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Coffee & Content: The Importance of Self-Learning in the Film Industry
How NOT To Mess Up Auditions When You Have an Accent
The Benefits of Local Film Festivals
Navigating Social Media Marketing For Creatives
Celebrate The August 2024 Stage 32 Community’s Successes
Merrily All The Way: We Roll From Stage 32 Consultation Call To Active Development- The Screenwriter's Story
Coffee & Content: Is The Spec Sale Market Heating Up Again?
5 Screenwriting Reminders I Got From... a Hip-Hop Diss Track?
Understanding Collection Account Management for Animation
Why It’s A Good Idea To Commit To A Festival Publicist Before You’re Accepted
10 Tips On How To Survive as a Creative Professional In Entertainment (and Not Go Crazy In The Process!)
One of the biggest challenges we face as artists is how to balance the creative and business demands that are required to have a successful career. Oftentimes, it is these difficulties that lead us down a path of 'getting a real job' or 'settling down' – and giving up on our dream, but, if you’re in this industry, you’re in it for a reason – because you HAVE to be. Living a life of comfort and stability is nice, but not if the cost is your dream. Speaking as one o…
The Ten Commandments of Crowdfunding For Filmmakers
Before we get started with Stephen's awesome entry, The Ten Commandments of Crowdfunding for Filmmakers, here's a video of how I met Stephen and why I'm so thrilled to have him in the Stage 32 family.
Creatives: We're In a League of Our Own
Today I welcome back to the Stage 32 Blog longtime Stage 32 member, Ron Greenfield. Ron spent the early part of his career in New York City as a film graphic art director, designing and producing trailers for Star Trek, Escape from Alcatraz, Reds and Raiders of the Lost Ark before joining CBS/FOX as a creative executive. While at CBS/FOX, Ron conceived the first home video campaigns for Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, as well as many of Woody Allen's early films. In Los Angeles, …
Don’t Rip off the Alien!
With such a vast library of great films to look to as paradigms, you’d think it would be easy to make a great movie. We’re in the age of reboots, adaptations and (dare I say) rip offs, all of which offer a great foundation for us to work from. So why is it that a lot of these fall short? It’s really quite simple. YOU’RE RIPPING OFF THE WRONG THING!! OK, so obviously I should elaborate on this. I’m a person who likes to explain things via analogies. So in t…
From A Small Town To The Big Screen
I was 8 years old, knowing I wanted to be an actor, but I was 909 miles away from Hollywood. This was... brutal. Obviously, I had no control over anything. I would beg my parents to take me to “where they make movies.” My parents moved from Los Angeles to Idaho for a calmer life and they told me I was free to move to California in 10 years after I graduated from high School, which I did. In Idaho, I was 909 miles away from where I wanted to be...Hollywood…
13 (Big) Reasons Foreign Actors Succeed In Hollywood
Much has been said on the topic of non-U.S. actors landing prime acting gigs in Hollywood, but much of it accuses America of offering inferior training, which I don’t believe necessarily to be true. Though it may account for a small part of the difference in success between actors from different countries, for my money there are many other highly influential factors than training alone. Lower cost, good training Regardless of the standard of acting training, the Unit…
Why Quitting Acting Is Not an Option
An actor walks into an audition and says to him or herself, “If I don’t get this part, that’s it. I am giving up acting.” The list of successful actors that have thought of quitting is long. The path is filled with rejection. You have to know that. Every time you put yourself out there, know that it may be "no" for now, but your big "yes" could be just around the corner. Today, I'm going to go over some famous faces that almost gave up, and, if they had, we'd m…
Part II: Welcome To Hollywood: Talking the Talk - Tips on Celebrity Interviews
Last time, I gave you important introductory pointers on how to conduct interviews. Most importantly, I talked about researching your subjects, holding a conversation and not an interrogation, keeping eye contact and making your interviewees feel comfortable. Here are a few more tips that have helped me over the years. PUBLICISTS CAN BE YOUR FRIENDS You’ll run into several kinds of publicists if you’re interviewing celebrities. First, there will be the studio, network or se…
How To Build A Community And Stay Creative Even If You Don’t Live In A Big Movie Town
Do you ever feel isolated and alone? That your creative juice is slowly drying up as big ideas come and go without ever seeing the day of light? Are you looking at a growing pile of projects in which nobody has shown interest to, wondering if maybe you are in the wrong field? That maybe it is in fact not your calling? If the answer to one or more of these questions is “yes”, you’re not alone. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Your limitations are wher…
Bouncing Back From A Terrible Audition
I once had an audition for a HUGE casting office that I wanted to read for. When it was my turn to go in, the casting director did this super weird move. No one I had ever encountered, by this point, had ever done it before, and no one's done it since. A SIDE HUG... Striped cat - casting director; Orange cat - me Being the naturally (hopelessly) awkward person that I am, I stiffened up and tried to smile, (with pretty much just bared teeth) and allowed myself to be s…
3 Reasons You’re Not Raising Money For Your Indie Film
As those in the film industry can relate, the majority of the time you are more likely to hear the word ‘no’ than the word ‘yes.’ This is especially true when you are trying to part the film financier from his money. There may be a number of reasons why a financier will pass on your project and you will no doubt here a variety of reasons from, ‘We already have a similar project in development,’ to ‘It doesn’t fit with our current slate of f…
Part I: Welcome To Hollywood: Talking the Talk - Tips On Celebrity Interviews,
Today I welcome back regular Stage 32 Blog contributor, Dennis Coleman. Dennis is a writer, producer and director with decades of experience in broadcast television and feature films. Having conducted over 10,000 celebrity interviews in his career, I think it's safe to say that Dennis knows a thing or two about the interview process. Whether you're conducting an interview for a documentary, research, a host or for other film related endeavors, you won't find better tips than those below.…
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