Screenwriting

To all celebrating, a very happy Easter to you. (And a very happy Sunday to everyone else!) I always believe the holidays are for sharing, so I wanted to take a minute to post some podcats, webcasts and interviews that I hope will provide some inspiration today and as you move along in your creative pursuits. There's something here for creatives of all disciplines and all those multi-hyphenates out there!   National Screenwriters Day with Spencer Robinson, Caytha Jentis, Richard Botto and Ha...

We were honored to have literary manager Spencer Robinson from Art/Work Entertainment join Stage 32 for a 60 minute webcast to talk about the current state of the comedy writing industry! Spencer represents writers who work for Will and Grace, Eastbound and Down, Mick, Workaholics, and more, as well as comedians and late night TV writers. It was a fun and informative hour! If you missed it we are excited to share it with you, enjoy!       Want to learn more from Spencer? Click here! J...

After 10 years in Hollywood, writing and producing sitcom pilots and full length features, my friend Ted Trent asked me to fly to his hometown of Belleville, IL to write a fictional movie in which he could star. I didn’t know a Belleville from a Bellevue, but I did welcome the chance to write and direct a film in the Midwest, since I had grown up in Michigan. I remembered my people to be kind and helpful, and whenever you met another Midwesterner in Los Angeles (which is daily) you knew the pers...

One of the more popular requests we get here at Stage 32 is information on best practices for promoting a crowdfunding campaign on social media. Recently, spurred on by the sheer amount of crowdfunding spam he was receiving on his Twitter and Instagram accounts, our CEO, RB, republished his popular Medium article: 5 Ways You Are Incorrectly Using Twitter to Promote Your Crowdfunding Campaign. Although the article singles out Twitter, these mistakes and ill advised practices are common across...

For some time now I thought it would be great to do a series of blogs, which follows my journey as a filmmaker. The experiences I have encountered have been so varied, some good, some bad, some tragic! I thought it would be nice to start with how I got into filmmaking. I call this first blog ‘Follow Your Heart’. I’ve been passionate about filmmaking since I was nine years old, that’s almost 29 years ago now. I grew up on a rural apple orchard in the countryside. We made our own fun, having a g...

The 2nd Annual Stage 32 Happy Writers Comedy Writing Contest was filled with some of the best comedy writing we've ever seen. Our judges consistently said how tough the competition was!Our feature writers had us laughing for (literally) hours! Our TV writers poured out some really creative and clever original pilots and wrote hilariously great specs for hit shows such as MODERN FAMILY, IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA, FAMILY GUY and more. Needless to say, the judges have been smiling from ear...

Yesterday, I was speaking with a producer friend of mine and he mentioned that the buzz around Alexander Payne’s upcoming film Downsizing was quite strong. (A huge shout out to our teacher Jason Roberts who AD'd the film.) That got us talking about our favorite Payne movies and his estimable skills as not only a writer, but as an actor’s director. At one point, I recalled an article I read in MovieMaker where Payne laid down some knowledge. Through the power of Google, I found the damn thing (...

Prepared to be inspired. To get you motivated and keep your creativity flowing this weekend, I'm sharing a terrific video from the good people at the Blender Foundation (Blender Guru). Entitled The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Artists, this well designed talk will inspire thought and introspection. Here are the 7 habits discussed: 1 - Daily Work 2 - Volume Not Perfection 3 - Steal 4 - Conscious Learning 5 - Rest 6 - Get Feedback 7 - Create What You Love Chances are you're alrea...

Wow...What a contest. And what a difference a year makes. Our 1st Annual TV Writing Contest saw some incredible scripts, but this year, the ante was raised. So many of our feature writers decided to try their hands at TV writing both with original scripts or specs based on existing material. The results were overwhelming and the competition was as fierce as we've seen it for any contest. In the end, however, there can be only one Grand Prize Winner and this year the honor goes to Danny Baran f...

This past Saturday, we were proud to welcome 30-year film industry veteran, Jason Roberts, DGA AD, as he hosted a free 60-minute Q&A webinar for hundreds of members of the Stage 32 community.  In his over 3 decades in he business, Jason has amassed 70 credits as an Assistant Director or Second Unit Director. Just some of the big budget blockbusters, indiefilm darlings and well respected television shows Jason has worked on include Jurassic World, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Man of Stee...