue is the central focus of most screenplays. It’s perhaps the clearest tool filmmakers have to convey information on plot and character to audiences, and unless you’re David Lynch of Shane Carruth, chances are you’re going to use a lot of it. In spite of this—or maybe even because of this—there is a great deal of bad dialogue in movies. Dialogue filled with clunky exposition and drastic tonal shifts that sounds nothing like a real human conversation. If you’re going for that effect, you...

‘Before the Dawn’ is a dramatic feature film about a young high school teacher who falls for a troubled student and then struggles with the choice of either giving in to her desires or doing the right thing. The film has won a number of awards on the festival circuit and was awarded the ReFrame Stamp by Women in Film and the Sundance Institute for its gender parity both in front of and behind the camera. It is now available on Amazon Prime, Tubi, Roku, YouTube Movies, and Google Play.    ...

Good morning Stage 32 Creative Crew! I hope you’ve had a productive and creative weekend. And I like me, I am sure you are ready to tackle this week and knock out some of your goals. We’re officially in the Summer of 2020 now, and while the year has not gone according to anyone’s plan, there is still a lot of great news for our community. Some of the best news comes directly from our members who shattered records in June. Listen to this, in the month of June, there were over 70 meeting reques...

Happy Sunday Creative Army! Here's hoping you had a happy, healthy, and creative week. What is your coffee of choice today? I'm rocking Counter Culture's Big Trouble roast this morning. Let's dive in, shall we? First up, the folks over at The Discarded Image have compiled a top-notch list of directors, and how they have worked with actors throughout their careers. This video essay dives into the work of Alfred Hitchcock, Paul Thomas Anderson, Stanley Kubrick, David Fincher, Clint Eastwood, a...

The Big Picture The funny thing about coming up with a web series is that sometimes it’s better to not try and create a web series. What do we mean by that? Well, if you’re looking for a big picture to start from, chances are you won’t be satisfied with anything less than a big idea. The saying goes “Write what you know.” That’s true -- we had a lot of ideas that weren’t related, so we started making short films in our apartment, using just us as the cast and crew. A few of our early films co...

According to the definition, failure is a lack of success. It’s interesting that dictionary.com defined it in this way. A lack of success. It’s seemingly inevitable to experience a certain level of failure in order to succeed. When you think about it, any successful filmmaker would also be considered a failed filmmaker. Is there a level of success one must experience to no longer be considered a failure? What is the measure of success? One hell of a question. Thinking back on my career, it’s b...

There are probably thousands of film festivals held every year. The number of actual film markets is a lot less. Under the current COVID-19 crisis, many of these film festivals and markets have introduced online editions, to either (temporarily) replace the physical versions or to run alongside the physical versions of these may happen after all if and when the COVID-19 crisis is over or at least significantly reduced. What is the difference between a film festival and a film market? And what...

Happy Wednesday Stage 32 Community! Last week, our fearless leader Richard "RB" Botto hosted one of his signature "Ask Me Anything" webinars focusing on the "new normal" that is the entertainment industry during COVID-19. We were beyond jazzed to virtually host thousands of Stage 32 members tuning in from every corner of the world, culminating in an invigorating two hours of inspirational and no-bs shop talk from RB.   In this Ask Me Anything, RB answered questions from Stage 32 members, bot...