Producing

With each passing year, original streaming content becomes more and more popular. As filmmakers, we are all secretly (or not so secretly) vying for a coveted slot on the golden geese of streaming: Netflix and Amazon. So, how do you pitch your project to Netflix or Amazon? Stage 32 founder and CEO, Richard Botto, answers this question thoroughly and frankly in his free webinar, "Ask Me Anything".  The head of Netflix television programming reportedly hears roughly 60 pitches a week. Before yo...

The movie industry is not just about creating what pleases you. It’s about creating entertainment that will delight an audience. The major studios put a lot of money into big movies seeking to serve a huge international audience. Independent filmmakers often target much smaller audience groups, but they have a target. Before you put one word on paper you need to consider who your potential audience is and how you can expand that audience. If you spend $5 million making a movie for a $10 milli...

Many people, even in the film business, don’t know the difference between a development producer and line producer. In this article, we are going to dive into different types of producers in film production such as development producer, line producer, executive producer, assistant producer, and co-producer. Then we will talk about the role of creativity in film and how it is practiced. Development Producer and Executive Producer in Film Production A Development producer is responsible for br...

Last year I wrote the blog post How I Shot a No-Budget Ghost Comedy Feature in One Week. The TL;DR of it is I’d been dying to make a movie, I’d been writing a lot and waiting on news, got sick of waiting, so I wrote a script, assembled a team, rented a house, fed everyone, and then shot the thing with very little sleep. I also amassed a fair amount of credit card debt. Why? Because this is what I love and I wanted to do it. I’d tried crowdfunding campaigns in the past, but I was never successf...

Most people in Hollywood have no idea what actors actually do. Modern Hollywood sees the ideal actor for any given role as the person who most closely resembles that character’s “look,” and who projects a demeanor that most accurately parrots whatever performance the director and the producers might be imagining. In advertising, these are fundamentally essential performance techniques because portraying a product or service in a clear, specific tone is how you get people to invest time and money...

Creatives usually don’t like being limited or bound by time. Expressing your creative thoughts through words, imagining worlds, coming up with plots and twists, and giving life to characters isn’t something you should rush. But what happens when you face the challenge of rewriting the screenplay? This task usually comes with a deadline that you need to respect. You can be the most talented screenwriter but if you don’t act respectfully towards the people who are willing to bring your play to l...

Yesterday, we were thrilled to announce that Stage 32 CEO RB's book Crowdsourcing for Filmmakers: Indie Film and The Power of the Crowd is the textbook for the first-ever crowdsourcing class to be taught at a major US university! This triumphant news is the product of a powerful industry relationship that has been years in the making between RB and fellow filmmaker, Marty Lang.  Now, it's time for you to meet the actual students from University of Central Arkansas who will be taking Marty's cl...

In 92 years of Academy Awards, only twelve foreign films have been nominated for the coveted "Best Picture" award. However, two of those films, Roma and Parasite, were in the past two years. Now, more than ever, America is looking to the rest of the world for amazing cinema.  Bong Joon-Ho, director of the 2020 Best Picture nominated Korean film Parasite announced in his Golden Globe award speech “once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more a...

  If you've been around these parts for a while, you've heard me preach that relationships are everything.  You also know that our mission here at Stage 32 is not only to provide film, television, and digital content creatives and professionals a supportive and productive networking environment, but to provide our members with myriad opportunities for direct access to executives and decision makers to help get you staffed, signed, and produced. Almost every partnership we've announced o...

The celebs are prepping with their glam squads and the Dolby Theatre is getting ready for one of Hollywood's biggest nights. That's right - the 92nd Oscars® are right around the corner on Sunday, February 2nd, 2020.  Here at Stage 32, we are thrilled to embark on our 8th Annual Oscars Contest. Every year, we give our community the chance to test their industry knowledge and submit their guesses for the top filmmakers in the industry. Who do you think will go home with the coveted statues this...