Producing

Hello Screenwriters. My name is Shaun. I am a Stage 32 Exec, Gotham Award-winning independent film producer, member of the Producers Guild of America, Repped Screenwriter, Script Consultant and educator. I've been in the film and television industry for 28 years and producing for 14 of those years. In that time I have been privileged to work with and learn from some of the greatest filmmakers and performers in our industry - from James Cameron, Steven Spielberg and Judd Apatow to Joe Wright...

DON'T STOP BELIEVING "I've written a play. Can you direct it?" AN OFFER! It was 2013. Two friends of mine recommended to playwright, Robin Pond, that he approach me to direct his play, 'The Retirement Plan', which had been selected to appear at The Toronto Fringe Festival. I had directed plays before, but all of them had been from scripts I had written. However, I was intrigued, and asked Robin to send me his script. I read 'The Retirement Plan', a dark comedy that dealt with a retiring...

Happy Sunday Creative Army! Have you had a creative weekend so far? I have some content here for you that is sure to get the creative juices flowing, so grab your coffee and let's dive in. First up, IGN shares a fascinating behind the scenes look at the adrenaline-pumping fighter jet shots captured in Top Gun: Maverick. In this video, Director Joe Kosinski talks about the 15 month process he and his crew went through working with the Navy to perfect the real in air shots captured for the fil...

I know a lot of people who live very small lives in very small places. The one I actually know the best is me. I’m the woman who was scared to not only leave her home state but also her town until I hit my 40’s. I was scared to fail at everything, including getting from A to B in a car. So I sat, safe, in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania. A divorce thrust me into a new life and I realized if I didn’t take risks that led to failure I was going to disappear off the radar, broke and alone. My first st...

Back in 2010 I shot my first feature film in HDV on miniDV tape. Once finished I formatted the hard drive to make the next project. Unthinkable really, but I did this as I knew HDV wasn’t a great technical standard and I couldn’t afford a new drive. This February I watched sixty or so hours of those tapes import back into Final Cut Pro 7 for a potential remaster. It flashed me back to how naive I was when it came to the data created by film production. Whatever your role in production is, don...

I had the great fortune recently to audition a few wonderful actors for a role in one of my passion projects. Every single one of them was professional, courteous, kind, talented, and funny. As someone who does not consider herself an actress, I’ve never experienced the auditioning process from the other side, and I must say… I cannot imagine what it must be like. Actors are a special and wonderful kind of gang… they are out there, they keep their emotions in a silk purse, ready to come...

There's only one way to break into the show business as a writer and it's different for everyone. My access point to Hollywood has a name: Alexia Melocchi of LITTLE STUDIO FILMS in Beverly Hills, my accomplished, dedicated Manager, a successful entertainment industry professional and a courageous visionary dreamer I was lucky to meet after connecting through a Stage 32 pitch session. Let me thank the entire Stage 32 Team for the great connections they helped me make and Alexia from the bottom...

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, StudioBinder has a fascinating video about how director Wes Anderson (French Dispatch, The Royal Tenenbaums, Fantastic Mr. Fox) balances his edits. Specifically, you will see this illustrated through blocking, timing, and use of symmetry with examples from Isle of Dogs, Moonrise Kingdom, The Life Aquatic, and more.  Next up, Va...

Getting paid for being a filmmaker is an art form and rarely taken to heart, so artists starve for their craft. This image of the "starving artist" must not and should not be perpetuated. Most people believe that the work of a writer, a producer, a filmmaker is based on passion alone, and as a result it is assumed that all artists are meant to work for free, or to get paid later, because their passion for the craft will make them accept work under any condition, including the freebies or the inf...

“Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs We all crave feedback. We want it from our partners, parents, co-workers, and teachers. Need I even mention social media. We want our parents to be proud of us, our bosses to appreciate us, and our partners to love us. We pay therapists to listen in...