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How to Have a Healthy Relationship with Criticism of Your Art/Work
Coffee & Content: Build Conflict. Build Momentum. The Spec Market Is Waiting
Coffee & Content: Action, Insight & Audience- What YouTube Can Teach Every Creator
The Actor’s Beat: Your Missing Link Between Script and Screen
A Recent Experience With Rejection
Announcing Stage 32’s Summer Horror Pitchfest: 19 Execs. 3 Days. Unforgettable Opportunities.
10 Mistakes Screenwriters Make When Querying
Unlock Everything Stage 32 Has to Offer: Join Us For This Friday's Live Community Open House!
Fulfilling the Promise of the Premise
5 Tips for Writing a Screenplay for the Screen
Unlocking the Secrets of Film Grants: The Ultimate Guide Every Filmmaker Needs!
Something I observe frequently is how often overlooked soft equity is in the finance plan. Counterintuitive, right? Why counterintuitive? In understanding film finance as a filmmaker and a producer, it can be explained relatively easily as this; soft equity is anything that doesn’t carry an obligation to be repaid or have the expectation of a recoupment attached. Hence I both preach and practice to seek out as many sources of soft financing as possible. Outside of tax credits o…
Essential Clearance Guide for Audiovisual Creators!
As an audiovisual creator, protecting your project from legal issues is just as important as its artistic quality. This guide will help you understand the fundamental aspects of the clearance process (legal authorization) that you need to consider before exhibiting your work. What is Clearance, and Why is it Important? "Clearance" is the process through which you obtain all necessary legal authorizations to include any material or element in your audiovisual production. This process pr…
Tune In For Cannes Film Festival Updates - Live Behind The Scenes!
And...we're off! The 2025 Cannes Film Festival is in full swing, and Stage 32 is all over the Croisette! For those of you who weren't able to make it to France this year, we want to make sure that you, too, are part of the action. Stop what you're doing right now, pick up your phone, and go follow our fearless leader, Richard "RB" Botto, and Managing Director Amanda Toney: Instagram @stage32 @rbwalksintoabar X @stage32 @rbwalksintoabar Facebook @stage32 We …
Meet Your Cannes 2025 + Stage 32 Expert Panelists!
Happy Wednesday, Creative Army! The Cannes Film Festival in France is right around the corner! For those of you who missed it, we recently announced the official Cannes 2025 Stage 32 events schedule and partnerships right HERE on the Stage 32 Blog. Being involved each year in coordinating industry-leading panels with remarkable expert panelists from all over the world is one of our greatest honors and pleasures. This year, we're particularly proud of the lineup that we've put togeth…
Ask Me Anything with Stage 32 CEO Richard "RB" Botto: The Current State of the Industry - Now Available On-Demand
Happy Friday, Creative Army! Since 2011, Stage 32 has been at the forefront of the global entertainment community, working every day to connect you to the resources, relationships, and real-world insight you need to move your creative journey forward. Whether you’re a writer, director, actor, producer, editor, or composer, our goal has always been to give you unprecedented access to industry leaders and decision-makers—and keep you informed on where the industry is headed ne…
Talking Business: Understanding Waterfalls & Collection Accounts
Welcome back to TALKING BUSINESS: Insights from the Independent Film Industry, hosted by Stage 32 Thought Leader and Business Consultant, David Zannoni, from Freeway Entertainment and Zannoni Media. In TALKING BUSINESS, David brings you in-depth conversations on the behind-the-scenes of the filmmaking business with industry veterans. In today’s seventh episode, David is having a chat with his Freeway colleague Daniel Simonyi, who is Head of Legal for Collection Account Management.…
How To Package Your Documentary Feature
At some point, most filmmakers come across a great idea for a documentary film. It might be an interesting topic or personality, and you just know there is a story that must be told. But similarly to narrative filmmaking, there’s a huge difference between having an idea and being able to carry it into a finished motion picture. We talk about “packaging” in scripted films, attachments, pre-sales, and budgets, but oftentimes overlook the importance of doing the same thi…
How To Stay Sane When The Entertainment Business Is Changing So Fast
I have had the honor of being a member of Stage 32 since 2013. To say “It’s rough out there” in 2025 is like saying “the weather is nice” during a tornado. It’s not just rough out there in the entertainment world right now. It’s brutal! It’s a climb out of the pit of Hell’s despair. Imagine this: You are living a happy-go-lucky life until your twenties, when all of a sudden, your brother or sister kills himself or herself. Five year…
Free Ask Me Anything Webcast with Stage 32 CEO Richard “RB” Botto: The Current State of the Industry
What’s up, Creative Army! It’s been a wild start to 2025 for the entertainment industry as a whole. And I know many of you have been feeling it, too. Between my travel schedule, the LA fires that hit close to home, the ongoing M&A (mergers and acquisitions) activity reshaping the business, and the powerful resurgence of independent film, I’ve been on the ground, in the meetings, and having conversations with industry leaders every single week. And let me tell you&…
Money is Money in Hollywood
Stage 32 Reader, we meet again! Most of you know me as a prolific script doctor and as a working screenwriter, but I’ve also got more than a decade of experience working in the trenches of film finance. My career has given me a front-row seat to the rise and fall of packaging and presales as a business model for Hollywood, and I’ve blogged extensively on the unsustainability of any entertainment business plan that cashes out of a project’s risk before we’ve actua…
Stage 32's April 2025 Education: Learn from Hollywood Insiders & Level Up Your Creative Career!
Happy Tuesday, Stage 32 Community! If there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that the path to success in this industry is rarely linear, but with the right education and guidance, your momentum becomes unstoppable. Every day, I get to connect with so many of you: writers, directors, producers, actors, and crew who are putting in the work to build meaningful careers. And it’s my absolute joy to help you find the tools, resources, and industry mentors that can move you…
7 Steps To Making Your First Film!
My fellow filmmakers, my name is Tim Ogletree and I’ve been chasing this thing since January 2009, just on the heels of the 2007-2008 WGA strike. After graduating from The University of Texas at Austin with a Radio-TV-Film degree, I made the official move out to LA with a pretty killer short film and a truck full of clothes, books, and DVDs. The short caught some eyes, landed my writing partner and me a manager, and catapulted us into meetings and pitches that led to our first feat…
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