30 Minutes With... Agustine Calderon | Studio Level Comedies

This summer I ran the popular "30 Minutes With..." series where I interviewed some of the executives we work with at Stage 32 Happy Writers. In each of these highly informative interviews I went over all things screenwriting, development, marketplace and the industry. 

Today I'm bringing you my interview with Agustine Calderon, who is a creative executive in the feature film development department at RatPac Entertainment. At RatPac, Agustine has been responsible for bringing in various projects for development at the company as well as day to day operations. RatPac has a production deal with Warner Bros. and is led by producer/director Brett Ratner (X-Men, Horrible Bosses, Rush Hour). Most recently, RatPac partnered with James Packer from Australia to secure a $150M credit line leaving them with $225M at their disposal to finance projects with. Read the article here!

I brought Agustine in to talk about studio-level comedies and now I'm bringing this information to you, our Stage 32 members! This is what we went over:

• What do studios look for in comedies?
• Do you feel like studio level comedies tend to be exaggerated or do you feel they are more grounded?
• How do you feel about raunch in comedy? What’s the nice juxtaposition between edgy comedy and raunchy?
• What are your thoughts on the trend skewing towards more female comedy lately?
• What do you feel is the #1 common mistake writers make when they are writing comedies?
• Should comedy writers do comedy or improve classes to hone their craft?
• Mel Brooks or Woody Allen?
• When you're considering a project, by what page on a script do you know what type of comedy it is?
• Is there anything you feel are off limits or tiring for comedy?
• How many pages do you feel a good comedy should come in at?
• Can we pull back the curtain of the development process and talk about what happens to a script once it goes into development?

To listen to this informative interview, click below!

For those of you who weren't able to attend any of the 30 Minutes With... sessions, don't worry! I'll be bringing you these interviews periodically right here on the Stage 32 Blog.

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