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When I was a tiny baby screenwriter with no experience, no credits, no hope, no foot in any door, and no connections in the industry, I thought that landing a gig where I would be paid to write was almost impossible to achieve. Until, one day, a producer reached out to me and said… “I have two costumes and a barn. Can you write me something?” That sentence led to a series of events that have now culminated in my first TV show being greenlit. Was it magic? No. It was work. Here’s how it...

So, you have sold your screenplay, and you have earned the right to do the first, second, and possibly third rewrite. You have received notes from producers, and directors and have revised the screenplay. The rewritten script has survived the task and has been green-lit into the pre-production stage! The information I will give you is an overview of a required process, not known by many writers. Below are 6 things you should know about script legal research. 1. What Are Script Legal Resea...

Growing up is a journey marked by the accumulation of knowledge, the echoes of memories, and the resilience forged through a lifetime of experiences. Sometimes you don't realize it's happened until you've arrived. With age comes wisdom and grown up movies are great at capturing the feeling of enjoying life at every age. All-time classics like BOOK CLUB and OLD DADS remind us of the importance of friendships as we get older, while jet-setting stories like THE BUCKET LIST and 80 FO...

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, in this interview with Tom Hiddleston and the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, the actor breaks down his experience working on the MCU series LOKI and nearly 15 years playing the titular character. Very few actors get the space to live in a character's evolution for this long, or to essentially be the cap...

No matter where you are based as an actor, given the state of the industry over the past few years you have undoubtedly submitted a self-tape audition (or 1,000). If you're based in LA or NYC, before COVID you may have only occasionally been required to self-tape, and when that happened, perhaps you used your cell phone or went to a buddy’s house to have them tape you. I, on the other hand, am based in Atlanta. And in addition to being a full-time actor for almost 20 years, I have co-owned a t...

Oftentimes, the best stories are based on your own truth. Writing a novel based on your own life has been a pathway to success for authors for decades. Readers and publishers can’t seem to get enough of real people’s stories as expressed in a novel. However, while the best autobiographical novels are effortless reads, they require an incredible amount of work to properly structure and get out onto the page. Writing your own story as a novel can seem daunting. Where do you start? What should you...

It has been a whirlwind since winning the Stage 32 Short Film Contest with the project I wrote and directed, BIENVENIDOS A LOS ANGELES. We’ve been lucky enough to have connected with major industry players and have taken significant steps forward to become a contender for Best Live Action Short Film in the 96th Academy Awards. Most recently, we have signed with Ouat Media, the renowned Toronto-based short film sales company known for three Oscar winners and 12 nominees. This film is very close...

Welcome to the next installment of The Filmmaker Files, where we break down the director’s relationship with various crew members to help first-time directors better understand how to communicate effectively. I’m James Kicklighter, a Stage 32 Thought Leader and multi-award-winning director and producer of The Sound of Identity, Angel of Anywhere, and the upcoming 2024 film, The American Question.   Today’s guest is my composer of over 10 years, Nicolás Repetto, an Argentinian-American televis...

During my filmmaking career, I've run the gambit on all different sides of production. Back in Baltimore, I worked with skeleton crews writing, directing, and doing sound on my own productions. Since moving to Los Angeles I've found a lot of work on set sound mixing, and I wanted to give some easy, actionable steps that can help all filmmakers, at every budget level, get the best sound possible. My sound kit from “Sexy Dex.” 1) Knowing The Tools Most sound mixers start with what we call a “...

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. We're looking at two classic and well-known filmmaking styles this week. Spielberg and Lumet. First up, in this video from StudioBinder, you get a breakdown of what makes Spielberg's work so visually recognizable - which comes down to cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski. This video gets into the lighting, c...