November Write Club is your grace period. It's the universe's way to let you pump some extra creative juices and keep that promise to yourself.

But there’s definitely a wrong way to approach this month. A way that leaves you feeling overwhelmed and defeated.

None of that here, though. Let's look at 7 totally realistic ways you can set yourself up for success.

1. Pick One Project, Not Twenty

Yes…ONE project. Not every single draft you’ve started this year.

I get the temptation to juggle projects, but in the sage words of Ron Swanson, “Never half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing.”

And if you’re not sure which project you should pick, consider these filters:

• Which idea feels the most clear in your mind? Is there one you’ve already outlined?
• Which idea feels the most marketable? Is there one that reflects a current trend?
• Which idea won’t leave your brain alone?

And if you still need to narrow down after that, use a tool like Wheel of Names to let chance decide. Making one decision is always better than making no decisions.

2. Small Goals > Impressive Goals

If you’re anything like me, you overestimate what you can do in a single day. You think, “Yeah, I can totally write 5,000 words today. No problem.” And then life gets lifey.

Personally, I’m not a fan of daily word count goals. They have a way of making you feel like a failure the first time you miss it. Or they have a way of making you churn out 1,000 useless words that will end up being cut anyway.

Really, your only goal should be progress. Progress could be 50 words. Or rewriting that paragraph that didn’t work. Or posting a BTS video on social media.

So ditch the goals that sound impressive and go for small, realistic goals. Try some of the following:

• Block off 2-3 hours for deep writing sessions every weekend day.
• Commit to write during your lunch hour.
• Say No to Netflix this month so you can say Yes to writing something that Netflix will buy.

Small goals get big results.

3. Reward Yourself

Too often, we writers see the reward as something far off: landing the book deal, selling the script, or winning an award. But you don’t control those. What works better is picking your own reward so you can celebrate along the way.

So when you come up with those small goals, also figure out some small to medium rewards for yourself. Whatever helps you stay motivated.

For instance, when I finish up a milestone for a client, I often treat myself to a night out at the movies. Or a new book. Or even just a dirty soda.

I know it sounds silly, but it really does give you a little dopamine hit to keep going. And as author and speaker Jon Acuff says, “If you want it done, make it fun.”

4. Define Your Ideal Reader

Stephen King wrote in his memoir On Writing that he writes all of his books for one ideal reader—his wife Tabitha. So before you start, specifically identify who your ideal reader is for your WIP.

The more specific the answer, the better. “Fans of horror” isn’t specific enough. And saying “I am my own ideal reader” is just lazy, even when it’s true.

“My witchy friend Chloe who has Hitchcock’s mind but Craven’s soul” is better. With each scene you write, ask yourself, “Would Chloe like this?”

Because you don’t want to bore Chloe. She’s worth the effort.

And if you don’t have a specific person in mind, make up a specific person! You’re a writer, dammit. Create an ideal reader avatar, complete with age, gender, preferences, and personality. You’ll feel a little crazy at first, but it’s amazing how this little exercise can improve your craft.

5. Change Your Scenery

The reality is that routine isn’t always great for creativity. Sometimes all you need for fresh inspiration is to change up your environment.

When I was stuck with a project earlier this year, I got out of town for a few days for my own personal writing retreat. And guess what? It worked.

But you don’t even have to be that elaborate. Pick a new coffee shop. Go hang out at your writing buddy’s spot. Go to the park. (Especially if that means you won’t have wifi to pull your concentration away from putting words on the page…)

Change your surroundings this month. You can get back to the same ol’ same ol’ next month.

6. Screw Chronology

Nothing invites writer’s block faster than believing you have to write your project in order. Instead, I regularly teach my clients to “follow the energy.” Now repeat the following mantra:

“Reading is linear. Writing is not.”

You already know how your story ends? Then go ahead and write the ending. Your brain will go into overdrive to fill in the gap. It’s awesome.

Can’t figure your way out of the plot hole in Scene 17? Go ahead and write Scene 18. It might let you reverse-engineer your way out.

And who knows? By writing “out of order,” you might discover a new structure that better serves your story.

7. Find a Writing Crew

The idea that writing is a solitary profession is so nineteenth-century. So whoever said you have to write completely alone?

You’re reading this on a platform with 1.5 million other creatives on it. Connect with someone. Plan some “writing dates” over Zoom. Put the “social” back into social media. And if you prefer in-person, check to see if your local library hosts a writers group.

Either way, commit to check in with each other and cheer each other on. Swap projects to get notes (especially if your buddy writes the same genre as you). The whole Henry David Thoreau writing-in-solitude thing is totally overrated.

Make This Month Count

Look, you don’t need to see this as a checklist. You don’t need to do all seven (but hey, bonus points if you do). More importantly, use November Write Club to remember why you started writing to begin with. If you finish a project this month, great. If you experience a breakthrough, even better.

But most of all, unleash your Inner Storyteller and rediscover your genius.

Happy writing… We can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Welcome to Week 1 of the 12th Annual November Write Club!

If you’re just joining us, here’s how it works: you pick a goal, big or small, and spend November making it happen, with the entire Stage 32 community cheering you on. Every Monday this month, a new blog brings you insights from an industry professional and ends with three challenges. Complete all three, and you’re entered to win that week’s prizes. Every week you complete is another entry toward the Grand Prize.

This year, your November goal has a destination. With the launch of the Stage 32 Marketplace, projects that earn industry signals, like a qualifying 95+ score, a Writer or Project Recommend, or a verified Script or Meeting Request, can rise into the Marketplace, where 3,000+ industry executives can discover them, download available material, and request a meeting. The draft you finish this month could be the one that gets found.

Your Week 1 November Write Club Challenges

Week 1 is all about commitment. Say your goal out loud, share it with the community, and start building the crew that will cheer you on all month long.

Complete all three challenges below to be entered to win this week’s prizes:

1. Comment on this blog with the one goal you’re committing to this November, big or small.
2. Post in the Lounge that best fits your discipline and share your goal with the community.
3. Comment on at least three other members’ goal posts with encouragement or insight.

This Week’s Prizes

• A FREE Arc Studio Pro Annual License from our friends over at Arc Studio
• A FREE Logline Review: Get ready for the Stage 32 Marketplace. Every project in the Marketplace needs a logline, and polishing yours gets your project ready to be found.

Every week you complete is another entry toward our Grand Prize: an Arc Studio Pro Lifetime License.

This week’s winner will be announced in next Monday’s blog.

You’ve got your goal. You’ve got your community. Now let’s get to work!

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

I hope your weekend has been a creative one so far. Whether you have been writing, filming, editing, or sketching out the next spark of an idea, I have something today that will give you a boost. So grab your coffee, and let's dive in.

This week’s featured video comes from Film Courage: Beginning Filmmakers Do Not Want To Admit This.

If you’ve never heard of Blake Ridder, here’s what you need to know. He’s written, directed, or appeared in more than 70 short films and made three features. He even wrote a book called How I Made 52 Films in Three Years. And the first thing he tells you in this interview is the thing nobody wants to hear: your first film will be your worst work.

And he’s right. But he follows it with the part that matters: it’s better than no film at all.

Here’s what I think stops more creatives than anything. We see the rare person whose debut lands at Cannes, and we decide that’s going to be us. When it isn’t, we feel like failures. Blake admits he thought the same thing about his first feature. It didn’t happen. Most people quit right there. He kept going.

He also tells a story every one of you needs to hear. A friend of his spent three years perfecting a ten-minute short. Three years. Still not released. In that same time, Blake made dozens of films, and every one taught him something the last one couldn’t. Perfectionism isn’t a standard. It’s a stall.

And the best part? Experience turns panic into muscle memory. The first time something fell apart on his set, he panicked. Now he’s the guy friends call to solve the problem in thirty seconds, because he’s seen it before. You can’t shortcut that. You earn it by making things, getting it wrong, and making the next thing.

That same mindset applies when your work faces rejection. Which brings me to a question I get a lot: what should you do when your pitch doesn’t move forward?

Let’s take two scenarios separately, because they’re different.

First, say you were selected for an Open Writing Assignment (OWA) and it didn’t go further. Understand that making a movie costs a lot of money. It’s not just the person reading your script who has to like it. It has to move up the ladder, and there are a million reasons it could be a pass. Know the market. Understand that this is a business, and don’t take it personally.

And look at what you did. Think about all the submissions that went in. You got selected. You broke through a barrier. You were in the top 1%. Why aren’t you out there celebrating that? Please, go do it.

The pitch is a little different, because they haven’t read your script yet. Your pitch needs to be crystal clear. They need to understand exactly what this is and where it’s going. Are you explaining it correctly?

Sometimes you get a really high rating and still don’t get the read request. Usually that comes down to one of two reasons: the pitch isn’t all the way there yet, or the writing isn’t all the way there yet.

That doesn’t mean it’s the end. We create as much opportunity as we possibly can on this platform. On the access side, we work hard to bring in as many executives as we can who are looking for material. But we also want to make sure that if you had a successful experience and strong feedback, and it just wasn’t the right fit for that person, it isn’t a dead end. That recognition follows you forward.

So do what Blake did. Take the note, learn from it, and make the next one better. Celebrate the win, sharpen the pitch, and get back in the room.

Tell me in the comments: what’s a “no” you got that ended up making your work better?

As always, here at Stage 32, we love sharing stories and knowledge with our fellow film fans. Know someone who would love this content? Share it with them. You can keep up with all of our videos by subscribing to the Stage 32 YouTube Channel. For more inspirational, educational, and motivational content on all things entertainment industry, follow me on Instagram and X @rbwalksintoabar.

Wishing you a very happy, healthy, and creative Sunday.

Cheers,

RB

FilmCourage | Beginning Filmmakers Do Not Want To Admit This

RBWalksIntoABar | What to Do When Your Pitch Doesn’t Move Forward

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

Costume & Make-up Design

If there is one thing you should spend your money on, it's make-up and costumes. Some of the most iconic, creepy characters are created by the wonders and talent of the make-up artists. This is the stuff that gives rise to nightmares! The clown from IT, the creepy kid from The Exorcist, the vengeful spirits from The Ring and The Conjuring, and even the demon nuns in The Nun, etc. I wonder what’s next: an evil fireman from hell?

Blood & Gore

There is good blood and bad blood. Movie theatrical blood looks real and is easily washable. Corn syrup blood, on the other hand, is sticky and the consistency varies. Spend money on good make-up artists and they will make your horror film shine.

Atmosphere & Location

Atmosphere and mood are important elements that should be etched on your checklist. The right atmosphere and mood go hand in hand in horror films, just like peanut butter and jelly. Atmosphere can be added and created on set. My favorite atmospheric tool is a water-based hazer. Before I go into the pros and cons of different types of hazers, let me start by explaining why a hazer could be your best friend. First, the hazer diffuses your light source, giving it a more balanced look. Second, hazer adds a layer of mystery ‘effect’ to your locations.

Speaking of location, finding the right location should be your top priority. It goes without saying that I’m an advocate of finding the right location. I believe that location is a character in itself. For example, if your story is about evil spirits, finding the right house will help sell the illusion and perception.

Set design is also very important. For example, The Saw franchise always starts in a cramped room or warehouse. In my opinion, good production design will make your cinematography look even better.

Water-Based Hazer vs Oil-Based Hazer

There is no excuse not to include a hazer in your production. You can buy a decent water-based hazer for $200 bucks. The one I like to use is Chauvet DJ Hurricane Haze. If you need to smoke up a bigger room, the Chauvet Hurricane Haze 4D can be purchased for $450. On the other hand, oil-based hazers are what you see in concerts and theater shows. Oil-hazers are more expensive to run, but on the upside, they run for a long time before needing to be refilled. Water-based hazers run out a lot faster than oil. Here are some more pros and cons:

Water-Based Pros & Cons

PROS:
- Silent to run, your sound guy will love you!
- Easy to clean up after use.

CONS:
- You need to use more fluid than usual.
- You may set off fire alarms, no fun! (Trust me.)

Oil-Based Pros & Cons

PROS:
- Takes longer to dissipate and hangs in the air better.
- Will not set off fire alarms, and your AD will love you!

CONS:
- Loud to operate, not ideal for film.
- Will leave oily residue on surfaces

I prefer water-based hazers for film work, but do keep in mind that they may set off fire alarms. It happened to me once on set, but luckily the fire truck didn’t show up, or the AD would have had my head on a spike!

Lighting

Lights or the absence of lights is what makes a horror film shine, so to speak. If you have the budget, deploying a few daylight-balanced lights is crucial. One of my go-to lights is the Arri M18., a light that can be plugged into a wall circuit.

Couple that with blue gels, and you can simulate moonlight. This, of course, depends on your story. You can make use of LED lights, too. If you have a low-budget horror, the absence of light is key. So make use of ambient lights, street lights, candlelight, china balls, small 60w bulbs…etc. Experiment and work with your gaffer to come up with different ideas.

Horror films are scarier if you shoot at night. Shadows are your best friend. One way to create depth in your actors is to cast shadows on their faces. Darkness will also create an air of mystery and keep the audience on edge. Sometimes, not showing too much can heighten the scare factor.

Camera Shots

Most horror films make use of the holy trinity of shots: POV, Handheld, and Dutch Angle.

POV simply means Point of View. It can be shot from the point of view of the creature/killer or the victim. If there is a chase or tense sequence, for example, a Handheld shot is effective in conveying the message. The shaking and the jerking motion of the camera add a tense element to the scene. Remember the film, Blair Witch Project? It had a lot of shaky footage and handheld shots. It definitely gave the audience a good scare!

Finally, there is the Dutch Angle. Imagine tilting your head to the side. Now apply that to your camera shots. This is often used to portray psychological uneasiness or tense action in order to cause disorientation to the viewer. Tim Burton and Sam Raimi frequently used this technique in their films.

Music

The last piece of the puzzle in any horror film is music and sound effects. Again, this is one area you should pay attention to and spend your money on. Getting the right composer is crucial for your horror film. Tense music and various sound effects can affect the viewer's mood and feelings. Inserting the right track at the right cue can create a massive emotional impact on your audience. Stage 32 is a great resource for finding and collaborating with composers.

Well, there you have it, another survival guide for your reading pleasure! Please check out my previous survival guide on documentary shooting. And should you wish to collaborate with me in your upcoming projects, please feel free to get in touch. Happy shooting!

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

For more than a decade, Stage 32 has been proud to partner with the American Film Market as its official education partner, and every year that partnership makes more sense.

Think about what so many of you are working toward right now. You’re packaging projects, raising financing, attaching talent, finishing films, and figuring out how to get them in front of the buyers and distributors who can bring them to audiences. That’s exactly what happens at AFM. It’s where independent films get financed, packaged, sold, and licensed, and where the people who make those deals happen sit down face to face.

What I love most about AFM is that it never stands still. Our industry has changed dramatically over the last few years, and AFM has evolved with it. It brings in new technology, new conversations, and new ways for filmmakers to connect with the global marketplace. It’s one of the most innovative markets in the business, and it’s a perfect fit for a community like ours that’s always looking ahead.

And as part of our partnership, every AFM badge holder receives a FREE Stage 32 individual certification and webinar, giving you direct access to world-class industry education before, during, and long after the market.

The 47th American Film Market runs November 10 through 15, 2026, headquartered at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Century City, with market screenings at AMC Century City 15. Thousands of professionals from more than 85 countries will be there, including the people who finance, produce, and distribute 90% of films globally.

Click here to get your AFM badge!

This Year’s Theme: The New Global Screen Economy

For the first time in its history, AFM has a unifying theme: The New Global Screen Economy. It’s a look at how content is financed, produced, distributed, and reaches audiences in an industry that has changed dramatically in the last few years.

As IFTA President and CEO Jackie Brenneman put it: “Our business is at an inflection point, and we can’t move forward by looking backward.”

If you’ve been following our On Location and Industry Pulse series this fall, you know exactly what she means. Production is shifting, incentives are changing, and the way projects get discovered is evolving. AFM is where the people navigating those changes meet face to face.

What’s Waiting for You at AFM 2026

• The AFM Sessions: More than 100 prominent speakers sharing insights on the state of independent film and every aspect of filmmaking, including financing, production, distribution, and perfecting your pitch. (RB will be sharing more about the Sessions next week!)
• LocationEXPO: Connect with film commissions, production service organizations, and global production partners. If you’ve been weighing where to shoot, this is where the incentives and the people behind them are all in one place.
• The Innovation Hub: A spotlight on the emerging technology companies and platforms changing the industry.
• Market Screenings: Most badges include access to market screenings at AMC Century City 15.
• The AFM Pitch Conferences: Live film and TV pitching in front of industry panelists, with real-time critique on what worked and what needs improvement.

Each year, AFM produces hundreds of success stories. Whether you’re looking for financing, representation, creative or business partners, production locations and incentives, or you’re ready to pitch your next film, the in-person meetings and connections at AFM can change a career.

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

November starts this weekend, which means one of my favorite traditions of the year is almost here: the 12th Annual November Write Club!

Every November, creatives from all over the world come together on Stage 32 for a month of motivation, accountability, and community. It’s the event that started it all. Write Club began as Stage 32’s answer to NaNoWriMo, and its success inspired our July Filmmakers Club. Now, after three summers of Filmmakers Club, we’re bringing everything we’ve learned back to the original.

And this year, there’s something brand new that makes your November goal matter more than ever: the Stage 32 Marketplace.

What Is November Write Club?

It’s simple: you pick a goal, big or small, and you make it happen before the year is over.

That first draft you need to finish? Write it.
That rewrite you keep putting off? Start it.
That short you’ve been planning? Film it.
That pitch you’ve been afraid to deliver? Practice it, then book it.
That network you’ve been wanting to build? Start reaching out.

Write Club is built around writing, with weekly education, resources, and conversations focused on the craft. But it’s for every creative. Writers, filmmakers, actors, producers, crew, composers, and anyone with something they want to accomplish this year are invited to join in.

For the full month, the entire Stage 32 community rallies behind you, cheering you on and helping you stay accountable.

Why This Year Is Different

Last week, we launched the Stage 32 Marketplace, the industry’s new discovery engine, where projects that earned an industry “yes” meet the executives looking for them.

Here’s why that matters for your November goal.

Projects can’t buy their way into the Marketplace. They rise through transparent industry signals: a qualifying score of 95+ on a Pitch Session, Premium Coverage, or Script Read + Call; a Writer or Project Recommend from an industry professional; a verified Script or Meeting Request; or a Grand Prize or Finalist placement in a qualifying Stage 32 contest. Any one of those qualifies a project on its own.

Once a project rises, it’s discoverable by 3,000+ producers, financiers, managers, agents, and development executives, who can search by genre, format, and project type, review your Project Page, download available material, and request a meeting.

So this November, your goal has a destination. The draft you finish, the pitch you sharpen, the Project Page you complete: all of it can move your work toward discovery.

How It Works

• Every Monday in November, a new blog goes live on the Stage 32 Blog, packed with insights and inspiration.
• Every Monday blog ends with three challenges. Complete all three that week, and you’re entered to win that week’s prizes.
• Every week you complete is another entry toward the Grand Prize from our friends over at Arc Studio.
• Winners are announced in the following Monday’s blog.

This Year’s Prizes

Every week’s winner receives an Arc Studio Pro Annual License from our amazing partners over at Arc Studio, plus a Stage 32 prize chosen to help get your work ready for the Marketplace:

• Week 1: A FREE Logline Review. Every project in the Stage 32 Marketplace needs a logline. Polishing yours gets your project ready to be found.
• Week 2: A FREE Pitch Session. Marketplace eligible: a score of 95+, a Writer or Project Recommend, or a verified Script or Meeting Request qualifies your project.
• Week 3: FREE Premium Development Notes from an Executive (1–2 Pages). Marketplace eligible.
• Week 4: A FREE Feature Script or TV Pilot Read + 30-Minute Talk with an Executive. Marketplace eligible.
• Grand Prize: An Arc Studio Pro Lifetime License.

How to Set Yourself Up for Success Before Write Club Begins

You don’t need to wait until Monday to get started. Use this weekend to prepare.

1) Brainstorm the big picture.

Take a few minutes to unplug and dream. Write down everything you want to do, make, or become in your creative career. Don’t worry about what’s realistic yet. Just get it all on paper.

2) Get focused.

Look at your list and choose one to three goals you can tackle in a month. Ask yourself: what’s one step that would move me closer to where I want to be?

If your dream is to be a professional screenwriter, maybe your November goal is to finish a first draft.
If your dream is to get your project in front of executives, maybe it’s to polish your script and book a Pitch Session.
If your dream is to land representation, maybe it’s to research reps and send a set number of queries.

Your goal doesn’t have to be massive. It just has to be meaningful to you.

3) Build your plan.

Break your goal into small daily or weekly tasks. Be honest about your schedule. If you can’t write every day, plan for three or four days a week. Consistency beats perfection.

For example, if your goal is to get your project ready for the industry, your plan might look like this:

• Finish or polish your draft.
• Tighten your logline until someone can understand your project in one sentence.
• Practice your pitch out loud, then book a Pitch Session.
• Save a few Stage 32 webinars to watch this month.
• Email the Success Team at success@stage32.com for guidance on which services and executives fit your project.

4) Get your work ready to be found.

Write Club is the perfect time to make sure your Stage 32 presence reflects where you are now:

• Complete your Project Page. Add a strong logline, a clear synopsis, current artwork, and the materials you want available. Your Project Page is where executives will learn about your work.
• Update your profile. Refresh your photo, sharpen your bio, and add your credits. Your profile is your professional calling card.
• Share it. Click the Share button on your profile or Project Page to create a branded card you can post to Instagram, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, Threads, Facebook, and Bluesky. Let your network follow your Write Club journey from day one.

5) Build and lean on your community.

Write Club is about more than the goal. It’s about the people you meet along the way. The member you cheer on in the Lounges this month could become your next reader, collaborator, or producer.

We’re here to help, too! Contact the Success Team at Success@Stage32.com for curated recommendations and next-step strategies tailored to your projects and goals.

Your First Challenges Drop Monday

On Monday, November 2nd, Jonathan Jordan kicks off the month, and your Week 1 challenges will be waiting at the bottom of his blog. Have your goal ready, because you’ll be sharing it with the community.

I’ll be at the Austin Film Festival this weekend, meeting members, celebrating at our Rooftop Bash, and getting inspired for the month ahead. I can’t wait to come home to a Lounge full of your goals.

Whether you’re here to finish a script, build your portfolio, get your project ready for the Marketplace, or reconnect with your creative spark, this is your month. And you don’t have to do it alone.

Tell me in the comments: what’s the goal you’re already thinking about for November, and what’s the first step you’ll take on Monday?

Let’s make the 12th Annual November Write Club our most inspired, connected, and productive one yet.

See you Monday!

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

The New York Film Festival wrapped earlier this month, and the biggest story out of Lincoln Center wasn't a bidding war. It was a movie that a studio made, then walked away from.

Luca Guadagnino's ARTIFICIAL was produced by Amazon MGM and then dropped. Neon picked it up, and this month it premiered at NYFF as the start of an Oscar campaign.

Meanwhile, the industry's most writer-focused festival opens in Austin tomorrow. Between the two, there's a lot to learn this month about how projects find a home, and how writers do too.

What Happened at NYFF

ARTIFICIAL, written by Simon Rich, stars Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman. It follows the rise of AI research from Toronto in 2003 to the 2023 OpenAI boardroom fight over Altman. Amazon MGM spent an estimated $40 million on the film and tested it in four markets, then walked away when it was nearly finished, Inc. reported. Amazon's only explanation: "We believe that ARTIFICIAL will be better served if it were released by a different studio."

No one has confirmed why Amazon let it go. Writing from NYFF, RogerEbert.com asked the question plainly: "Did the larger company fear Silicon Valley's reception?" Neon picked it up and is opening it on Christmas Day, the classic slot for an Oscar push. RogerEbert.com went as far as calling ARTIFICIAL possibly "the most important dramatic movie of 2026."

It was a big festival for Neon all around. The distributor also had NYFF's opening night film, James Gray's crime thriller PAPER TIGER, which opens nationwide November 13.

It wasn't the only deal tied to the fall circuit, and many are still closing weeks after the festivals ended. According to IndieWire's running sales tracker, Sony Pictures Classics acquired THE JULIA SET, Niki Byrne's TIFF premiere starring ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER breakout Chase Infiniti as a math prodigy. The deal covers the U.S., the U.K., and much of Europe and Asia. And 1-2 Special picked up Jacqueline Lentzou's A DAY IN THE LIFE OF JO: CHAPTER PHAEDRA after its North American premiere at NYFF. The Greek coming-of-age story had already won Lentzou Best Director in Venice's Horizons section, and 1-2 Special plans a theatrical release in 2027.

The buyers themselves are changing hands, too. Indie distributor Bleecker Street, one of the steadiest festival buyers, was acquired by Outerlight Entertainment.

NYFF itself is changing as well. It has traditionally been a prestige showcase rather than a sales market, but this year it hosted seven world premieres. RogerEbert.com credits last year's MARTY SUPREME, whose success "reportedly inspired other distributors to see the festival as a place for world premieres."

Why this matters to you: A project being dropped isn't the same as a project being dead. ARTIFICIAL lost its studio and ended up with a distributor that wants to take it all the way to the Oscars. If your script has been passed on, or a deal fell through, that may say more about the buyer than about the work. The question to ask is who the right home is, not whether there's a home at all. And notice how many of these deals closed after the festivals ended. A premiere isn't a deadline. The conversations that start in the room often finish weeks later. The other lesson is that the business keeps changing. NYFF went from showcase to launchpad in about a year, and buyers change hands too. Knowing who's buying right now is part of the job.

Austin Is Where Writers Take Center Stage

The 33rd Austin Film Festival & Writers Conference runs October 29 through November 5, with almost 200 films from 24 countries, Variety reports. Unlike most festivals, Austin is built around the screenplay.

The lineup opens with Jesse Eisenberg's THE DEBUT, starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti. It closes with ELSINORE, directed by Simon Stone and written by Stephen Beresford, starring Andrew Scott as CHARIOTS OF FIRE actor Ian Charleson as he prepares to play Hamlet at London's National Theatre while living with AIDS. Focus Features has already dated ELSINORE for late November. The centerpiece is Tony Gilroy's BEHEMOTH!, starring Pedro Pascal.

World premieres include THE STALEMATE, an absurdist western comedy written by Nicholas Arioli, who makes his feature directing debut with it, with Ben Foster and Manny Jacinto attending. There's also THIS IS THE ONE THEY'LL REMEMBER ME BY, a meta comedy written by Alex Mechanik and Samy Burch, the Oscar-nominated writer of MAY DECEMBER. The Marquee lineup adds Jordan Firstman's CLUB KID, the political thriller KILLING CASTRO starring Diego Boneta, Xolo Maridueña, KiKi Layne, and Al Pacino, and IRON BOY, a French animated feature from former Pixar animator Louis Clichy (WALL-E, UP). Pedro Almodóvar's BITTER CHRISTMAS, Brad Bird's RAY GUNN, Danny Boyle's INK, and James Gray's PAPER TIGER round out the slate.

If you've read our previous Industry Pulse blogs, two of those titles will sound familiar. CLUB KID and THE DEBUT are the two films where breakout Eldar Isgandarov stole scenes this fall.

The retrospectives are aimed squarely at writers. Michael Arndt presents LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE for its 20th anniversary, Frank Marshall presents PAPER MOON, and Mary Sweeney presents THE STRAIGHT STORY. The Writers Conference, running October 29 through November 1, goes inside the making of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS and DC's LANTERNS and the FAMILY GUY writers' room (full schedule).

Two events to circle both involve Oscar-nominated TOP GUN: MAVERICK writer Peter Craig. On Sunday, November 1, he breaks down THE TOWN scene by scene in Script to Screen: The Town, moderated by Austin Film Festival Executive Director Barbara Morgan. The conference will also host a live reading of Craig's unproduced screenplay WILD FOUR O'CLOCKS, starring Sally Field, Odessa Young, and Mac Brandt. Set in the late 1970s, it follows a festive, eccentric woman forced to set aside her late-life renaissance to care for two feral grandchildren when her estranged son is arrested.

Why this matters to you: Most festivals celebrate directors and stars. Austin puts the writer at the center of the room, where the panels are about craft and the retrospectives are hosted by the people who wrote the pages. And notice that Peter Craig, with credits on THE BATMAN and TOP GUN: MAVERICK, still has an unproduced script in the drawer. Every writer does. If you're going, go with a plan: pick the sessions that match what you're writing, and be ready to talk about your project in a sentence. If you're not going, follow the coverage. Hearing how FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS or LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE got from page to screen is a free masterclass.

What I Take From This

This month's two stories point in the same direction. Projects find homes when the right person sees them in the right room. ARTIFICIAL found its home after its first one walked away. Writers in Austin will be looking for theirs, one conversation at a time.

That's a narrow path, but it's one you can work on. You can't control whether a buyer gets cold feet. You can control whether your pages are ready, whether you know who's buying, and whether you can pitch your project clearly when the moment comes.

The question worth asking about your own project: if the first buyer passed tomorrow, do you know who you'd take it to next?

Take This Into Your Work

Whether you’re heading to Austin or working from home, here’s where to start.

Get your script festival-ready. If you’re taking pages to Austin, or anywhere else, find out how they read to a professional first. A Feature Script Read with an executive gets your full script in front of a working professional, followed by a 60-minute call about what’s landing, what isn’t, and where it sits in today’s market. It’s also one of the services that can help your project rise into the new Stage 32 Marketplace: a qualifying score of 95+, or a Writer or Project Recommend, qualifies your project. Click here to book yours!

Learn how buyers think. ARTIFICIAL’s journey from Amazon MGM to Neon is a lesson in how distribution works. Our Packaging and Distribution education library covers the back half of the process, from how sales agents and buyers evaluate a film to what a good deal looks like. Click here to explore the library now!

Pitch your project and give it a path to discovery. Projects find homes when they reach the right person, and Pitch Sessions put your project directly in front of the producers, managers, agents, and executives looking for their next one. With last week’s launch of the Stage 32 Marketplace, every pitch now does more. You choose the professional you pitch to, you get a transparent scorecard on both your pitch and your project, and qualifying results can help your project rise into the Marketplace, where 3,000+ industry executives can discover it, download available materials, and request a meeting. A pitch score of 95+, a Writer or Project Recommend, or a verified Script or Meeting Request each qualifies your project on its own. Click here to book your Pitch Session!

Talk distribution with people who’ve done it. The Distribution Lounge is free, active every day, and full of members who’ve taken finished work to market. Click here to join the conversation!

Get ready for Austin, for free. The Austin Film Festival kicks off tomorrow, Wednesday, October 29th! If you’re heading there, our FREE How to Navigate the Austin Film Festival webinar covers how to prep, what to prioritize, how to pitch, and how to network once you’re on the ground. Not going to Austin? You’ll still get a lot out of it for navigating festivals and in-person industry events. Register to watch the full recording on demand. Click here to register for FREE!

Heading to Austin? Come celebrate with us. Join the Stage 32 community at our 13th Annual Austin Film Festival Rooftop Bash this Friday, October 30th, from 8:00 to 11:00 PM on the Speakeasy rooftop in downtown Austin. It’s FREE for all Stage 32 members, with or without an AFF badge, and your first drink is on us. Click here to RSVP!

See how a hit pilot is built. On November 18th, we’re breaking down the pilot script for THE PITT in a FREE webinar. It’s a must for anyone writing for television, or anyone who wants to see how a great script works on the page. Can’t make it live? Register anyway, and you’ll get the full recording. Click here to register for FREE!

If you’re not sure which of these fits where you are, email us anytime at success@stage32.com.

Cheers,
Your Stage 32 Success Team

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

Before you get too excited about production incentives, I’d like to share some perspective with you. There is no denying that production incentives are important and incredibly useful. However, depending on the budget, scope, attached talent, and secured financing of your project, they may not be attainable. Let’s explore the concept of production incentives to help inform your awareness and decisions.

An Extremely Condensed History of Incentives

In the business world, incentives are a means of attracting entities to a specific region with the expectation that investment and financial gains will follow. Production incentives are part of this business philosophy.

Incentives have been around long before their defining terminology was developed. Middle-age civilizations understood that, by offering trade privileges to foreign merchants, they would attract more business and, in turn, generate more profit.

The modern corporate incentive model can be traced back to the late 1800s in the United States, where states including New Jersey and Delaware wanted to lure business headquarters from New York. These states initiated corporate charters, a foundational legal document that creates a corporation as a separate legal entity under state law. This provided lower tax rates to the business and generated revenue to the states through filing fees. European nations began adopting models formed off the U.S., and after World War II, global communities were in the race for FDI - Foreign Direct Investment- constructing means of attracting outside manufacturing and businesses to their lands.

Canada was the first country to hone in on the business benefits of attracting film and television production crews from major production hubs. In the 1980s, the country began offering a federal tax shelter: a legal arrangement, investment, or strategy used to reduce, defer, or avoid federal income tax liability. This is done by lowering taxable income through deductions, credits, or favorable tax treatment. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the rest of the world started to enter the “incentives race”, looking to attract the economic development that comes with a film crew: the disbursement of money (aka, direct spend) on local businesses, labor, hospitality, and workforce development.

While production incentives do aid the creative process, their goal has a practical end. When you think about production incentives, it’s valuable to recognize that the main goal behind the benefit is designed to enhance the economy of the region.

With this awareness, you may see that while a production receives a benefit from the production incentive, its primary goal is the income that’s received from an inbound production. This is a key component of why production incentives frequently change, and sometimes go away altogether. If the government of a region feels the production incentive is not presenting a strong enough financial investment to its economy, it will reduce or eliminate support of the incentive.

Are Production Incentives a Fit for Your Project?

As you are beginning your financial strategy, you’ll want to review the different locations where you are planning to shoot your project to understand what is necessary to both qualify for their production incentives, as well as how to apply for them. The qualifiers and submission processes differ greatly from city to city, state to state, country to country. It’s also valuable to understand that production incentives are not always offering money up front for you to complete your film. In fact, many production incentives are geared towards the tax liability; the total amount of tax that the production company, studio, or individual creator legally owes to federal, state, or local governments based on income, profits, payroll, or business activities on a film. Here is a brief summary of the different types of production incentives that are offered:

Rebates: A rebate is a direct cash refund for a percentage of qualified production expenses incurred in the incentive jurisdiction.

Refundable Tax Credits: A refundable credit reduces your tax liability to zero and then provides a cash refund for the excess amount.

Non‑Refundable Tax Credits: A non‑refundable credit can only reduce your tax liability to zero; any excess is lost.

Transferable Tax Credits: A transferable credit can be sold to another entity for immediate cash.

Non‑Transferable Tax Credits: A non‑transferable credit must be used by the production company that earned it.

There is a lot to dig into regarding production incentives, and Stage 32 has courses geared towards greater understanding of how they work. If you are at a point where you are ready to get your film made, but just need some financial support to get the process underway, production incentives may not be the option for you.

Connect with the Film Commission

Many regions around the world have a film commission in place to assist inbound productions. Investigate if there is a city or county office for the region you are shooting in. If not, look to see if there is a state, provincial, or country office. A resource such as the Global Directory created by AFCI - the Association of Film Commissioners International, will help you in this search. If there is not a film commission, some governments have a film liaison, a designated point person who assists with filming matters such as permit acquisitions and location assistance.

Connect with the office and inform them that you are bringing a production to the region and you’re interested in highlighting your needs. There are benefits that a film commission or officer can aid in, including hotel or accommodation discounts and locations with lower costs or reduced fees. Upon a review of your script's needs, the film commission may also have ideas that you would not be aware of, such as access to specific props, a directory of crew members, and countless other benefits that will help you manage your budget.

Explore Investment Opportunities

If you need financial support, you may find it through local businesses or investors that would be willing to provide financial aid for your production. You may discover ways to arrange a barter, exchanging goods and services that have an equal financial value for non-monetary output. For example, there may be a local moving company that would donate a van in exchange for promotion in your project, a separate thank you slide in the credits, and recognition in your social media and other promotional materials.

There may be individuals who would be willing to give you a donation for a credit in the film and a visit to your set or editing facility, as well as a reserved seat at a screening of your production. If you have intentions of selling your production once it is completed, there may be companies willing to invest upfront for dividends once you begin making money during sales.

Crowdfunding remains a viable option for you as well. You can create levels of donation support with different deliverables related to your project. Be creative in your approach: offer things such as signed promotional posters, coffee with actors (if they are willing, of course!), perhaps even an opportunity to be an extra or production assistant for a day. At a time when money is tight for many people, think of the ways someone will feel inspired to lend their support to your project, and find enjoyment in engaging in the creative process!

Have Fun Getting Prepared

It’s great to be excited about creating a project and exploring an amazing idea. What’s important about seeing it to fruition is preparing yourself for all the steps involved along the way. Hopefully, in reading this post, that word you hear so often, "production incentives” has inspired you to do some research and investigation. It’s important to recognize that developing a production is more than a creative process - it is also a business. Learning about what production incentives are and how to approach them can help you as you evolve and flourish as a content creator.

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

Last week, we talked about making sure your Stage 32 profile is updated and ready for the industry to see.

Now let’s talk about the other half of the equation:

Your Project Page.

Your profile tells people who you are.

Your Project Page tells them what you’re creating.

And with the launch of the Stage 32 Marketplace, making sure that page is complete has never been more important.

THINK OF YOUR PROJECT PAGE AS YOUR DIGITAL PITCH

When someone discovers your project, you want them to immediately understand:

What is it?

What makes it interesting?

Who is behind it?

And why should they keep looking?

Your Project Page should make those answers easy.

That means starting with the basics:

• A strong project title
• The correct format and genre
• A sharp logline
• A clear synopsis
• Strong artwork or imagery
• Accurate credits and collaborators
• Current project information
• The materials you want available

Don’t make someone work to understand your project.

Make them want to know more.

YOUR LOGLINE MATTERS

Your logline is one of the first things people will see.

It should quickly communicate the central character, conflict, stakes, and hook of the project.

This is not the place for a long explanation.

Think clear. Specific. Memorable.

If someone only reads your title and logline, they should already have a reason to keep going.

GIVE YOUR PROJECT A VISUAL IDENTITY

A finished Project Page should feel like a real project.

That means adding strong artwork, a poster, key art, or imagery that helps communicate the tone and world.

You don’t need a huge marketing campaign.

You do need something that makes your project feel considered and complete.

The examples we’re already seeing shared by Stage 32 members show exactly why this matters: strong artwork immediately makes a Project Page more compelling when it’s discovered or shared.

KEEP YOUR PROJECT INFORMATION CURRENT

Projects evolve.

Your Project Page should evolve with them.

If you’ve rewritten the script, attached a collaborator, earned a new achievement, changed the status of the project, or created stronger materials, update the page.

An old version of the project shouldn’t be the version an industry professional finds.

Take a few minutes and make sure everything reflects where the project is today.

IF YOUR PROJECT RISES INTO THE MARKETPLACE, BE READY

This is where your Project Page becomes even more important.

Projects that earn qualifying industry signals can rise into the Stage 32 Marketplace, where more than 3,000 producers, financiers, managers, agents, and development executives can discover them.

Executives can review your Project Page, see the momentum and recognition your project has earned, download available material, and request a meeting.

So if your project is in the Marketplace, don’t leave the page half-finished.

Make sure the project looks ready for the opportunity you’ve earned.

CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW PROJECTS RISE INTO THE MARKETPLACE

YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS HELP TELL THE STORY

Your Project Page can also show the activity and recognition your project has earned across Stage 32.

That may include things like:

• Marketplace qualification
• Recommendations
• Contest achievements
• Strong professional evaluations
• Script requests
• Meeting requests

These are signals.

They help an industry professional understand not just what your project is, but why it’s gaining momentum.

That’s one of the biggest differences with the Stage 32 Marketplace.

We’re not simply showing executives a project.

We’re showing them why they should pay attention to it.

SHARE YOUR PROJECT

Once your page looks great, don’t keep it hidden.

Use the sharing tools on your Project Page to share it with your network and across social media.

We’ve already seen Stage 32 members sharing their Marketplace projects on X, LinkedIn, and beyond — complete with their artwork, project information, and achievements.

[INSERT SOCIAL SHARING SCREENSHOTS]

If your project has risen into the Marketplace, tell people.

If you hit a new milestone, tell people.

If you’re looking for collaborators or simply want people to see what you’re building, share it.

Momentum is more powerful when people can see it.

TAKE 10 MINUTES TODAY

Open one of your Project Pages and look at it as if you were seeing the project for the first time.

Is the logline strong?

Is the artwork compelling?

Is the synopsis clear?

Are the credits correct?

Are the materials current?

Does the page make you want to know more?

If not, improve it.

Because discovery starts with getting someone’s attention.

Your Project Page needs to hold it.

Connect.Learn.Develop.Rise.

And make sure your projects are ready when the industry comes looking.

CLICK HERE TO UPDATE YOUR PROJECTS

Keep creating,

RB

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

I hope your weekend has been a creative one so far. Whether you’ve been writing, filming, editing, or sketching out the next spark of an idea, I have something today that will give you a boost. So grab your coffee, and let’s dive in.

This week’s featured video comes from GQ: Noah Wyle Breaks Down Medical Scenes From ‘The Pitt’.

THE PITT is one of the best examples I’ve seen in years of a show that took the most familiar genre on television and made it feel brand new. Listening to Noah Wyle break it down, three things stood out to me.

First, the idea came from listening. During the pandemic, Noah was getting letters from first responders who had been inspired by ER and were struggling on the front lines. He didn’t know how to help, so he called John Wells and said there was another story to tell. That’s where THE PITT was born. Your audience is telling you what they need. Are you listening?

Second, they shook up the form on purpose. Real time. Fifteen consecutive hours. No music telling you how to feel, just the beeps, the ventilators, and the chaos of the room. They even hired the production designer before a word was written, because in real time they needed to know exactly how long it took to walk from one room to the next so the dialogue would fit. When you’re competing with everything else on TV, “good” isn’t enough. You need a rule that makes you different, and then you need to commit to it all the way.

Third, Noah went into casting with one message: bring your creativity, bring your imagination, leave your ego. It’s an ensemble. Everyone has to be at the top of their game the moment the camera finds them. He said it felt like they threw a great party for themselves, and then the world wanted to come too. That’s what happens when people buy in to something bigger than themselves.

Which brings me to a question I get a lot: how do you set yourself up for success?

Here’s the short answer: just be you. But pay attention to a few things.

One, read the trades. Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, maybe TheWrap. Understand what’s going on in the business at all times. Stay on top of it.

Two, be out there networking and connecting.

And three, be in a constant state of self-education. Take webinars on things that interest you. And learn outside your lane. Let’s use screenwriting as the example again. Even if you’re a screenwriter with no desire to be a producer, you should still be taking producing classes, because you need to understand the why.

The more you understand the why and the what of what people do, the easier it is to deal with rejection. Sometimes the rejection isn’t because the script isn’t good. Sometimes it’s just not a fit. If you understood that going in, maybe you wouldn’t have pitched it there in the first place.

That’s how you set yourself up for success. Have as much knowledge as humanly possible.

And some of the best knowledge on Stage 32 comes from the industry professionals who join us every week for our Writers’ Room Webcasts. One of my favorite monthly events is the Writers’ Room Script Breakdown, where a working professional breaks down a script live over Zoom. You get to dig into what makes a great script work, and how it changes when it’s translated to the screen. Our Writers’ Room members have learned so much from these sessions.

That’s why we’re making the full experience FREE for all members on Wednesday, November 18th, with THE PITT Pilot Free Script Breakdown!

If you’re writing a pilot, you already know the pressure points. Maybe you lean on time jumps to move the story forward, only to find your momentum stalls every time the clock resets. Maybe your ensemble blurs together on the page, and readers can’t tell who’s who by page 15. Or maybe you’ve convinced yourself you need a wildly original premise to stand out, when what’s really holding you back is execution.

THE PITT faced every one of those challenges: a real-time format with no time jumps to hide behind, a full hospital’s worth of characters introduced inside a single hour, and the most familiar genre on TV. And it turned them into the most-awarded drama run on television.

Leading the breakdown is Stage 32 Executive & Thought Leader, Michael Schulman, Story Analyst for Amazon MGM Studios, where he covers all submissions for development. In other words, he isn’t breaking this script down as a fan. He’s reading it the way the buyer does.

Before Amazon, Michael was a story analyst and script consultant for Netflix’s Original Independent Film division and head of development for Michael Mann’s company on THE AVIATOR and ALI. He worked at Barry Mendel Productions on THE SIXTH SENSE and MUNICH, served as VP of Development for Alec Baldwin’s company at Orion and Dennis Quaid’s company at TriStar, and, as an ICM literary agent, brokered the deal for GROUNDHOG DAY.

This is one you’ll want on your calendar. Click here to register for FREE!

So tell me in the comments: what’s one rule you could set for your current project that would make it impossible to confuse with anything else?

As always, here at Stage 32, we love sharing stories and knowledge with our fellow film fans. Know someone who would love this content? Share it with them. You can keep up with all of our videos by subscribing to the Stage 32 YouTube Channel. For more inspirational, educational, and motivational content on all things entertainment industry, follow me on Instagram and X @rbwalksintoabar.

Wishing you a very happy, healthy, and creative Sunday.

Cheers,
RB

GQ | Noah Wyle Breaks Down Medical Scenes From ‘The Pitt’

RBWalksIntoABar | How To Set Yourself Up For Success

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

What. A. Week.

Over the last few days, we launched the Stage 32 Marketplace, rolled out completely redesigned profiles and Project Pages, watched members begin sharing their projects across social media, and saw Deadline spotlight what we’ve built.

And this is only the beginning.

This week was about giving you more ways to develop your work, build momentum, become more visible, and get discovered.

So if you missed anything, here’s your quick weekend catch-up.

THE STAGE 32 MARKETPLACE IS LIVE

For 15 years, Stage 32 has been built around four words:

Connect. Learn. Develop. Rise.

The Marketplace is the next evolution of that mission.

Projects that earn meaningful industry signals can now rise into a discovery engine accessible to 3,000+ producers, financiers, managers, agents, and development executives.

Projects don’t pay to be placed.

There are no mystery readers.

And this is not a popularity contest.

Projects rise through real professional activity — including qualifying evaluations, recommendations, contest achievements, script requests, and meeting requests.

More than 4,000 projects were already in the Marketplace at launch.

CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW THE MARKETPLACE WORKS

YOUR PROFILE MATTERS MORE THAN EVER

Discovery doesn’t stop with the project.

When someone finds your work, they want to know who made it.

That’s why we also launched new Stage 32 profiles designed to better showcase your experience, credits, projects, achievements, certifications, and activity across the community.

If you haven’t looked at your profile recently, now is the time.

Update your photo.

Update your bio.

Add your latest credits.

Make sure your projects are there.

And stay active.

Your new Buzz Score reflects your activity and momentum across Stage 32, helping show that you’re engaged, participating, and building.

CLICK HERE TO UPDATE YOUR PROFILE

MAKE YOUR PROJECT PAGES COUNT

Your Project Page is where your work gets to speak for itself.

Make sure your projects have strong loglines, clear synopses, current artwork, updated details, and the materials you want available.

Because if your project rises into the Marketplace, executives can discover it, see the momentum it has earned, download available material, and request a meeting.

Your profile shows them who you are.

Your Project Page shows them what you’re creating.

The Marketplace shows them why your project is rising.

CLICK HERE TO UPDATE YOUR PROJECTS

THE INDUSTRY IS PAYING ATTENTION

This week, Deadline covered the launch of the Stage 32 Marketplace, highlighting our commitment to human-vetted creative work at a moment when the entertainment industry is being flooded with AI-generated material.

That attention matters.

Because every time the industry looks at Stage 32, it creates another opportunity for them to discover you.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE DEADLINE ARTICLE

AND YOU’RE ALREADY SHARING

One of my favorite parts of this week has been watching members share their Marketplace projects across social media.

Projects like Return to Duty, Freedom Dogs, and One and a Half Detectives are already being put out into the world.

[INSERT SOCIAL SHARING SCREENSHOTS HERE]

That’s exactly what you should be doing.

If your project has risen into the Marketplace, share it.

If you’ve updated your profile, share it.

If you’ve earned an achievement, finished a project, completed a certification, or hit a milestone, tell people.

We built new sharing tools into your profiles and Project Pages for a reason.

Momentum grows when people can see it.

THIS IS YOUR WEEKEND ASSIGNMENT

Take 10 minutes.

Check your profile.

Check your projects.

Make sure everything represents you and your work at its best.

Then share something you’re proud of.

Because opportunity doesn’t only come from being talented.

It comes from being ready when someone is looking.

This week, we opened more doors.

Now make sure you’re standing where the industry can find you.

Connect. Learn. Develop. Rise.

And keep rising.

Keep creating,

RB

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

The industry is taking notice.

This week, we launched the Stage 32 Marketplace.

And now Deadline has featured it, highlighting not only the opportunities the Marketplace presents, but the IMPORTANCE of having real, human executives vet material to avoid AI slop. That recognition, that awareness, speaks volumes to the amount of work that has gone into this endeavor. And for that, we couldn't be more grateful. 

READ THE DEADLINE ARTICLE

At a moment when Hollywood is being flooded with more content than ever - including an explosion of AI-generated material - we built the Marketplace around something completely different:

Human creativity. Human judgment. Real industry validation.

For 15 years, Stage 32 has been building a global community of more than 1.5 million creatives and professionals, while industry executives have evaluated more than 235,000 projects across our ecosystem.

Now, we’re taking those years of professional activity and turning them into something the industry has never had before: a discovery engine where projects rise because they have earned real signals of industry interest.

More than 4,000 projects from 235,000 vetted over the last 15 years were already qualified when we launched.

More than 3,000 producers, financiers, managers, agents, and development executives have access to discover them.

And Deadline is now helping put a spotlight on what’s happening.

This is becoming a movement.

A movement toward transparency.

A movement toward giving creators more control over who evaluates their work.

A movement away from mystery readers, popularity contests, and paying for placement.

And most importantly, a movement toward making it easier for great people and great projects to be found.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE DEADLINE ARTICLE

That coverage means a lot to us. But more importantly, it means more eyes are now on Stage 32, the Marketplace, and the people and projects rising inside this community.

So this is the time to make sure you’re ready to be found.

THE MARKETPLACE IS LIVE

If you missed the announcement, the Stage 32 Marketplace is our new discovery engine connecting projects that have earned meaningful industry recognition with 3,000+ producers, financiers, managers, agents, and development executives.

Projects can rise through real industry activity, including professional evaluations, recommendations, qualifying scores, contest achievements, script requests, and meeting requests.

No mystery readers.No popularity contest.No paying to be placed.

SEE HOW YOUR PROJECT CAN RISE BY CLICKING HERE

UPDATE YOUR PROFILE

Your project may get someone’s attention.

Your profile tells them who you are.

We recently launched completely redesigned Stage 32 profiles to give you a stronger professional home for your credits, experience, projects, achievements, certifications, and activity across the community.

Take a few minutes and look at yours with fresh eyes.

Is your photo current? Does your bio reflect what you’re doing now? Are your credits updated? Are all of your projects there?

CLICK HERE TO UPDATE YOUR PROFILE

And remember, activity matters. Your new Buzz Score reflects your engagement and momentum across Stage 32.

Show up. Participate. Connect. Be visible.

MAKE YOUR PROJECT PAGES WORK FOR YOU

Your new Project Pages are where the industry can see what you’re creating and why it’s building momentum.

Make sure each project has:

• A strong logline
• A clear synopsis
• Current artwork or images
• Complete project details
• The latest materials you want available
• Accurate collaborators and credits

If your project has risen into the Marketplace, this matters even more.

Executives can discover your project, review the recognition it has earned, download available material, and request a meeting.

Your profile tells them who you are.

Your Project Page tells them what you’re creating.

The Marketplace helps show them why they should pay attention.

CLICK HERE TO UPDATE YOUR PROJECTS

THEN SHARE IT

We also made your new Stage 32 profile and Project Pages easier to share beyond Stage 32.

Use the new share tools to put your work in front of your network on Instagram, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, Threads, Facebook, Bluesky, and beyond.

If you’ve earned a Marketplace placement, landed a new credit, completed a certification, launched a project, or simply want people to know what you’re building:

Tell them.

Momentum becomes much more powerful when people can see it.

SHARE YOUR PROFILE

Deadline shining a light on the Marketplace is exciting.

But this isn’t really about us.

It’s about making it easier for the right people to find you and your work.

So update your profile. Build out your projects. Stay active. Share what you’re doing.

You connected. You learned. You developed.

Now make sure the industry can see you rise.

Keep creating,

RB

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

This week, we launched the Stage 32 Marketplace - and we also gave your Stage 32 profile a major upgrade.

Why?

Because discovery isn’t only about the project.

It’s also about you.

When an executive, producer, manager, collaborator, or employer finds your work, one of the first things they may do is click on your profile.

So make sure what they see represents you at your best.

UPDATE YOUR PROFILE

YOUR PROFILE IS YOUR PROFESSIONAL CALLING CARD

Your new Stage 32 profile is designed to showcase:

• Your photo and bio
• Your credits and experience
• Your occupations and expertise
• Your projects
• Your Stage 32 achievements
• Your certifications and community activity

If your profile is outdated, take a few minutes and fix it.

Update the photo. Sharpen the bio. Add the credits. Make sure your projects are current.

The industry can only see what you show them.

YOUR ACTIVITY BUILDS YOUR BUZZ

You’ll also see a new Buzz Score on your profile.

Your Buzz reflects how active and engaged you are across Stage 32.

The more you participate, connect, contribute, and build momentum, the more your Buzz can grow, helping strengthen your visibility and ranking across the platform.

The point is simple:

Show up. Stay active. Be visible.

YOUR PROJECTS CAN RISE, TOO

Your profile is also where the projects you’ve added to Stage 32 live.

And now, with the Stage 32 Marketplace, those Project Pages can do even more.

Projects that earn qualifying industry signals — including strong scorecards, recommendations, script requests, meeting requests, and qualifying contest achievements — can rise into the Marketplace.

That means executives can discover your project, review the momentum it has earned, download available material, and request a meeting.

Your profile tells people who you are.

Your Project Pages tell them what you’re creating.

The Marketplace shows them which projects are rising.

So make sure your Project Pages are complete with:

• A strong logline
• A clear synopsis
• Current images or artwork
• Updated details
• The materials you want available

UPDATE YOUR PROJECTS- CLICK HERE!

SHARE YOUR PROFILE

We also made it easier to take your Stage 32 presence beyond Stage 32.

This is the upgrade I’m most excited about.

Your Stage 32 profile is now your professional calling card. It’s your digital landing page: one link that shows the industry who you are, what you’ve done, what you’re creating, and what you’ve earned.

Your photo. Your bio. Your credits. Your projects. Your achievements.

All in one place. All free.

No website to build. No hosting fees to pay. No portfolio to keep updating in five different places.

Just your Stage 32 profile, working for you.

HOW IT WORKS

1) Click Share.
Go to your Stage 32 profile and click the Share button at the top right, next to Invite Friends and Settings.

2) See your card.
You’ll see a preview of your branded profile card, with your photo, name, professions, a one-liner, your location, and your top Stage 32 accolades, all on one sharp, professional image.

3) Make it yours.
Click Customize your card to choose exactly what shows:

• Highlights: Pick up to 3 of your Stage 32 approved accolades, like a Double Recommend from an industry executive. We pick your strongest to start, and you can change them anytime.
• On your card: Choose whether to include your professions, your one-liner, and your location.
• Behind your name: Use your cover photo, one of your images, or a clean plain background.

Your profile photo is always on the card, so make sure it’s one you love.

4) Share it everywhere.
Share directly to Instagram, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, Threads, Facebook, and Bluesky, or copy your link and send it anywhere.

On LinkedIn, X, and Facebook, your card shows up automatically when you share your profile link.

For Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and Bluesky, click Download image to share, then attach it to your post.

WHY KEEP SHARING IT?

Because opportunities don’t only happen on Stage 32. They happen everywhere you go.

Use it as your digital business card.
Heading to a festival, a market, a screening, or a networking event? Skip the paper business cards that end up in a hotel trash can. Pull up your Stage 32 profile link and share it on the spot. Everything they need to know about you is one tap away.

Use it to grow your audience.
Share it with your followers, your network, and your community on every platform. Let them see your work, follow your journey, and connect with you here on Stage 32.

Use it to celebrate your wins.
Every time you earn something new, update your card and share the news:

• Announce a new project
• Share a Marketplace achievement
• Celebrate a Double Recommend or a script request
• Complete a certification
• Land a new credit
• Show your network what you’re building

Every share sends people back to the same place: your profile, your projects, your work.

And because your profile updates as you grow, the link you share today keeps getting better all year long.

GET STARTED NOW

Take five minutes today and look at your profile as if you were seeing yourself for the first time.

Does it reflect who you are now?

If not, update it.

Because when the right person finds your work, you want them to want to know more about you.

Connect. Learn. Develop. Rise.

And make sure the industry can see who’s rising.

UPDATE YOUR STAGE 32 PROFILE

Keep creating,

RB

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

For 15 years, everything we’ve built at Stage 32 has come back to one mission:

Connect. Learn. Develop. Rise.

When I launched Stage 32, I wanted to level the playing field for creatives and professionals around the world. Geography, access, representation, and who you happened to know had dictated opportunity in this business for far too long.

Today, our community is more than 1.5 million members strong, and over the years we’ve helped launch thousands of careers and projects by connecting talented people with the right producers, managers, agents, financiers, development executives, and decision-makers.

And today, we’re taking that mission further than we ever have before.

I’m incredibly excited to officially introduce the patent-pending Stage 32 Marketplace.

This isn’t another place to list your project.

It’s an entirely new way for the entertainment industry to discover what’s next.

YOUR WORK SHOULD HAVE A CHANCE TO RISE

There is no shortage of material in this business. The challenge has always been figuring out what deserves attention.

That’s the problem we set out to solve.

The Stage 32 Marketplace is built to surface projects that are demonstrating real momentum across our ecosystem. Your work can rise through professional evaluations, industry validation, executive recommendations, strong scorecards, contest achievements, script requests, meeting requests, and other meaningful signals of interest.

In other words, your project isn’t being defined by one anonymous opinion.

Your work adds up.

No mystery readers. No popularity contest. And no paying to be placed. Every evaluation comes from a named industry professional you chose to work with, and projects rise through real, transparent industry activity.

As you connect, learn, develop your material, receive professional feedback, and gain industry traction, those achievements can become signals that help your project rise.

And when it does, it can enter a Marketplace accessible to the 3,000+ working industry executives in the Stage 32 ecosystem.

That combination is what makes this possible.

We have more than 1.5 million members creating around the world. We have spent 15 years building trusted relationships with thousands of industry professionals looking for material and talent. And now we have built the technology that connects those two sides in a way that has never existed before.

YOUR PROJECT NOW HAS A STORY OF ITS OWN

One of the pieces of the Marketplace I’m most excited about is how your Stage 32 Project Page evolves with your work.

Your project page gives the industry a professional home for your project: your logline, synopsis, images, materials, information about you, and the momentum the project has earned.

And now we’ve added another layer.

Badges and Chips.

Badges recognize your achievements. Chips recognize your project’s achievements.

A Project Recommend means something.

A Writer Recommend means something.

A Double Recommend means something.

A standout pitch or coverage score means something.

A contest placement means something.

A script request means something.

A meeting request absolutely means something.

Instead of those moments disappearing after they happen, the Marketplace allows them to become part of the story surrounding you and your project.

This is something our technology team has spent an enormous amount of time thinking through.

We wanted to create a system that doesn't simply tell an executive, Here's a project.

We want it to tell them, here's a project, here's how it's been developing, here's where it's standing out, and here's the industry activity happening around it.

That context matters.

SCORECARDS NOW MEAN MORE

For years, Stage 32 members have received professional feedback through Pitch Sessions, Coverage, Consultations, and our other Development Services.

Now, that feedback can become part of a much larger journey.

Our Stage 32 Scorecards give you structured feedback across the areas professionals consider when evaluating material. They help you understand what's working, where you can improve, and how your material is landing.

But exceptional performance can now do something else:

It can help your project rise.

That’s an important distinction.

Development doesn’t have to end when the notes come back. A strong evaluation can become another signal. That signal can become momentum. And that momentum can lead to discovery.

This is Connect. Learn. Develop. Rise. built directly into the platform.

AND HERE'S WHERE IT GETS REALLY EXCITING

Getting into the Marketplace isn't the finish line.

It's where another opportunity begins.

Our 3,000+ executives will be able to log into Stage 32 and discover Marketplace projects based on what they're looking for.

When they find something that interests them, they can dig deeper into the project and its history.

And here's the part I know many of you care about most:

They can download your material.

They can request to meet with you.

Read that again.

An executive looking for material can discover a project that has risen through the Stage 32 ecosystem, explore the creator and the project's achievements, download the material directly through the platform, and, if they want to take the conversation further, request a meeting.

As always, our team is there to help facilitate those connections.

Stage 32 executives have been downloading member scripts and requesting meetings through our ecosystem for years. The Marketplace dramatically expands that idea by creating a persistent discovery environment around projects that are earning attention.

This is the screenshot I would blow up in the blog.

Because this is what Rise looks like.

SHARE YOUR MOMENTUM

We've also made your project achievements more visible and shareable.

As your project earns recognition, your Stage 32 Project Page becomes a place you can point people to and show the momentum you're building.

Your project isn't just a title and logline anymore. It's a living professional profile.

And for those of you who have been with me for years, you know how strongly I believe in this:

Never wait around for someone to give you permission to build your career.

Create the work. Develop it. Build relationships. Get feedback. Improve. Put yourself in the room. Stack one win on top of another.

Now, we're giving you a platform designed to make those wins visible.

15 YEARS LED TO THIS

We didn't build the Stage 32 Marketplace overnight.

Over 15 years, we’ve evaluated more than 235,000 projects and recorded over 4,000 executive requests, meetings, and development interactions. More than 1,000 members have been signed, optioned, sold, or put into development, with projects like NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH, NO ADDRESS, and CHICK FIGHT coming through these connections.

In many ways, we've been building it since the day Stage 32 launched.

Every connection.

Every pitch.

Every piece of coverage.

Every consultation.

Every contest.

Every script request.

Every meeting.

Every writer who found representation.

Every project optioned, financed, packaged, produced, or sold.

Every executive who came back looking for more material.

It all taught us something about how discovery actually happens.

Discovery isn't one moment. It's momentum.

And now we've built a patent-pending technology platform designed around that idea.

Wherever you live in the world, I want you to have the opportunity to build that momentum and have your work discovered by people who can do something with it.

That's always been the mission.

Now we have another incredibly powerful way to deliver on it.

CONNECT. LEARN. DEVELOP. RISE.

And now, get discovered.

I can't wait to see which projects rise next.

EXPLORE THE STAGE 32 MARKETPLACE

LEARN HOW YOUR PROJECT CAN RISE

As always, I'll see you in the comments.

Cheers,

RB

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

Filmmaking is no easy feat. Some may say it’s an act of endurance: from screenwriting to directing actors, managing the whole production, post-production edits, and navigating distribution and marketing; it's quite an incredible process to be a part of. However, in developing media ecosystems like Botswana, the creative energy usually collides with institutional bottlenecks. This means that independent filmmakers like myself often deal with situations such as fragmented funding pipelines, unenforced labor standards, limited distribution networks, and underdeveloped infrastructure.

From Storyteller to Advocate

After graduating from film school, I took on the role of creative director in a film and television company. My heart lies in telling authentic stories rooted in genuine human experience, so I’m also a scriptwriter and producer. The more experience I gained in the industry, the more I realized that I could not simply focus on storytelling when the structure we’re to produce our films in was weak. So when the opportunity came to develop a legal entity that could help create a voice that would represent filmmakers and liaise with government and national stakeholders, I grabbed it.

The Birth of Women in Film Guild Botswana

This is how Women in Film Guild Botswana (WIF Botswana) was born; co-founded by myself and Nikita Neo Mokgware (Chairperson), we spend a significant portion of our working hours advocating for structural reforms, equitable access, and recently, reviewing the new Cinematograph Act for Botswana and drafting the Regulations that will accompany it. The aim is to create the fertile ground necessary for our artistic craft to flourish. We were introduced to Women in Film and Television International (WIFTI) and immediately built our connection there. I now serve as the Secretary for WIFTI, and continue to serve as Vice Chairperson in WIF Botswana. I actively work to address the systemic challenges facing women film practitioners in Botswana. And when I’m not sitting in these offices, I’m still pitching concepts, writing screenplays, working on productions and building my presence in the industry.

Wearing "two hats" was never an optional career expansion for me, it was a functional necessity born out of deep love for cinema and the determination to make our discipline viable for future generations to come. These two roles are not separate careers; they represent a vital synergy that is needed to grow our industry.

Filmmaker-Advocates Around the World

Now 5 years in the advocacy space, I have since learned that the problems I face in my country exist everywhere else in the world, and that there are other filmmakers who also have had to “wear two hats” in order to clear and pave the way for economic development and sustainability in the film and television industry in their communities. Filmmakers such as Domizia De Rosa; founding member and President of Women in Film, Television & Media Italy and Vice President of WIFT International. Domizia has held several roles in the industry, including Executive Director of Television at Warner Bros. Entertainment Italia. Jessie Chisi is also a notable filmmaker who co-founded Zambian Women in Film & Television - ZWIFT. Jessie is a film director and screenwriter, and one of the pioneers of the Zambian film industry. She also co-founded the Zambia Short Film Festival, and divides her time between Zambia and Switzerland.

Partnering With Global and Continental Bodies

As members of Women in Film organizations around the world, this also means specifying our goals and emphasizing the need for inclusion and equality within our sets, our productions and other film and television spaces. A major cornerstone of work involves engaging with global bodies like UNESCO, and more local/continent-based bodies like Africa Creatives Alliance (ACA).

Through WIF Botswana, I have worked with UNESCO to help align our national cultural policies with the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. This was a good platform to advocate for gender equality in our industry, and to push for formal recognition of the film and television sector as a major driver of economic diversification. Doing this would make it easier to work on other elements of high priority such as infrastructure, tax incentives, policy-enforcement.

Scaling Africa’s Creative Economy

WIF Botswana is also working with the Africa Creatives Alliance (ACA) to facilitate Africa Creative Economy Lens (ACEL) 2026, a conference that will host the continent's policymakers, investors, intermediaries, entrepreneurs, and ecosystem leaders. The focus is on one question: “How do we scale Africa's creative economy for sustainable growth?” The aim of this conference is to foster an enabling environment for Botswana’s creative and cultural industries to thrive both locally and internationally. With WIF Botswana as a strategic partner in ACEL, we are confident that women in the film and television sector will be counted in the data, and be a part of the investment decisions moving forward.

Why Filmmakers Belong at the Policy Table

So while behind-the-scenes work yields films and series, advocacy builds the environment that allows those productions, and their creators, to thrive over a longer period of time. So by operating actively on sets and simultaneously sitting at legislative roundtables and international summits, we are able to bring crucial, current truths to high-level policy discussions. We know the production budgets, breakdowns, the actual plight of crew members, and why our international co-productions require equitable treaty frameworks rather than extractive practices and generalized solutions.

Advocacy Takes Passion and Patience

In the vibrant and rapidly evolving landscape of cinema, the journey from initial ideation to the big screen is rarely a straightforward path. Bringing a creative vision to life requires far more than artistic talent, technical skill, or narrative ambition. It demands a parallel, deeply personal commitment. That’s how I see advocacy as well: it’s not an easy feat to build the structures, policies and industry ecosystems that make sustainable art possible. It takes a lot of learning on how the legislative system works, patience speaking with the various stakeholders in government and determination to sit it all through. Especially when most of the time, there is no payment to this; we’re fuelled by passion and the vision we see for our future.

Building Something That Lasts

My mentor used to tell me that our industry needs active filmmakers in government/legislative roles because they know exactly what’s happening on the ground. I always nodded in agreement whenever he said this, but I never thought that I was the filmmaker he was referring to - I just wanted to make films, get my money and go home! But I guess now I’ve come to really appreciate the importance of that work, and I understand that I can contribute positively to my community and build something that lasts for years beyond mine, and benefit generations of filmmakers. This is a truly heartwarming vision, and because most of our efforts in the advocacy realm are voluntary, that’s what keeps me going!

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

The Bash is BACK, and this year, it lands on Halloween weekend.

Every year during the Austin Film Festival, the Stage 32 community takes over a rooftop in downtown Austin for one night of celebrating, connecting, and finally meeting the people we’ve been talking to online all year. This is our 13th year doing it, and it remains one of my favorite nights on the entire Stage 32 calendar.

You’re invited.

Stage 32’s 13th Annual Austin Film Festival Rooftop Bash
Friday, October 30th, 8:00 to 11:00 PM
Speakeasy Rooftop, 412 Congress Ave., Downtown Austin
FREE for all Stage 32 members, with or without an AFF badge

Click here to RSVP for FREE!

You Don’t Need a Festival Badge to Join Us

You do not need to be attending the Austin Film Festival to come to the Bash.

If you’re a Stage 32 member and you’re in the Austin area, you’re invited. Full stop.

Some of my favorite moments from past years came from members who weren’t at the festival at all. They saw the RSVP, got in the car, and drove in from all over Texas just to spend an evening with their Stage 32 community. People who’d been commenting on each other’s posts for years, swapping feedback in the Lounges, cheering each other on through rejections and wins, finally got to shake hands, hug, and say, “It’s so good to finally meet you.”

That’s what this night is about.

Why It’s Worth Being There

We spend so much of our creative lives behind screens: writing alone, editing alone, sending emails into the void and waiting to hear back. This community does an incredible job of closing that distance online. But there’s nothing quite like being in the same place, at the same time, with people who understand exactly what you’re chasing.

This is a party, not a mixer. There’s music all night, and around the midpoint a DJ takes over, and the rooftop turns into a dance floor. It’s not the place for a deep dive into your second act or a full pitch, and that’s the point. It’s a night to set the business aside and get to know each other as people.

Here’s what the night looks like:

• Stage 32 members from every corner of the craft: writers, filmmakers, actors, producers, crew, and more
• Members of the Stage 32 team, ready to say hello, celebrate with you, and put faces to names
• Industry guests from across the festival, kicking back and celebrating right alongside you
• Writers meeting their Lounge friends in person, sometimes for the first time after years of conversations
• New friendships that start with a toast, and often turn into collaborations down the road
• Dancing under the stars on a beautiful Austin rooftop

The bigger conversations can come later. What you’ll take home is a face to go with the name, a shared memory, and a connection that makes the next message so much easier to send.

Your First Drink Is on Us!

Stage 32 members get their first drink FREE. Stop by the Stage 32 table beside festival registration at the Omni Hotel to grab your drink ticket.

Not attending the festival? You don’t need a badge to visit the registration area, so swing by the Stage 32 table anyway to pick up your ticket and say hello!

If you can’t make it to the table, find the Stage 32 team at the Bash and ask if there are any tickets left, but there's no guarantee.

A Few Tips for the Night

• RSVP now. It helps us plan, and it’s how we know you’re coming.
• Arrive early if you want to chat. The first half of the night is the easiest time for conversation, before the DJ turns things up.
• Bring an easy way to share your contact info. Business cards, a QR code to your Stage 32 profile, whatever works for you. Swap info, then save the longer conversations for later.
• Don’t hesitate to say hi to the Stage 32 team. We’ll be on the rooftop all night, and we’d love to celebrate with you.
• Follow up afterward. Send that network request on Stage 32 while the night is still fresh, and pick up the conversation later where you left off.

A Little Austin History (and a Few Ghost Stories)

If you know Austin, you know the Speakeasy. It’s a downtown staple built inside one of the oldest buildings in the city, and it earns a stop on just about every Austin ghost and haunts tour.

So yes, we’re spending the Friday night of Halloween weekend on the rooftop of one of Austin’s most famously haunted buildings. As storytellers, I don’t think we could have scripted it better.

And if you’re there for the festival, it couldn’t be easier to get to. The Speakeasy is just a few minutes’ walk from the Omni, the Stephen F. Austin, and the Driskill, the heart of all the AFF action.

Heading to the Festival? Get Your Game Plan First

If you’re attending AFF this year, join Noel Thompson and me for our FREE live webcast, How to Navigate the Austin Film Festival, on Wednesday, October 21st at 1:00 PM PT / 4:00 PM ET. We’ll cover how to prep, what to prioritize, how to pitch, how to network at the Driskill Bar, and plenty more.

Click here to register for the FREE Webinar!

Want to Help Make the Night Great?

If you’d like to volunteer to help with setup, we’d love the extra hands. Email me at Community@Stage32.com, and I’ll share the details. It’s also a wonderful way to meet the team and some of the first members to arrive.

See You on the Rooftop!

Thirteen years in, this night still reminds us all why this community is so special. It’s a chance to step away from the screens and celebrate the people who make this creative journey a little less lonely and a lot more fun.

Whether you’re in Austin for the full festival, driving in for one night, or just discovering that the Bash exists, we’d love to see you there.

Click here to RSVP for Stage 32’s 13th Annual Rooftop Bash!

Tell us in the comments: are you coming to the Bash? And if you’ve been to one before, share your favorite memory, or tell us about someone you met there who’s still part of your creative life today.

See you on the rooftop, y’all!

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

Let’s kick things off with a huge shoutout to everyone who has already jumped into this month’s Introduce Yourself Weekend. Thousands of creatives from around the world are connecting, sharing their stories, and building relationships that can lead to collaborations, opportunities, and lifelong friendships. If you haven’t made your introduction yet, you still have time. Be bold. Introduce yourself. Your next great opportunity could be just one connection away. Now, let’s grab that coffee and dive in…

This week’s featured video comes from FilmSpeak: We All Live in the Backrooms. I’ve talked about BACKROOMS and OBSESSION a lot this year, and I’m going to keep talking about them, because what they represent matters for every single one of you.

For years, Hollywood has been betting on the familiar. Remakes, reboots, legacy sequels, the same characters recycled over and over. And then a 20-year-old who started out making short videos in Blender as a teenager walks into theaters with an original horror film and goes toe to toe with the biggest IP in the business. Audiences showed up for him.

Kane Parsons grew up in a world obsessed with nostalgia for a time before he was born. Instead of copying it, he turned that feeling into the film itself. BACKROOMS is about being stuck in the past, made by someone from the generation that’s been living in its echo. Nobody else could have made that movie. That’s the lesson. Your perspective is your advantage. Stop trying to write the next version of something that already exists. Write the thing only you can write.

But here’s the part people forget. BACKROOMS didn’t start as a feature. It started as an idea online, grew into a series of shorts, and built a massive audience long before Hollywood came calling. The crowd came first and the movie followed.

Which brings me to something I’ve been preaching for years: crowdsourcing. I didn’t just talk about it. I wrote the book on it, Crowdsourcing for Filmmakers. And before I ever put it on paper, I used those same methods to build what you’re part of right now. Stage 32 started with one idea and a crowd that believed in it. Fifteen years later, we’re a community of over 1.5 million creatives in more than 190 countries, built by word of mouth, one member telling another.

So trust me when I say it works. And I’m going to make it simple for you, because it comes down to three steps: identify, engage, and move your audience.

Identify your audience. Who is this for? Be specific.

Engage that audience, and give it time. I’m talking four to six months. That means being selfless. Ask questions. Invite them into the process. Pick a character and ask your audience to name them and tell you why. You can even turn it into a contest. Make them part of it.

Then, once you’ve engaged them to that point, move the crowd. Ask them to do something for you. Something like, “If I give you this book for free, will you leave me an Amazon review?” Not everyone will follow through, and that’s exactly why the engagement step matters so much. You have to earn the ask.

When I was doing this back in 2018, social media and self-promotion had gotten to the point where it was the right time. Today? If there was ever a time to learn how to crowdsource, it’s right now. We’re taking scripts and turning them into books, podcasts, short-form content, verticals, and shorts. Whatever form your story takes, you’ve got to know the audience you want to hit. And when you hit it, and you start getting those numbers, that’s the currency. That was the currency for BACKROOMS. That movie doesn’t get made without those eyeballs.

So tell me in the comments: who is the audience for the project you’re working on right now, and where are you finding them?

As always, here at Stage 32, we love sharing stories and knowledge with our fellow film fans. Know someone who would love this content? Share it with them. You can keep up with all of our videos by subscribing to the Stage 32 YouTube Channel. For more inspirational, educational, and motivational content on all things entertainment industry, follow me on Instagram and X @rbwalksintoabar.

Wishing you a very happy, healthy, and creative Sunday.

Cheers,

RB

FilmSpeak | We All Live in the Backrooms

RBWalksIntoABar | The 3 Steps to Crowdsourcing That Still Matter

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

You Can Pack Those Screenings

You can have jammed-packed screenings and successful Q&As. I am always astonished at filmmakers who go through months, even years of pre-production, shooting, and post to just let the ball drop when it comes to press, festival screenings, and Q&As.

It is your job to fill up the seats at your screening. The more people you can get to attend your screenings (press, distributors, fans, etc.) the better the Q&A and the better chance you have of winning an award.

Film Festivals and Film Markets

Most film festivals are also film markets where the business takes place. There are distributors, sales agents, and acquisition executives floating around looking for good “content” or the next big director.

After going to Cannes for 20 years, AFM, Berlin, Tokyo, and London with limited budgets as both a distributor and filmmaker, I have learned some tricks on how to fill up those seats at screenings and have great Q &A’s. I have had screenings in small theatres for the film market for buyers in Cannes only to see Roger Ebert and Meryl Streep go in to promote her film in a screening room across the hall.

When Your Film Gets Accepted

First thing-

Be friendly to everyone, especially at the festival, once you learn that your film has been accepted. Bring little gifts for everyone involved with helping you at the festival. (Maybe you’ll be invited back.)

As you know, you have to wait until the festival first announces your film, but once you get the date, your work has begun… Being successful at a film festival is sort of like running a campaign to be a class president. It takes constant energy. You have to make sure everyone knows about your film and where it will be screening first to pack the screening and have a successful Q&A.

What To Do First!

1. Set goals… Your goal is to pack the room at your screening… but… why are you screening your film? Are you looking to get funding for another film, or turn your short into a feature? Get distribution? Get another job….this will give you an idea of whom you want to invite initially.
2. Make a Budget- Make a budget for materials, travel, and entertainment!
3. Postcards...For your screening, make some postcards with your poster on one side. You can leave the dates and times blank and then get a stamp/sticker made for each specific festival and date.
4. Target your audience. Who would you like to see your film, agents distributors, casting directors, Netflix...Amazon?

Why I Like Postcards

A postcard is a visual of your film. The mail arrives, receptionists see the postcard, assistants, and then the person it’s addressed to. … and that person will have a handy reference or even give it to someone else. Get your lists of invitees together and prepare to mail those postcards keeping a bunch to give out when you leave for the festival.

Create an email with a brief and visuals of your film and screening time…send those emails out…

Do follow-ups via email and even calls. Always be nice to whoever answers the phone, asking them for help. It’s a trick I learned early from the biggest agent in town that I worked for early in my career, Swifty Lazar.

Environmental Giveaways

What’s that?

I had students that I mentored who got into Palm Springs Shorts, and we made a list of various giveaways. They were thinking of chocolate. Chocolate in Palms Springs at 114 degrees doesn’t work, but little twirly fans do, and sun visors. You ideally want a giveaway to hand out with your screening invitations that someone will carry with them, eat, or wear like a visor, pen, or T-shirt. How about ear muffs for Sundance?

Practice Your Pitch

Yes, practice a pitch to invite people to your screening, even if it’s to your dog. I have been in elevators in Cannes, Berlin, London, and Tokyo with major actors/producers/directors and you might only have an elevator ride to say,

“Hi, my film is screening on Tuesday, at Salon B at the Palais at 10:00 am. Hope you can come. Here is a postcard with the times”.

And I have seen actors, and directors show up to those screenings….and don’t dismiss distributors who finance films...they may find an associate and say, “This film is right up your alley!”

(Seriously, I once rode up 42 floors at the Tokyo Film Festival with Willem Dafoe. Just the two of us).

From the minute you leave your home, you have on you …

1. Business cards
2. Postcards
3. Some swag

At the airport, upon arriving, give out those postcards…even to your driver. Whenever, wherever, start inviting people to your screening. You want to fill up those seats. The more people at your screening, the more buzz, the more votes for you to get an award.

Did you Say Votes?

Yes, votes, you want to win an award, so you have to do the campaigning. “See my film, pls vote!”.

*There are certain Oscar Qualifying Festivals for shorts and documentaries that will qualify you to have your film viewed for the Motion Picture Academy. (Look into it!)

At your hotel, meet the staff, give out postcards and gifts to staff, yes staff. Years ago in Cannes, I made cocktail napkins and swizzle sticks with our contacts, office # and screenings to give out at the various Cannes bars, and when I went around, I gave cash/T-shirts to all the bartenders to leave them there. The next year, the bars figured this out and were charging $10,000 to leave anything like cocktail napkins. Some bars may want a charge, but a small gift to a person who may help you goes a long way in leaving materials.

Next- see if there is a PR office that, hopefully, you have already contacted. Give a give… any gift for the PR staff and remind them of your screening and let them know you are available for any interviews, etc.

Attend Other Screenings, Parties, Events…

Don’t miss opportunities to promote!

Find out about any parties and events and go to everything. Now, you don’t want to be obnoxious, but you can joyfully hand out your postcards and gifts at events.

True Story- I once had a film at Palm Springs that was up for Best Foreign Film from the Philippines. They brought in the film’s actor who had won the Best Actor Award there. We both went to a screening of a Pedro Almodovar film also up for the Golden Globes and Oscars like ours. Pedro was there hosting the screening and apologizing as the print was late.

Due to the print delay, he chatted in front of the screen, graciously asking the audience for any questions... I popped up and announced that I had our film’s star with us all the way from the Philippines and invited everyone to our screen the next morning. At 9:00 am our screening room was packed, SRO and several people came up and asked if they could host parties for us. Palm Springs is a great film festival…do not miss opportunities.

Q & A for Soldier’s Heart with Jake Busey, director Michael Fiefer, Producer/Actor Peter Sherakyo, AnnaLynne McCord, Rob Mayes, and Luke Judy

Best trick ever for your Q & A….Here it goes!!

By now you have made friends or brought a team with you. Plant as many people as you can that will immediately ask you a question when the Q & A opens relative to why you are there.

“Hi, loved your film? Did you want to turn this short into a feature, looking for funding?”

Or

“What’s your next project?”

Or

“Heard you want to work for Netflix”

Or…

“Hi, my name is Joe. Love your film, I’ll make sure I’ll vote for it. “

“Yes, don’t forget. Please vote for my film”.

Now you are saying, but I am going alone? Connect with someone, give them a T-shirt, $20, and have them ask the question. Bring them into your tribe….

Another Idea

Hide some Swag or a T-shirt under the seats…

“Thanks for the questions”. I placed some gifts under a few seats to thank you for coming today. Don’t forget, vote for our film”.

Be joyful, passionate, creative, and kind….inspire …and you’ll reap the rewards from all your hard work at your film festival.

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

The 33rd Austin Film Festival & Writers Conference kicks off in less than two weeks, and if you’re going, I want you walking into downtown Austin with comfortable shoes, confidence, and a plan.

AFF is one of my favorite weeks of the year. It’s also one of the most overwhelming. Eight days of film screenings. More than 175 panels, roundtables, and meet and greets. Parties every night, pitch competitions, and hallways full of working screenwriters, showrunners, reps, and executives. Without a plan, it’s easy to spend the whole week wondering if you’re in the right room.

So we’re doing something about it.

FREE Live Webinar: How to Navigate the Austin Film Festival
Wednesday, October 21st at 1:00 PM PT / 4:00 PM ET

Click here to register for FREE!

Can’t make it live? Register anyway, and you’ll get the full recording to watch whenever it suits you.

The Festival From Both Sides

This year, you’re getting AFF from two perspectives.

I’ve worked the Austin Film Festival on behalf of Stage 32 for years, so I know how the festival runs behind the scenes: how to pick up your badge, how to sign up for pitch roundtables, where everything happens, and how to network without being “that person.”

Joining me is Noel Thompson, an award-winning producer and filmmaker, longtime Stage 32 member, and AFF veteran who has walked the festival as a writer herself and attended many others with her own film. Every week, Noel coaches writers on their pitches as co-host of our weekly Pitch Practice in the Stage 32 Writers’ Room. She’ll tell you which panels to prioritize, how to prepare in the days before the festival, and what pitching live feels like.

Together, we’ll share the tips you won’t find in the program guide and help you build a game plan you can use from the moment you land.

What You’ll Learn

• How to prep before you go: scheduling, pitching, and research
• What to prioritize once you’re there: panels, parties, and networking
• How to nail your pitch and handle Q&A like a pro
• The follow-up formula that gets responses
• How to network at the legendary Driskill Hotel Bar
• Where to find Stage 32 at the festival, including our 13th Annual Rooftop Bash
• Insider tips from people who’ve been there and done that

And bring your questions, because we’ll close with a live Q&A.

Who Should Attend

• First-time AFF attendees looking for a game plan
• AFF veterans who want to sharpen their strategy
• Screenwriters pitching in competitions or paid pitch sessions
• Anyone networking at AFF who wants to stand out
• Stage 32 members attending the festival who want to connect
• Anyone interested in navigating festivals and markets of any kind

Not going to Austin this year? This webcast is still for you. The skills that carry you through AFF, like prepping your pitch, prioritizing your time, networking with intention, and following up, work at every festival and market. With the American Film Market coming right after AFF, the timing couldn’t be better.

Click here to save your FREE spot!

Your AFF Quick Guide

When is it?
The 33rd Austin Film Festival & Writers Conference runs October 29 through November 5, 2026, in downtown Austin, Texas.

What’s the difference between the Festival and the Conference?
The Writers Conference takes place during the first four days, October 29 through November 1. It focuses entirely on the business and craft of screenwriting through panels, roundtables, and workshops covering dialogue, story structure, character development, writing scripts producers want to develop, overcoming writer’s block, producing on an indie budget, marketing your project, and more.

The Film Festival runs all eight days and features screenings of everything from indie favorites to studio films.

Is it worth going if I didn’t place in the competition?
Yes. AFF is widely considered one of the best networking environments for unproduced writers. It’s designed to be accessible, so newcomers can mix, mingle, and grab a drink alongside veteran showrunners and studio executives without the usual Hollywood barriers.

Can I pitch my script there?
Yes. AFF hosts an official Pitch Competition where you get 90 seconds to pitch your concept to industry judges. Noel and I will walk you through how to prepare, and how to handle the questions that come after.

Do I need a badge?
It depends on your goals and your budget. Producers and Conference Badges give you access to panels and parties. A Film Pass covers the screenings. You can also buy individual screening tickets, subject to seat availability.

Where does everything happen?
All over downtown Austin. The hub hotels are the Omni and the Stephen F. Austin, with panels in nearby churches and screenings at venues like the State Theatre. On the webcast, we’ll break down how to get between them and how to plan your days so you aren’t sprinting across downtown between sessions.

What should I wear?
Austin is casual. The Austin Film Festival FAQ says you’ll see everything from “jeans and a t-shirt to your Sunday best.” Bring comfortable shoes and layers, because theater AC can be chilly and Texas weather in the fall can swing wildly. I've experienced hot AFF years that still felt like summer, rainy days with bursts of humidity, and chilly nights. It's always a coin toss, so staples like comfortable shoes, a light jacket or blazer that you can easily carry if it's too warm to wear, and a daypack with an umbrella are never bad ideas.

Find Stage 32 in Austin

If you’re attending in person, come find us! I’ll be on the ground in Austin all weekend, and the highlight of the week is Stage 32’s 13th Annual Austin Film Festival Rooftop Bash.

Friday, October 30th, 8:00 to 11:00 PM
Speakeasy Austin rooftop, 412 Congress Ave., Downtown Austin

It’s FREE for all Stage 32 members, with or without an AFF badge. Join us on Halloween weekend for a night of drinks, dancing, and meeting fellow creatives, the Stage 32 team, and industry guests from the festival. Your first drink is on us. Grab your drink ticket at the Stage 32 table beside festival registration.

RSVP is required, so save your spot now.

Click here to RSVP for the Stage 32 13th Annual Rooftop Bash!

Want to help us make the night great? We’re always grateful for a few extra hands with setup. Email Community@Stage32.com to volunteer.

Save Your Spot

The festival is less than two weeks away, and the webcast is this Wednesday. Thirty minutes of preparation now can change what you walk away with in Austin.

How to Navigate the Austin Film Festival FREE Live Webinar + Q&A

Wednesday, October 21st at 1:00 PM PT / 4:00 PM ET

Click here to register for FREE!

Can’t make it live? Register to get the full recording.

Tell us in the comments: if you’re heading to Austin, what are you most looking forward to? And if you’ve been before, what’s the one piece of advice you’d give a first-timer?

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

The movie poster often sets the first impression the potential audience makes of your film. Getting it right can create curiosity that pulls people to look your film up. Getting it wrong can cause people to ignore your film until something else convinces them otherwise. Building that initial anticipation is crucial to gaining marketing momentum early. You’ve seen reports of film opening weekend box office numbers. Have you ever asked why opening weekend matters, why doesn’t the overall run of the film in cinemas matter more? Simply put, it’s a predictor of how well your film will do, and cinemas need this number to be high to make the decision to keep or drop your film. The audience sometimes uses it to determine if a movie is worth going to, and producers use it to determine whether they need to do a harder marketing push.

The Cinema’s Side of the Equation

Before I get into how a poster can contribute to the success of a film, let’s talk about why it’s important for a film to succeed from the cinema’s perspective. The cinema, like any other organisation, was built to make money. Its products are a viewing experience and food in the concession stand. If a movie is not filling seats, then the theatre is losing revenue, and they need to make the decision to remove it and replace it with a profitable film. So it’s never good for a film to build momentum slowly. Maybe you can have a lucky run like the independent films Obsession and Stew Peas that did better in their second and third week than they did in the first and had to be called back based on consumer demand, but that can be rare.

Turning Foot Traffic Into Future Audiences

Getting a crowd has another side effect, and this is where posters come in. The foot traffic generated by other films at the cinema is an opportunity to find out what new film is on the horizon. When a couple or group of friends enter or leave the theatre, and they walk past the posters, it creates intrigue. Especially if the last film they watched was good, that euphoric feeling has them wondering what movie to watch next. It is your job as a movie producer to ensure the poster captures attention so they can look it up or at the very least, become familiar with the movie, so that the next time they encounter marketing material surrounding the film, they are already familiar and it adds to the intrigue.

Why a Poster Can Beat the Scroll

Trailers serve the same purpose as the poster; in fact, trailers carry even more of the burden to impress the audience. However, in a day and age where doomscrolling is a pastime activity akin to flipping through TV channels, there are several competing interests, and there is no guarantee someone is going to stop for 2 minutes to watch a trailer unless you grab the viewer in the first 3-5 seconds.

A Poster Has One Job

A poster can grab attention at a glance. We have all heard the phrase “A picture is worth 1,000 words,” and that statement is true to this day. A good poster has one job…to hook you in 1-3 seconds, and it does that with the color, composition, title, font, genre style, storytelling, connotation, and character. Done well and intentionally by a graphic designer who knows what they are doing, goes a long way. I remember sitting in a film lab some years ago, and the instructor was teaching film marketing, and she had given us her resume of films she had a hand in marketing, and these were some big films from Ong Bak to Wuthering Heights. She spent almost 2 hours showing us and talking about posters. One thing she made abundantly clear was that posters MUST BE intentional in design. She gave us a researched fact that, coincidentally, the local cinema, Palace Amusement Theatre, echoed this same point on a completely separate occasion. Many filmgoers make their decision to watch a movie based on the poster they walk by while attending another movie, and more often than not, it’s the woman that influences that decision.

Who’s Choosing the Movie?

This point caught all the participants’ attention. The research showed that many movies are experienced on dates, and men tend to go to the movies a woman wants to watch either to ensure the date goes well or to spend time with their spouse. Outside of that, men tend to go to the movies for tentpole action or science fiction. With that in mind, the instructor showed us a bad poster for a brilliant movie and how it affected ticket sales. The audience made a judgment about the film based on its poster. In stark contrast, she showed us a bad film with a brilliant poster, and she showed the open box office numbers.

This drove home the point about the importance of a good poster. Now, she was not saying the poster was the only factor that made these films sell or not sell. There are clearly other factors, but examples were also given of posters that would do well in one country and not do well in another because of connotation in that particular culture, and why some movies need more than one poster.

Genre Dictates the Direction

Color

A good poster depends on several of the things mentioned above, but let’s begin with genre. The genre of your film matters a lot. A romance film poster that is dark and filled with contrast and low saturation might give off a scary, uneasy vibe. It may turn off the crowd that would actually love the movie, and it might mislead others into thinking it’s a horror movie, leaving them very disappointed. Making a dark, somber drama bright, colourful, and highly saturated, with smiling faces will have the same effect. If you do a Google search for the best and worst posters, you will often find that the movies with the worst posters tend to have poor performance at the box office compared to their budget, and the best posters tend to coincide with good box office numbers or critical acclaim.

There are exceptions to the rule, of course, for example, a romance with dark undertones may use darker and more saturated colors. A drama that is quirky and offbeat might use vibrant saturated colors. But it only works if the decision is intentional.

Font

The font can be the trickiest piece of the puzzle. Typically, we expect to see plain fonts for drama, good-looking fonts for comedy, playful-looking fonts for kids' shows, bold for serious suspense, and edgy for horror. This stays true for the most part, but this can also be overused and boring at times of course you can also step too far outside the box and lose your audience with font that does not match the theme or drama and risk looking unprofessional. Try several fonts that match the genre and experiment with adjacent themes to find an alternative font. If it’s a dark comedy, consider exploring fonts that fall between dark and fun.

Composition

Do not depend on stills from your footage. Yes, you can get lucky with the perfect shot serendipitously revealing itself on a full moon, but a purposely taken photograph will always give you the best possibilities.

Composition is all about what objects you are putting in the frame and how they are positioned. How much space is being used up. This is where story and themes play a huge part. Ask yourself, how can I convey themes of the story with the composition? Is this a story about a power struggle between an underdog and their rival? Perhaps choose a composition that shows the underdog facing their rival at a lower height than them to show the power disparity. Think about how much space you want between elements, where you want them positioned in relation to each other, and what your eyes are drawn to first. Your composition must always lead the viewer’s eyes to what you want them to see and when.

Concept

Let’s say it is a romance, but the woman in the relationship is hiding that she is married. Perhaps a picture with her and her lover facing each other, looking deeply in love, eyes locked, but she has her hands behind her back, removing her ring. If she is engaged, add the husband somewhere in the background standing alone at the altar, looking small in the distance.

Conclusion

You can’t possibly learn everything you need to know about posters in one article, even though this was long. You have to partially learn by doing and partially researching. If you show this article some love, I will take it as an indication that you want more details, in which case I would do another article analysing posters and looking at why they worked and why they don’t work. I can also do another article about the types of poster designs. From superimposition to crowd posters. For now, if you are working on your poster, my advice is to explore a few concepts; do not commit to the first idea you think looks good. Find a test group and show them the posters and let them tell you which they like and why. This will give you plenty of feedback and a more independent perspective.

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

I’ve been watching this wave build from my seat at Stage 32, where I work every day with writers and filmmakers trying to find their footing in a changing industry. What’s happening right now isn’t just a trend. It’s a shift in how movies get made, and who gets to make them.

For years, Hollywood has worried about streaming killing cinema, IP fatigue, and the death of the mid-budget movie. Meanwhile, the people making the most interesting work are rewriting the rules in real time.

A documentary filmmaker who had never directed a scripted feature just premiered one at Venice. The movie star in it originally signed on only to produce. The film is PRIMETIME, and how it got made carries a lesson every member needs to hear.

The barriers to entry have never been lower. But the bar for craft has never been higher.

A Documentary Filmmaker Went Straight to Venice

Lance Oppenheim is 30. Before PRIMETIME, he had never directed a narrative feature. His résumé was documentary: SOME KIND OF HEAVEN, SPERMWORLD, and the HBO series REN FAIRE.

Then PRIMETIME premiered at Venice this September. Robert Pattinson stars as Chris Hansen, the host of TO CATCH A PREDATOR, and A24 is distributing. The premiere drew a nearly eight-minute standing ovation, The Hollywood Reporter reported.

Oppenheim didn’t come up through the film school-to-festival pipeline. He learned his craft in documentary, where you build trust with real people, find the story in real life, and work inside tight limits. Those skills carried straight into his first fiction feature.

Why this matters to you: Your lane doesn’t have to be permanent. Interviewing, observing, and finding story in chaos are skills that transfer. If you’ve been making shorts, music videos, or web content, you’re building instincts that matter. A documentarian understands real human behavior. A YouTube creator understands pacing and audience. Those aren’t gaps in your résumé. They’re advantages, as long as you can show them on screen.

A Movie Star Signed On to Produce First

Pattinson has had one of the biggest years of any actor in 2026: THE DRAMA, THE ODYSSEY, and PRIMETIME, with DUNE: PART THREE still to come. He could have coasted on blockbuster paychecks.

Instead, he came to PRIMETIME as a producer. When the A24 project was announced in October 2024, Pattinson signed on to produce through his company, Icki Eneo Arlo. Only later did he step into the role of Chris Hansen.

As Singh and Oppenheim developed the script, Pattinson became the obvious choice to play Hansen. He went from backing the project to becoming it.

Why this matters to you: Pattinson’s story isn’t about stardom. It’s about choosing a project before anyone else would. You may not have his leverage, but you have skills, relationships, and a point of view. If your script feels “too risky,” that can be a signal, not a warning. The projects that make people nervous are often the ones that stand out. And if you’re in a position to help a project you believe in get made, even in a small way, do it. That’s how careers get built.

The Breakout Talents of the 2026 Fall Festivals

Every fall, the festival circuit introduces us to the actors who will define the next year of cinema. But this year’s crop feels different. As IndieWire reported this week, the 2026 fall festivals, from Venice to Telluride and TIFF to NYFF, have introduced (and in some cases, reintroduced) us to a ferocious wave of talent.

These aren’t just fresh faces. They’re performers who came up through unconventional routes:

• Mathilde Arcel arrived at Venice with only a handful of Danish TV credits. She left with the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for WOMAN UNKNOWN, which also won the Golden Lion.
• Caleb Hearon, a beloved internet comedy star, leads Kris Rey’s TRASH MOUNTAIN. He co-wrote it with Ruby Caster, and it’s loosely based on his own life.
• Skyler Gisondo, a working actor since the AIR BUD franchise, landed what IndieWire calls “the juiciest role of his adult career” opposite Pattinson in PRIMETIME.
• Eldar Isgandarov, a rising star from Azerbaijan, stole scenes in two of the fall’s buzziest films, Jordan Firstman’s CLUB KID and Jesse Eisenberg’s THE DEBUT.

They represent a new kind of discovery pipeline. As IndieWire put it, this is “the coming wave, the next big thing.”

For writers and filmmakers, this matters because the talent pool is wider and more accessible than ever. The actors you’re writing for might not be household names yet. But they’re out there, they’re hungry, and they’re looking for the kind of material that lets them show what they can do.

Why this matters to you: Look at Caleb Hearon. He didn’t wait for someone to write him a leading role. He co-wrote one from his own life and starred in it. The same forces letting filmmakers bypass traditional gatekeepers are letting performers do the same. So when you’re casting your project, you’re not limited to the same small pool of names. Think about the right performer to bring your script to life, not just the biggest name you can imagine. Follow the festival circuit, even from a distance. The next collaborator you need might be someone you haven’t heard of yet.

What to Do With All of This

The throughline is simple: none of these people waited for the expected path. Oppenheim made a narrative feature without a narrative résumé. Pattinson used his position to get a difficult project made, then stepped in front of the camera. And this fall’s breakout performers prove that the talent pipeline is wider than the old gatekeepers ever admitted. One of them, Skyler Gisondo, is in PRIMETIME too.

Your posture heading into your next project should account for that. Take stock of what you already do well, even if it comes from a different lane, and find a project that puts it on display.

Then ask yourself one question: is there a story you’ve been sitting on because it feels too risky? If the answer is yes, that might be the one worth developing next.

Take This Into Your Work

Every story here comes down to two things: proof you can execute, and a project worth backing. Here’s where to work on both.

Show buyers what you’ve already made. Oppenheim’s documentary work was his proof of execution. If you’re a director making the jump to narrative, your reel or short is yours. A Reel or Short Film Review puts it in front of an industry professional who reviews it and then gets on a call with you to talk through what’s landing. Click here to book your review!

Find out if your “risky” script holds up. A controversial premise only works if the pages earn it. A Feature Script Read with an executive gets your full script in front of a working professional, followed by a 60-minute call about what’s landing, what isn’t, and where it sits in today’s market. Click here to book yours!

Pitch the project nobody’s taken a chance on yet. In just two weeks at the end of September, Stage 32 pitch sessions produced 92 script requests and 132 meeting requests from producers and managers. Click here to book your pitch session!

Ask a working producer how projects really get made. Pattinson got PRIMETIME made by backing it as a producer first. Caleb Hearon turned his own life into a feature. If you want to know how that side of the business works, this Wednesday, October 14th, Whitney Davis is hosting a FREE Ask Me Anything in the Producing Lounge on the process of developing scripted series and films.

Whitney is the co-executive producer of TRUE LIES for CBS and MIKE for Hulu. She’s sold projects to Disney, FX, Hulu, and Onyx Collective, and she’s currently developing a scripted series with Emmy-winning director Anthony Hemingway. She also says almost every project on her development slate came from creators she met through Stage 32.

It’s a rare chance to ask an experienced producer and development executive about:

• How a project actually moves through development, from first conversation to sale
• What a producer looks for before attaching to a series or film
• How writers can turn personal stories into projects buyers want

The post is already live, so you can leave your question now. Whitney will be answering all day Wednesday and into Thursday morning. It’s free, it all happens in the comments, and you don’t need a finished script or a pitch to take part. Click here to ask your question!

If you’re not sure which of these fits where you are, email us anytime at success@stage32.com.

Cheers,

Your Stage 32 Success Team

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

When I started writing my own trilogy, I discovered that these masters had prepared me for the challenges of my creative path. In this article, I want to share the most important lessons I learned along the way, using both my personal experience and the stories that inspired me as examples.

1. Write from the Soul (Transform Pain and Anxiety into Art)

2. The Character Must Evolve, But Their Pain Must Remain Real

When dividing a story into three parts, the protagonist cannot remain static. My main character undergoes a tragic and transcendent transformation: he begins as an ordinary family man, becomes a being driven by revenge, and ultimately fights for his redemption.

 

The Principle: No matter how high the stakes, even if your character ends up debating cosmic forces, their core motivation must remain deeply intimate. The fundamental driving force should always be family, emotional scars, and love. If the audience can identify with the protagonist's inner wounds, they will follow them anywhere, even into a war for the fate of souls.

 

A Classic Example: In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo doesn't fight for Middle-earth as an abstract concept; he fights to save his home, the Shire, and the people he loves. Sam, his friend, is the emotional pillar that keeps the story grounded in the human. The epic escalation works because the heart of the story is deeply personal.

3. Let Supporting Characters Surprise You

When I started writing my story, I had a very precise outline. However, as the world expanded, the characters began to claim their own space. A clear example is a supporting character who, in my original draft, was just a neighbor. I never imagined he would have such an important role. But as the narrative progressed, his emotional depth and loyalty became indispensable to the protagonist's survival.

 

The Craft Note: Trust the process and listen to your story. Sometimes a supporting character will break away from your original outline and become the pillar of the story's emotional reality. Allow yourself to be surprised by your own creations. In Game of Thrones, characters like Theon Greyjoy or Jaime Lannister begin as functional antagonists and evolve into some of the most complex, beloved arcs in the saga. Narrative depth flourishes when secondary characters are granted their own transformative journeys.

4. Hide the Extraordinary in Plain Sight

As a multi-part thriller escalates, theological or supernatural forces often enter the fray. Introducing cosmic beings into a grounded, gritty world is inherently risky; if handled poorly, it shatters dramatic tension and devolves into a cheap deus ex machina.

 

Instead of relying on loud, special-effects-heavy entrances, hide the extraordinary in simple, everyday locations. In The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf isn't introduced with a thunderous display of godlike power. He arrives as an old, wise traveler riding a cart, setting off fireworks, and offering quiet counsel. His true grandeur is revealed gradually over time.

 

Similarly, in my story, SUPLICIO, supernatural interventions are deliberately kept subtle: a shift in atmospheric pressure, an unseen presence, or a force operating quietly at the margins of the scene.

 

By stripping the extraordinary of flashy spectacle, you preserve the gritty tone of your world while allowing the reader to experience mystery and dread alongside the protagonist.

5. The Emotional Aftermath: What Happens After the Storm

One of the most common structural missteps in epic storytelling is cutting to black the exact moment the main antagonist falls. The final battle peaks, the villain is destroyed... and the story abruptly ends. But after an audience has traveled alongside your characters through immense trauma, sacrifice, and loss, they need a moment to watch them heal, celebrate, and say goodbye.

 

A story that ends abruptly upon the villain's defeat leaves a narrative void. Characters are not merely mechanical plot devices used to defeat a bad guy; they are human proxies with whom the audience has formed an emotional bond. The audience needs to see them in peace, sharing a quiet meal, laughing through tears, or simply realizing they survived the storm.

 

The Return of the King masterfully demonstrates this principle. The story doesn't end when Sauron's tower collapses. It carries through Aragorn's coronation, the Hobbits' return to the Shire, Sam's marriage, and the poignant farewell at the Grey Havens. That extended emotional wind-down is what elevates a grand adventure into an immortal masterpiece.

 

Audiences don't just want to know that evil was defeated; they need to know that the characters will be okay.

Final Thoughts: The Ultimate Battle Is Always Human

Balancing cosmic forces with the raw decay of the streets taught me that world-building is only as strong as the human choices within it. Transitioning between screenplays and novels requires immense discipline: prose allows you to master psychology and mythos, while screenwriting sharpens your visual pacing and dialogue economy.

 

Ultimately, no matter how far your story travels into the supernatural, the decisive battle is always won through love, loyalty, and human choice. Allow your audience to experience the "after the storm", the peace, the reflection, and the quiet farewells. If your readers see a reflection of their own humanity in your characters, they will follow you to the end of the saga and beyond.

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

Our Grand Prize Winner will win a Career Accelerator prize package that includes script & career development, writer branding and an education package and will be first in line for VIP MENTORSHIP meetings with Producers who have worked on iconic comedies like RUSSIAN DOLL, FUBAR, ON A STRING, PLAN B, STANDING UP FALLING DOWN, and literary managers from Expectation Management & Epigram Entertainment!

Last year's winner, Ted Sperling who took home the Grand Prize with his winning script TREASURE, INC. signed a shopping agreement with Manager & Producer Mark Wheeler of Pathfinder Media, who attached his client and established director Todd Biermann (IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY, MYTHIC QUEST) to direct. After months of development, they are currently shopping the project to studios and financiers! Ted also met with execs from Elevate Entertainment, with whom he is still in touch on more projects in his portfolio!

"This contest embodies our dedication to elevating comedy writers," said Stage 32 CEO Richard "RB" Botto. "Audiences consistently prove their hunger for bold, hilarious storytelling. By championing original comedy voices, we're building bridges to opportunity for talented writers across the globe. We're here to make sure that incredible comedy writers reach the executives, managers, and producers actively developing the next generation of comedy stories."

Comedy is back on the big screen, and audiences are ready to laugh. From the runway-to-record-books reign of THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2, to the line-crossing, nothing-is-sacred chaos of SCARY MOVIE, to the wedding-week meltdown of THE DRAMA, comedies are packing theaters again. THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 brought in nearly $700 million worldwide, and SCARY MOVIE became the first pure R-rated comedy in nearly a decade to cross $100 million domestically. The appetite for sharp, original comedy storytelling is stronger than it's been in years, and we want your story to be the next one that has audiences laughing until they cry.

Stage 32 is proud to present the 11th Annual Comedy Feature Screenwriting Contest!

Hilarious parodies. Scathing satires. Slapstick spoofs. Knee-slapping romps and buddy road trip adventures. Gags, pranks, antics, bits, jokes, one-liners, deadpan observations, all the things that make us howl with laughter. Whether you write dry humor, farces, dark comedy, black comedy, romantic comedy, abstract, surreal or absurdist comedy, if you have a feature comedy that needs to be told, the Feature Comedy contest wants to see it!

Click Here To Enter!

We're Here For Laughs

The focus on Comedy stories isn't random. It reflects current market demands:

• Streaming platforms actively seek original comedy voices because audiences can't get enough
• Comedy stories are wanted by every studio, sales company, and producer
• Franchise potential makes Comedy films and series attractive to financiers

You're positioned perfectly for current market opportunities combining several rare elements:

• Established Access: Direct pipeline to proven managers and producers
• Exclusive Platform: Available only to the Stage 32 community
• Personal Review Process: Your work is seen by actual decision-makers
• Global Scale: Worldwide talent search through the largest creative community
• Proven Success Model: Based on Stage 32's pipeline of results
  

Stage 32 Contests Launch Careers

-- After winning our Comedy contests --

Last year's Comedy Winner Ted Sperling signed a shopping agreement with Pathfinder Media on his winning script TREASURE INC!

Comedy Winners Maxwell Gay & Tucker Flodman - Signed with Literary Agent Joe Fronk of IAG (setup by Stage 32) who got them hired as Staff Writers on the 51st season of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE!

Rom Com Finalist Henry Sawyer-Foner - Signed with literary manager Nicholas Bogner of Affirmative Entertainment!

Comedy Winner Diana Wright - Signed to The Cartel and Abrams Artists Agency!

Comedy Winner Greg Mania - Signed with Cohn/Torgan Management!

More Recent Winners Making Waves:

Diversity Talent Accelerator Winner Micheal S. Camp signed a shopping agreement with Color Farm Media on his winning script THE PERFECT KISSER!

New Blood Winner Travis J. Opgenorth - Script optioned by Broken Time Entertainment and signed with a manager at Persistent Entertainment after Stage 32 introduced him to nearly a dozen industry pros.

New Blood Winners Tanya Klein & Jim Cirile - Script set up for production with $1.5M budget, Lucas Heyne attached to direct & Scoot McNairy set to star!

Diversity Springboard Winner Jeffrey Thompson - Staffed in the Writer's Room of THE GOLDBERGS

New Blood Winner Christina Pamies - Signed by "Billion Dollar" Literary Manager Jake Wagner, then hired by StudioCanal to adapt BAGHEAD (now streaming on Shudder/AMC+).

New Blood Winner Kevin Bachar - Winning script THE INHABITANT (previously BLOOD RELATIVE), produced by Lionsgate and released on Hulu.

Career-Changing Representation:

• TV Drama Winner Katie McClung - Signed with literary manager Chloe Morris of 42 MP
• Sci-Fi/Fantasy Winner Josh Miller - Signed with literary manager Tamer Ashan of Zero Gravity Management
• New Blood Winner Richard Doyle (Australia) - Signed with literary manager Will Rosenfield
• Female Driven Winner Jimmy Miller - Signed with literary manager Marc Manus
• New Blood Winners Alyssa & Griffin Devine - Signed with HG5 Entertainment, writing 2 scripts with 1 going into production
• New Blood Winner Glenn Forbes - Secured representation with Infinity Management International
• Drama Winner Jonathan Jordan - Signed by major agency Verve, script currently in production
• New Blood Winner Frank Ponce - Signed with 3 Arts Entertainment and had his script picked up by Atlas Entertainment

The Stage 32 Difference: Winners receive meetings with managers, agents, and producers - not just a trophy. Real careers launched, real movies made, real representation secured.

"Stage 32 isn't about a quick win and a pat on the back. They're serious about opening doors." - Travis J. Opgenorth

Click Here To Enter!

What This Means for Your Career

You're not just winning a contest. You're joining a development pipeline with a proven track record of commercial success. You're getting the kind of attention that can move a career into overdrive.

• Last year, eleven writers met with Mark Wheeler of Pathfinder Media - including winner Ted Sperling! 
• Winner Ted Sperling also met with Producer Joe Wiggins, Head of Development at Elevate Entertainment after winning with his script TREASURE, INC.
• Finalist Andrew Clemes met with Producer Brandon Tamburri of Joke Zero (PLAN B, ON A STRING) after placing with his script WE HAVE HISTORY.
• Finalist Andrew Clemes also met with Literary Manager Evan Anglin of Zero Gravity Management after placing with his script WE HAVE HISTORY.
• Finalist Lissette Jean-Marie met with VP of Film & TV, Jordan Rubio of 3 Pas Studios (ACAPULCO) after placing with her script BOOK F*CKER.
• Finalist Barbie Ross met with Literary Manager Andrew Kersey of Kersey Management after placing with her script ROLE PLAY.
• Finalist Subhah Agarwal met with Literary Manager Spencer Robinson of Art/Work after placing with her script UNWELLNESS.
• Finalist Nicole Dimond met with Literary Manager Tamer Ahsan of Zero Gravity Management after placing with her script STRIDE.
• Finalist Lori Lee Peters met with Producer & Financier Todd Remis (UNDER THE SILVER LAKE) after placing with her script TWO FATES.
• Finalist Kelsey Ann Wacker met with Producer Carolyn Levine (HEELS) after placing with her script TWO FATES.

"In a time when it seems very difficult to get good reads from execs and producers, Stage 32 is an incredible resource for writers who want to make a breakthrough on a piece of work they truly believe in." - Winner Ted Sperling

"Stage32 was my first choice to work with. They provide an incredible amount of avenues leading to success, great communication, and honest." - Finalist Lori Lee Peters

"I'm blown away by the dedication and commitment Stage 32 has to up-and-coming writers and how hard their team works to connect projects to the right industry professionals. I'm so grateful to be part of this community and appreciate all of the tools they offer." - Finalist Barbie Ross

One contest. 20+ Meetings secured for our Winner and Finalists.

Your participation in this process demonstrates the kind of strategic thinking that separates professional writers from hobbyists. You're positioning yourself within a community that attracts this level of industry attention.

This year, all these Producers and Managers are looking for comedy scripts, too! They will read and judge the Top 10 finalist scripts and meet with any finalists whose writing they enjoy!

• Sarah J. Cornelius, Creative & Production Executive at Whitewater Films (SMALL ENGINE REPAIR, STANDING UP, FALLING DOWN, THE BOY BEHIND THE DOOR)
• Colleen Labella, Vice President of Development for Leslye Headland's company, Shoot to Midnight (RUSSIAN DOLL, THE ACOLYTE (a STAR WARS series), SINGLE DRUNK FEMALE)

And if you select the optional add-on mentorship opportunity or you're a Top 10 finalist, you could win a mentorship with Literary Mangers Val McLeroy of Epigram Entertainment and Mitchell Bendersky of Expectation Management, in addition to Producer Brandon Tamburri of Joke Zero (PLAN B, ON A STRING).

These are actionable opportunities to make meaningful connections in this industry!

The Bottom Line: Opportunity Meets Preparation

Stage 32 has spent over a decade turning contest entrants into working writers — landing them representation, sales, options, staffing, and produced credits. Neighborhood Watch's Sean Farley didn't know his Stage 32 connection would lead to a theatrical release starring Jack Quaid. James Papa didn't predict his Stage 32 relationship would result in No Address with Billy Baldwin. Richard Zelniker could never have thought that 3 years after his contest win, he'd be linking back up with an Executive Producer, who Stage 32 set him up on a general meeting with after winning a contest, to direct The Vortex.

Success in this industry often comes from positioning yourself in the right place when opportunity strikes. Stage 32 has created an ecosystem where fresh voices can thrive. Comedy stories are bigger and better than ever, and we’re here to make sure your script rises to the top. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to be discovered—enter now and let us champion your story!

Is your voice ready to be discovered?

If so, click here to submit now!

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

I hope your weekend has been a creative one so far. Whether you have been writing, filming, editing, or sketching out the next spark of an idea, I have something today that will give you a boost. So grab your coffee, and let's dive in.

This week's featured video comes from In Depth Cine- How Guy Ritchie Shoots a Film at 3 Budget Levels.

I hear it constantly: "Once I get the budget, I'll make the film I want to make." This video is the best argument against that thinking I've seen in a while.

When Guy Ritchie made LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS, the bankers pulled out and he was left with £800,000. So he shot on 16mm, entirely on location, with two or three takes per shot. They guarded every leftover scrap of film and turned it into the quick inserts and extreme close-ups that became his signature look.

The style everyone associates with Guy Ritchie was born out of not having enough. It didn't require money. It required a plan. He storyboarded the entire film before rolling a frame.

Your budget doesn't give you a voice. Your choices do.

And when the money came for SNATCH, he didn't play it safer. He doubled down. In his words: "Either embrace the fact that it's a risk and go for it, or become like everybody else and it all becomes compromising and hedging your bets and you end up with a dull movie."

Tape that to your wall. By the time he reached the $125 million SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS, the toys were bigger, but some of the risk-taking had softened into a more traditional studio style. That's the lesson for all of us: as your budgets grow, protect what made people notice you in the first place. More money should mean better instruments, not a different song.

Which brings me to a question I get all the time, because knowing exactly what you're making is just as important when it comes time to sell it: how do I strategically approach streamers?

First, understand that every streaming deal is very, very different. What they pay upfront depends on your experience and, more than anything, on your entertainment attorney. And the backend on streaming isn't what it used to be. I can't tell you the floor is this and the max is that, because I'd be lying to you. It changes all the time, with every single service.

So stop asking, "Which one pays the most?" and start asking, "Where does my project belong?"

Every platform has a different business model. Netflix buys more than anybody. Their model is quantity of quality. They'll go after the prestige piece, but they also need to fill that library and turn it over again and again to keep people watching.

Apple is the opposite. Quality over quantity. That's their brand, and audiences know it.

Max used to sit firmly in that prestige lane. Now they're caught in the middle, trying to decide whether they want to be prestige or a volume player.

And Amazon has a completely different agenda. They want you to buy Prime so you get your free delivery. The content is there to sell subscriptions.

That's why you need to know the playing field and know who's buying what. Look at your project and ask yourself honestly: is this an Apple show? Is this a Netflix show? Those answers factor into not only where you'll land, but what you might get paid.

Ritchie knew exactly what kind of film he was making at every budget level. Know exactly what you're making, and who it's for, before you ever walk into that room.

So tell me in the comments: what's one creative choice you made because of a budget limitation that ended up making your project better?

As always, here at Stage 32, we love sharing stories and knowledge with our fellow film fans. Know someone who would love this content? Share it with them. You can keep up with all of our videos by subscribing to the Stage 32 YouTube Channel. For more inspirational, educational, and motivational content on all things entertainment industry, follow me on Instagram and X @rbwalksintoabar.

Wishing you a very happy, healthy, and creative Sunday.

Cheers,

RB

In Depth Cine | How Guy Ritchie Shoots a Film at 3 Budget Levels

RBWalksIntoABar | How Do I Strategically Approach Streamers?

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

Career longevity of 30 years brings gifts. I have applied myself on many levels, from branding to marketing, to selling to learning how to finance, network, create marketing materials, and be authentic and truthful to my personal brand, mission and why. If you feel stagnant in your career, I am sharing some of my "go-to's" for the level-up process.

I did not invent the wheel. My knowledge has been attained through self-development, investing, and learning from the pros. There is power in surrounding yourself with those who have succeeded in their field. I have sat in rooms where Oscar-winning films were greenlit and projects came to life only to become Box Office record breakers. I ended up applying the life hacks below more during the pandemic. They enabled me to be more fulfilled in every area of my life.

1) Thank You Notes

I know that sounds old school, but thank you notes are some of the most valuable and long-term relationship-building tools you could ever use for yourself. I had on one of my podcasts this season mega-producer Vin Di Bona, from "America's Funniest Home Videos" and "Entertainment Tonight," and his beautiful wife, Erica Gerard De Bona. We met at the Italian Television Festival, where I sit on the Advisory Board. Destiny brought me to sit down with them.

I learned that Erica Girard wrote a book about the power of thank-you notes. She was a production executive and has used thank-you notes to build those long-lasting relationships. Back in the day, when we were selling movies, I used that hack, and it delivered. Big time. I was to get a film to sell. Back in the day, not many movies were produced, certainly not as many as they are today. And people were competing to get the rights to sell those movies. I sent the Producer a fax- I just wanted to acknowledge the lady representing the movie and thank her for coming in. I wished her all success from the bottom of my heart, even if it wasn't something that would eventually be represented and sold by us.

Because we approached the project with humanity, kindness, integrity, authenticity, and the thank you note, we ended up having a movie that everybody was bidding for.

Oprah said during Super Soul Sunday: One of the things that people need the most is to feel seen and understood.

That goes a long way, much more than any sales gimmick.

2) Gratitude

Do a 100-day gratitude challenge, where for 100 days straight, you will write three things you are grateful for. Gratitude is a form of prayer. And when you are thankful, you're basically acknowledging God, the universe, the higher power for the bountiful and the blessings that you get to have. And if you learn to appreciate the little things, the big things will also come to you.

3) Pitch Like A Pro

I have been selling other people's projects and brands all my life. In 2021 I took some classes on how to have a concrete framework for successful pitching based on a combination of mindset and business tricks. I put together the perfect pitch masterclass with my proprietary technique that I ended up teaching at the Thessaloniki Animation Film Festival. Authentic non-robotic pitching will be needed more, as in today's world, people have ADD. There's so much information out there, so many people doing the selling, some of it a bit slimy, if you ask me, with buzzwords and false representations.

I believe that your pitch will pop pop when you get clear on your why, which is why you do what you do. Who are you? What do you represent? What are your values, and how do you want them to translate into your storytelling? Then your pitching will be so much clearer and will have more impact. But it does take skills. It does take practice.

4) Branding

Another is from this year's favorite book, "Hook Point" by Brendan Kane. Brendan Kane is somebody who did the branding and the imaging for Taylor Swift and a lot of celebrities. As for business and education in 2021. It applies to anybody, a filmmaker trying to sell a project in a room, a producer, a financier. How to stand out in a 30-second world is gold.

5) IRL

It stands for "IN REAL LIFE." I know everybody's talking about Metaverse and the virtual world, which I think will definitely be a future. But nothing beats actual human connections. I do not mean Zoom. Let's just get out of the house if we can, get a drink together, and look at each other In the eyes. There's nothing like the electricity and the energy exchanged between people getting to know one another, the body language. The most prominent relationships I've nurtured and shepherded for decades always brought a result somewhere in my life. Sometimes you do not know it. Sometimes you meet someone, and you think they're going to be financing a movie, but then they end up becoming your best friend. Sometimes you meet someone that it starts as a friendship, and then they end up helping you sell your project or introduce you to somebody who will give you leverage for your film. So make a point to reach out to people and ask them out.

6) Digital Detox

It is vital. You need to just nurture our souls and heart by being in silence and not talking about business. Stop scrolling over Instagram and Facebook and look at what everybody is doing. If you just listen to your voice and take some time off to really ask yourself, what do I want? What do I want? And keep asking that question? What do I want? Because sometimes the first, Why do I want? Will get you the surface answers. Who do you want to be? What would you like to have more of?

If you can do it for a whole week, your life will change. I promise you.

7) Go Beyond Your Comfort Zone

During the last year, I have taken more courses and more educational things on things that have nothing to do with show business. I learned about YouTube, how to be in the quantum field, and much more. I just kept reading more books about screenwriting and producing, and I listened to people speak on virtual stages. Because nobody is truly a pro at something by staying stagnant. You always have to keep leveling up.

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

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 protects you from potential lawsuits for copyright infringement, invasion of privacy, defamation, or unauthorized use of trademarks.

Real-World Consequences of Clearance Oversights

The film industry has witnessed numerous costly clearance challenges. In David Fincher's thriller "Seven," photographer Jorge Antonio Sandoval sued the producers for alleged copyright infringement when ten of his photographs appeared in the film. Though the production team argued the use was insignificant and lawful, the case demonstrates how even seemingly minor visual elements can lead to legal disputes that could have been avoided with proper clearance procedures.

More recently, Netflix faced serious legal challenges with their series "Baby Reindeer." By including a disclaimer stating the show was based on a true story without proper clearance procedures, they inadvertently jeopardized the safety of the real-life stalker portrayed in the show, exposing the person to public identification and harassment. This situation led to legal threats and demonstrated how clearance issues can extend beyond financial consequences to actual safety concerns.

Key Aspects to Consider:

1) Copyright

Any literary material that isn't your original work requires a copyright report and corresponding authorization. This includes adapted scripts, stories, novels, or any protected work. If you acquire a finished work (such as purchasing the rights to an existing film), you also need to verify the rights of the complete work.

2) Agreements with creators

You need to have written contracts with all people who creatively contribute to your project: screenwriters, composers, designers, etc. Even quotes from other works require written authorization.

3) Biographical material

If your story is based on real events, you must determine whether the information comes from primary sources (direct interviews, court records) or secondary sources (books or other protected works). The use of secondary sources may require additional authorizations.

4) Appearance of real people

Any recognizable person in your production must sign a release form (authorization document). If minors appear, legally binding consent from their guardians is needed. In the case of deceased persons, you must obtain permissions from their legal representatives.

5) Character names

In works of fiction, character names should be fictional to avoid coincidences with real people who might feel defamed. There are limited exceptions that must be properly documented.

6) Brands and products

If you show recognizable businesses, brands, identifiable products, or distinctive properties, you need to obtain written authorizations from their owners. There are exceptions for properties that are not easily recognizable or when their appearance is incidental.

7) Content of releases

All authorization documents must grant you the right to edit, modify, add to, or remove the provided material. For people, they must also include the right to fictionalize their representation.

8) Rights for all media

Your contracts and assignments must grant you the right to distribute your work across all possible media and markets (streaming, DVD, TV, etc.), except for specifically agreed exclusions.

9) Music licenses

You need synchronization and performance licenses for all music in your production. This includes both original compositions and previously recorded music, unless it's in the public domain.

10) Clips from other films

If you include fragments from other films, you must obtain permissions from both the clip owner and all people involved in it (actors, composers, etc.).

11) Title verification

A "title report" helps you avoid conflicts with identical or similar titles previously used. If there's a risk of confusion, consider changing the title of your production.

12) Unsolicited received material

If you or someone on your team received material similar to your current project, you must document it to avoid future plagiarism claims.

13) Defamation and privacy

Your production must not contain material that constitutes defamation, invasion of privacy, or violation of any person's or entity's image rights.

14) Use of artificial intelligence

The use of AI tools requires special attention, particularly when working with streaming platforms or when you need to register a work as completely original:

• Additional permissions: You must obtain specific authorizations to use images of people, voices, or performances that will be processed or modified by AI systems.
• Pre-existing works: If you will subject other creators' works to modification through AI, you need explicit permissions for this type of processing.
• Originality: Verify the originality requirements demanded by platforms or intellectual property registries, as some may restrict or limit AI-generated content.
• Confidentiality: Keep in mind that some AI systems may store the data you provide them. Review their privacy policies, especially when working with confidential material or under non-disclosure agreements.
• Disclosure: In certain contexts, it may be necessary to disclose which parts of your work were created or modified using AI tools.

15) Final review

Before any public exhibition, conduct a final review to ensure you have followed all clearance procedures.

Important Reminder:

It's always better to prevent than to regret. Consult with an attorney specializing in entertainment law if you have doubts about any aspect of the clearance process. The time and money invested in this phase will save you costly legal problems in the future.

This guide is a starting point. Legal requirements may vary depending on the country and type of production, so always verify the regulations applicable to your specific case.

What clearance challenges have you encountered in your own productions? Have you ever discovered a potential legal issue after filming was complete? Share your experiences in the comments below—your story might help fellow creators avoid similar pitfalls.

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

A Few Terms Before We Dive In

• Fringes: The costs of employing someone on top of their pay, such as payroll taxes, union pension and health contributions, and workers' compensation insurance.
• Meal penalty: A fee owed to a worker when their meal break comes late. On union productions, this is typically triggered after six hours without a meal.
• Turnaround: The minimum rest time a worker gets between wrapping one day and their call time the next. Cutting it short can trigger a penalty.
• W-2 vs. 1099: A W-2 worker is an employee, so the production withholds and pays payroll taxes. A 1099 worker is an independent contractor who pays those taxes themselves.
• Waterfall: The order in which a film's revenue gets paid out, and to whom.

The Day Rate Is More Than a Number

• A contingency cushion that automatically covers potential meal penalties, turnaround violations, and overtime.
• The employer's payroll taxes, including FICA (Social Security and Medicare), FUTA (federal unemployment tax), and SUI (state unemployment insurance).

The 1099 Loophole: Who Pays the Tax

The Trap of Deferred Pay

One of the biggest risks in independent film is how normal "deferred pay" has become: the promise that cast and crew will be paid later, once the film makes money.

It's often framed as everyone having "skin in the game." In practice, it can work like a loan the production takes from the people least able to afford it.

Professional work deserves to be paid in cash, on time, and transparently. When wages are deferred until "recoupment" or "profitability," the financial risk moves from the investors to the workforce. The people doing the most physical work end up carrying the most financial uncertainty, with no protection at all.

It gets worse because most filmmakers and creatives don't understand how the recoupment waterfall works. We see it in the trades again and again. Debt, investor terms, and complex backend deals make it hard to know when, or whether, money will make it back to the production company. That confusion damages professional relationships.

Transparency means laying out the full waterfall before anyone signs anything. Here's how it typically flows:

1. Distribution and marketing come first. Before a dollar reaches the production company, sales agents and distributors take their fees, plus the costs of prints and advertising (P&A). Those marketing costs often aren't capped.
2. Lenders and investors come next. Senior lenders and equity investors typically require 100% of their money back, plus a premium of 15% to 20%, before any backend money is paid out.
3. Deferred pay often comes last. Because deferments are often poorly defined, they get pushed to the bottom of the waterfall, where they shrink under unexpected distribution costs or disappear into fine-print definitions of "net profit."

Refusing to budget for upfront pay, hiding a project's financial risk behind a waterfall nobody can see, or leaving contractors to carry an unfair tax burden all break the trust between the creator, the cast, the crew, and the financier.

Reclaiming "Art for Art's Sake"

Resources on Stage 32

If you want to build these skills yourself, start here:

Production Accounting Master Certification:

Everything in this piece, from payroll and crew agreements to cost reporting and tax obligations, is what production accountants manage every day. The industry needs more of them, too: the production accountant shortage has been featured in The Wrap. This Master Certification includes individual certificates in:

• Fundamentals of Production Accounting
• Crew Agreements
• Cost Reporting
• Tax Incentive Management
• Payroll Accounting & Management for Film & TV Series

The educators are:

• Maegan Philmore, former Director of Production at Paramount
• Shalonda Ware, Senior Production Finance Manager at Paramount Studios
• Ryan Broussard, tax incentives expert at Wrapbook
• Thomas A. Crowell, Esq., entertainment attorney and author

Line Producer Master Certification:

Line producers are the people who build fair day rates and contingencies into a budget. This Master Certification covers budget creation, crew agreements, production scheduling, call sheets, cost reporting, and wrap deliverables.

Every Stage 32 Certification holder is added to a global database that film commissions, streamers, and production companies search when they're hiring. You'll also get a certification badge on your Stage 32 profile, and you can rewatch your courses any time as a reference while working on your projects.

Want to go deeper on the money and the contracts? Our Financing and Legal Education collections include dozens of courses taught by working professionals. A few that pair well with this piece:

Financing Education

• Film Business Affairs 101: From Chain of Title to Recoupment: Learn how money flows back through a film, so the waterfall is never a mystery.
• Introduction to Film Scheduling & Budgeting 101: Build a budget with every cost on its own line from the start.
• Introduction to Cost Reporting: Track what you've committed against what you've spent, the way investors expect.

Click here to explore all Financing Education on Stage 32!

Legal Education

• Your Feature Film Legal Guidebook: The legal foundations every independent production needs before cameras roll.
• Production Insurance 101: Understand the coverage, including workers' comp, that protects your cast, crew, and project.
• Negotiating Strategy 101: Go into deal conversations prepared, whether you're the one hiring or being hired.

Click here to explore all Legal Education on Stage 32!

If you're putting together a budget, structuring deferments, or weighing whether to hire on W-2 or 1099, bring your questions to the Producing Lounge and the Financing Lounge. They're full of producers and line producers who've worked through these exact decisions.

And if you're not sure what education fits your goals, email our Education Team at Edu@Stage32.com.

Let's Talk

Have you ever worked on a production that handled pay, overtime, or taxes in a way that made you feel respected? Or one that didn't? Share what you learned in the comments. And producers, what's one line you now always build into your budget that you didn't at first?

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

Most weeks, this series is about what the trades are buying. Once a month, it's about what you're doing. This is that edition.

In September, Stage 32 members signed with reps, landed a shopping agreement, got pitched to showrunners, and had executives come back asking for a second and third script. In just two weeks of pitch sessions, members also earned 92 script requests and 132 meeting requests. Nick Nelson signed with Daniel Herther after the two connected on Stage 32. And Zoran Lisinac signed with a manager who has now signed four writers off this platform in under six months.

Zoran summed up the month better than I can: "It's all about the match!"

Every win below came from the right material landing in front of the right person. Here's how it happened.

An Original Animation Writer Signs With Zero Gravity

Stage 32 Member Zoran Lisinac published his first comic strips in a Serbian national newspaper at age nine. His debut feature, ALONG THE ROADSIDE, sold to 18 international territories and won 15 awards. His second, TOMA, which he wrote and co-directed, is the second highest-grossing film in Serbian history. He also showran THE PASTOR'S WIFE for Serbia's national network from 2022 to 2025.

What he's developing now is an original animated feature, CUPIDS. In a hidden world where Cupids manage love as cases in a system, the most efficient Cupid in the field clashes with a romantic colleague over a struggling musician who falls for a bride-to-be. This month he signed with Evan Anglin, Co-Head of Animation and a Literary Manager at Zero Gravity Management (OZARK, THE ACCOUNTANT). The two met through a Feature Read + 60 Minute Talk on Stage 32.

The timing is worth noting. DreamWorks' original FORGOTTEN ISLAND opened to just $12.8 million in late September, despite 95% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and an A CinemaScore. Cartoon Brew called it "a painful result for original animation, despite many audience protests that they want new stories."

Why this matters to you: When buyers get nervous about original IP, a rep who loves your kind of material is worth more than one who simply has room on their list. Evan says he loves "material that is character driven," along with "dark comedies, and animation or hybrid." Zoran writes animation and crossover. That's the match. Before you submit anywhere, read what the person on the other end says they want, and send them the project of yours that fits it best.

A SPIDER-VERSE Producer Is Taking a WWII Love Story to Reps

Stage 32 Member James Robertson grew up on a farm in Victoria, Australia, raised four kids across the South Pacific and France, and recently walked the Camino, sailed from Antarctica to Namibia, and trekked into the Mauritanian desert with camels. He's also written for Australian TV, was a finalist in the 2026 InkTip Pitch to Page contest, and is a Double Recommended Screenwriter here on Stage 32.

His script SONG OF A HITLER YOUTH is a historical romantic drama. In 1943, two teens, madly in love, are caught trying to escape Nazi Germany and forced to make a terrible choice.

James met with producer Eric Fineman here on Stage 32, in a Feature Script Studio Level Development Notes, and Eric is now pitching him out to reps. Eric's credits include SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE, SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING, and VENOM. He's currently producing an adaptation of THE WEDDING PEOPLE for TriStar, and has served as SVP at Pascal Pictures and VP of Production at Columbia Pictures.

Stories from this period are getting serious attention. Poland has selected Paweł Pawlikowski's FATHERLAND as its entry in the Oscars' international feature race, Variety reports. The black-and-white post-WWII drama follows novelist Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika (Sandra Hüller) on a road trip across Germany in 1949. It premiered in competition at Cannes in May, where Pawlikowski won Best Director. Look at how it came together, too. FATHERLAND is set in Germany but shot mainly in Poland. Mubi produced it alongside companies from Italy, Poland, Germany, and France, with Arte and Pathé participating. Its producers include Edward Berger, the director of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. A WWII-era story told from an unexpected angle didn't just find one buyer. It brought partners together across four countries and landed in the awards race.

Why this matters to you: Eric says he loves "writers who create layered, unforgettable characters and take risks with their storytelling." A love story told from inside the Hitler Youth is a risk. So is a bio that includes camels. Don't sand down what makes your story, or you, distinct. It's often what gets a producer to pick up the phone. James's own career goal says it best: "Meet great people. Be useful. And enjoy the ride."

A Former HBO Executive Is Shopping a Honolulu Writer's Feature

Stage 32 Member Jacob Ornellas, a writer based in Honolulu, signed a shopping agreement with Pia Chikiamco for his feature script GOLDEN SHACKLES. A shopping agreement gives a producer or executive the right to take a script out to buyers, usually for a set period. Jacob and Pia met on Stage 32 during a Virtual Pitch Session.

GOLDEN SHACKLES is a psychological drama and social thriller. After accepting a nanny position with an ultra-wealthy Japanese family, a young expat is trapped in a gilded cage of debt, abuse, and control. Buyers know this lane can pay off. Lionsgate's THE HOUSEMAID, about a young woman who takes a job inside a wealthy family's home, grossed nearly $400 million worldwide, and its sequel, THE HOUSEMAID'S SECRET, opens December 17, 2027.

Pia was VP of Original Programming at HBO, where she worked on INSECURE, I MAY DESTROY YOU, A BLACK LADY SKETCH SHOW, SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE, and THE REHEARSAL. Before that, she developed and sold an adult animated pilot to Hulu while at Six Point Harness. She's a member of the Television Academy's executive peer group and has advised the Sundance Episodic Program.

Pia had a busy month. She also passed Grace Michaud's script SISSY THE (UN)CHOSEN ONE to a studio executive.

The timing is good for a writer working from the islands. In July, Gov. Josh Green signed SB 2580, raising Hawaiʻi's film production tax credit cap to $60 million, with an extra 5% for productions that hire at least 80% local workers, through 2038. As Jason Momoa put it: "We have a lot of talent in Hawaii and a lot of skilled local labor and a lot of stories to share."

Those stories are getting a bigger stage, too. The Hawaiʻi International Film Festival opens October 21 with 170 films, 30 of them made in Hawaiʻi, led by the world premiere of Jordan Manley's THE NAVIGATOR.

Why this matters to you: Not every win is a sale or a signing. A shopping agreement means someone with real relationships is willing to put their name next to your script and walk it into rooms. For a writer outside Los Angeles, that's what access looks like. You don't need to live in town. You need someone in town who believes in the pages.

A TV Pitch Is Out to Showrunners

Stage 32 Member Monte Albers de Leon's TV pitch is in front of showrunners right now, after Monte met with Stage 32 Executive Calvin Walker during a Virtual Pitch Session. Calvin Walker, a scripted television executive with experience spanning major studios and independent production companies, took it out, and he's waiting to hear back.

The pitch is THE FAMILY NAME, a thriller about a revered New York real estate patriarch tapped to chair a high-profile public safety initiative while his company quietly hemorrhages cash. His lawyer daughter uncovers a network of fixers and "security" vendors who fast-track permits, silence lenders, and weaponize philanthropy, and the Sterling family has to expose the machine using them before it rewrites their legacy.

New York real estate power is drawing interest in development, too. In June, Deadline reported that George Stephanopoulos and Ali Wentworth are producing a New York real estate drama in the works at Hulu.

Calvin was most recently a Creative Executive at Media Res Studio, the Emmy-winning company behind THE MORNING SHOW, PACHINKO, and THE MINIATURE WIFE. His projects include WOMEN OF THE MOVEMENT, BLACK CAKE, and I'M A VIRGO, with ENIGMA VARIATIONS and DURANGO on the way. Before that, he was Executive Assistant to the President of Scripted and Unscripted Television at MGM.

Here's what Calvin says he looks for: "grounded, character-driven stories in interesting worlds," and "shows with a clear point of view, tonal confidence, and thematic ambition."

Why this matters to you: Getting a pitch in front of showrunners almost always takes someone who already has those relationships. Calvin's description is also a useful test for your own pitch. Can you name its point of view in one sentence? Does the tone hold from the first line to the last? If not, that's the work to do before anyone takes it out.

More Wins From the Community

Executive Andrew Wilson kept coming back for more.

• Kristel Kovner: Andrew has read two of her scripts and is now reading a third.
• Daniel Milo: Andrew is reading another one of his scripts.
• Ray Raghavan: One project wasn't the right fit, so Andrew asked for another.
• Gabriel Goeske: Andrew gave detailed notes, and a new draft is on the way.
• Michael Paul: After a full review and notes, Andrew is waiting on Michael's next draft as they explore a potential development collaboration.

More scripts moving forward.

• Jose Enrique Cruz met Julio Castro through a Feature Read + 60-Minute Call. Julio is now helping him develop the script and advising on packaging. Jose has since attached a few actors and has producer interest.
• Chris Labinjo met Julio Castro through a TV Pilot Read + 60-Minute Call. Julio's notes sent him back into his pilot, LIVING DOLLS, for substantial changes, and Julio has now asked to read the new version.
• Matt Schutt's First 10 Pages Review led producer Gregory Hughes to request an intro. They've met, and Gregory is now talking to other producers about coming on board.
• Kemari Bryant is talking with Brendan Kenney about his script JANET'S WORLD after Brendan asked for an intro.
• Michael Shapiro and John Rodriguez each connected with Bianca Guarrasi through Stage 32. She has shared both writers' scripts with other agents at the Corvisiero Agency.
• Fernando Mattos had his script requested by Matt Tauber through the Writers' Room Pitch Tank.

And the requests kept coming.

In just two weeks, Stage 32 pitch sessions produced 92 script requests and 132 meeting requests from producers and managers, including Autumn Bailey Entertainment, Wayfarer Studios, Art/Work Entertainment, Zero Gravity Management, Wonder Peak Productions, and Kevin Hart's Hartbeat.

See the full list of writers and congratulate them in the Writers' Room VIP Lounge!

What I Take From This

Look at how these wins happened. None came from a mass query or a cold email to a list. Each came from a specific piece of work landing with a specific person who already wanted that kind of story.

An animation manager signed an animation writer. A producer who loves risky, character-driven material picked up a WWII love story told from inside the Hitler Youth. A former HBO executive is walking a Honolulu writer's script into rooms that are hard to reach from Hawaiʻi.

And look at how many of this month's wins were second reads, third reads, notes, and new drafts. The first read opens the door. The work behind it keeps the door open.

Chris Labinjo, who rewrote his pilot LIVING DOLLS after Julio Castro's notes, put it this way: "That is what development should be about — remaining open, being willing to learn, doing the work and allowing the story to become better than the version you started with."

The question worth asking before your next submission: do you know what this person says they're looking for, and is this the script of yours that fits it best?

If the answer to both is yes, you're making the kind of match that turned into a win for these writers.

Take This Into Your Work

Most of this month's wins started with one of a handful of opportunities. Here's where to start yours.

Get your script in front of an executive, then talk it through.

Zoran met his manager, and Jose Enrique Cruz met the executive now helping him package his film, through a Feature Read + 60-Minute Call. A Feature Script Read with an executive gets your full script in front of a working professional, followed by a 60-minute call about what's landing, what isn't, and where it sits in today's market. Click here to book yours!

Pitch directly to the people who are requesting.

Those 92 script requests and 132 meeting requests came from writers who pitched producers and managers in Stage 32 pitch sessions. Companies like Wayfarer Studios, Zero Gravity Management, and Hartbeat are on the other side of the table. Click here to book your pitch session!

Writing for TV? Start with the pilot.

Chris Labinjo's development relationship with Julio Castro started with a TV Pilot Read + 60-Minute Call. An executive reads your pilot, then gets on a call with you to talk through it. Click here to book yours!

Make your first ten pages count.

Matt Schutt's First 10 Pages Review led a producer to ask for an intro, and that producer is now bringing other producers on board. If your opening pages don't hook a reader, the rest of the script never gets read. Click here to book your First 10 Pages Review!

Pitch in the Writers' Room.

Fernando Mattos had his script requested through the Writers' Room Pitch Tank. If you're a Writers' Room member, this is one of the most direct ways to get a project in front of an executive, live on Zoom with the support of your fellow Writers' Room community. Click here to learn more!

See how a manager reads a script.

Today at 4:00 PM PT, Nicholas Bogner, Head of Literary at Affirmative Entertainment, is breaking down the pilot of WIDOW'S BAY, live and free. He'll walk through it the way a manager reads it, including what makes him ask for more. Can't make it live? Register anyway for the full recording. Click here to register for FREE!

If you're not sure which of these fits where you are, email us anytime at success@stage32.com.

Cheers,

Your Stage 32 Success Team

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

But directing? That was for… directors. Or at least that’s what I told myself.

Then, in my 50s, I got tired of waiting for Hollywood to give me the greenlight. So I made a short film. And somewhere between writing the script and standing on set saying, “Let’s go again,” it clicked. I didn’t just want to write stories anymore. I wanted to make them.

My first short film tAInted love premiered in Cannes at a side festival to the Festival De Cannes, then made its US premiere at LA Shorts before winning Stage 32’s Short Film Contest Grand Prize, which enabled us to also screen at the BAFTA and Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival.

None of this was guaranteed when my cast, crew, and I embarked on this journey a year ago. Back then, the only guarantee was that I was going to have to take the leap before I felt ready.

I thought I didn’t know enough.

Looking back, it’s clear that the biggest leap between not being a director and directing my first short had to do with self-belief. I thought directors had to know everything about lenses, lighting, camera angles, and allll the other things I knew squat about.

The truth is, all you actually need is a vision, a story you believe in, and the guts to put one foot in front of the other while you figure the rest out. Then you need to surround yourself with talented people who know things you don’t. I was incredibly fortunate to make tAInted love with my friend Brian Thomas, who does know about lighting and lenses. Brian introduced me to brilliant (and 11x Emmy-winning) cinematographer John Tipton. John introduced me to editor Steven Nevius, whose editing chops were honed in post-production alongside one of my favorite directors, the late Rob Reiner. And from there, cast and crew started forming through personal introductions from Brian, John, and others joining the circle.

Did I know everything John knew about cinematography? Or everything Steven knows about the importance of editing on set? Absolutely not. That wasn’t my job.

My job was to know what I wanted the audience to feel. And that? I’d spent a lifetime tapping into.

As writers, we’re used to creating entire worlds on the page. We don’t actually have to bring them to life on a budget. As a director, you’re tasked with translating those words into a shared vision, trusting other artists to bring their own expertise to it. On a budget.

Turns out, I’d been training to direct for years without realizing it.

I’ve spent much of my career leading creative teams, building brands, working with executives, mentoring writers, giving notes, translating big ideas into executable creative and trying to get very different personalities aligned around one vision.

Suddenly, skills I’d mentally filed under ‘corporate career’ became valuable and useful to my film set:

• Can I clearly communicate my vision?
• Can I make decisions when ten people all need answers at the same time (and can I delegate)?
• Can I listen when someone has a better idea?
• Can I protect my creative vision without becoming so precious I strangle the life out of it?
• Most importantly, can I stay steady when shit goes sideways? (The answer: Usually. But when I can’t, Brian can.)

It’s never too late.

Here’s another thing I learned. I may have come to film directing later in life, but I wasn’t starting from zero. And neither are you. Regardless of your life journey, you bring every difficult conversation, creative problem, leadership challenge, weird job, relationship experience, and past failure to the table. THAT matters.

Age didn’t make me late to directing. In many ways, it made me more prepared for it.

When you direct, the script will change.

Writers, brace yourselves for this next lesson. My screenplay for tAInted love was originally 21 pages. We shot 14. I know. Moment of silence.

Filmmaking taught me something screenwriting alone never did. The screenplay is the blueprint. Once actors step into character, locations become real, production limitations reveal themselves, and you start discovering what actually works on camera, the story evolves.

There were things I loved on the page that we cut. My favorite funny moment because it slowed down the pacing. The blocking in a scene that went out the window when Eusebio Hernandez (Nurse Eusebio on The Pitt) suggested a simpler and more realistic setup between him and his on-screen wife, actress Criss Ruiz.

My biggest surprise? How much I loved it.

I’ve always loved writing movies. I hoped I would enjoy directing. I’m still stunned at how much directing felt like coming home. I loved working with the actors, collaborating with brilliant creatives, and even standing in the middle of all those moving parts and solving problems. I especially loved watching something that had existed only in my imagination suddenly become physical and alive.

What shocked me most was that I genuinely loved the responsibility of it all! Hundreds of decisions funneled my way in real time, with no concrete answers. I simply got to choose. That was intimidating at first. Then it became exhilarating.

You’ll never actually feel ready. But go for it anyway.

There’s this great Anais Nin quote that’s fueled me during moments of change and uncertainty: ‘And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.’

So often, we think there’ll be this magical moment of readiness. But most of the time, there isn’t. Instead, there just comes a moment when your desire to make the movie became stronger than your fear of not knowing how. At least, that was my experience. And I know I’m not alone.

The good news is, you don’t need to take another class. Or read another book. At some point, you just have to make something. And your first film? Doesn’t have to prove everything.

When you’ve waited a long time to direct like I did, your first project can feel weighty. Like This better prove my talent and just how foolish Hollywood’s been for overlooking me all these years! (Just me? That’s OK.)

But that feels like a lot of unnecessary pressure to put on yourself and your project.

tAInted love was inspired by reading the statistic that 1 in 4 young adults were already outsourcing their romantic fulfillment to AI in 2025. As someone who’s studied relationships and human intimacy for much of my life, I couldn’t stop wondering, If AI can give us a romantic partner perfectly customized to meet our needs, will we still choose the friction, unpredictability and vulnerability of human connection?

That was enough to get started. Let your natural curiosity be enough to take your next step.

Rejection will happen. Don’t let it define you.

Conventional festival wisdom says that for every ten festivals you submit to, you’ll get accepted into one. Those odds can feel daunting (and expensive). I’ve been submitting anyway. And while we’re the Grand Prize winners in the Stage 32 Short Film Contest and had a DREAMY experience screening at the Chinese Theater alongside our fellow filmmakers, we’ve also received 11 festival rejections since our US premiere at LA Shorts.

That doesn’t make the film bad. Or Stage 32 wrong. Art is subjective. AND… after being on the festival circuit for a few months, I can tell you there are a lot of phenomenal films and filmmakers out there. We all deserve a moment. That’s what festivals are for.

For me, the win isn’t the point.

I met a woman recently who has a clear vision of winning an Academy Award for her short film. And while I applaud her ambition, the biggest thing tAInted love has given me isn’t a festival laurel or prize. It’s changed the way I see myself. Before making it, I introduced myself as a writer. After making it? I’m a writer/director.

More than anything, that slash represents a meaningful psychological shift no one else could have given me. I had to claim it by making the movie.

If you’re a writer who’s been thinking about directing, my advice is simple (and stolen). Just do it. Make the thing. Find collaborators who are better than you at the things you don’t know. Ask questions. Prepare like crazy. Be clear about the story you’re telling. Listen to your actors and crew. Change your mind when someone has a better idea. Protect the heart of the story. And when something goes wrong (and it inevitably will) solve the problem in front of you and keep moving.

And most importantly, stop waiting for someone else to greenlight you and greenlight yourself.

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

Welcome back to On Location, our monthly look at where production is physically happening around the world, what's driving it, and what it means for the crew, ADs, production staff, location managers, actors, and producers doing the work.

August was the strongest month of the year. September pulled back. But the most interesting story this month isn't the total. It's what shifted underneath it, and the policy news that could reshape where productions go next year.

Let's get into it.

362 Productions, and a Pullback Rather Than a Collapse

September tracked around 362 productions worldwide, down from 426 in August.

After the year's peak, that drop deserves some context. September looks like a pullback, not a collapse. The United States had the biggest single decrease, going from 278 productions to 244. Even so, the U.S. stayed above its June and July totals, so it didn't fall back to the early-summer slowdown.

Nearly everywhere else dipped too. The UK went from 36 tracked productions to around 26. The EU gave back the growth it picked up in August. Canada dipped but remains relatively balanced for the year.

New territories kept appearing, too. Singapore and Malaysia showed up on the production map for the first time this month, following India, Latvia, Nigeria, and New Brunswick in August. That's six new territories in two months, so the spread we talked about in August didn't reverse when the total fell.

What Moved, and Where

The biggest story on the U.S. map this month is New York.

New York finished right behind California in total productions. And in a notable shift, New York had more films shooting than California. California still leads on television, which keeps it in first place overall. But on the film side, the top spot changed hands this month.

Georgia held third, and it was one of the few places that grew while most areas took a hit.

New Jersey cooled off, dropping from around 15 productions in August to 9 in September. It's still one of the stronger East Coast states, but it isn't as close to Georgia as it was a month ago.

Further down the U.S. map, Texas and Illinois both landed in the 6 to 10 production range. Keep an eye on Illinois, because more on that in a moment.

In Canada, British Columbia and Ontario are still doing most of the heavy lifting, and British Columbia saw a boost in films this month. That's enough to tie it with the United Kingdom for third place worldwide.

The UK slowed after its strong August but remains one of the strongest production hubs outside the U.S.

In the EU, Ireland is top dog this month. September is a much quieter month for Europe than its spring highs, but Ireland held its ground.

Top locations in September:

• Worldwide: California, New York, then the United Kingdom and British Columbia tied for third
• United States: California, New York, Georgia
• Europe: United Kingdom, Ireland, then Italy and Spain tied for third

The Share Shift Runs the Other Way

Last month, the U.S. grew in volume but lost share. This month it's the reverse.

• The US lost productions but gained two points of share, from 65% to 67%.
• Canada gained a point, from 15% to 16%.
• The EU dipped a point, from 5% to 4%.
• The UK dipped a point, from 8% to 7%.
• Everywhere else held steady at around 5%.

When everyone shrinks at once, the places that shrink least gain ground. North America pulled back less than Europe did, so its share went up even as its count went down.

Market share alone won't tell you whether a market is healthy. Read it alongside the raw counts and the direction of travel. The UK's dip is one month, after a big August. Whether it bounces back in October is the number to watch.

The News Behind the Numbers

September's biggest stories weren't about where cameras rolled this month. They were about the rules that decide where cameras roll next year.

The Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery Fight Is Over

Last month I told you the biggest question mark hanging over California's two largest employers had no resolution date. Now it does.

On September 21, Paramount settled the lawsuit brought by California and 11 other states over its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, clearing the biggest remaining hurdle to the deal. The Writers Guild of America settled its own lawsuit the same day.

The states' settlement comes with production commitments attached. According to Variety's breakdown of the terms, Paramount committed to:

• Release at least 30 theatrical films a year, with a $30 million penalty for each film it falls short
• Invest an additional $300 million a year in U.S. film production
• Spend $1.5 billion on California film and television production
• Not sell its studio lots

The WGA's terms focused on writers rather than production: a five-year ban on writer layoffs at CBS News and $17.5 million to the WGA health fund. In its statement, the Guild acknowledged it didn't succeed in blocking the merger, but said its advocacy brought more attention to the harm these consolidations can cause.

For a production audience, those minimums matter. A merger usually means fewer projects. This one now comes with a floor on theatrical output and a dollar figure tied to U.S. production. Whether those commitments become jobs is worth watching month by month.

A Federal Production Incentive Is Officially on the Table

For years, the conversation about a federal film incentive has been just that: conversation. On September 24, it became legislation.

A bipartisan group led by Senators Tim Scott (R-SC) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) introduced the Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act. As Deadline reports, it would offer a 20% base credit on labor costs, with bonuses that could bring it to 30%.

To qualify, a production needs at least $1 million in spending and at least 75% of its principal photography days in the U.S. Post-production and visual effects can qualify under the same 75% rule. The sponsors are aiming to pass it in the lame-duck session after the midterm elections.

If it passes, it could be one of the biggest changes to U.S. production in years. The U.S. has competed against national incentives in the UK, Canada, Ireland, and Australia with a patchwork of state programs. A federal credit stacked on top of state incentives would change the math on where a production chooses to shoot.

The word to hold onto for now is if. Introduced is not passed. But it's the most serious step toward a federal incentive this industry has seen.

Illinois Is Betting Bigger on Production

Illinois expanded its film tax credit and is pushing harder to attract both big and small productions. Capitol News Illinois took a close look at how the expanded program is playing out this month.

The base credit rose from 30% to 35% on resident labor and vendor spending, and with bonuses stacked, productions can get back up to 45% or more. The credit is uncapped and runs through the end of 2038. Commercials and music videos with budgets as low as $50,000 can qualify, and there are bonuses for hiring from outside Chicago. Governor JB Pritzker has said the goal is to build the industry in places beyond Chicago and Cook County.

Even before the enhanced rates took effect, Illinois film spending hit a record $703 million. The expansion has its critics, though, and the same reporting includes academics questioning whether taxpayers are getting a good deal.

Illinois landed in the 6 to 10 production range on this month's U.S. map. With an incentive this aggressive and a low entry point for smaller productions, it's one of the states I'll be watching most closely over the next few months.

A Record Summer, and a Strong September Finish

September opened with a milestone. When Labor Day weekend wrapped, the U.S. summer box office had reached a record $4.76 billion. That edged past the $4.755 billion record from 2013, which had stood for 13 years.

Then September brought its own hit. Zach Cregger's RESIDENT EVIL opened to $60 million domestically on September 18, beating projections of $40 to $50 million. That's the best opening in the franchise's history and the biggest of Cregger's career, with $108 million worldwide in its first weekend. Ten days in, it had passed $103 million domestically and around $196 million worldwide on a reported $75 million budget. It's also among the best-reviewed video game adaptations ever made.

For this audience, here's the detail worth noticing: RESIDENT EVIL was shot in Prague and the Czech Republic, from October 2025 to January 2026. This month's biggest new release came out of a European production hub. Today's box office is often a picture of where production was a year ago.

The month ended with a throwback. AVENGERS: ENDGAME returned to No. 1 with its encore re-release, bringing in $26 million domestically over the final weekend of the month. That's the third-biggest re-release opening of all time, behind only the 1997 STAR WARS Special Edition and the 2011 3D re-release of THE LION KING. It also builds anticipation for AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY.

Right behind it, the weekend told a story about budgets:

• PRIMETIME: Lance Oppenheim's film stars Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen of TO CATCH A PREDATOR. It opened to $19.1 million on a $14.5 million budget, earning more than its production cost in a single weekend.
• HEART OF THE BEAST: David Ayer's wilderness survival drama starring Brad Pitt opened to $20 million against an $82 million budget. It'll need strong word of mouth to break even.
• FORGOTTEN ISLAND: DreamWorks Animation's film opened to just $12.8 million despite a 94% Certified Fresh rating. Strong reviews don't guarantee an audience.

As we said last month, a strong box office is one input into greenlight decisions, not the whole equation. But September showed that audiences turn out for a big-screen event, and that a well-made mid-budget film can still win.

What I Take From This Month

Three things.

A pullback after a peak is not a collapse. The U.S. lost 34 productions and still finished above its June and July totals. New territories kept appearing even as the overall count fell.

New York's film milestone is worth watching. New York had more films shooting than California this month. One month doesn't make a trend. But it arrived the same month Paramount committed to 30 theatrical films a year, and it's worth seeing whether it holds.

The rules are being rewritten right now. A merger settlement with production commitments, a federal incentive bill, and a state betting billions on its incentive program, all in one month. If you're deciding where to base yourself or where to shoot, follow the policy as closely as the production counts. Just remember the difference between proposed and passed.

Production Resources on Stage 32

Here's where I can help you act on all of this.

Get Certified, Get in the Database

When incentives change, production moves. And when production lands somewhere new, the first problem is always the same: not enough qualified local crew. Film commissions offer significant incentives to attract work, then struggle to staff it, which erodes the value of the incentive.

That gap is the reason Stage 32 Certification exists. We built it after nearly a decade of conversations with film commissions, streamers, guilds, and production companies, and as of 2026 we're working with over 60 film commissions worldwide, including the Association of Film Commissions International.

Every Stage 32 Certification holder is entered into a global database that film commissions, streamers, and production companies search when they need crew. You also get a certification badge on your Stage 32 profile, visible to over 1.5 million members, plus graphics for LinkedIn and your resume.

It's online, it's a fraction of the cost of traditional film school, and nobody gets denied admission.

This month, start here:

Line Producer Master Certification: When incentives change, line producers are the people who run the numbers on where a production can afford to shoot. This Master Certification covers production scheduling, crew agreements, call sheets, budget creation, cost reporting, and wrap deliverables. One of its educators is Maegan Philmore, former Director of Production at Paramount, which makes it especially timely in a month dominated by Paramount news.

Three individual certifications that fit this month's data:

Fundamentals of Location Management: New territories keep appearing on this map, and Illinois is paying bonuses to bring productions beyond Chicago. Both need location managers who can work with property owners, government agencies, and film commissions. This course is taught by Mike Fantasia, location manager on KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, TOP GUN: MAVERICK, and CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, and covers scouting, budgeting, contracts, negotiations, and safety.

Assistant Director Scheduling: A busy film month in New York means productions need ADs who can keep a shoot on time and on budget. This course is taught by Jerram Swartz, a DGA First Assistant Director and Production Manager with over 150 credits, including THE WALKING DEAD and E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL, who's currently an analyst at the California Film Commission. It covers one-line schedules, shooting schedules, day-out-of-days reports, and breaking down a script.

First Assistant Director On-Set Protocols: This course covers the 1st AD's job once cameras roll: running the set, the safety meeting, managing schedule changes, and keeping every department moving. It's taught by Korey Pollard, a producer and DGA UPM/1st AD whose credits include AMERICAN CRIME STORY, SEAL TEAM, GREY'S ANATOMY, and DEADWOOD.

Get Certified. Get To Work. Start By Clicking Here!

Talk to People Doing the Work Right Now

The Lounges are free, active every day, and full of members working in the markets on this map.

The Filmmaking Lounge, Producing Lounge, Cinematography Lounge, and Acting Lounge are where I'd start. And if this month's incentive news has you rethinking your budget, bring those questions to the Financing Lounge.

If you're curious what it's like working in New York, Atlanta, Vancouver, Chicago, or Dublin right now, ask. Somebody there is on that crew or chasing those same opportunities.

That Was September

I'll be back next month with October's numbers. Thank you to everyone who joined the conversation on the first edition. Several of you told me which regions you'd like covered, and I'm keeping that list close.

So tell me in the comments: where are you working right now, and what are you seeing on the ground? If you're in New York, does the film boom match what you're experiencing? And if a federal incentive passes, would it change where you plan to shoot or base yourself?

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .

I hope your weekend has been a creative one so far. Whether you have been writing, filming, editing, or sketching out the next spark of an idea, I have something today that will give you a boost. So grab your coffee, and let's dive in.

This week's featured video comes from Adam Savage's Tested: Adam Tours the Vaults of Hollywood History.

Adam spends twenty minutes inside the Academy's Margaret Herrick Library, and I walked away thinking less about the treasures and more about what they say about how this business works. Three things jumped out at me.

First, process is the record. The library doesn't just keep finished films. It keeps the drafts. When the staff needs to tell one version of a script from another, the first thing they check is the page count. Someone thought every draft of THE GODFATHER was worth saving, notes and all.

So why are so many of you deleting yours? I talk to writers all the time who overwrite old drafts and toss early versions because they're embarrassed by them. Don't. Your drafts show how you think, how you solve problems, and how far you've come. Keep them. Date them. One day you'll want that record, and you won't be able to get it back.

Second, nobody markets your movie for you. In the video, you'll see the press kits studios used to mail to theaters, complete with pre-written articles local papers could cut out and run. They went all in: FARGO snow globes, THE EXORCIST barf bags, scratch-and-sniff cards. The studios knew a film doesn't sell itself, so they built the conversation. Today, those studio marketing departments aren't coming to help most of you. That job is yours. The filmmakers who break through are the ones thinking about their audience while they're still writing, not after they've locked picture. If you don't build the campaign, nobody will.

Third, and this is the one I want you to hold onto, nobody makes a movie alone. The librarian says the moment she loves most is getting papers from different people who worked on the same film. For NORTH BY NORTHWEST, they have Hitchcock's hand-drawn shots, Eva Marie Saint's papers, and the script supervisor's own version of the script. Then she said this: "You don't make a movie by yourself, even if you think you did."

I've been saying some version of that for fifteen years. Your career runs on the same principle. Every collaborator you meet, every person who reads your draft and tells you the truth, every crew member who shows up early, holds a piece of the story. That's why this community exists. Nobody gets there alone, and the people who think they can usually find out the hard way.

Then, near the end, the staff pulls out something called the Plot Genie. It was sold to writers in the 1930s. You spun a little wheel, got a number, and looked up your plot in a book. Adam calls it "the proto Robert McKee." The promise of a shortcut to story isn't new. Nearly a hundred years ago, somebody sold writers a wheel that would build their plots for them. Name one great movie that came out of it. I'll wait. Which brings me to a question I get constantly right now. "I used AI to write my script. Now what?"

I'm going to be straight with you. AI sucks for writing scripts. The dialogue is horrendous. The setups are horrendous. The whole thing is just awful. All the nuance is gone. And if you're plugging in a scene and asking, "What do you think of this dialogue? Can you write it better?" you're in for a rude awakening.

Here's the good news. If you're writing on your own, you probably have a competitive advantage right now. And while we're on it, don't enter contests that don't give you access. Certainly don't enter ones that are accepting AI scripts, because that tells me they're probably using AI to judge your script.

The only thing AI is good for at this point is research. To me, it's just another tool at your disposal. You've got to know how to prompt it to use it correctly, and you need to know how to challenge it, because it is frequently wrong. Be really, really careful with it.

The writers whose drafts sit on those library shelves didn't spin a wheel. They wrote. They rewrote. They fought for every page. That's still the job.

So tell me in the comments: what's one part of your creative process you would never hand over to a tool, and why?

As always, here at Stage 32, we love sharing stories and knowledge with our fellow film fans. Know someone who would love this content? Share it with them. You can keep up with all of our videos by subscribing to the Stage 32 YouTube Channel. For more inspirational, educational, and motivational content on all things entertainment industry, follow me on Instagram and X @rbwalksintoabar.

Wishing you a very happy, healthy, and creative Sunday.

Cheers,

RB

Adam Savage’s Tested | Adam Tours the Vaults of Hollywood History

RBWalksIntoABar | You Used AI To Write A Script. Now What?

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .