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Coffee & Content: Be Bold & Stop Waiting For Permission!
Understanding The Heroic Journey: The Importance Of Character Arcs
PR Pro Lingo: 25 Terms Filmmakers and Actors Must Know!
Coffee & Content: Are You Being Intentional In All Of Your Choices?
Using AI-Powered Tools to Build Stronger In-Person Relationships
Red Carpet Roll-Out: July 2024's New Educators & Executives At Stage 32!
The “Magic Touch” in Booking Commercials
Always Be Filming. Real World Tips to Help Make Your Feature Film a Reality
Coffee & Content: The Benefit of Being a Multi-Hyphenate
How Stage 32 Turned A Dream Into A Reality!
3 Ways Acting Has Helped Me Become a Better Writer
I started acting a little later than most of my fellow thespians. I’d always been a creative person: writing, drawing and playing music, but acting was something I feared. “Who am I to act?” “Who would possibly be entertained by my performance?” So, out of fear, I never tried acting. That was, until my 30s. My career in the toy industry had stalled and I was feeling less connected to myself. I was getting sick a lot, and I was having trouble finding directio…
Scaring Up Funds: How to Acquire Investors For Your Horror Film, the Most Profitable Genre of Them All
We’ve all heard the stories. Paranormal Activity, a film with a budget slightly less than a used Honda, made $193 million worldwide and launched a profitable franchise. That film’s progenitor, The Blair Witch Project, had a $60K budget and turned out a $250 million box office haul. The most profitable films from 2010 to 2015 were all horror films. 10. The Last Exorcism ($68M gross vs. $1.8M production budget) 9. Annabelle ($257M vs. $6.5M) 8. Chernobyl Diaries ($37M vs…
Success Is An Endurance Game
Just when you feel like parking your pitching for the moment, along comes a breakthrough to give you new hope – this is my takeaway sentiment this Christmas just gone, and I would like to share with you all what I am talking about, as hopefully it will encourage you to keep pressing forward and to keep striving for your goals/dreams in 2018. I was reluctant to write this article, as I felt it was a little premature, but encouragement from Rosalind Winton, the wonderful official ed…
The 10 Questions Every Writer Needs to Ask Before They Hire an Editor or Script Consultant - Part 2
In Part 1, I examined the five essential questions every writer must ask any third-party consultant BEFORE they hire him/her for a freelance position, be that book line editing, developmental editing, story structure help, screenplay writing help, or any generic service related to publishing or the entertainment business. But, as I said in Part 1, those five questions are just one side of the equation of freelance hiring. The following five questions are designed to balance the equatio…
The 10 Questions Every Writer Needs to Ask Before They Hire an Editor or Script Consultant - Part 1
Whether you are a screenwriter, novelist, or creative nonfiction author, at one point in every writer's experience there comes a day when you decide you need help. Maybe the narrative wheels came off the cart, maybe you wrote yourself into a dead end, maybe you found yourself drowning in the story flood plains with no land in sight, or maybe you just want to get an opinion on your work that is not your mother's? Whatever the reason, you determine that hiring a third-party expert might be…
7 Critical Secrets to Indie Film Casting
I'm climbing up on my chair now so you will pay attention to what I'm about to say. Okay...I'm up here...waiting for you to listen. Ready? Don't cast less than great actors in your film! It seems to me that casting is often times a second thought to Indie filmmakers. Then guess what happens? We are subjected to films that are difficult to watch. Even if the script is great, bad actors can absolutely ruin your film. I have seen this occur time and time again. And so have you…
Part 2 : What To Do While You Wait For Your Big Break
I reached out to Tiffany Boyle from Ramo Law, whom I met through Stage 32 and worked with on some other projects, I recalled her saying she knew of an animation distributor, so I asked her if she’d send the pitch package to them, she did and they came back with something along the lines of, it wasn’t the type of material they were looking for at the moment. But she did know of another entertainment company that may be interested. She sent it off, and voila´ we are now i…
Part 1 - What To Do While You Wait For Your Big Break
Most of you have no doubt heard one of the sayings along the lines of, 'an overnight success 10 years in the making,' or 'you have to put in 10,000 hours of practice before you are truly ready.' And even if you haven't, if you are in this business (or any creative endeavor) you certainly know the emotional roller coaster of waiting for your work to get noticed in some way, shape or form. So what do you do to pass the time in between those 10 years or 10,000 hours? There are two avenues…
Is Setting Up a Multinational Entertainment Company as Enigmatic as it Seems?
I wanted to share my perspective as an African born Music Director. I simply found my affinity to music as a young boy growing up in a place where music has no strength. I collected magazines, tapes (this was the audio version of songs at the time) and watched television, enabling me to grow a firm foundation in my area of interest. At that time music was considered as an avenue taken by people who wanted no real responsibilities, plainly it was set aside for people who …
4 Networking Tips From an Introvert (and 2 More For Good Measure!)
Getting yourself out there can be hard to do, especially if you are new to the industry. When I first started creating and working in my field, I kept a lot of my work to myself and only showed it when asked. I unfortunately adopted the 'only speak when you are spoken to' mentality. I was very introverted. Networking, to me, was a monster I wasn't quite ready to face and that showed to my potential clients. I wasn't closing deals or getting placements. I knew I had skill and that my mus…
How Science Fiction Can Make Your Career
If you're a writer, director, actor or producer, I have good news for you. Science fiction can put you on the map! First off, a definition. By science fiction, I'm also including fantasy and a certain kind of horror, that with a magical or mystical element. And here's my definition of science fiction vs. fantasy: science fiction is any fantasy story where the fantastic element is given a technological or pseudo-technological reason. Of course, there are many other possible definitions.…
How to Maximize Audience Engagement Consistently in Movies
Has science found the answer to maintaining audience engagement consistently during a movie, by eliminating filmmakers 'blind narrative spots?' Although a scientific approach to filmmaking can provide an evidence based framework to maintain audience engagement, many filmmakers perceive a scientific approach to filmmaking as ineffective, which limits creativity. However, scientific research studies can determine what engages audiences, by measuring viewers reactions to different story s…
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