The Cannes Film Festival in France is right around the corner!

For those of you who missed it, we recently announced the official Cannes 2026 Stage 32 events schedule and partnerships right HERE on the Stage 32 Blog.

Being involved each year in coordinating industry-leading panels with remarkable expert panelists from all over the world is one of our greatest honors and pleasures. This year, we're particularly proud of the panel that we've put together in the FilmUSA Pavilion, and we can't wait to present it to Cannes attendees.

If you're going to be at Cannes, RSVP. If you're not making the trip, share these with someone who is. These rooms fill up.

Below, you can read all the details about the panels and the incredible panelists leading the conversations!

Thursday, May 14th- 4:00 pm -Cannes Marche du Film Main Stage in the Palais

Panel: Women in Film - Building Collective Power

How women across the Industry shape influence in Film | Presented by Yes She Cannes in partnership with E2AC

Bringing together women working across the film industry, this panel explores how each is building their own pathway to influence, from education and community to storytelling and industry leadership, offering real insight into shaping your own path in film.

HOSTED BY: YES SHE CANNES

Yes She Cannes is an organisation supporting women attending the Cannes Film Festival, delivering curated panels, events, and networking opportunities. Through its international She Squad community, it brings together creatives and industry professionals to foster connection, collaboration, and visibility during the festival.

Moderator: Faith Elizabeth, CEO & Founder of Yes She Cannes, Director/Producer of Faithful Films

Panelists:

• Amanda Toney, Managing Director, Stage 32
• Sara Hamilton, Head of Global Partnerships & Impact Strategy, E2ACxGreenlit
• Guneet Monga Kapoor, CEO & Producer, Sikhya Entertainment, Founder of WIF India
• Maria Hundsnes-Shevtsova, Co-Founder and VP, DISAUTHORITY

Partnered with: Entertainment to Affect Change

Entertainment 2 Affect Change (E2AC) is a non-profit organisation producing impact-driven film, digital, and live content. It collaborates with creators and partners to develop stories that entertain, engage, educate, and inspire, supporting underserved health and social communities.

To RSVP: Click Here!

Saturday, May 16th- 3:00 pm - FilmUSA Pavilion

Panel: The Industry Reset - How Independent Films are Getting Made in 2026

The market has shifted and the rules have changed. Cannes Palme d’or nominated producers, filmmakers, and talent break down what’s actually selling, how films are getting financed, and what’s moving the needle globally. Get real insight into today’s film economy - and what it takes to get projects made now.

Moderator: Amanda Toney, Stage 32

Panelists:

• Daniel Bekerman, Oscar and Cannes Palme d’or Nominated Producer
• Tiffany Boyle, Cannes Palme d’or Nominated Producer and President, Packaging & Sales, Ramo Law
• Richard “RB” Botto, Producer, Screenwriter, CEO, Stage 32
• Tonia Sotiropoulou, Actor (SKYFALL:007), Producer

To RSVP: Click Here!

Meet Our Expert Moderators & Panelists:

Faith Elizabeth, CEO & Founder of Yes She Cannes, Director/Producer of Faithful Films

Faith Elizabeth is the Founder of Yes She Cannes, a global platform supporting women at Cannes through community, education, and visibility. She is also a director and producer, currently developing her debut feature, a dark mermaid fantasy set in Italy, The Trabocchi Tails: Asrai, while her horror short Granny DJ enters its festival run.

Amanda Toney - Managing Director, Stage 32

As Managing Director for Stage 32, Amanda oversees operations and partnerships for the global business. She has produced over 3,000 hours of online education created exclusively for Stage 32 and works with hundreds of entertainment industry executives from around the world to serve as educators and mentors. She has spearheaded partnerships with such prestigious organizations as Netflix, the Cannes Film Festival Marché du Film, Canon, American Film Market, SXSW, Austin Film Festival, Raindance Film Festival, Hollyshorts Film Festival, PGA, WGA and DGA, as well as brands such as AT&T, Peerspace, Pond5, Mandy, Bondit Media Capital and her personal favorite partnership, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, which is the official vodka of Stage 32.

As a television producer, she sold a scripted series to Amblin Television, which she attached an A-list showrunner from an Apple show. She also sold a premium unscripted show to USA. As a film producer, Amanda has worked on Alix for Catlyst Studios filmed in Columbia, Paradise Falls: A Christmas Story filmed in Costa Rica, the psychological thriller What Lies Ahead starring Rumer Willis and Emma Dumont, Metaphorms, a Hungarian film, which premiered at the Raindance Film Festival and Dolphin Girl which premiered at the Oscar qualifying Hollyshorts Film Festival. She has also helped incubate Chick Fight, starring Malin Akerman, Alec Baldwin, and Bella Thorne, and 10-31, which is being produced by Eli Roth and Orion Pictures. She is an Executive Producer on Vagic with Amy Baer at Gidden Media, as well as My Clone's an A*Hole with National Lampoon.

Amanda has spoken all over the world at the Cannes Film Festival (France), Venice Film Festival (Italy), American Film Market (US), Hollyshorts Film Festival (US), Raindance Film Festival (UK), Hamburg Film Fest (Germany), Trinidad & Tobago Film Commission (Trinidad), Fest Festival (Portugal), Black Nights Film Festival (Estonia) and Harvard (US) on the business of the entertainment industry.

Sara Hamilton - Head of Global Partnerships & Impact Strategy, E2ACxGreenlit

Sara Hamilton is Head of Global Partnerships & Impact Strategy at E2AC x Greenlit and an award-winning producer and strategist. With 25+ years across film, media and live events, she builds international partnerships that connect creators, funders and organisations to drive commercially successful, impact-led storytelling.

Guneet Monga Kapoor - CEO & Producer, Sikhya Entertainment, Founder of WIF India

Guneet Monga Kapoor is an Academy Award-winning producer and founder of Sikhya Entertainment. Her films, including The Lunchbox, Masaan, The Elephant Whisperers and Kill, have shaped Indian cinema globally. She also founded Women in Film India to support the next generation of producers.

Maria Hundsnes-Shevtsova - Co-Founder and VP, DISAUTHORITY

Maria Hundsnes-Shevtsova is Co-Founder and VP of DISAUTHORITY, a London-based boutique post house. With a background in high-end fiction short form, she is now in post for her debut feature producing title Sticks & Stones, a supernatural thriller exploring the lasting impact of silencing women’s testimonies.

Maria Soccor - Actor, Filmmaker, Founder of Maria Soccor Productions

Maria Soccor is an award-winning director, actress, and founder of Maria Soccor Productions. Known for Lords of BSV, she co-founded REEL Women and advocates for sustainable filmmaking and women through storytelling, mentorship, and global collaborations across narrative, documentary, and immersive media.

Richard Botto - Producer, Screenwriter, CEO, Stage 32

Richard "RB" Botto has created the online platform and marketplace designed to democratize the entertainment industry, Stage 32. By leveling the playing field for all film, television and digital content creators and professionals worldwide, Stage 32 provides networking and training opportunities as well as direct access beyond the gatekeepers.

RB is also a producer whose films have played at dozens of festivals around the world including the Sundance-award-winning feature Another Happy Day, written and directed by Euphoria creator Sam Levinson. He was on the producing team of What Lies Ahead starring Rumer Willis and Emma Dumont, Alix based in Columbia, Paradise Falls based in Costa Rica and Rain Beau’s End starring Ed Asner and Sean Young. He is the Executive Producer on projects with Gidden Media and National Lampoon. Through Stage 32 he has helped incubate Chick Fight, starring Malin Akerman and Alec Baldwin, produced by Yale Productions and Ramo Law, and 10-31, produced by Eli Roth and Orion Pictures, and Crushed on Tubi.

As a working writer, RB sold his original television series to a mini-major studio and attached an A-list showrunner from Apple at the helm. He works on active writing assignments and has sold two feature film scripts.

As an actor, he began his career as a theater actor in New York, and his latest film, On the Corner of Ego and Desire premiered at the Raindance Film Festival.

Additionally, RB's #1 best-selling book Crowdsourcing For Filmmakers: Indie Film and the Power of the Crowd, was published by Routledge under the American Film Market Presents banner, is available on Amazon and Audible, where it has garnered over 100 5-star reviews.

RB has been a keynote speaker and panelist all over the world at such festivals and conferences as the Cannes Film Festival (France), American Film Market (US), Tribeca Film Festival (US), Austin Film Festival (US), SXSW (US), Cinequest (US), Winston Baker (US), Hollyshorts Film Festival (US), Raindance Film Festival (UK), Hamburg Film Fest (Germany), Trinidad & Tobago Film Commission (Trinidad), Fest Festival (Portugal), Black Nights Film Festival (Estonia) and Harvard (US) on the business of the entertainment industry.

Daniel Bekerman - Oscar and Cannes Palme d’Or Nominated Producer

Daniel Bekerman is a producer based in Canada with broad experience in creative producing, financing and service production. Recent production The Apprentice was Oscar nominated and an official selection of the Festival de Cannes Palme d’or; The Witch, a US/Canada co-production, won the Best Director Award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and made major sales to Universal and A24; and Bang Bang Baby, a musical directed by Cannes Residency alumnus Jeffrey St. Jules, starring Jane Levy, Justin Chatwin and Peter Stormare, won the Best First Feature Film Awards at the Toronto International Film Festival and Canadian Screen Awards. Pay the Ghost, directed by Uli Edel and starring Nicolas Cage, was recently released theatrically across the world.

Tiffany Boyle - Cannes Palme d’or Nominated Producer and President, Packaging & Sales, Ramo Law

For more than 10 years, Tiffany Boyle has leveraged her business-oriented sales and packaging skills to bring hundreds of films and documentaries to fruition. Through her critical review of content and strategic use of Ramo Law resources, Tiffany creates successful content packaging that bridges the needs of both client and industry demands.

Tiffany connects filmmakers with producers, co-producers, executive producers, co-finance partners, distributors, agencies, and other industry representatives. Her film OH CANADA was nominated for the Cannes Palme d’or. She has brought in financing or leading sales on films such as Paul Schrader's ”The Card Counter,” Executive Produced ”Joyland,” the first official Pakistani selection in the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and winner of the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize, and serviced financing and sales on romantic crime ”Die in a Gunfight”; she led the sales and packaging for “Initiation” (SXSW 2020) and ”One of These Days” (Berlin 2020); and she recently served as Executive Producer on films including, ”Line of Duty” starring Aaron Eckhart, bringing in financing in post, “Chick Fight,” which she developed from the script stage, brought in the producer, director and half of the financing, “Mama Bears,” where she brought in financial donations to the film as well as WME to represent and find distribution for the film, and “Borderland” starring Felicity Jones, currently in post-production.

Experienced with project budgets ranging from micro-sized to $30 million, Tiffany has helped to establish and expand high-value sales and packaging resources, uniquely accessed outside of the traditional management company and agency model, since joining Ramo Law in 2009. With this experience, she has been able to help foreign production companies and investors create a foothold in the US marketplace.

Tonia Sotiropoulou, Actor (SKYFALL:007), Producer

Tonia Sotiropoulou is a Greek actress and producer working across international and European cinema. Her credits include collaborations with directors such as Sam Mendes, Peter Strickland, and Palme d’Or–winning filmmaker Vasilis Kekatos. She has worked on over 35 films and TV shows and is currently developing projects as a producer, with a focus on globally-driven independent film.

A Quick Word Before You Go...

If you're attending Cannes, don't be a stranger! Come to the panels and events to see us and say, "hi" in person! If you're not, make sure you’re following along with me on Instagram and X @rbwalksintoabar. I'll be sharing insights, motivation, and key takeaways with the Stage 32 community.

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 festival was built as a counterweight to mainstream cinema, a home for the visionaries and provocateurs that Hollywood didn't know what to do with. But somewhere along the way, the counterweight became the main event. Cannes is no longer counter-programming against the American behemoths. It is the destination: for the industry, for the culture, and increasingly, for anyone who cares about where storytelling is actually headed next.

Founded in 1946 as a direct response to the increasingly commercial and politically compromised Venice Film Festival, Cannes was designed from the beginning to be a home for visionary filmmakers who were too uncomfortable, too provocative, or too strange for American studios to champion. Bergman, Godard, Fellini, Cassavetes, and even Tarantino, more recently: these filmmakers were too ‘dangerous’ for Hollywood.

Which is exactly why the conversation about Cannes embracing the creator economy: content creators, influencers, AI-generated films, VR experiences, and serialized television shouldn't be as shocking as it sounds to the purists.

Cannes has been here before. Every time the industry shifted, Cannes shifted with it. When television became prestige storytelling, Cannes started screening pilots. When streaming rewired distribution, Cannes adapted its market. When the world started watching short-form content on phones, Cannes started paying attention to who was making it and why.

This year is no different. Like SXSW, Sundance, Tribeca, and TIFF before it — all of which have leaned heavily into new formats, new mediums, and new audiences to survive a turbulent independent market — Cannes is expanding its definition of cinema to include AR, VR, AI content, and yes, creators who built their audiences on platforms that didn't exist fifteen years ago.

Purists are worried it will tarnish the brand. Unlikely.

Content is content is content. The idea that a filmmaker with a $200 million production budget is inherently more worthy of the Palme d'Or conversation than a creator who built an audience of 40 million from a bedroom studio is exactly the kind of cultural snobbery Cannes was founded to dismantle. The festival has always been about what a story does to an audience, not where it came from or how it was distributed.

The creators showing up on the Croisette in 2026 are the same disruptive, left-of-center voices Cannes has always celebrated…they just built their audiences on YouTube and TikTok instead of 16mm film.

Cannes is still the destination. Still the glamour. Still, the place where the right conversation in the right room can greenlight something that changes the culture.

The festival just finally admitted it was always bigger than film.

This Week in the Writers' Room

UPCOMING EXECUTIVE HOUR WEBCAST: MAY 6th @ 4 PM PT with Sierra London McDonald

The Exec Hour welcomes Sierra London McDonald — a development executive and producer with over a decade of experience across VH1, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBCUniversal, and WE tv/ALLBLK. Sierra has developed scripted and unscripted concepts, helped secure paid development deals for content creators with major television networks, and worked on the development of A LA CARTE, sold to streaming platform ALLBLK. She brings both creative and strategic insight to every project she touches — and a deep commitment to content that highlights Black voices and stories across Drama, Family, Mystery, Thriller, Romance, and Reality.

If you would like to join the Writers’ Room, access weekly events, submit to dozens of open writing assignments, and attend exclusive pitch tanks with industry executives- click HERE to accept my offer for a free month!

This Week’s Exciting Announcements!

For the last 12 years, Stage 32 has been an official education partner of the Cannes Marché du Film. And those who have attended Cannes over the last decade know that the Stage 32 Cannes Meetup has become one of the most anticipated and talked-about gatherings of the entire festival. It’s where real connections are made, collaborations begin, and the global creative community comes together in a meaningful way.

This year, we’re excited to bring that experience to a new home.

For 2026, the Stage 32 Cannes Meetup will be held as part of our Stage 32 Pop-Up Bar Event: RB & Gary’s Brown Sugar, where we’ll be taking over the iconic Brown Sugar Gastro Pub for the full weekend. Located in the heart of Cannes on the Carré d’Or, Brown Sugar is one of the festival’s most well-known and beloved gathering spots, making it the perfect setting to combine the magic of Cannes with the magic of Stage 32.

Click here to RSVP and see our full list of events!

As a CEO of Wavelets Entertainment Inc. since 2018, Caroline has supervised a capital raise from Alibaba Group and Media Asia Group, developed global film and series slates, and implemented long-term strategies to align creative content with market trends. She has hired staff, managed budgets, and oversaw the selection and development of eight series, including three with over 20 episodes. Previously, she founded and for seven years managed a digital marketing company. For the four years before that, she worked as a writing assistant to Tobin Bell of the SAW franchise.

Click here to connect with Caroline and say "Congrats!"

This Week In The Stage 32 Community!

One of the things I love most about this community is how often conversations start from a simple idea and quickly turn into something practical, actionable, and immediately useful.

This week, I want to highlight a great post from Stage 32 Executive and Thought Leader, Development Producer Sean Hussey, who sparked a conversation that I know will resonate with a lot of you:

“You Don’t Need to Be a Budgeting Genius to Write a Cost-Effective Screenplay.”

Sean cuts through a misconception that trips up a lot of writers, especially those trying to get their first projects made. You don’t need to think like a line producer when you sit down to write. You don’t need to obsess over budgets or start stripping your story down before it even has a chance to breathe.

What you do need is logistical awareness. There’s a big difference.

Sean talks about the power of intentional choices. Writing with fewer locations, a tighter cast, and leaning into character-driven storytelling. Not because it’s “smaller,” but because it’s smarter and often more impactful.

And he raises a simple question that I think is worth sitting with: If you only had two weeks to shoot your movie, what would you change?

That question tends to reveal what actually matters in your story and what might just be excess.

This ties directly into what we’re seeing across the market right now. Buyers are looking for scripts that are not only compelling, but producible. Stories that understand their own scope. Projects that can realistically get off the ground. That doesn’t mean you need to shrink your ambition, it means you need to focus it.

If you haven’t read Sean’s post yet, I highly recommend jumping into the conversation in the Screenwriting Lounge. Share your thoughts, your approach, or even your own challenges when it comes to balancing creative vision with practical execution. Because these are the kinds of discussions that don’t just make you a better writer. They make you a more strategic one.

Click here to join the discussion!

Need help navigating the industry? Contact success@stage32.com

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 .

New films. New deals. New faces.

But the one thing that has remained constant, year after year, is this:

The real magic of Cannes happens in the conversations.

The unexpected introductions. The late-night discussions. The moments where ideas turn into collaborations and strangers become creative partners.

And if you’ve been to Cannes over the last decade, you’ve likely experienced another constant, too:

RB Botto.

For more than 10 years, Stage 32 Founder & CEO Richard “RB” Botto has been a familiar, welcoming presence throughout the festival. But beyond that, RB is also a WGA screenwriter and producer who has had films premiere at Sundance, including Sam Levinson’s first feature. He is part of this industry in a very real way, and that perspective shapes how he shows up for this community.

Whether he’s hosting events, walking the Croisette, or stopping to connect with members of Stage 32, RB brings the same energy every time, open, approachable, and genuinely excited to meet you.

If you see him in Cannes, say hello. It means more than you know.

And if you want a glimpse into that energy year-round, make sure you’re following him on Instagram and X @rbwalksintoabar. He’s constantly sharing insight, motivation, and real talk about the industry from someone who lives it every day, just like you.

This year, that spirit of connection is taking on a whole new form.

Introducing: RB & Gary’s Brown Sugar

For the first and most electric weekend of the Cannes Film Festival, we are officially taking over one of the most iconic bars in the city.

From Saturday, May 16th through Tuesday, May 19th, Brown Sugar Gastro Pub will become: RB & Gary’s Brown Sugar

And we don’t just want you to stop by once.

We want this to be your home base for the weekend.

Start your Cannes nights with us on Saturday and make it your go-to spot throughout the festival’s biggest stretch. Whether you’re celebrating a great meeting, continuing a conversation from earlier in the day, or just looking for a space where you instantly feel part of something, this is where you’ll want to be.

Located in the heart of Cannes in the Carré d’Or, this isn’t just any bar. Brown Sugar has long been one of the festival’s most beloved gathering spots. It’s where filmmakers, producers, executives, and creatives naturally find their way after long days at the market.

And now, for one unforgettable weekend, it becomes the home base for the Stage 32 community.

How This All Came Together

There’s a story behind this that already feels like a Cannes legend in the making.

Last year, RB and I arrived in Cannes ready to kick things off the way we always had, by heading to one of our favorite spots, the legendary Pint House. It had been a staple for so many years. So many memories were made there.

But when we got there… it was gone.

Closed.

We stood there for a moment, surprised, a little disappointed, definitely nostalgic. And then RB turned to me and said something that instantly shifted the energy:

“How can we open a bar that people can make their go-to spot for celebration all weekend?”

Not find a new bar to spend time at. Take one over.

That night, I walked into Brown Sugar, met Gary, and the rest is history.

Meet Gary: The Heart Behind Brown Sugar

One of the reasons this partnership means so much to us is because of the person behind it.

Gary, the owner of Brown Sugar, isn’t just a bar owner. He’s a passionate Cannes historian and a true lover of the culture, energy, and legacy of this festival.

He understands what makes Cannes special in a way that goes far beyond business. It’s about people. It’s about stories. It’s about the moments that happen in between the official events.

That’s exactly why this collaboration feels so aligned.

Gary has built Brown Sugar into a space that feels welcoming, vibrant, and full of character. Whether you’re stopping in for a perfectly poured Brewdog Punk IPA, exploring their curated selection of Belgian beers and European lagers, or enjoying wines from small independent growers you won’t find anywhere else in Cannes, you can feel the intention behind the experience.

We’re incredibly proud to partner with Gary to bring this vision to life. If you want a deeper look into Cannes through the eyes of someone who truly knows it, make sure to follow him on X. He’ll be sharing some incredible insights into the history of Cannes and the festival. 

And this year, Gary is taking that passion even further with the launch of a new project, CannesRevisited.org.

It’s a personal, long-form exploration of Cannes’ history, built from nearly a decade of research and designed to give you a deeper understanding of the place you’re walking through during the festival. It’s not about headlines or surface-level stories, it’s about uncovering the layers of history that shaped Cannes into what it is today.

If you’re someone who loves the culture, the legacy, and the story behind the spectacle, this is absolutely worth exploring.

You can visit CannesRevisited.org and subscribe for free to follow along, especially during the festival, when Gary will be sharing a series of original pieces that bring Cannes’ past to life in a fresh and engaging way.

The Stage 32 Cannes Meetup… Reimagined

If you’ve been to Cannes before, you’ve probably heard about our meetup.

And if you’ve attended, you already know. It’s one of the most anticipated gatherings of the entire festival.

Last year, we had nearly 1,000 creatives join us. Writers, directors, producers, actors, executives, all coming together in one space with a shared goal: Connection.

But this year, something became very clear. We outgrew the American Pavilion.

So instead of scaling back, we scaled up. Way up.

Our fearless leader, Richard “RB” Botto looked at what this community has become and made a decision that feels very on brand:

If we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it right.

So… we took over an entire bar.

Join Us for the Official Stage 32 Cannes Meetup

For 2026, our meetup will take place inside our takeover event at RB & Gary’s Brown Sugar.

And it’s going to be something special.

You’ll be joining Richard “RB” Botto, Managing Director, Amanda Toney, and Head of Community, Ashley Smith, along with creatives and industry professionals from all over the world.

No velvet ropes. No gatekeeping. Just real conversations with people who are actively building their careers, just like you.

Details:

Time: 6:00pm – 8:00pm (local Cannes time)
Location: RB & Gary’s Brown Sugar
Le Carré d’Or
17 Rue des Frères Pradignac
06400 Cannes, France

And one of the best parts?

This event is open to everyone.

Badge holders. Non-badge holders. If you’re in Cannes, you’re welcome.

Click here to RSVP now!

Why This Matters

Cannes can feel overwhelming. It’s fast. It’s crowded. It’s full of opportunity, but not always easy to access.

That’s why spaces like this matter. Because when you walk into RB & Gary’s Brown Sugar, you’re not walking into a random bar. You’re walking into a place full of people who want to connect.

People who understand what you’re building. People who are open to conversation, collaboration, and possibility.

That’s what Stage 32 has always been about.

And now, for one incredible weekend, we get to bring that energy to the heart of Cannes.

We’ll See You There

If you’re heading to Cannes, make this part of your plan.

Come by. Stay awhile. Meet someone new. Start a conversation you didn’t expect.

Because you never know which moment, which introduction, or which connection might change everything.

We can’t wait to see you at RB & Gary’s Brown Sugar!

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 .

Fans across the world celebrate Star Wars: the stories, the characters, the moments that shaped their childhoods, their careers, and in many cases, their decision to pursue storytelling in the first place.

For me, it’s always been a little extra meaningful. It’s my birthday… but it’s also a reminder of how powerful a story can be when it translates across generations, languages, mediums, and cultures.

Because Star Wars isn’t just a franchise. It’s a case study in risk. In reinvention. In audience connection. In creative evolution. In what it really means to build something that lasts.

And like any long-running story… it hasn’t been perfect. But that might be the most important part.

The Beginning: When No One Saw the Vision

It’s easy to look at Star Wars now and see inevitability.

Of course it worked. Of course, it changed cinema. Of course, it became one of the most successful franchises of all time.

But that’s not how it started. George Lucas struggled to get the original film made. Studios didn’t understand it, the tone felt strange, the genre blending was unusual, it wasn’t cleanly sci-fi, it wasn’t fantasy in the traditional sense, and it didn’t resemble what Hollywood was confidently producing at the time.

Even during production, things were… chaotic. Budget constraints. Technical limitations. A team figuring things out as they went. When early cuts were screened, many people didn’t know what to make of it.

And yet, Lucas kept going. That’s the first lesson.

Sometimes the thing that feels unclear, unconventional, or hard to explain is exactly the thing that hasn’t been seen yet.

The Move That Changed Hollywood Forever

There’s a moment in the Star Wars origin story that every creative, not just filmmakers, but writers, producers, and entrepreneurs, should know. When George Lucas was negotiating his deal with the studio, he made a decision that, at the time, didn’t seem like much. Instead of pushing for a higher directing fee or a larger percentage of the box office, he chose to retain control of the merchandising rights. That included toys, apparel, licensing, and essentially anything tied to the Star Wars brand outside of the film itself.

At the time, this wasn’t considered a major concession by the studio. In fact, it was almost dismissed. Studios didn’t see meaningful value in toys or consumer products connected to films. Merchandising was viewed as secondary, if it was considered at all. What mattered was the box office.

What they didn’t realize was that Lucas was thinking beyond the immediate release. He wasn’t just making a film; he was building a world. And when Star Wars became a global phenomenon, that world didn’t stay contained within theaters. It exploded into toy aisles, comic shops, bookstores, lunchboxes, posters, and eventually into an entire ecosystem of products and experiences that allowed audiences to engage with the story long after they left the cinema.

The demand was unprecedented. Toys sold out. Lines wrapped around stores. Kids weren’t just watching Star Wars; they were playing in it, imagining new stories, extending the narrative in their own homes. That one decision shifted the power dynamic. Lucas didn’t just create a hit film; he created a self-sustaining universe that generated revenue across multiple platforms and decades. And in doing so, he fundamentally changed how the industry views intellectual property.

Studios began to recognize that a film wasn’t just a film. It was the foundation of something much bigger. Today, that mindset is everywhere. Franchises are designed with expansion in mind. Characters are built to live across films, series, games, merchandise, theme parks, and beyond. Entire business models are structured around the long-term value of IP, not just opening weekend numbers.

But what’s important here isn’t just the business outcome. It’s the mindset behind it. Lucas understood that stories don’t have to end when the credits roll. If the world is rich enough, if the characters resonate deeply enough, people will want to stay in that space. They’ll want to revisit it, expand it, and make it part of their lives.

These are the exact kinds of conversations we’re having all the time in the Stage 32 Transmedia Lounge, exploring how stories can expand across platforms, how to build worlds that invite audience participation, and how to think beyond a single script or project. Because when you do that, you’re not just creating a project. You’re creating a world people don’t want to leave.

The Originals: Lightning in a Bottle

The original trilogy captured something rare.

Adventure. Heart. Archetypal storytelling. Characters that felt mythic, but human.

George Lucas didn’t set out to reinvent storytelling from scratch. In many ways, he did the opposite. He leaned into it. He studied the classic space operas, the serialized adventure films of the 1930s, and most importantly, the timeless structure of the Hero’s Journey. Drawing from mythologist Joseph Campbell and his work on universal story archetypes, Lucas built a narrative that felt deeply familiar on a subconscious level, even though audiences had never seen anything quite like it on screen.

That’s what made it click. It was new, but it didn’t feel unfamiliar.

You had the farm boy with a bigger destiny in Luke Skywalker. The fearless leader in Princess Leia. The rogue with a heart buried just beneath the surface in Han Solo. These weren’t just characters; they were reflections of archetypes audiences have connected to for generations.

And because of that, they became cultural anchors. People didn’t just watch these characters; they saw themselves in them, grew with them, projected onto them. They believed in them. That’s incredibly hard to achieve.

And yes… we can’t talk about this era without mentioning the debate. Did Han Solo shoot first?

For those who may not know, in the original 1977 version of Star Wars, Han Solo shoots the bounty hunter Greedo first during a tense cantina standoff. It’s a quick, decisive moment that establishes Han as a morally gray, shoot-first kind of character. A survivor.

Years later, when Lucas released updated “Special Edition” versions of the films, he altered that scene so that Greedo shoots first and Han fires in response.

It may sound like a small change. It wasn’t. For many fans, it fundamentally shifted how they viewed Han’s character. The original version suggested edge, unpredictability, and a willingness to act without hesitation. The revised version softened that, making him feel more traditionally heroic.

But the controversy didn’t stop there.

Lucas continued to revise the original trilogy over the years, making additional changes to effects, dialogue, and scenes. Perhaps the most debated decision of all, the original theatrical versions of the films were largely phased out and replaced by these updated editions, making it increasingly difficult for audiences to access the films as they were first experienced.

That sparked a much bigger conversation. Who does a story belong to? The creator who made it? Or the audience who connected with it?

That tension between creative control and audience ownership is something that still exists today across franchises, reboots, and remasters.

When people connect deeply with a story, they don’t just consume it. They engage with it, question it, defend it, and argue over it. They care.

And once a story reaches that level of connection, it evolves beyond its creator to become something shared.

The Quiet Years: When the Story Lived Elsewhere

Between the original trilogy and the prequels, Star Wars didn’t disappear. It evolved: Books. Comics. Video games. (Anyone else grow up devouring the Zahn books?)

Entire generations stayed connected to the galaxy through these extensions of the story. The Expanded Universe built depth, lore, and a sense that this world continued even when it wasn’t on screen.

But something else was happening during this time that often gets overlooked.

This was also the era when fans started carving out their own spaces to keep the conversation alive. In the early days of the internet, long before social media as we know it, Star Wars fans were gathering in forums, message boards, and fan sites. Places like Usenet groups, early fan forums, and dedicated websites became hubs for theory, debate, fan fiction, and deep dives into lore.

This was some of the earliest large-scale online fandom behavior. People weren’t just consuming the story; they were expanding it in their own way. They were analyzing character motivations, debating canon, speculating about future stories, and connecting with others who cared just as deeply as they did.

In many ways, Star Wars helped shape what online community looks like today. It proved that when a story resonates deeply enough, audiences don’t just move on when the credits roll. They seek each other out. They build communities. They create spaces to continue the experience together.

It reinforces something every creator should understand: Your story doesn’t always have to live on the biggest stage to have impact.

If the world is strong enough, if the characters feel real, if the themes resonate, your story will find ways to live beyond you. It will exist in conversations, in communities, in interpretations you never could have predicted.

The Prequel Era: Ambition Meets Division

When the prequels arrived, expectations were… enormous. By that point, Star Wars wasn’t just a successful franchise. It was cultural mythology. It belonged to millions of people who had grown up with it, formed emotional connections to it, and built their own ideas about what it should be.

And that’s where things get complicated for any creator. Because at a certain scale, you’re no longer just making something you love. You’re creating under the weight of expectation from an audience that is deeply invested, highly vocal, and not part of the internal process or decision-making.

That’s a very different experience from making the original film in relative obscurity. George Lucas was no longer the underdog trying to get a risky space opera made. He was now revisiting one of the most beloved stories of all time, with an audience that had spent years imagining what came before.

There was no version of the prequels that would have existed without comparison. And the response reflected that.

Some fans loved the expansion of the universe, the deeper look into galactic politics, and the tragic arc of Anakin Skywalker. Others struggled with the tone, pacing, performances, or creative direction. That divide became loud. At times, even harsh. And it highlights something every creative eventually faces if their work reaches a wide enough audience:

You can’t control how people receive what you make. You can only control what you choose to create.

But here’s what often gets lost in that conversation. For an entire generation, the prequels weren’t a departure. They were their introduction.

Kids who grew up watching The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith didn’t experience them through the lens of comparison. They experienced them as their Star Wars. Their characters. Their theater release memories. Their emotional entry point into the galaxy.

They played the games, collected the toys, debated the characters, and felt the tragedy of Anakin in real time, not as a prequel, but as a story unfolding. Over time, as that generation grew up, the conversation around the prequels began to shift again. What was once heavily criticized became re-examined. Appreciated. Even celebrated for its ambition, its world-building, and the risks it took.

That’s the second big lesson: Reception is not static.

Stories evolve in the way they’re perceived. They get rediscovered through new eyes. They get reclaimed by the audiences who connected with them first, even if that connection wasn’t universally shared at the time.

And as a creator, that’s something worth holding onto. Not every story will be fully understood the moment it’s released, but that doesn’t mean it won’t matter.

Sometimes, it just needs time.

Animation: Where Storytelling Thrived

If there’s one era that consistently brought fans together, it’s the animated series. Star Wars: The Clone Wars didn’t just revisit the prequel era. It redefined it.

Under the guidance of Dave Filoni and with direct mentorship from George Lucas, the series took characters and storylines that audiences thought they understood and gave them new depth, new context, and, in many cases, new emotional weight.

Anakin Skywalker became more layered. His relationships felt richer, more human, more tragic. The war itself became more complex, moving beyond spectacle into something that explored loyalty, morality, leadership, and loss.

Ahsoka Tano, who didn’t exist in the original films, went from a character some fans were unsure about to one of the most beloved and important figures in the entire franchise.

And then there’s Darth Maul. Originally introduced as a visually striking but largely silent villain in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Maul’s story could have ended there. Instead, animation brought him back in a way that completely redefined the character. He became complex, driven, and deeply personal. His arc explored survival, identity, obsession, and revenge in a way that resonated far beyond his original appearance. That evolution is one of the clearest examples of how powerful long-form storytelling can be.

But what Filoni and the team accomplished went even further. They began to quietly build a connective tissue for the entire Star Wars universe. Threads, themes, and characters introduced in animation didn’t stay contained there. They expanded outward into Star Wars Rebels, into The Mandalorian, into Ahsoka, and beyond.

What started as “just animation” became foundational canon. It revived interest in the prequel era. It re-engaged fans who had drifted away. It created entirely new entry points for younger audiences. And over time, it helped shape the direction of modern Star Wars storytelling in a very real way. And perhaps most importantly, it brought a sense of cohesion back to the galaxy.

This era proved something important: Sometimes the strongest storytelling happens in spaces with fewer expectations.

Animation didn’t carry the same immediate pressure as the films. It had room to explore. To take risks. To spend time with characters. To build slowly instead of needing to deliver everything in a single theatrical release.

And because of that, it was able to do something incredibly valuable: it made people feel connected to Star Wars again.

The Disney Era: Expansion, Experimentation, and Debate

You can feel Dave Filoni’s influence across the current landscape of the franchise. There’s a clear emphasis on character-driven arcs, long-form storytelling, and interconnected narratives that reward attention and investment.

When The Walt Disney Company acquired Star Wars, the universe didn’t just continue. It accelerated. New films. New characters like Rey and Kylo Ren. Streaming series like The Mandalorian that introduced Grogu to a global audience almost overnight. From a technical and business standpoint, the franchise is still thriving. Massive viewership. Cultural relevance. Merchandise. Spin-offs. New creators stepping into the sandbox. A constant presence in the entertainment conversation.

But alongside that success, something else has grown just as rapidly: the continued conversation. And not just conversation in the healthy, excited, speculative sense.

Debate. Division. At times, intense and highly visible online discourse.

Every new release now exists in a landscape where audiences aren’t just watching, they’re reacting in real time. Social media, YouTube, forums, and fan communities have amplified every opinion, every critique, every celebration, and every disappointment.

Some fans have embraced the newer stories, connecting deeply with the themes of identity, legacy, and belonging explored through characters like Rey. Others have struggled with shifts in tone, pacing, or overarching direction across the sequel trilogy. Certain series have been praised for their character work and world-building, while others have sparked conversations around consistency, creative risk, or franchise fatigue.

This is where everything we talked about earlier, audience ownership, emotional connection, and creative control, all collide at a much larger scale.

When a franchise reaches this level, every new installment carries not just years of emotional investment, but generations of it. You’re no longer creating for one audience. You’re creating for people who saw the originals in theaters, those who grew up on the prequels, and a new wave discovering the galaxy for the first time through streaming and modern releases.

That’s decades of lived experience, memory, and personal connection all layered on top of one another. And with that comes an even greater sense of ownership. People aren’t just evaluating what’s on screen. They’re measuring it against what came before, what they hoped it would be, what it meant to them at a specific point in their life, and what they believe it should represent moving forward.

That’s an incredibly complex and unforgiving space to create in. Because now, the audience isn’t one unified voice. It’s millions of individual perspectives shaped by different eras, different entry points, and different emotional connections to the story. And those perspectives don’t always align. What feels like a bold evolution to one audience can feel like a departure to another. What resonates deeply with a new generation might challenge the expectations of those who have been with the franchise for decades.

That tension isn’t new. But it is amplified in our modern world.

The audience has grown, the conversation has expanded, and the sense of ownership has only deepened over time.

The Bigger Picture: Why It All Matters

No matter where you fall, original trilogy, prequels, animation, Disney era, or somewhere in between, there’s one thing that’s undeniable. Star Wars is a benchmark.

And not just because of its success. There are plenty of expansive universes and beloved franchises that have shaped generations. From Pokémon to Marvel Cinematic Universe, DC Universe, Harry Potter, and The Lord of the Rings, each has built incredible worlds with passionate audiences and lasting cultural impact across mediums.

But Star Wars exists in a category of its own. Because no other franchise has maintained such a continuous, evolving through-line of canonical storytelling across so many mediums, for this long, at this scale.

Film. Television. Animation. Books. Comics. Games. All feeding into one living, breathing timeline. All contributing to a shared universe that continues to expand while still tying back to a central mythology. That level of interconnected, multi-generational storytelling is incredibly rare. It’s why the conversation around Star Wars never really stops. It shifts. It evolves. It gets passed from one generation to the next.

And that’s exactly what we’re seeing right now in our own community.

Over in the Filmmaking Lounge, we’ve been having an ongoing conversation where members are sharing their favorite piece of the Star Wars story, whether it’s a specific film, a character arc, a series, or even a moment, and talking about why it means so much to them.

And what’s been so powerful to see is just how different those answers are. For some, it’s the original trilogy and the first time they experienced that sense of wonder. For others, it’s the prequels and the tragedy of Anakin. For many, it’s The Mandalorian or Andor and the characters they connected with there. Different entry points. Different emotional ties. Same universe. That’s the impact of a story that lasts.

And maybe most importantly, it proves this: You don’t need a perfect trajectory to create something lasting.

You need vision. You need resilience. And you need the willingness to evolve, even when it’s uncomfortable.

Because if your story is strong enough, if it connects deeply enough, it won’t just exist in the moment. It will live on across formats, across generations, and in the people who love it and carry it forward.

Join the conversation by clicking here!

What It Means to Build Something That Lasts

It’s important to remember, if you’re building something, a script, a film, a world, a career, there will be highs and lows.

And I can say that not just as someone who has worked in this industry, but because, like many of you, Star Wars has been an ever-present, deeply personal part of my life. I grew up watching the original trilogy on repeat, playing with my action figures, the same ones I still have tucked away, and flying my cousin’s Star Wars ships around like they were real. I sat in a theater with my dad for The Phantom Menace, completely wide-eyed, and later dressed as Queen Amidala for Halloween.

I was there for the midnight releases of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, back when getting dropped off at the movies with friends felt like the biggest milestone in the world. I had Star Wars birthday cakes, backyard lightsaber battles, and spent hours playing Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire on N64. I read the Thrawn Trilogy, argued passionately about “Han shot first,” and could probably still quote most of Fanboys without thinking. I loved the way Dave Filoni expanded the lore in The Clone Wars. I saw The Force Awakens in 4DX and felt like I was inside the story. I explored Galaxy's Edge and literally missed a flight because I was at the midnight premiere of The Last Jedi.

And like many of you, my relationship with the newer era has been… complicated.

I was bewildered by The Rise of Skywalker. Completely endeared by Grogu. Frustrated by many parts of The Book of Boba Fett. Obsessed with Andor. Deeply confused by Ahsoka. And if I’m being honest, I try not to remember that Obi-Wan exists.

But even when I’m not thrilled with a specific addition to the world… I still love Star Wars. It’s not just one film, one era, or one creative decision. It represents a lifetime of experiences, memories, and joy.

If you’re building something, there will be moments where people don’t understand what you’re trying to do. There will be moments where they love it, and there will be moments where they don’t.

That doesn’t mean you stop. It means you keep going, because sometimes, the thing you’re building isn’t just for now. It’s for the long run.

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!

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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 Vanity Fair: Emerald Fennell Breaks Down a Scene From Wuthering Heights.

What I love about this breakdown is how clearly Emerald talks about every creative choice coming from an emotional place. The costumes, the food, the lighting, the scale of the rooms, the props, the candles, the dollhouse, none of it is just there to be beautiful. It is all working to communicate power, longing, cruelty, class, repression, desire, and emotional danger.

That’s what great world-building does! It doesn’t simply recreate a period or decorate a set. It creates a feeling. Emerald talks about wanting the film to feel timeless, uncanny, primal, and emotionally resonant rather than strictly literal. That’s an important distinction. Sometimes the most truthful version of a story is not the most historically exact one. It’s the version that makes the audience feel what the characters are feeling.

And this scene is a perfect example. It’s “just” a dinner scene on the surface, but underneath it, everyone at that table knows a bomb has gone off. Heathcliff has returned. Cathy is trying to prove she made the right choice. Edgar is trying to hold his place. Isabella is awakening to something dangerous. Nelly is watching the madness unfold. The room is polite, but the emotions are feral. That’s why the details matter.

To me, the biggest takeaway is this: when you’re building a world, every element needs to know what story it’s telling. The costumes should know. The props should know. The lighting should know. The blocking should know. The silence should know. That’s how you create something that stays with people.

And speaking of walking into rooms with intention, Cannes kicks off in just over a week, and I want to talk for a minute about attending markets like Cannes, AFM, or any major industry event. My biggest piece of advice is simple: be prepared.

Do the work before you arrive. Know why you’re going. Know who you want to meet. Know what you’re trying to accomplish. You don’t need to schedule every second of your day, because plenty of business happens in the streets, restaurants, hotel lobbies, parties, and unexpected conversations. But you do need a strategy.

I have seen too many people show up to major markets with no plan, and then they start flailing. They’re handing people cards at the wrong moment, forcing trailers onto phones, trying to pitch anyone who stands still long enough to listen. That energy reads as chaos. And you never want to come across as chaotic.

You want to come across as clear, calm, knowledgeable, and prepared.

Have a logline for your goal. When someone inevitably asks, “What brings you to Cannes?” you should have a concise, confident answer. Not a ramble. Not a desperate pitch. A clear reason for why you’re there and what you’re looking to do. Because everyone at a market is there for a reason. The more clearly you can communicate your purpose, the easier it is for people to understand how they might connect with you, help you, or remember you.

And my second piece of advice is just as important: have fun!

Markets are serious business, absolutely. But desperation is loud. People can feel it. If you walk into every room like this one conversation will make or break your entire career, you put too much pressure on yourself and everyone around you. Instead, be curious. Ask people what they’re there for. Listen. Build meaningful connections. Follow up. Stay open to the unexpected.

That’s where the real magic of these markets often happens.

When you walk into an industry event, meeting, or creative opportunity, what helps you feel most prepared and confident? Let’s talk about it in the comments.

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

Vanity Fair | Emerald Fennell Breaks Down a Scene From Wuthering Heights

RBWalksIntoABar | Advice for Attending Markets Like Cannes or AFM

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 .

First A Bit Of Context

I am a director based in Dubai. Earlier that year, a grounded sci-fi thriller feature film I wrote was selected for a series of workshops hosted by the French Institute. There, I received mentorship from reputable writers, sales agents, and distributors, who all recommended that I attend one of the major film markets to broaden my international network, especially because my film will be in English and feature a multinational cast. Honestly, I was afraid I would feel like a fish out of water at such a market without knowing anyone. However, my mentors reassured me and invited me to join them at Cannes, where they could make a few introductions. That is how I decided to attend the famous Marché du Film.

Let The World Know You Will Be In Cannes

I purchased a market badge which, aside from several other benefits, grants access to Cinando, an online database of film professionals from around the world. I didn’t fully take advantage of it, as I only started reaching out to people 10 days before the festival. Many were either already fully booked or didn’t respond. At the market, I met another filmmaker who had utilized Cinando to its full potential, having several meetings lined up every single day. He had identified companies that produce films in the same genre as his project, filtered out their staff attending the market (yes, there's even a filter for this!), and reached out to them a month in advance.

On the other hand, I’ve been lucky to be mentored by a prolific American independent film producer for the past two years. Once I told her I was heading to Cannes, she immediately reached out to her contacts and helped me book a few meetings. Additionally, I posted on my socials that I would be in Cannes a day before my flight, and a couple of friends connected me with their friends who were also attending.

Have Fun & Catch A Film!

I arrived at Cannes and immediately got in touch with my mentors from the institute. After sharing some food, drinks, and laughter with them in the picturesque streets and restaurants of Cannes, I started to feel like this wouldn't be as scary as I had thought.

We managed to book tickets for a screening that night, but I was feeling jetlagged and wanted to be fresh and full of energy for the market the next morning. However, one of my mentors pointed out that all of them had packed schedules, and this was one of the few evenings we could spend some time together. He emphasized that I must stay to watch the film when I could.

I didn’t necessarily love the film we saw, but the overall experience was incredible. It is a different experience to watch a film with an audience that appreciates cinema and is savvy with its language. As everyone in the theater laughed and sobbed together, you could feel the audience becoming part of the entire experience. I believe this is why many film directors, including some of the biggest ones in the world, want to show their films at the Cannes Film Festival. At least, it has become the number one reason for me to hope that I can do so one day.

Be Patient. There Is A Learning Curve.

I hit the market in the morning, full of excitement, but within just a few minutes, I started to feel overwhelmed. There were so many panels, workshops, masterclasses, happy hours, and cocktails—all happening simultaneously. Having studied industrial engineering before pursuing a career in film, that side of my brain often takes over in these situations, trying to optimize the outcome of all available options. I tried to attend everything I could and met as many people as possible. This resulted in many brief conversations that did not go further than, 'Where are you based? What do you do? Great, good luck!' My first day at the market felt like a failure, but in hindsight, it was a partial success and a necessary step. I now had a somewhat clear picture of the whole scene.

The following day, I made a list of a few places and events I thought were most relevant for me. Although my film takes place in today’s ordinary world, it has a high-concept premise that places it under the sci-fi genre. So, my first stop for the day was the Fantastic Pavilion, a hub for genre filmmakers. There, I connected with a producer who was interested in my project as soon as I mentioned its premise. For an hour, we discussed my project and what he was working on. We talked about our favorite films and finally, how we could collaborate. He then introduced me to another producer and investor whom he thought could be a good fit for my project. Today, we are in discussions with them to co-produce the film.

This experience taught me the importance of quality over quantity. For the remainder of my time in Cannes, I narrowed my focus down to a few places and events each day, and when I clicked with someone, I invested time to get to know them better and build a genuine connection.

The Stage 32 Community Is Key

I had the privilege of receiving an invitation to Stage 32’s Party, where I finally met RB and Amanda in person! We had previously exchanged emails after a short film I directed became a finalist in Stage 32’s Short Film Contest in 2023. Meeting them face-to-face gave me the opportunity to thank them personally for everything that Stage 32 has done for me and the community.

As you can imagine, I rubbed shoulders with several seasoned executives at this event, making connections that will certainly help my career in the long run. I also met other industry professionals who were in my shoes a few years ago but have now attended Cannes many times. This changed everything.

They invited me to the next events they were attending and introduced me to their contacts who have worked on projects similar to mine. I was no longer worried about going to the right events or talking to the right people. I was now part of a group of like-minded individuals enjoying their time and discussing business when appropriate. Most importantly, I was building friendships with people whom I will call first when I arrive at Cannes next year.

Was It Worth It?

The short answer is yes, definitely. As we all know, networking is a crucial part of this business, and like many of you, I make an effort to meet everyone in the industry in my city. But being at a place like Cannes, which gathers people from all over the world, is an entirely different opportunity. Everyone attending the market is eager to find partners to make things happen and move forward in their journeys. I already knew filmmaking was a team sport, but in Cannes, I realized it’s an international one. I've built relationships with producers, directors, agents, cast, and crew members who I believe will not only help bring my current project to life but will also become long-term collaborators.

If you're reading this before heading to Cannes, please don’t hesitate to drop me a message. I’d be more than happy to connect and hopefully meet you there.

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 .

To build a narrative that lasts, we have to stop looking at the monuments and start performing autopsies on the corpses. From the rubble of the old DCEU to the narrative vacuum of Madame Web, the graveyard offers a diagnostic toolkit for anyone trying to architect a story that survives the platform era. Industry tracking shows franchise profitability has compressed even as output surged. We are producing more, but we are building less.

The Economy of Error: Canonical Debt

We often think of plot holes as minor annoyances. In a transmedia ecosystem, they function as Canonical Debt. Every time a story contradicts itself, the audience pays a price. If a video game ignores a movie's ending, or a character loses their core motivation for a plot-convenient set piece, the viewer is forced to do the cognitive heavy lifting.

This debt is a primary driver of audience churn. When the cost of keeping track becomes higher than the pleasure of watching, people cancel their subscriptions. They do not just lose interest; they lose their sense of narrative gravity. The audience is interacting with the wreckage, not the world. The story stops being a place they visit and starts being a collection of disconnected artifacts.

The Three Modes of Collapse

Failure does not happen randomly; it follows predictable fault lines. By looking at modern failures and rare successes like Fallout (2024), we can identify the three ways a storyworld dies.

• Institutional Fracture: This is a governance failure. It happens when too many stakeholders pull the narrative in different directions. The original DCEU suffered from institutional whiplash. Creative resets and executive pivots created a world that felt like a series of conflicting mandates rather than a cohesive reality.

• Narrative Incompetence: This is a blueprint failure. Sometimes the primary text is so structurally weak it cannot support the weight of expansion. Madame Web (2024) represented a narrative vacuum. It attempted to launch a universe without establishing a functional core. Without that center, you cannot build a periphery.

• Infrastructural Void: This is a community failure. A storyworld is a social contract. It requires a social substrate of fans who maintain the history and bridge the gaps between releases. Fallout succeeded as a counter-example because it respected the existing infrastructure. It treated thirty years of fan expertise as a foundation rather than an obstacle.

The Rise of the Zombie Franchise

Today, death is not always the end. We have entered the era of Zombie Persistence. Algorithmic recirculation on platforms like TikTok and YouTube keeps undead IP walking. Fragments of a failed film circulate as memes long after the narrative heart has stopped beating.

Studios often confuse this virality with viability. They see high engagement numbers and assume the property is healthy. In reality, these are often unmanaged zombie cycles. There is, however, a strategic upside. Memes can occasionally rehabilitate a brand, as seen with the Sonic the Hedgehog redesign or the viral persistence of Mortal Kombat. The danger is not the circulation itself, but the lack of a plan to channel that energy back into a living story. Without a path back to coherence, the property remains a textual zombie, stripped for parts by an algorithm that rewards spectacle over soul.

Governance as Harm Reduction

If you are building a storyworld today, your goal is not just to succeed. It is to manage the inevitable friction of expansion. Real governance is about harm reduction.

1. Respect the Infrastructure: Stop treating fans as free marketing. They are your world’s life support system. Formalize partnerships with fan wikis and lore databases. Resource the community historians who maintain canon continuity. If you violate the social contract, the people who should be saving your world will be the ones to bury it.

2. Centralize the Lore: You need a narrative central bank. This requires canon architects and transmedia bibles with strict version control. Centralized continuity oversight, as practiced by Marvel Studios, ensures that spin-offs align with established rules before they receive a greenlight.

3. Architect for Dispersal: Do not just make a movie; design entry points. Every piece of content should be a modular element that can live on other platforms without breaking the cohesive reality of the whole.

The Final Lesson

The storyworld graveyard reminds us that narrative gravity is a fragile luxury. In an era of content and engagement, it is easy to forget that a story is a living thing. If we treat our worlds like spreadsheets, we should not be surprised when they return to haunt us. Build for the long term. Pay your debts early. A world only lives as long as someone finds it worth inhabiting.

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 .

About the 2026 Cannes Film Festival Marché du Film

The countdown is on—the 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival is just around the corner, running May 12–20, 2025, in the breathtaking city of Cannes, France. For over a decade, Stage 32 has proudly partnered with the Marché du Film as an official education partner, and this year, we’re taking things to new heights!

Whether you’re a seasoned Cannes regular or planning your first adventure to the Croisette, 2026 promises to be one of the most exciting years yet—and Stage 32 is right in the heart of it all.

With in-person events making a grand return this year, excitement is brewing for the 2026 Marché du Film.

What’s New at Cannes 2026?

The Marché du Film, the business hub of the Festival de Cannes, is the world’s largest international gathering of film professionals, bringing together more than 15,000 participants from 140 countries each year.

Everyone from the industry is represented here, including buyers, sales agents, producers, distributors, festival representatives and film institutions. With a diverse film market featuring 600 exhibitors spread across Cannes, 1,500 screenings, 250 industry events, and over 20 tailored industry programs, the Marché du Film is the ideal place to connect, do business, and explore the latest innovations and trends shaping our industry.

BUY, SELL & WATCH FILMS

The Marché du Film is the largest global hub for film sales and acquisitions—and it’s the place where deals get made. From exclusive screenings and work-in-progress previews to immersive networking lounges and country pavilions, this is where independent projects find international buyers and distribution pipelines take shape.

CONFERENCES & EVENTS YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS

The 2026 conference lineup is packed with over 100 inspiring talks with industry experts and innovators at the top of their game!

Stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends through their carefully curated conference program! Discover transformative ideas and practices shaping a more inclusive and sustainable film industry with their impACT program. Dive headfirst into the future by exploring the latest innovations and cutting-edge strategies with Cannes Next technology platform, and join for more exciting discussions on a wide range of key topics, from film financing and equal pay to virtual production and groundbreaking AI!

Check out the full conference schedule here.

STAGE 32 IS TAKING CENTER STAGE

Stage 32 will once again be everywhere at Cannes, and you’re invited to join us! Here’s a taste of what we’re bringing to the Riviera:

• Our legendary Stage 32 Networking Party at our Stage 32 Pop-Up Bar: Gary & RB's Brown Sugar—a not-to-miss highlight of the week
• The Stage 32 + World of Film International Festival Villa Party—hosted at a stunning villa in the hills above Cannes
• Panels, screenings, and speaking appearances from Stage 32 educators and community members

And of course, I will be on-site hosting events, joining panels, and sharing live insights across all platforms. If you’ve ever wanted to experience Cannes like an insider—this is the year to do it.

You can see the entire lineup here!

STAY PLUGGED IN WITH STAGE 32

We’ll be sharing live updates, interviews, and behind-the-scenes access all week long:

• Follow @rbwalksintoabar and @stage32 on Instagram
• Catch updates from @rbwalksintoabar and @stage32 on X
• Bookmark our Stage 32 Cannes Events Blog for the latest schedules, party RSVPs, and more

Want to RSVP for our panels and networking events now? Head over to our meetup page HERE.

HOW TO GET YOUR BADGE

If you’re planning to attend Cannes this year, now’s the time to get your official badge. There are several badge options depending on your professional category, and they go FAST.

Make sure that you get your badge here.

See You on the Croisette

Stage 32 is proud to be your home for industry education, global networking, and real-world opportunity—and there’s no place that embodies that spirit more than Cannes.

Let us know in the comments if you’re attending this year. Who’s headed to Cannes 2026? Let’s connect—and let’s make it a festival to remember.

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 .

Black Bear is now selling their own films. XYZ is financing their own slate. Voltage acquired The Exchange to play in a bigger sandbox and financing bigger budgets. The old separation between money and distribution is fading. How you get your movie to an audience has become almost as important as the movie itself.

With that in mind, the central question every financier is asking right now is simple: who will watch this? And increasingly, the answer depends less on genre or format, and more on who's in it, who's directing it, and whether it has the firepower to cut through the noise.

For independent producers, that has a painful consequence: if you don't have major talent driving pre-sales, your sales estimates are shrinking. And yet agencies won't let you attach their clients until you have financing in place.

The conundrum is as old as Hollywood and as frustrating as ever: you need talent to get financed, but you need financing to attach talent.

The workaround? Build relationships with producers, directors, and casting directors who can get to talent before the money is in place…or find a financier willing to back the vision early. Neither is easy. Both are possible.

With a rapidly changing distribution landscape, new sales companies are emerging almost monthly but for every A24 or Neon that breaks through, there are cautionary tales of rapid failure. Marketing and distributing a film independently has never been more expensive, and the shelf life of a release has never been shorter.

But here's what's opening up: Online community-building, audience aggregation, and fan-driven demand are tools that independent producers have barely begun to explore and the possibilities are genuinely unlimited. The producers who figure out how to bring crowds together before a film is made will have a significant edge over those still playing the old game.

The distribution landscape is being rewritten in real time. The independent producers who adapt fastest will be the ones who thrive.

This Week in the Writers' Room

Exclusive Pitch Tank with Janice Lee- Wednesday, April 29th at 4:00 pm PT

This week's Pitch Tank features Janice Lee — former Netflix executive behind 13 films including THE KISSING BOOTH 2 & 3, LOOK BOTH WAYS, and NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE, and most recently VP of Film Production and Development at Fifth Season (SEVERANCE, THE NIGHT MANAGER). Janice has developed and produced films across every budget level and genre — from $7M horror to global YA franchises — and she reads every pitch with a clear understanding of what gets a feature concept greenlit, cast, and made. Bring your feature pitch, come watch others pitch, or simply come to learn.

If you would like to join the Writers’ Room, access weekly events, submit to dozens of open writing assignments, and attend exclusive pitch tanks with industry executives- click HERE to accept my offer for a free month!

This Week’s Exciting Announcements!

For the last 12 years, Stage 32 has been an official education partner of the Cannes Marché du Film. And those who have attended Cannes over the last decade know that the Stage 32 Cannes Meetup has become one of the most anticipated and talked-about gatherings of the entire festival. It’s where real connections are made, collaborations begin, and the global creative community comes together in a meaningful way.

This year, we’re excited to bring that experience to a new home.

For 2026, the Stage 32 Cannes Meetup will be held as part of our Stage 32 Pop-Up Bar Event: RB & Gary’s Brown Sugar, where we’ll be taking over the iconic Brown Sugar Gastro Pub for the full weekend. Located in the heart of Cannes on the Carré d’Or, Brown Sugar is one of the festival’s most well-known and beloved gathering spots, making it the perfect setting to combine the magic of Cannes with the magic of Stage 32.

Click here to RSVP and see our full list of events!

Congratulations to César Sanchis Romero — a screenwriter from Valencia, Spain, whose work sits at the intersection of identity, culture, and the human search for meaning. With a sharp psychological lens and deeply character-driven narratives, César crafts stories that challenge perspectives and resonate on an emotional level — exploring how people adapt, transform, and define themselves against the forces shaping modern life.

He brings six completed, professionally revised feature screenplays to the table, all translated into English and available with full dossiers. His work has earned international recognition — and a maturity that comes from years of living, reading, and closely observing the world before ever putting pen to page.

Click here to connect with César and say "Congrats!"

This Week In The Stage 32 Community!

Access is one of the biggest barriers in this industry. Getting in front of the right agent. Knowing when you’re ready. Understanding what actually makes someone stand out in a crowded field.

Right now in the Screenwriting Lounge, we have a rare opportunity to cut through that uncertainty. Stage 32 Thought Leader and UK agent Christina Pickworth is hosting a live Ask Me Anything, and she’s opening the door to exactly those conversations writers are usually trying to have behind closed doors.

Christina is the founder of Imagine Talent and has spent years representing writers and directors, building careers, and identifying the voices that break through. She’s also deeply involved in nurturing emerging talent through initiatives like the WFTV Writers’ Group and the Kay Mellor Screenwriting Lab.

And for the next 24 hours, she’s answering your questions directly. This is the kind of access that can shift your perspective quickly. Not because there’s a single “right” answer to getting representation, but because you’re hearing firsthand how an agent evaluates talent, what catches their attention, and what makes them lean in or pass.

If you’ve ever wondered:

When is the right time to approach representation?
What actually makes a writer stand out?
What mistakes might be holding you back?

This is where you ask.

These are the conversations that move you forward. The ones that replace guesswork with insight and give you a clearer sense of where you are and what your next step should be. Jump into the AMA, ask your questions, and take advantage of the opportunity to engage directly with someone who is actively working in the space you’re trying to break into.

Click here to join the conversation!

Need help navigating the industry? Contact success@stage32.com

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 .

Filmmakers, both seasoned professionals and aspiring creators, are frequently approached by individuals or entities offering funding opportunities that appear too good to be true. These offers often come from sources shrouded in mystery, lacking any tangible online presence or verifiable track record in the industry. While the allure of easy financing may be tempting, it's crucial for filmmakers to exercise caution and prioritize transparency in their financial dealings.

Navigating The Investor Landscape

Transparency serves as a cornerstone of trust and accountability in any business transaction, and film finance is no exception. When engaging with potential investors, filmmakers should seek out partners who are willing to provide clear and comprehensive information!

Information that should be easily identified:

• Details about the individual's background
• Specifics about their previous projects
• What their investment criteria are

A legitimate financier should have a documented history of funding films and be willing to provide references or examples of their work.

Common Red Flags

In today's digital age, the absence of an online footprint can raise significant red flags. With the vast majority of legitimate businesses maintaining some form of online presence, individuals or companies that operate in secrecy should be approached with skepticism. A lack of transparency not only undermines trust but also leaves filmmakers vulnerable to potential scams or fraudulent schemes.

One telltale sign of an illegitimate financing opportunity is any request for upfront payment or "legal deposits." Reputable investors do not require filmmakers to pay for the privilege of accessing financing. Any such demand should be met with immediate suspicion, and filmmakers should distance themselves from such offers.

If this kind of offer is sent to you here on Stage 32, you should reach out to support@stage32.com to report that person's account immediately!

Do Your Due Diligence

Moreover, filmmakers should conduct thorough due diligence before entering into any financial agreements. This includes researching the background of potential investors, seeking advice from industry professionals, and carefully reviewing all terms and conditions outlined in financing agreements. Transparency should extend beyond initial negotiations and remain a guiding principle throughout the duration of the collaboration and filmmaking process.

By prioritizing transparency in film finance, filmmakers can safeguard their creative projects and protect themselves from potential exploitation. Transparent financing arrangements not only foster trust between investors and filmmakers but also contribute to a healthier and more sustainable film industry ecosystem.

In conclusion, transparency is paramount in film finance, and filmmakers should approach potential investors with a discerning eye. Legitimate financiers should be forthcoming with information about their backgrounds, track records, and investment criteria. Any signs of secrecy or opacity should serve as warning signals, prompting filmmakers to proceed with caution. By prioritizing transparency and conducting thorough due diligence, filmmakers can navigate the complex landscape of film finance with confidence and integrity.

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 .

As many of you know, Stage 32 is proud to be returning for our 12th year as the official Education Partner of the Cannes Marché du Film, and every year we look closely at how the market is evolving so we can better prepare you to take advantage of the opportunities in front of you.

This year, the evolution is undeniable.

The Marché is not just growing, it’s transforming. And at the center of that transformation are two major developments that will directly impact how you do business on the ground in Cannes: the newly reimagined Cinando features and the expansion of Village Innovation.

If you attended our recent How to Navigate Cannes webinar with Executive Director Guillaume Esmiol, you heard firsthand how these changes are designed to make the market more accessible, more efficient, and more aligned with where the industry is heading. And if you missed it, I highly recommend watching it on-demand here before you arrive:

Click here to watch it now!

Let’s break down what this means for you…

Cinando Has Been Rebuilt to Enhance How You Navigate the Market

If you’ve been to Cannes before, you already know that Cinando plays an important role as part of the Marché experience. It’s a tool many professionals use on the ground to look up companies, track projects, and stay organized as they move through a very busy, very fast-paced market.

In 2026, Cinando is entering a new phase with a full rebuild designed to make that experience more intuitive and efficient while you’re at the festival.

The platform has been streamlined with a cleaner interface, more precise search functionality, and easier navigation across profiles, companies, and projects. One of the most practical updates is that it’s now fully optimized for mobile, which makes it much more useful in real time as you’re moving between meetings, screenings, and events throughout the day.

What’s particularly helpful is how some of the new features support discovery within the context of the market itself.

For example, the new Discover feature highlights curated profiles, companies, and projects, which can be a useful way to surface relevant people and opportunities you may want to look into while planning your schedule or filling gaps between meetings.

Cinando is also expanding to better reflect how the industry is evolving. It now includes professionals across television, streaming, and immersive content, which can help you get a broader view of who is active in the space and where different types of projects are landing.

Another key update is the integration of the Marché’s digital experience directly into the platform.

Through the Market Environment by Cinando, you’ll be able to access screenings, conference content, and market-related information in one centralized place. Whether you’re attending in person or following along remotely, this creates a more organized way to keep track of what’s happening throughout the market.

And when paired with your preparation, your outreach, and the relationships you’re building here on Stage 32, it becomes part of a much larger strategy for making the most of your time at the Marché. It helps you stay organized and informed in the moment. While the connections you’re building and nurturing within this Stage 32 community give you a place to continue those conversations, follow up, and turn introductions into real opportunities long after the market wraps.

Village Innovation Is Expanding

The second major development you need to know about is the continued expansion of Village Innovation, which is quickly becoming one of the most dynamic and forward-thinking areas of the Marché.

Returning to the Village International with an even larger footprint, this space is designed as a hub where creativity and technology intersect. And in 2026, it’s bigger, more interactive, and more immersive than ever.

At the center of it all is the largest virtual production demo stage ever presented at a film market. This is not theoretical. This is hands-on access to the tools and workflows that are actively reshaping how films are made today.

You’ll also find a curated program of conferences, dedicated office spaces for tech companies and startups, and a terrace specifically designed for networking. In other words, it’s not just a place to observe innovation, it’s a place to engage with it and meet the people building it.

Beyond the Village itself, the Marché is expanding its innovation programming across the board.

The Immersive Market is growing, now hosted at the Carlton Hotel, with new demo spaces designed for large-scale, shared audience experiences. The AI for Talent Summit is returning with a deeper focus on real-world applications, ethics, and education. And for the first time, the Marché will introduce a Creator Economy Summit, exploring how digital creators and traditional filmmaking are converging in powerful new ways.

All of this points to a bigger truth: The industry is evolving rapidly, and Cannes is not just reflecting that change, it is leading it.

What This Means for You

If you are attending Cannes this year, these updates are not just interesting; they are actionable.

Cinando is now your command center. It’s how you’ll find contacts, track opportunities, and navigate the market more efficiently than ever before.

Village Innovation is where you go to understand where the industry is heading next, and to meet the creatives and companies who are shaping that future.

Can’t Wait To See You There!

Cannes has always been about opportunity. But in 2026, the way you access that opportunity is evolving. The more prepared you are to use these tools and engage with these spaces, the more you will get out of your experience.

We will continue to share updates, insights, and opportunities as we get closer to the market, so stay tuned here on the Stage 32 Blog!

If you haven’t already, make sure you watch the Stage 32 Navigating Cannes webinar on-demand. It will give you the context and strategy you need to make all of this work for you.

And if you missed our Cannes Roll Call Blog with our full schedule of panels, events, and partnerships, you can catch up by clicking here!

See you on the Croisette!

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 Variety- How 'One Battle After Another' Shot the Car Chase Scene Like a Gritty '70s Film. Cinematographer Michael Bauman breaks down how they blended the richness of VistaVision with the rough, kinetic energy of films like The French Connection. But what stands out immediately is how intentional every creative choice was.

They were solving a very specific challenge: how do you create a visually rich, large-format image while still preserving that chaotic, handheld, on-the-ground feeling that made those older films so immersive? The answer came through a combination of constraint, experimentation, and commitment to doing things practically.

They scouted a location with rolling hills that allowed cars to disappear and reappear, building tension through geography alone. They mounted cameras just inches from the road to exaggerate speed. They used long lenses to compress distance and create visual pressure between vehicles. And they pushed a camera system far beyond what it was originally designed to do, strapping it to moving rigs and running massive amounts of film through it under intense conditions.

All of it in service of one thing, making the audience feel something. That’s really the takeaway here. It’s not about the gear or even about the technique; it’s about intention.

Every decision, from where the camera sits to how the cars move through the frame, is rooted in story, tension, and emotion. Even the inclusion of unexpected character beats within the action, moments of vulnerability and humanity, gives the sequence weight beyond spectacle.

This idea of intention, clarity, and emotional connection carries directly into something I talk about all the time when it comes to pitching your work. Because just like a great sequence needs purpose behind every shot, a great pitch needs purpose behind every word.

One of the biggest mistakes I see is that writers jump into the story before grounding the person they are pitching. You have to remember, you are not pitching to a machine. You are pitching to a human being. And before they can invest in your story, they need to understand what they are hearing and why it matters. That means starting with clarity: What is the title? What is the genre? Is it a feature or a series?

You would be surprised how many pitches get all the way to the end, and the person listening is still trying to figure out what they just heard. Once you establish that, you have an opportunity to do something even more important: you create a human connection.

If your concept allows for it, you can open with something relatable. A universal question, a shared experience, something that makes the person on the other side lean in and say, “I understand this. I feel this.” That connection is what pulls them into the story.

From there, everything else needs to be tight, focused, and intentional.

• Who is your protagonist?
• What is the central conflict?
• What is the inciting incident that sets everything in motion?
• What are the obstacles standing in their way?

You can introduce a few supporting characters, but only in the context of how they impact the main character’s journey. Are they helping? Are they getting in the way? Are they raising the stakes?

That’s it. You do not need to explain every beat. You do not need to walk someone through your outline. The goal of your pitch is not to tell the entire story. The goal is to get them to read the script.

And the way you do that is the same way Bauman and his team built that car chase sequence, by focusing on what actually creates engagement, tension, and emotion.

When you’re sharing your work, whether it’s a pitch, a script, or even a conversation, what do you find most challenging: clearly explaining your idea, or making that emotional connection that pulls people in? Let’s talk about it in the comments.

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

Variety | How 'One Battle After Another' Shot the Car Chase Scene Like a Gritty '70s Film

RBWalksIntoABar | What Beats Should Be in Your Pitch?

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’ve spent months (maybe years) perfecting your screenplay. You’ve revised, proofread, and maybe even gotten feedback from a few friends. But when it comes time to get someone in the industry to actually read your script? Crickets.

The truth is, getting your screenplay into the hands of the right people is one of the hardest parts of this business. But there are often some common mistakes that hold great scripts back. Let’s break down three of them, and how you can overcome them with the tools and community support available to you right here on Stage 32.

Your Concept Isn’t Clear or Marketable Enough

Executives and reps read loglines all day long. If your concept doesn’t stand out or clearly communicate what kind of story it is, they may pass without ever opening the script. Remember, it’s not just about a good story, it’s about a sellable one.

Fix It:

• Take a hard look at your logline. Does it highlight the hook? Is the genre clear? Does it spark curiosity?
• Post your logline on your Stage 32 profile. It will automatically appear on the Stage 32 Loglines Page, found under the “Browse” tab at the top of every Stage 32 page. This feature allows you to: share your logline publicly, offer and receive feedback from fellow creatives, explore other loglines to see what’s working, and fine-tune your concept with real-time support from the community.
• Book a Career Development Call with a Stage 32 executive to get honest, industry-level feedback on your project ideas, your goals, and your next steps as a creative professional. Sometimes, one conversation can save you months of frustration.
• Still refining your idea? Post your logline in the Screenwriting Lounge to gather first impressions and constructive thoughts from fellow writers and professionals. The community is supportive, honest, and filled with working writers who’ve been there.

Your First 10 Pages Aren’t Grabbing Anyone

You’ve probably heard this before... if you don’t hook the reader in the first 10 pages, they won’t keep going. But what does that really mean? It’s not just about avoiding typos or formatting mistakes. It’s about pulling the reader into your world immediately with clear stakes, sharp structure, and characters they can connect with.

Fix It:

• Get a First 10 Pages Review from a trusted Stage 32 executive. These aren’t just proofreading sessions they’re deep, constructive reads that focus on storytelling, pacing, character, and whether or not your opening pages are working hard enough to earn a full read.
• Practice writing killer openers by joining in on the Tuesday Writing Exercises in the Writer's Room Lounge or start one of your own in the Screenwriting Lounge! This can help you strengthen your storytelling from the very first line with peer feedback and support.

Start by building your foundation in the Stage 32 Writer’s Room, where you can:

• Participate in the Monday Night Coverage Report to strengthen your opening and get feedback on your first act.
• Ask direct questions to working professionals during Wednesday Webcast Executive Hours, an exclusive Q&A live on Zoom.
• Post in the Writer’s Room Lounge to get thoughts and support from fellow writers who are going through the same process.
• Drop into Live Writer Cafes on Zoom throughout the week for feedback, community, and accountability.

You can get your first month of the Writer's Room entirely free by clicking HERE.

You’re Submitting Before Your Script Is Ready

We get it, hitting “Fade Out” feels like crossing the finish line. But if you rush to send your script out before it’s truly ready, you risk burning bridges or missing out on the chance to make a real impression. That first read is everything, and you don’t want it to be the last because the project wasn’t fully cooked.

Fix It:

• Take a breath and build a strategy. Stage 32 Education has dozens of on-demand webinars and multi-part classes taught by top executives and working writers covering everything from rewriting to pitching, packaging, and development. Use these tools to tighten your script and sharpen your approach. The best part? Many of these classes and labs give you direct one-on-one access to the instructor, so you can get personalized feedback and guidance tailored to your project.
• Want industry-level insight? Book a script consultation with an executive through Stage 32 to get feedback not only on your script, but on how well your concept is positioned in the market. You can find Stage 32's consultations here.
• Thinking about entering a Stage 32 Contest? Read the submission guidelines closely and make sure your project fits the brief. Contest readers are looking for material that’s not just compelling, but also polished and aligned with what the market is asking for right now.
• Want ongoing support? Start your own Writer’s Group right from the Screenwriting Lounge. This is a great way to stay accountable, exchange feedback, and connect with like-minded creatives.
• Use the Stage 32 Meetup Page to schedule virtual table reads or regular peer review sessions. Hearing your work read aloud by actors or peers can unlock new layers of insight and highlight what’s working—and what’s not—faster than almost anything else.

Breaking in is hard, but you don’t have to do it alone. The difference between scripts that sit unread and scripts that open doors often comes down to a few key adjustments and the willingness to ask for help.

The good news? Every resource you need to make your script read-worthy is right here in the Stage 32 community. Whether it’s feedback, education, or just someone to keep you motivated, this community was built to help you succeed.

What’s one obstacle that’s held you back from getting your script read, and what’s one step you can take today to move past it?

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 .

Later, I learned that a piece of the engine had been propelled through the bodywork and had missed me by inches. A road worker who had seen the whole thing ran over and told me not to worry - he had called an ambulance. I thanked him, and as I sat waiting for it to arrive, pondered on the irony that in a few hours I would be back on set directing… another car crash. This time it would be fake.

Behind the Scenes "Day of the Clones"

Lesson One: Look for the Positives

My journey began four months earlier. After our first feature – the vampire-in-social-care film “Boy #5” - wrapped and editing was completed, we had a problem. This was August 2020, the middle of the UK’s pandemic. Cinemas had all shut down due to Covid-19. Worse, offices were abandoned. So our progress on securing distribution hit a brick wall.

Fortunately, we had a solution! Thanks to the UK’s Covid Regulations, filmmaking was exempt. We had all our own equipment, and I still had some funds left over from our last film, which I made for under $10,000. Why not use the time to make another film?

Then it hit me (no car this time). I had a script I’d been working on for a few years – a post-apocalyptic sci-fi called “Day of the Clones”. And I had an idea about how to make it unique. I discussed it with our editor and we decided that it was indeed possible.

The script was designed for low-budget filmmaking. It had a contained location, a very small cast, and a unique hook. Since my bustling home city of Manchester was now like a ghost town, I planned dozens of eerie shots involving a modern city centre devoid of people and traffic. It seemed a perfect opportunity, one that would never come again!

Make it so!

We began casting from our pool of extremely talented local actors. We also got a named actor from British TV. We secured a remote farmhouse, and through my family, we borrowed an empty flat that would serve as the farmhouse interiors. Our third location was a pub owned by one of our actors. The pub, of course, was closed. We assembled a crew from those we had worked with in the past – a tight squad of just ten people. That would help manage the covid-19 risk. Come December 2020, we were go!

We also put together a crowdfunding campaign – using my less-than-stellar computing skills – offering what I thought were pretty good perks in exchange for funding from the public. I publicized it extensively.

And this is when things started to go wrong.

The crowdfunder secured some funds – that we are eternally grateful for – but not enough. I had sold my house to pay for our first film. It was time to use the rest of those funds. I told myself it would be worth it. However, nothing concentrates the mind like spending your own money!

Or it would have... if we could have spent it. But mere days before we were to film, the government announced another total lockdown. All the stores closed. The only thing we could buy was food. Fortunately, I had just enough props and costumes. But this meant we had no backups of anything. In fact, quite a bit of the wardrobe that appears in the film is my own.

Days before filming were due to begin, we lost our AD and our DIT expert for various reasons. Minor problems, I told myself. We still had plenty of crew. And once the shooting date was set, it was too late to back out... the die was cast.

We were a go!

By now it was December… which meant winter. Cue the coldest four months of my entire life as we stood outside in sub-zero temperatures for hours on end, huddling around two electric heaters whenever we could. The farm was a nightmare of mud, horse manure, and junk. Anything that touched the ground became mired in muck. Worse, in our indoor location, the heating broke down. As for the pub, it was an icebox. When the snow came, I honestly thought nobody would turn up for work.

The second day we were due to film on the farm (our main location) the owner texted us to say he had changed his mind. He pulled out with zero warning. Cut to me rescheduling till three a.m. In view of the weather, I saw this as a positive thing, because it meant I didn’t have to go there anymore. The cast and crew must have been just as relieved because they actually turned up as well!

Lesson Two: It Sucks to be the Writer, Director, AND Producer

Sadly, by now tensions had risen on set between some of the cast and crew. These spats had now become full-blown screaming matches. Perhaps it was the cold, or Covid, or the ridiculously long hours. But (for reasons I can’t go into) we had to negotiate a last-minute change of plans that saw an actor’s part drastically rewritten. Cue yet more three a.m. rewrites after a full day of filming.

The next day, we lost three more members of the crew. The atmosphere on set was not pleasant.

Cue several more midnight conferences between myself and my co-producer as we desperately tried to put the wheel back on. Also, cue more three a.m. rewrites by yours truly. And more rescheduling.

Behind the Scenes "Day of the Clones"

But we were still rolling. Sheer idiocy stopped me from calling it a day. Because I knew that if we stopped filming, we would never start again. We had to keep going, no matter what.

We also didn’t know what was going to happen with Covid. Would the law change and stop us from filming altogether? We reminded ourselves that we would never get another opportunity like this– a full city solely at our disposal! And my co-producer had my back. Together, we were an unstoppable team.

Lesson Three: Keep Telling Yourself – you are an Unstoppable Team!

Yeah, that whole unstoppable team thing? Turns out my co-producer’s wife was heavily pregnant and didn’t know it. So pregnant, in fact, that she had her baby in the middle of the shoot. Fortunately, after hurried phone calls and much negotiating, we now had a replacement crew. We kept going, and the actors’ kept the faith with us. We were back on track!

The next week we lost an entire day’s filming.

SD cards are the bane of my life. And incorrectly formatted SD cards that decide to malfunction only at the very end of a day’s shooting are the bane of that bane. Luckily, we didn’t lose anything irreplaceable. So we did what anyone would. We lied about it. Sorry, cast and crew if you’re hearing about this for the first time! (Now all those reshoots make sense, eh?)

Behind the Scenes "Day of the Clones"

Lesson Four: Animals Don’t Take Direction

We then prepared to film one of our showcase set pieces – a horse in the middle of the city that gets lost during the apocalypse. We smuggled the animal into town on a trailer, closed off the streets (we had no authority to do this, by the way), and identified a back street where our horse could roam with importunity.

Unfortunately, due to a lack of communication with our new cameraman, we did not get exactly what we wanted. We checked the footage and were not impressed. The answer was simple: reshoots!

We rang the horse’s owner to be told the horse had died.

Sadly, it had become the victim of thoughtless passers-by, who fed it a whole potato, not realizing that horses are only supposed to eat horse food. He has since become the subject of an international campaign to educate people about the dangers of feeding farm animals. So if you see a horse in a field, please don’t feed it.

We picked ourselves up and moved on, knowing that at least we had some footage.

Lesson Five: Choose Good Partners

If you like to sleep, do not become a director. After a solid month of filming (even between Christmas and New Year) I discovered that apparently, the human body can get through on three hours of sleep a night.

But by now we had no possibility of reshoots due to departed actors and horses, it was still freezing cold, we had rewritten the entire third act of the screenplay, lost our co-producer (and main cinematographer), and now had the prospect of doing all the special effects and stunt sequences with only a skeleton cast and crew.

At this point, I began to question my own sanity.

My family were saying things like: “If it’s that difficult maybe you should just quit.” One day I sat eating my microwaved meal in our empty pub, shivering with cold, knowing that we had less than five hours of daylight per day and that we were about to embark on the most difficult part of the movie. I began to wonder if they were right. I had only spent around £10,000 so far. Maybe I should quit while I was ahead.

Then my co-producer came back, his fatherly duties reduced so that he could spend a few days a week on set again. We talked it over and decided to keep going. The footage was looking good, he assured me. Now it was his turn to give me a pep talk!

This is not a business for the faint of heart. Sometimes you have to fake confidence even if you’re dying inside. Filmmaking is a people business. I say this as someone who absolutely hates networking. You can’t make a film alone. This is why you must surround yourself with positive, enthusiastic people who can help make your dream a reality. A set can be a pressure cooker of stress and tension – every minute wasted is a loss of time, money, and more importantly, light. A negative person with no enthusiasm can bring everyone down. They can literally halt production. Thankfully, my co-producer was on hand to pick me up in my hour of need. So I sucked up my soul-crushing sense of impending doom and just got on with it.

Lesson Six: Improvise, Improvise, Improvise!

We learned early on: ask for forgiveness, not permission. Now I wouldn’t advise anyone to break the law. But if you wait for permits and documentation you will wait forever. Although we always did risk assessments, we did numerous things we really shouldn’t have done. However, we always got police clearance when filming with guns, figuring that a dead actor is worth nothing to anybody.

It also helps that I worked in the emergency services for twelve years and my co-producer was a nightclub bouncer. So between us, we could handle the irate locals screaming at us because we were filming with guns in busy streets, or the crowds of street kids harassing our cameraman during a roadblock scene on a council estate. We got our shots of the city skyline at the same time that a security guard was trying to throw us off the roof of a multi-story car park. And one of our proudest achievements came in a shopping mall where we did a “flash mob” of dead bodies before the security guards even knew what was going on.

All the challenges now were technical. How were we supposed to film a major battle in a post-apocalyptic wasteland in the backyard of a pub?

The way we filmed these SFX scenes is about as far removed from Hollywood as you can imagine. We used a smoke machine with straws, a DIY squib made from a lawn sprayer, and plastic tubing. We used a flashing bicycle light and some homemade lights for electricity sparking inside a robot. Our robot’s head was a Paper Mache mask that kept melting – we only got about one hour out of it before it went completely soggy – and we had to constantly make new ones. I will spare the blushes of one of our actresses about where she had to stick her head in order to keep the robot upright on camera.

Sometimes I still get cold shivers at the memory of the hours I spent building the miniature helicopter that appears in glorious full-size at the end of our film. It has given me a hatred of plastic model kits – the parts were microscopic, and it kept constantly breaking whenever it was touched. To give you an idea of my mental state, I went to work one morning after slicing my finger open while making it. An actress looked at me funnily and pointed out that I had put a bandage on the wrong finger.

Sometimes our efforts fell flat - spraying blood is almost invisible at night, and the never-ending traffic was a nightmare both for sound and when trying to film post-apocalyptic scenes (in one shot a bus parked up in front of our actors for ten minutes). We had to ADR a section of the film so there would be no honking car horns or car stereos in our post-apocalyptic future. We may have also accidentally showered a passer-by in fake blood when our homemade squib device malfunctioned and sent blood jetting over a ten-foot high wall… sorry, blood-soaked guy.

There were plenty more mishaps that I can’t go into here for lack of space or the certainty of legal action.

Screen grab from "Day of the Clones"

Lesson Seven: Keep going!

By now we were running solely on a mixture of dogged determination and stupidity. Come February, we had exhausted three makeup artists. Not to worry, one of our actors could do makeup! No AD? Don’t worry, the director will just run around like a loopy headless chicken. Everyone got a turn at playing the robot behind his mask, operating the squib machine, clapping, and recording continuity. We were on our fifth camera operator, our second robot, our third electric heater, our second tent, our second microphone, our replacement car, our second microwave oven…

Still, we kept going.

Finally, after 32 days of filming, we wrapped. The next week the UK plunged into a heatwave. It was one of the warmest spring days on record. It felt like the weather was laughing at us.

I now sit here, older but perhaps not wiser, watching the film as it is edited. In many ways, this is the most challenging part. But we have a terrific editor who can interpret even my scrawled notes.

I have probably lost about five years of my life. But there are many things to be thankful for: the magpie we found eating a dead rat; the day we woke to find dense fog had covered everything, lending the scenes a fantastic dreamlike quality; the day snow fell; the abandoned city centre buildings we found with eerie vegetation growing out of them; our fabulous prosthetic fake leg injury (until an accident destroyed it); some genuinely emotional moments from our actors; and of course, we still have our most impressive visual effect, which we accomplished using a 20-foot long green screen.

“Day of the Clones” shows an impossible side to the city I have grown up in. It gives me an immense feeling of pride. We made a sci-fi feature film during a pandemic lockdown! As my co-producer said: what else would we have been doing?

Have I learned anything? Sure, loads about filmmaking. But have I learned anything about life? Probably not, except that you have to keep going, no matter what. And don’t let anyone tell you it can’t be done. The world needs more films. Sure, a healthy dose of insanity helps. Honestly, I hope never to go through anything as gruelling again. But I would if I had to. I think we have something unique here, and in that sense alone it was worth it.

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 .

In just a few short weeks, the global film community will once again gather on the Croisette for one of the most important, electric, and opportunity-filled events in our industry, the Cannes Film Festival and the Marché du Film.

And this year marks something special for us at Stage 32. We are proud to be returning for our 12th year as the official Education Partner of the Cannes Marché du Film.

For over a decade, we have worked side by side with the Marché to help educate, connect, and empower creatives from all over the world. From exclusive panels and workshops to partnerships, events, and on-the-ground activations, Stage 32 continues to bring our global community directly into the heart of the festival and market.

And as always, we are showing up in a big way.

To help you prepare, we recently hosted our Navigating Cannes webinar with Marché du Film Executive Director Guillaume Esmiol, giving you a direct, inside look at how to approach the festival strategically, how the market works, and how to make the most of your time on the ground.

If you missed it live, or want to revisit it before you land in France, you can now watch it for FREE on-demand by clicking here!

Consider this your pre-game strategy session.

Because Cannes is not just a festival, it is a marketplace, a networking hub, and for many of you, a potential turning point.

If you are attending Cannes:

In the comments section below, let's start the official ROLL CALL. We (and the producers and executives we work with, who will be at the fest) are specifically interested in knowing:

• What dates will you be attending?
• What brings you to Cannes?
• What projects do you have screening or are you bringing to the market?
• Are you planning on attending any workshops or events? If so, which ones?
• What are your goals during the Cannes Film Festival?
• Do you have a film screening at the festival? Let us know in the comments section below!

If you are NOT attending Cannes (and, if you WILL be attending):

Stop what you're doing right now, pick up your phone, and go follow @rbwalksintoabar and @stage32 on Instagram and @rbwalksintoabar and @stage32 on X. We will be LIVE storying and posting during the entire festival. We're thrilled to bring you to the film industry's largest festival in the world!

We look forward to hearing from you!

RB

THE OFFICIAL STAGE 32 SCHEDULE

And, in true Stage 32 style, we’ll be taking the Croisette by storm with an action-packed lineup of events and partnerships at the festival, including:

Stage 32 + the Cannes Film Festival Marche du Film Official Education Partnership

For a decade, Stage 32 has been a proud education partner of the Marché du Film. Anyone who purchases a Marche du Film badge will get a free Stage 32 webinar with their badge purchase.

If you are planning on attending Cannes, be sure to watch our exclusive webinar with Guillaume Esmiol, the Executive Director of the Cannes Film Festival Marche du Film + Stage 32’s Managing Director, Amanda Toney, here - it is FREE to watch.

Thursday, May 14th- 4:00 pm - Palais Main Stage

Panel: Building Collective Power:

How women across the Industry shape influence in Film | Presented by Yes She Cannes in partnership with E2AC

Bringing together women working across the film industry, this panel explores how each is building their own pathway to influence, from education and community to storytelling and industry leadership, offering real insight into shaping your own path in film.

Moderator: Faith Elizabeth, CEO & Founder of Yes She Cannes, Director/Producer of Faithful Films

Panelists:

• Amanda Toney, Managing Director, Stage 32
• Sara Hamilton, Head of Global Partnerships & Impact Strategy, E2ACxGreenlit
• Guneet Monga Kapoor, CEO & Producer, Sikhya Entertainment, Founder of WIF India
• Maria Hundsnes-Shevtsova, Co-Founder and VP, DISAUTHORITY

Partnered with: Entertainment to Affect Change

Entertainment 2 Affect Change (E2AC) is a non-profit organisation producing impact-driven film, digital, and live content. It collaborates with creators and partners to develop stories that entertain, engage, educate, and inspire, supporting underserved health and social communities.

To RSVP: Click Here!

Saturday, May 16th- 3:00 pm - FilmUSA Pavilion

Panel: The Industry Reset - How Independent Films are Getting Made in 2026

The market has shifted and the rules have changed. Cannes Palme d’or nominated producers, filmmakers, and talent break down what’s actually selling, how films are getting financed, and what’s moving the needle globally. Get real insight into today’s film economy - and what it takes to get projects made now.

Moderator: Amanda Toney, Stage 32

Panelists:

• Daniel Bekerman, Oscar and Cannes Palme d’or Nominated Producer
• Tiffany Boyle, Cannes Palme d’or Nominated Producer and President, Packaging & Sales, Ramo Law
• Richard “RB” Botto, Producer, Screenwriter, CEO, Stage 32
• Tonia Sotiropoulou, Actor (SKYFALL:007), Producer

To RSVP: Click Here!

Sunday, May 17th- 6:00 pm - RB & Gary’s Brown Sugar - Cannes Takeover

Event: Annual Stage 32 Networking Meetup!

Those who have attended Cannes over the last decade know that the Stage 32 Cannes Meetup has become one of the most anticipated and talked-about gatherings of the entire festival. Last year, we had almost 1,000 people attend! It’s where real connections are made, collaborations begin, and the global creative community comes together in a meaningful way.

Our meetup has gotten so big that we needed our own space, so this year, our crazy fearless leader RB has taken over an ENTIRE BAR in Cannes, and we’re excited to bring that experience to you!

For 2026, the Official Stage 32 Cannes Meetup will be held as part of our Stage 32 Takeover Bar Event:

We’ll be taking over the iconic Brown Sugar Gastro Pub from Saturday to Tuesday and it will be called RB and Gary’s Brown Sugar for the full weekend. Located in the heart of Cannes on the Carré d’Or, Brown Sugar is one of the festival’s most well-known and beloved gathering spots, making it the perfect setting to combine the magic of Cannes with the magic of Stage 32.

We couldn’t be prouder to partner with Brown Sugar's owner, Gary, to create an unforgettable experience for our community. Make sure to follow Gary on X here, as he has some really cool Cannes related stuff he’ll be sharing!

Join Stage 32 Founder & CEO Richard “RB” Botto, Managing Director Amanda Toney, and Head of Community Ashley Smith, along with creatives and industry professionals from around the world, for an evening of connection, conversation, and opportunity.

We hope you’ll join us for an unforgettable night in Cannes!

Time: 6:00pm – 8:00pm local Cannes time

Location: RB & Gary’s Brown Sugar

Le Carré d’Or

17 Rue des Frères Pradignac

06400 Cannes, France

Open to festival badge holders and non-badge holders alike, as this location is outside of the restricted attendees-only space.

To RSVP: Click Here!

Monday, May 18th, 12:00 pm- 10:00 pm - La Muse Restaurant

Event: The Impact Lounge!

For 2026, Stage 32 is proud to partner with the Impact Lounge who will host an all-day activation during the festival on Monday, May 18th. This activation will take place on the waterfront, just 5 minutes from the famous La Pizza at La Muse restaurant and patio. With room for 75 inside for panels and an equal number outside on the patio, we stay true to our roots of a gathering place for content, conversation, and connection.

The Impact Lounge is a networking and collaboration hub that convenes filmmakers, producers, creators, and global brands alongside leaders in corporate social responsibility, philanthropy, and social impact. Built to harness the power of film and culture to drive positive change, The Impact Lounge curates high-impact conversations, partnerships, and programming that elevate purpose-driven storytelling and help move projects from idea to audience.

To RSVP: Click Here!

About Our Partners:

Official Education Partner of Cannes Marché du Film!

The Cannes Film Festival can be overwhelming when you plan to attend for the first time. Over 15,000 film industry professionals head to Cannes each year to present and discover almost 4,000 films and projects in development at 31 screening venues.

Fueled by this success, the Marché has expanded with the opening of the Riviera and Lérins exhibition halls, forming a hub around the world-famous Palais des Festivals and the Village International, the number one venue for promoting films from all over the world. As a leading global film industry organization, the Marché du Film takes a rigorous approach in adapting to the expectations of industry professionals worldwide and to emerging economic, technological, and creative film trends.

FilmUSA, Alliance of USA Film Commissioners

Our mission is to maximize the economic benefits of the film industry in the USA by streamlining connections and information. Film USA is a national, non-profit trade organization of state and regional film commissions from across the USA under one umbrella to enhance the global competitiveness of the US film and TV industry, expand industry access, support global film partnerships, and promote domestic production. Film USA utilizes our member network of film commissioners to foster new business relationships, market our industry globally, and expand the worldwide presence of the US film and TV industry, thereby creating US employment and economic growth.

WOFF: World of Film International Festival

WOFF is Glasgow's annual independent film event held in October and currently in its ninth edition. Our main focus is to promote independent international cinema and new talent from Scotland, the UK, and beyond. Our aim is to bring local and Scottish audiences together with filmmakers, producers, artists, and cinema enthusiasts from all around the world, in an attempt to discover new talent, showcase their work, and generate ideas for future projects. WoFF is a non-profit organisation bringing audiences a step closer to international independent cinema and giving voice to young artists. In 2024, the WoFF aspires to bring more audiences, filmmakers, and industry professionals together, creating a platform to exchange ideas, showcase their work, and most importantly talk on film and new trends in the industry, women filmmakers of today, and independent film production in Europe, the, US and beyond.

Official Education Partner of Yes She Cannes!

Yes She Cannes is an organisation supporting women attending the Cannes Film Festival, delivering curated panels, events, and networking opportunities. Through its international She Squad community, it brings together creatives and industry professionals to foster connection, collaboration, and visibility during the festival.

Other great Cannes events hosted by Yes She Cannes this year:

Women in Genre: Building Global Alliances Panel at The Fantastic Pavilion

Yes She Cannes continues its collaboration with the Fantastic Pavilion, an integral and increasingly influential hub within the Marché du Film dedicated to advancing genre cinema through its programming, industry connections, and growing international presence.

Bringing together filmmakers, festivals, and industry voices from across the world, the Fantastic Pavilion is helping to shape the genre landscape at Cannes, creating space for collaboration, visibility, and industry connection.

Alongside this, Yes She Cannes is partnering with female-led genre festivals including the US-based Heidi Honeycutt from Etheria Film Festival, a platform dedicated to showcasing women working in genre film, and Sapna Bhavnani from India’s Wench Film Festival, which has established itself as a pioneering platform for horror and genre cinema in the region- expanding its international network and reflecting a growing alignment across women shaping the genre space globally.

Together, these partnerships reflect a growing global network supporting women in genre filmmaking- an area where access and visibility have historically been limited, but are now expanding through international collaboration.

The conversation explores how filmmakers are building creative power within the genre space- through the stories they tell, the paths they’ve taken, and the people and partnerships that have supported them along the way.

Moderator: Faith Elizabeth

Panelists include:

• Bloodstream TBC
• Joanne Mitchell (Director of Broken Bird, released April 2026)
• Kristina Klebe (Actress and Director of Noxturne)
• Lee Lawson (Actress and Director of MEP, won SWSX Jury award and nominated for 2026 Canadian Screen Award for Best Performance in a Live Action Short Drama for her role in Thin Walls)
• Sapna Bhavnani (celebrity hairstylist, director, and founder of the Wench Film Festival)

A cocktail reception at the Fantastic Pavilion will extend the conversation beyond the panel, creating space for connection between invited filmmakers, partners, and industry guests.

The Terrace: A Private Members Space for Building Practical Power

For 2026, Yes She Cannes introduces its private members’ terrace- an intentional space designed to bring members together through curated workshops, focused conversations, and a shared approach to navigating the festival.

The terrace programme begins with a Welcome Workshop, hosted in partnership with the Wellness Film Festival, where Dr Clare Anyiam-Osigwe B.E.M leads a clarity-focused reset to help members arrive and approach the festival with intention. From there, the programme unfolds through a series of Terrace Talks- small, roundtable-style conversations designed to offer direct access to industry insight across key areas of the business. These sessions are shaped in collaboration with partners working across the industry, creating space for open discussion around product placement, finance, PR, sales, and legal navigation.

Terrace Talks (4-part series)

Legal & Industry Navigation: With Atlanta Webster of Female Founder Legal, sharing practical guidance on contracts, rights, and decision-making across the UK industry.

Product Placement & Brand Integration: With Julia Savage (Managing Partner at Entertainment Marketing Group) and Deborah Hadfield (Queen Bee Films) sharing insight into brand partnerships and on-screen integration.

Finance & PR: With Luna Zhang, investor and executive producer, and Patricia Chica (Chicart PR), bringing together funding and visibility to explore how projects are positioned, financed, and brought to market.

Expand HIT - Empowering Workshop: Hosted by Daniela Scalia (multi-sport athlete, filmmaker, and Expand HIT coach) and Luca Tramontin ( international rugby player, lecturer, and expert in communication and sports psychology), with live demonstrations by Actress Cathy Coneff, using techniques from sports psychology and communication to build confidence, presence, and control under pressure at Cannes.

Member Moments

Members’ Cocktail - Hosted in collaboration with Film USA at the USA Pavilion

She Spotlight Interviews- Led by Foz O’Dowd, Stella Moss, and Coco’s Cannes, highlighting the work and journeys of women within the She Squad community.

“A Coffee With” Series in partnership with Alida Pantone (London Rolling Film Festival), - Featuring conversations with voices including Amanda Toney (Stage 32), and Sara Hamilton (E2AC) exploring pathways, experiences, and perspectives across the industry.

The Member’s Club!

The Members Club is back in Cannes on La Croisette for 2026 at La Plage du Festival. We open daily from 9am - 5pm from May 12th - May 22nd, with the last entry at 4:30 pm each day. Each membership is individual and allows you access with two guests at any one time, with no reserving of tables, but plenty of space.

The restaurant is open from 9am every day, with a dedicated team on hand to serve from breakfast to tiffin, offering a varied menu including Vegan options and catering to every dietary requirement, so you can relax and know we have you covered.

REGISTRATION FOR MEMBERSHIP IS OPEN NOW

Secure yours early and become a part of

THE MEMBERS CLUB 2026

Regular Fee: March 1st - May 1st

Late Rate: as of 2nd May (if available)

Apply for Members Club Consideration here!

The Impact Lounge!

The Impact Lounge stands out by combining over two decades of event production expertise with a heartfelt commitment to social impact and storytelling. Our strategic approach ensures that every convening is not just an event, but a catalyst for change. Whether you're a filmmaker seeking funding and distribution, a social good funder exploring new models, or a creative looking to connect and collaborate, The Impact Lounge is your home for inspiration and action. The Impact Lounge was founded on the belief that convenings can change the world. When the right people come together at the right moment to discuss and share ideas, synergy happens, and mountains move. Leveraging the expertise of Caspian Agency, a leader in creating strategic convenings for over 20 years.

Official Education Partner of the Association of Film Commissioners International!

Established in 1975, the Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI) stands as the only global non-profit professional organization (501c3) representing city, state, regional, provincial, and national film commission members across six continents. AFCI champions advocacy, connectivity, and education, empowering film commissions and industry stakeholders to drive economic growth, build robust infrastructure, and advance professional development. Additionally, AFCI provides essential guidance to emerging regions that are interested in establishing a film commission aligned with the recognized standards for a film office.

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 .

Today, we're watching behemoths like Bad Robot, Higher Ground and Monkeypaw navigate bruising renegotiations, lay off staff, and reckon with a simple, uncomfortable truth: one movie and a TV show a year cannot sustain 40 employees and lush offices in Beverly Hills.

But it's not all doom and gloom. As buyers focus on profitability to appease Wall Street, we are witnessing the decentralization of the creative pipeline. I believe it may be the most significant shift Hollywood has undergone since the 90s. As the traditional studio infrastructure pulls back, smaller, leaner, more agile production companies are rising. Not just across town, but across the world. The creative center of gravity is no longer a single zip code.

For many dealmakers, the deals of before have become something to mourn. I understand that. But let's be honest — many of these deals were golden handcuffs. Producers, directors, and writers found their best ideas buried under layers of studio mandates, committee notes, and corporate agendas that had nothing to do with great storytelling. The security was real. So was the creative suffocation.

Overall deals will always exist for major talent that studios simply cannot afford to lose. That isn't changing. But for everyone else, this moment is liberating.

The executives, producers, and creatives who will win in this new landscape are the ones who stop waiting for a studio to validate them and start building their own pipelines. The infrastructure exists. The global partnerships exist. And now, creatives can tap directly into audiences.

This Week in the Writers' Room

Exclusive Executive Hour with Thomas Vitale- Wednesday, April 22nd at 4:00 pm PT

This week's Executive Hour welcomes Thomas P. Vitale — founder of Vital Signs Entertainment, former EVP of Syfy and Chiller Network, and one of the most decorated genre executives and producers working in television and film today. Tom is the creative force behind 57 Seconds starring Morgan Freeman and Josh Hutcherson, Executive Producer on Shudder's critically acclaimed Slasher now heading into its sixth season, and the producer who turned a viral Twitter conversation into You Might Be the Killer — screened at over 15 film festivals worldwide. Before that, he spent years at NBCU overseeing more than 350 original films and developing or supervising genre landmarks including Battlestar Galactica, Farscape, Warehouse 13, Stargate, and the Emmy Award-winning Steven Spielberg Presents Taken — not to mention a little cultural phenomenon called Sharknado.

A WGA and PGA member with deep experience in international co-productions and global financing, Tom brings a perspective that is almost impossible to find in one room: writer, producer, and former network executive who has operated at every level of the genre world. If you write science fiction, fantasy, horror, or supernatural material — this is the masterclass Q&A you have been waiting for. Join us on Wednesday 4/22 at 4pm PT and ask your questions live!

If you would like to join the Writers’ Room, access weekly events, submit to dozens of open writing assignments, and attend exclusive pitch tanks with industry executives- click HERE to accept my offer for a free month!

This Week’s Exciting Announcements!

Justin Wellington-Wilson is a police officer from Memphis, TN who received his Bachelor’s of Arts in Film from The University of Memphis and took a slight detour to better serve a community that he loves. He became a commissioned police officer for the city of Memphis where he's been serving for 3 years. He focuses in the areas of psychological thrillers, horror, urban drama and crime.

Click here to connect with Justin and say "Congrats!"

This Week In The Stage 32 Community!

This week, I want to take a moment to highlight something I shared directly in the Screenwriting Lounge because it’s exactly the kind of momentum we talk about happening her on Stage 32 all the time! 

We have a major success story worth celebrating.

Our Stage 32 + Pathfinder Comedy Screenwriting Contest has officially crowned its winner, and the results speak for themselves. Ted Sperling’s ensemble comedy Treasure Inc. has not only taken the top prize, it is now in active development with Pathfinder Media’s Mark Wheeler and director Todd Biermann (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Mythic Quest), actively being packaged and taken to market.

A writer in this community submitted a script. That script is now moving forward with experienced producers and a director attached, backed by real industry momentum.

And it does not stop there.

Honorable mentions Lissette R. Jean-Marie and the writing duo Emma Pyne and Sarina Taylor are also stepping into meaningful next steps, paired with mentors and industry professionals from companies like 3Pas Studios, Elevate Entertainment, and Epigram Entertainment.

This is why we build what we build.

Not just to educate, not just to connect, but to create a direct line between talent and opportunity.

I shared the Deadline article in the Lounge because moments like this matter. They show what is possible when preparation meets access. They show that the path forward is not theoretical; it is happening every day.

So I encourage you to take a moment, head over to the post, read the article, and congratulate Ted and the other writers. Supporting each other’s wins is part of what makes this community work.

Click here to join the conversation and celebrate with your fellow Stage 32 members.

Need help navigating the industry? Contact success@stage32.com

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 .

It took me roughly nine months to make a two-minute film using tools that are supposedly instantaneous.

When people talk about AI-assisted filmmaking right now, the conversation usually breaks in one of two directions: the tools are treated either like magic or like contamination. Neither framing has been especially useful to me.

What interested me was something more practical: could one independent creator, working on a limited budget and without studio infrastructure, use a hybrid workflow to complete a mythic animated short while still keeping the work visibly authored from beginning to end?

That question became the foundation for PRAYPREY: Library of the Lost Scrolls — Episode One: Scroll of the First Ember, a short film that runs just over two minutes and serves as a mythic entry point into my larger worldbuilding project, PRAYPREY.

The answer was yes. But the truth is more complicated than that. The process worked. It was also imperfect, labor-intensive, and full of tradeoffs.

This was not a push-button film. It was not effortless. And it did not happen quickly.

That nine-month timeline matters, because one of the biggest misconceptions around hybrid workflows is that they erase labor. They do not. What they can do, if used carefully, is compress certain forms of labor enough to make a project possible that would otherwise stall out under the weight of time, cost, and sheer production demand.

That was the real value for me. Not replacement. Not surrender. Compression.

I did not turn to hybrid tools because I lacked the ability to create this material myself. I turned to them because, working alone, I could not produce it at this level fast enough to complete it. The tools compressed time. The authorship remained mine.

What “Maintaining Authorship” Actually Meant

For me, authorship was never just about having the initial idea. It meant that the visual language, narrative intention, symbolic system, tone, selection, revision, and final assembly all had to remain under my control.

That started with design.

The characters appearing in the film were first drawn by hand in Procreate. The world’s sigils and symbolic language were also created by me directly. I wrote the piece, voiced the mantid narrator, designed the thumbnail and presentation materials, and keyframed and distorted a meaningful amount of the animation by hand before compositing and polishing the final material myself.

In other words, the work did not begin with a generated output. It began with authored source material.

That distinction matters to me.

There is a real difference between using tools to extend an already-authored vision and allowing tools to generate the identity of the work for you. In my case, the tools existed downstream of authorship, not upstream of it.

That does not make the process pure. It makes it directed.

The Tools I Used Were Simple, Cheap, and Accessible

One of the reasons I wanted to write about this process is that many independent creators assume animation or hybrid video work requires either a large team, a large budget, or access to expensive end-to-end software pipelines.

That was not my situation.

The workflow I used was built mostly out of low-cost, widely accessible tools, including mobile tools. That was partly financial necessity and partly creative preference. Some of the more powerful systems now emerging can absolutely do things my workflow cannot. Some can likely solve continuity or motion problems more elegantly. But many of them are expensive, very new, or structured in ways that do not necessarily preserve authorship in the way I wanted.

So I built around tools I could actually access.

From those initial Procreate sketches through editing and assembly, I relied on simple mobile tools, including LumaFusion on iPad. For certain image and video generation tasks, I used consumer-facing tools with relatively low barriers to entry. The point was not to build the most advanced pipeline possible. It was to prove that a single creator on a modest budget could still produce mythic, cinematic-looking material without waiting for ideal conditions.

I think that matters for the Stage 32 community.

A lot of creators are not choosing between a $50,000 workflow and a $5,000 workflow. They are choosing between making something with what they can access now, or not making it at all.

This short lives in that reality.

The Hidden Labor Is Still Labor

One of the fastest ways to misunderstand hybrid workflow is to mistake generated assistance for finished work.

That is not how this short came together.

Every character still had to be designed. Every symbolic element still had to be invented. The film still had to be written, voiced, structured, edited, refined, and held together tonally. Outputs had to be rejected constantly. Continuity had to be managed.

To give a concrete example: the characters in my universe are mantid-hybrids with specifically human-like hands. This is an essential piece of biological canon in the story. Forcing the software to consistently respect that anatomical crossover—without drifting into standard human hands or pure insect limbs—required intense manual oversight. The tools did not know the lore; I had to enforce it.

Good results still had to be shaped into coherent sequences. Bad results still had to be thrown away. And because this was not a full studio pipeline, some of the friction simply moved from one part of the process to another.

If a tool saved me time on one shot, I often spent that time elsewhere correcting visual drift, unifying tone, reworking pacing, compositing around imperfections, or finding ways to make disparate pieces feel like part of the same world.

Hybrid process does not eliminate craftsmanship. It relocates some of it.

In some places, it accelerates. In others, it creates new editorial burdens. The creator still has to know what belongs, what does not, and when something is close enough to the intended vision to survive into the final cut.

In that sense, the work remained deeply manual, even when certain pieces of it were assisted.

Why the Process Was Worth It Anyway

With all those caveats, why do it this way at all?

Because for a solo creator, the alternative is often paralysis.

I could have drawn, painted, animated, and composited every single element entirely by hand. I have the ability to do a great deal of that work myself. But ability and viable production scale are not the same thing.

At a certain point, the question stops being, “Can I make this?” and becomes, “Can I finish this in a form strong enough to matter?”

That is where the hybrid model became useful.

It gave me enough lift to move the project past what I could realistically execute alone at the pace available to me. It allowed me to make something more complete, more cinematic, and more immediate than would have been practical if every frame had to be built from scratch in isolation.

It did not give me the film. It gave me leverage.

That distinction is everything.

Because leverage still requires judgment. It still requires taste. It still requires authorship.

And if those things are absent, the result usually looks shallow and disposable. The problem is not machine involvement by itself. The problem is the absence of care, direction, and meaningful artistic control.

People can feel the difference.

What I Learned

The biggest lesson I came away with is that accessible does not mean easy.

This workflow was accessible. It was not effortless.

It was possible on a shoestring budget. It was not fast in any absolute sense.

It was creatively empowering. It was also technically frustrating.

It allowed one person to reach beyond some normal production limits. It also demanded constant vigilance to keep the work coherent and personal.

That combination may be the most honest way to describe the current moment for independent creators working with emerging tools.

There are real possibilities here. There are also real compromises.

The goal, at least for me, is not to pretend those compromises do not exist. It is to understand them clearly enough that the work can still remain truly yours.

That is what I mean by maintaining authorship.

Not purity. Not control over every pixel in a literal sense. But authorship in the deeper sense: the work still bears your mind, your taste, your design language, your symbolic system, your decisions, and your voice.

That is the threshold I cared about crossing with Scroll of the First Ember.

I did not want to prove that one person could automate art. I wanted to prove that one person could still author something ambitious under less-than-ideal conditions, with imperfect tools, without surrendering the soul of the piece.

I think that is a conversation worth having right now, especially among independent creators.

Because many of us are not waiting for perfect circumstances. We are building anyway.

And sometimes the real creative breakthrough is not finding a flawless process. It is finding a workable one that still leaves your fingerprints on the finished thing.

You can see the final video by clicking here!

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 .

And above all else I am stressed because as Australians, we're still collectively butchering the pronunciation of Cannes, but that's fine. Everything is fine. I am completely calm.

Spoiler alert: I was not calm.

But here's the thing. We were there because Skin Side Up, a project I'm producing with the brilliant Annie Thiele, had been selected for the Frontières ‘Proof of Concept’ Platform at Cannes. For context, Frontières is a showcase run by Canada's Fantasia International Film Festival and the Cannes Marché du Film, and it is the place for genre filmmakers who are ready to show the world what they've got. Our project is directed by Robbie Sinclair-Ten Eyck (also known as Lazy Susan, winner of RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under Season 4), and it's a deeply personal, visceral piece of queer horror about identity, control, and survival. It's also one of the most exciting things I've ever worked on.

Over 100 projects were submitted to Frontières in 2025. We got in.

Did I panic? Absolutely.

Did I also have the time of my life? You bet.

So with Cannes 2026 just around the corner, I wanted to share what I've learned about navigating this beautiful, chaotic, sometimes bewildering beast of a market. Whether you're heading there with a finished film, a half-baked idea, or just a really good pair of walking shoes and a sense of adventure, this one's for you.

First Things First: What Even Is the Cannes Market?

Right, so here's the deal. The Cannes Film Festival and the Cannes Marché du Film are technically two different animals living in the same zoo. The Festival is all red carpets, standing ovations, and films that make you weep into your popcorn. The Marché (the market) is where the industry actually does business. Think: back-to-back meetings, deal-making over espresso (**cough**rosé**cough**), and approximately one year's worth of global film commerce crammed into ten absolutely feral days.

It's exhilarating. It's exhausting. It's also deeply weird in the best possible way.

You will have a meeting in a five-star hotel suite overlooking the Mediterranean and then immediately eat a slightly stale panini on the street outside a pharmacy because you forgot to schedule lunch. This is not a cautionary tale. This is just what Cannes is.

Within the market, there are loads of platforms and programmes tailored to different stages of development. Frontières, where we pitched, is all about genre: horror, sci-fi, fantasy, the delightfully strange. It runs over two days with a Proof of Concept showcase and a Buyers Showcase. The 2025 lineup was gloriously eclectic: drag queen horror (hello!), Tolkien-esque dark fantasy, Malaysian folklore, Cypriot mythology. Genre is having a moment, and Cannes is leaning in hard.

Something Worth Celebrating: WIFT Africa Is Coming to Cannes

If you needed extra motivation to show up this year, here it is. For the first time ever, WIFT Africa will have an official booth at the Marché du Film.

This is huge. WIF Los Angeles and WIFT Africa have joined forces to bring a delegation of women creatives from ten African countries to Cannes, and not just as observers. They're here to take up space, make deals, and change the conversation. The WIFT Africa booth will be a hub where you can meet the delegation and learn about the incredible women leading film and entertainment across the continent.

Seven national WIFT chapters have already launched in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Cameroon, South Africa, and Zambia. Three more are on the way in Rwanda, Uganda, and Côte d'Ivoire.

Five phenomenal African producers will participate in the Producers Network thanks to WIF LA and WIFT Africa's presenting sponsorship: Shirley Frimpong Manso (Ghana), Nicolette Ndigwe-Kalu (Nigeria), Bea Wangondu (Kenya), Bongiwe Selane (South Africa), and Alexandra Amon (Côte d'Ivoire).

As Dr. Inya Lawal, President of WIFT Africa, put it:

"We are no longer asking to be included. We are building the table, and bringing the continent with us."

Go find that booth. Introduce yourself. Buy someone a coffee. This is the kind of moment that makes Cannes worth the jet lag.

And while you're at it, look out for WIFT delegates from all over the world. Last year alone saw new chapters launch in India and Poland, plus buzzing activity from the UK, Bulgaria, Ireland, and beyond. Lean into your international community. These are your people.

Read all about it on Variety by clicking here!

Alright, Let's Get Practical: How Do You Actually Survive This Thing?

Here's what I've learned from years of market-going since I launched Iris Arc Pictures back in 2018 at the American Film Market in Santa Monica, and from the very specific trial-by-fire that was pitching at Frontières.

Claim Your Corner and Work From It

Some of my best market conversations have happened because I parked myself at a table in the Hôtel du Cap, the Carlton bar, or a random café with decent wifi, opened my laptop, and just... existed there. Markets are full of people doing the exact same thing. Waiting for a meeting. Decompressing after a meeting. Looking for a power outlet and a moment to breathe.

Strike up a conversation. Offer to grab someone a coffee. Ask what they're working on. And here's the key: don't immediately launch into your pitch. Just be a human talking to another human. You'd be amazed how far that gets you.

Respect the Clock Like Your Career Depends On It

Because honestly? It kind of does. The top-tier sales agents and distributors at Cannes are running meetings every 30 minutes. Sometimes every 15. They are machines. Efficient, brilliant, impossibly caffeinated machines.

Your window is short. Make it count. Know your logline so well you could recite it in your sleep. Know your one-pager better than you know your own name. Be clear. Be specific. Be confident. Practice until it feels effortless.

Memorable does not mean long-winded. It means punchy, vivid, and impossible to forget.

For the Love of All That Is Holy, Eat Food and Drink Water

I know this sounds like advice your mum would give you before a school excursion, but I'm saying it anyway because people forget.

Film markets are a marathon, not a sprint. The rosé is plentiful. The canapés are everywhere. The energy is intoxicating. It is also very, very easy to confuse "running on fumes and vibes" with "networking effectively."

Eat real meals. Hydrate between meetings. Sleep at least one proper night if you can swing it. You will be sharper, kinder, and infinitely better company when you're not surviving on adrenaline and fancy cheese alone. The best connections happen when you're actually present, not when you're wondering if you're about to faint on the Croisette.

Pro tip: Plenty of brand activations hand out free coffee. Find them. Love them. Also, if the idea of spending €14 on an espresso makes you wince, walk two blocks away from the Croisette. You're welcome.

Set Your Goals Before You Arrive

Cannes is massive and chaotic and wonderful and completely overwhelming if you don't have a game plan. Before you go, sit down and write out three things:

1. The one thing you absolutely must achieve.
2. Two or three things you'd love to make happen.
3. Five bonus goals that would be icing on the cake.

This is your compass. The people who thrive at markets are the ones who know exactly why they're there and what they're hoping to walk away with. They're also genuinely curious about what everyone else is up to. Be both of those people.

Wear. Good. Shoes.

This is not a metaphor. This is a public service announcement. The Croisette is long. The Palais has stairs. Cobblestones are the enemy of feet everywhere. Pack comfortable, sturdy shoes that can handle a 10k daily step count, or live to regret it. Your feet will thank you. Your meetings will thank you. Your entire body will thank you.

Do Your Homework (Or Risk Wasting Everyone's Time, Including Your Own)

Here's a hard truth: showing up unprepared is disrespectful. Not just to the person you're meeting with, but to yourself and your project.

Research who you're pitching to before you walk into that room. What have they financed or distributed before? What genres do they love? What kinds of stories make them light up? If you're a horror filmmaker, why on earth are you pitching to a documentary distributor? Be strategic. Be intentional. Know your brand, and know theirs.

And book your meetings early. Calendars fill up faster than you think. Don't be the person scrambling for slots in week two.

Also, remember this: most people aren't looking for a hard sell. They're looking for a long-term relationship. Financing a film is a serious commitment. These people need to believe in your project, yes, but they also need to believe in you. They need to like you. Trust you. Want to spend the next 7 to 10 years (yes, really) working alongside you.

Be someone worth working with.

You can watch Stage 32's Free Webcast about How To Navigate the Cannes Film Festival, hosted by the Executive Director of the Marche du Film, by clicking here!

Stand Out, But Make Sure It's For the Right Reasons

Look, if you happen to have a famous drag queen on your team who gets stopped every five meters for photos, congratulations. That is genuinely excellent marketing. Lean into it.

But even if you don't have a RuPaul's Drag Race winner in your corner, you still need to be memorable. Have business cards that don't look like every other business card. Create a visual identity that sticks. Give people something tactile to hold onto so that when they're flipping through 47 business cards at the end of the day, they remember you.

Because here's the reality: most people are taking 10, 20, sometimes 30 meetings a day. They are swimming in information. Your job is to rise above the noise. Be specific. Be warm. Be the person they actually want to follow up with.

On Pitching (And Why I Both Love and Hate It)

Pitching is one of the most exhilarating, nerve-wracking, exposing things you can do as a producer. I'm not going to lie to you: I hate it. I suffer from imposter syndrome something fierce, and standing in front of a room full of industry professionals and making myself vulnerable with a project I care deeply about is terrifying.

But I also love it. Because when it works, when you feel the room lean in and connect with what you're saying, there's nothing quite like it.

Here's what I'd tell anyone gearing up to pitch:

Know your audience inside and out. Who are these people? What excites them? What have they backed before? Tailor your pitch to speak directly to their interests. Do not wing this part.

Your proof of concept and pitch deck have one job: to make people feel what your film will feel like. It doesn't need to cost a fortune. It needs to be visceral, specific, and unforgettable.

Being nervous is fine. In fact, it's normal. Most of the people in that room have stood where you're standing. Nervousness and confidence can coexist. Let them.

Follow up on every single conversation. Within two weeks, send a short, warm, personalised email. Reference something specific from your chat. Make it easy for them to remember you. The market is loud and chaotic. The follow-up is how you become the signal, not the noise.

Master email etiquette. Keep it concise. Keep it compelling. Leave them wanting more. Make saying "yes" the easiest thing they'll do all week.

Who Should You Actually Be Talking To?

This depends entirely on where your project is at. But here's a rough guide:

If you're in early development: Look for co-production markets, development labs, and producer-focused programmes like the Producers Network (where you'll find the incredible WIFT Africa delegation this year).

If you've got a proof of concept or you're in post-production: Target genre platforms like Frontières, buyers showcases, and sales agents who specialise in your type of content.

If you're a first-timer without a concrete project yet: You're there to absorb. Go to panels. Attend open sessions. Sit in lobbies and strike up conversations. Introduce yourself as someone who's building something. Most people in this industry are shockingly generous with their knowledge when you approach them with genuine curiosity and respect.

The Part That Actually Matters

Here's the thing about Cannes: it can feel like an exclusive club designed for people who already have the secret handshake. The yachts. The badges. The sense that everyone knows everyone and you're just trying to figure out which way is up.

But every single person who "belongs" there showed up for the first time once. Probably terrified. Definitely underprepared. And they figured it out and now look at them! We can only assume they own one of those many yachts.

The fact that WIFT Africa is arriving at Cannes 2026 with an official booth and a delegation from ten countries proves something important: this market is not static. It evolves. It expands. The people who shape it are the ones who show up with intention, community, and something worth saying.

So go with a plan. Go with good shoes. Go with an open heart and a strategic mind. Find the WIFT chapters scattered across the market and say hello. Claim your table in a lobby with decent wifi. Drink the rosé (it's delicious), but drink way more water.

And remember: you've got this.

Find your WIFT chapter: 60+ chapters on six continents working toward the same goal. Join us at wifti.net/membership

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. Head over to the Introduce Yourself Lounge before the weekend wraps. 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 Adam Savage- Behind the Scenes of Project Hail Mary! Adam was invited behind the scenes of Project Hail Mary. In the video, production designer Charlie Wood gives an incredible tour through the interior of the Hail Mary and breaks down the wildly complex, deeply practical, and beautifully immersive work that went into creating the ship. And let me tell you, this is the kind of video that reminds you just how much thought, collaboration, engineering, and artistry goes into great filmmaking.

What struck me most watching Charlie walk through the set was how grounded the design philosophy was, even for a story set in space. They were not trying to make the ship feel overly polished or like some distant fantasy version of the future. They were using real-world references like the International Space Station and international space programs as a jumping-off point, then building outward from there. That choice gave the Hail Mary a lived-in realism that feels essential for a film like this. If the audience is going to believe the impossible, the environment has to feel tactile, logical, and true. And this was not just about aesthetics. It was also about storytelling and character.

Charlie talks at length about how every part of the design had to support the narrative. The cramped cockpit could not just look cool. It had to feel overwhelming, claustrophobic, and full of information, to make the audience feel what the character feels. That is such an important reminder for every creative, whether you are writing, directing, producing, designing, or composing. Every choice you make should deepen the emotional experience of the story. The practical problem-solving on display here is also astonishing. These sets were not just built to sit there and be photographed; they had to function. They had to rotate, shift, allow for puppeteers and camera movement, hold lighting systems, maintain structural integrity, and still feel seamless on screen. That meant an extraordinary level of coordination between departments, from production design to engineering to cinematography to visual effects.

There is another lesson buried in this video that I think is incredibly useful for writers, especially those working in science fiction. Project Hail Mary is clearly ambitious. But ambition does not mean chaos and it does not mean throwing everything at the wall. It means being specific and understanding the rules of your world so thoroughly that everyone around you, from the production designer to the actor to the visual effects team, can build from the same blueprint.

And that brings me to something I talk about often with writers who love sci-fi.

If science fiction is your lane, and it should absolutely be your lane if that is what you love, then write it. Write the hell out of it. But if you are trying to break in, think seriously about starting smaller. Think grounded and contained. Think about stories that still have all the tension, wonder, and ideas of sci-fi, but do not require a studio to build an entire universe before page one can come alive.

If you look at the history of great filmmakers, many of them did not arrive with their biggest, most expensive dream project first. They came in with something smaller that proved they could execute. Damien Chazelle is a great example. He did Whiplash as a short, then turned it into a feature. When that got attention and Bold Films asked what he wanted to do next, he pitched La La Land. Big musical. Huge ambition. Expensive. Their response was basically, “What else do you have?” And what he had was Whiplash as a feature. That they could do.

That does not mean you abandon your giant sci-fi epic. It means you build an arsenal. You create a few smarter entry points. A few grounded science fiction pieces or contained ideas with strong concepts and manageable budgets that can still showcase your voice and your imagination. Think of something in the spirit of Ex Machina. It feels huge when you watch it because the ideas are huge, the tension is huge, and the execution is world-class. But at its core, it is contained. It is controlled. It is not seven thousand characters across twenty planets. That is a really important distinction.

If you are serious about building a lasting career in sci-fi, you need projects in your arsenal that feel producible. Something that could be made for two million. Five million. Maybe a little more. But something that allows buyers, producers, and directors to say, “Yes, I can see how this gets made.” That is not selling out, it is being strategic. And strategy matters.

Have you ever had to scale down an idea in order to make it stronger or more possible? What did that process teach you?

Drop it in the comments. I would love to hear how you are thinking about balancing big ideas with smart execution.

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 | Behind the Scenes of Project Hail Mary!

RBWalksIntoABar | Writing a Sci-Fi Script? Start Small.

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 you are all good at these challenging times of creativity. Today, I'd like to talk about networking and how it can change the game for screenwriters. I am a communicator, but occasionally, I am not! I am not typically extroverted or introverted. It all depends on how I feel about the situation and the day.

What did I do to achieve a balance between my two sides?

Before I share it with you, I'd like to talk to you about something that became the hook for my strategy. Many years ago, I was at a fashion show with a booth promoting my cork fashion accessories brand. I was fatigued because it was the last day, and my desire to network or connect was minimal. I was there when a lady came in. I thought there was another curious person. She started asking about the products, the company, and myself. I recall that I didn't want to be pleasant and that I wished she would leave. Then she asked to see our best-selling item, the cork umbrella.

I opened and explained the cork umbrella, expecting she would leave because I assumed she preferred not to conduct business. I was nice but not empathetic. When she withdrew her card and introduced herself: "I am the First Lady's assistant, and we would like to invite your brand to the Presidency reception in three months. The First Lady is welcoming you.” You can imagine my face! My thoughts vanished, my energy returned, and my face was beaming with joy. I changed my mood, transitioning from introvert to extrovert, from nice to empathic. As a result, six months later, I was in Norway with Portugal's President and First Lady, showcasing the finest of Portugal.

My lesson: You never know who will approach you. You never know who they are or what opportunities they can provide for you. Be polite and an active listener, and don't listen to your mind—trust your instincts, which are always correct.

My strategy.

To avoid situations like this, I create my own storytelling, and I have become my leave-behind business card. This serves as my 30-second elevator pitch. I tell the essentials about me, who I am, and my goals. At that time, it was based on my business and company. Today, I pitch my filmmaking career. It helps me to begin conversations, to introduce myself and what I want to achieve. I learned the lesson because we never know who the listener is. You can be in front of the producer you want, or the director and you don’t know.

My 30-second elevator pitch

“Hi, I’m Sandra, a screenwriter and executive with a thriving international career as a businesswoman. My love for cinema began in my youth—at just 14, I wrote my first novel. My debut screenplay, Soul Mated, is a universal and groundbreaking story that defies norms, celebrating authenticity and self-worth. I’m now seeking a passionate team to bring this vision to life and make it truly epic. This is me, and I’d love to know more about you!”

How to Create Your Own Pitch in 30 Seconds

1) Identify Your Key Points

Who You Are: Start with your name and a brief description of your background.

Your Identity: Highlight what defines you as a person and a professional.

Your Goals: Clearly state your career aspirations and what you are currently working toward.

2) Craft a Compelling Narrative

Opening Line: Begin with an engaging hook that captures attention.

Core Message: Provide a succinct overview of your background, identity, and goals.

Closing Statement: End with a memorable line that leaves a lasting impression and invites further conversation.

3) Practice and Refine

Rehearse Regularly: Practice your pitch until it feels natural and confident. You can use the mirror to practice. Record yourself in the mirror practicing your pitch and watch later, changing what you need to change.

Seek Feedback: Share your pitch with friends, family, or mentors and incorporate their feedback to improve it.

Adjust as Needed: Tailor your pitch to different situations and audiences to ensure it remains relevant and impactful.

Example of a 30-Second Pitch

"Hi, I'm Alex, a passionate filmmaker with a background in documentary production. My storytelling journey began with a love for capturing real-life narratives, and I've since transitioned to exploring fiction. Currently, I'm working on a short film that delves into themes of identity and resilience. I'm always eager to collaborate with like-minded creators and bring compelling stories to life. Let's connect and see how we can create something impactful together."

This technique serves multiple purposes:

Starting Conversations: It helps break the ice and makes it easier to engage with others.

Introducing Yourself: It provides a concise and compelling introduction that leaves a lasting impression.

Clarifying Goals: It clearly communicates your aspirations and what you are seeking in your career.

By having a well-prepared and engaging storytelling pitch, you can confidently introduce yourself in any situation and make a strong impression on potential players and industry professionals. Remember, you never know who might be listening, so always be ready to share your story. This is why having a well-crafted storytelling pitch is crucial. It ensures that you are always prepared to make the most of any opportunity that comes your way.

To network effectively, a writer should develop a variety of skills and traits that facilitate building genuine connections and fostering professional relationships.

Here are some essential traits and skills based on my experience that, I hope, will help you.

Essential Traits and Skills for Success

1) Communication Skills

Self-Connection: The journey to building meaningful connections with others begins with connecting with yourself. Start by embracing positive affirmations to cultivate self-awareness and confidence.

Clarity: Master the art of expressing your ideas clearly and concisely to ensure your message resonates.

Asking Questions: Harness the power of thoughtful questions to foster understanding, nurture relationships, and promote engaging dialogue.

Active Listening: Show genuine interest by truly listening and paying attention to what others have to say, creating a foundation for trust and empathy.

2) Confidence

Self-Assuredness: Feeling comfortable in social situations and presenting oneself with confidence.

Assertiveness: Being able to assert one's opinions and ideas without being aggressive.

3) Empathy

Understanding: Being able to understand and relate to others' experiences and emotions.

Compassion: Showing genuine care and concern for others.

4) Authenticity

Genuineness: Being true to oneself and authentic in interactions.

Honesty: Building trust by being honest and transparent.

5) Adaptability

Flexibility: Being able to adapt to different social situations and personalities.

Openness: Being open to new ideas and experiences.

6) Persistence

Resilience: Being able to handle rejection and setbacks without getting discouraged.

Determination: Continuously pursuing networking opportunities despite challenges.

7) Professionalism

Etiquette: Understanding and following social and professional etiquette.

Reliability: Being dependable and following through on commitments.

8) Creativity

Innovation: Thinking creatively and coming up with unique ways to connect with others.

Inspiration: Using creative skills to inspire and engage others.

9) Organization

Planning: Being able to plan and prepare for networking events and interactions.

Follow-Up/Check-In: Keeping track of contacts and following up regularly.

10) Cultural Awareness

Sensitivity: Being aware of and respectful towards different cultures and backgrounds.

Inclusivity: Embracing diversity and fostering inclusive interactions.

Start Practicing Today: It’s Introduce Yourself Weekend on Stage 32!

If you’ve been looking for the perfect moment to put your 30-second pitch into action, now is your time! Stage 32’s monthly Introduce Yourself Weekend is happening right now, and it’s one of the best opportunities to make meaningful connections in this global creative community.

All you have to do is head to the Introduce Yourself Lounge and post your pitch. Share who you are, what you’re working on, and what you’re hoping to connect on. It’s a welcoming, low-pressure environment where creatives of all experience levels are showing up to collaborate, encourage, and grow together.

Remember, you never know who’s reading. Your next collaborator, supporter, or opportunity could be one post away.

You’ve got the tools. Now, put them into action.

See you in the Lounge! Click here to join now.

My final message for you:

Stop defining yourself as an introvert or extrovert and start defining yourself as an individual by looking at your social battery and boundaries. Try to challenge 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 .

Taking a page from Robert's book, I didn't go to film school and am entirely self-taught. So doing things a bit unconventionally is my style. This is why I've coined the term: Super Micro Budget.

For those of you who know nothing about me, I'm a full-time photographer. In 2010, I decided to take my childhood passion and start making independent films. Each project was a chance to learn and get better in the process. Being a photographer, I had an understanding of lighting and composition. But it takes trial and error to make a film! Fast forward, over the last few years, I've had projects air on PBS, A&E, and Hulu. This all comes from having a 'go for it' approach!

A few months ago, I chatted with a client of mine about an idea I had for a feature film. They loved it so much that they offered to finance it! I wrote the script and waited for that financing to come through, so we could start production. Sadly, this individual passed away suddenly. My heart goes out to their family. But, I wasn't ready to throw in the towel on the project. After all, like Mr. Rodriguez, I've made many films for next to nothing. And, like Robert Rodriguez, I can wear many hats on set.

Let's Circle Back! What do you need to make a Super Micro Budget Film (or even a no-budget production)? To keep everything as easy as possible, I've broken it down for you!

What's Your Budget?

And, where are you going to get it? When I say Super Micro Budget Film, I'm thinking 25k or less. Most of these tips could work with a budget of 100k or less. But for me, I like to work with budgets I know I can get! At this level, most of the time it's self-financing. Or, donors who'd like Executive Producer Credit, as well as on-set experience. It can even be crowdfunding. But before you go any further, you need to know how much money you have to work with! If it's zero, you can still make a film, but it may have to be a short with 1-2 actors volunteering time. Even then, you'll likely need a little money.

You Need A Screenplay!

Write one. Find one. Either way, you need one. And, to make your project work on a Super Micro-Budget, you'll need a great one! To say that story is everything is not an understatement. It's the truth! You need a solid foundation if you want your house to stand. Your story being the house. For me, I wanted to ensure I can do my project for as little budget as possible. So, I've limited the story to one key location, a creepy old house! Granted there are other spots, but they need to be easy to get. For example, a local park, my home, a neighbor's home, a car, etc. The key is to keep it simple! Do not overdo it.

Less is more! Don't go overboard with your cast! Three to four main cast members with a handful of extra roles are plenty. If you have 20+ roles in your film, chances are you may need to beef up your story a bit more!

Don't forget to have a few friends read your script and give you feedback. Or, Stage 32 has services right here for feedback. You can join the Writer’s Room or check out the Script Services.

For me, I decided to write a psychological thriller. There are four main cast members, with a primary focus on one of the actors. This means fewer people to schedule and move around.

Seek Out Your Local Talent!

This is the fun part! Finding your cast! Try to keep your cast local. It'll save you on lodging and depending on your call time, an extra meal! You can post a listing here on Stage 32 or Backstage. Usually, I'd suggest doing both! The more options the merrier! The same goes for your crew. I've met a great Script Supervisor from networking here on Stage 32.

What About Your Crew?

Now is the time to think like a Super Micro Budget Filmmaker. It’s time to ask, what can you do yourself? For me, I take the path of early Robert Rodriguez. I personally write, direct, camera operate, light, edit, etc! This saves me a ton of time and money. Fewer people on set mean fewer cooks in the kitchen and quicker decision-making. On the flip side, I love having someone on set to keep track of continuity and help me move things around. The point is to keep the budget low, but it means you have to wear many hats.

However, if you've never operated a camera before in your life, or are a hobbyist, start with a short and build up. Or consider hiring a seasoned camera professional. It's not as easy as buying a fancy camera and light package and then calling “action”. In fact, if you know what you’re doing with it, you could even use a mediocre camera.

There are other crew decisions you can make to save money. Craft services, location scouting, casting, lining up crew and cast, it all ties into your budget and what skills you have available.

Quick Tip: Find crew members that can multitask and are multi-hyphenates in their interests and skillset. For example, a Director/DP all in one. Some may frown on this idea, but one has to be realistic about what is achievable with a smaller budget.

Time To Set A Date!

When you schedule a date, you're putting yourself on the line. Be realistic, based on your own experience or the advice of those you trust, as to what you can pull off solo. Give yourself extra time if needed. Remember, there are amazing resources to learn more about scheduling, producing, and budgeting indie shorts and features available at your fingertips on Stage 32. Use them! Meet people with similar goals and ambitions. Network! Ask questions! We all have to start somewhere. Stay positive and don't let anyone hold you back. Life is too short to do everything by the books.

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 .

Recently, we asked the Stage 32 community a simple question: What's holding you back right now?

The responses flooded in. Writers from 40+ countries shared their struggles. Many familiar, some personal, all valid. What became clear is that the obstacles writers face aren't just about craft. They're about access, resources, confidence, and navigating an industry that doesn't come with step-by-step instructions.

If you've ever felt stuck, overwhelmed, or like you're spinning your wheels, this is for you. Below are the most common pain points writers face right now, and real strategies on how to move forward despite the noise.

1. The Access Problem: Feeling Locked Out of the Industry

The Pain Point:

"What's holding me back is the closed nature of this business. I come from a corporate background where things move quickly, there are clear next steps, and there is always a way forward. The difficulty just getting traction is very tough." — Aaron Newman

Writers repeatedly mentioned feeling isolated from industry gatekeepers. No local connections, no representation, no clear path from "script done" to "script in development." The relationship-driven nature of the business feels impenetrable when you're starting from scratch and don't know anybody. Thankfully meeting people is a very fixable problem - thanks to the internet. Getting them to like you and believe in you, well that's part 2. 

Strategies That Work:

Be visible and consistent in online communities. Writer Devon Callahan shared: "I've started joining writers groups (one in person, one online) to keep me accountable. We're all in this together." Consistent engagement in spaces like Stage 32 Lounges or other areas across the internet creates invaluable relationships over time. Executives, producers, and fellow writers notice who shows up regularly with thoughtful contributions. It's not all about having a constantly active brand either. It's about checking in and chiming in. Reminding people you're around and you've still got the juice. Over a long enough time frame, if you provide enough good vibes and good value, people will associate your name with those two key elements and make it more likely they'll refer you.

Leverage what you already have. Brenda Mohammed, who advanced scripts to contest finals, reminds us: "Use your contest placements strategically. Update your profiles, mention them in pitches, and use them to open doors in queries." Validation creates credibility. Use it actively, not passively. When you have a polished and contest-placing script, you can turn to business mode, and you should feel comfortable acting like a business and promoting your success. 

Reach out for strategic guidance. Multiple writers mentioned that connecting with the Stage 32 Success Team (success@stage32.com) helped them identify which executives to pitch, which services made sense for their career stage, and how to position their work effectively. You don't have to navigate alone. Ask for help from people whose job is literally to connect you with the right opportunities.

Tap your network. Writer Phoenix Black recently shared what she learned from a consultation call with a Literary Manager, "Ask anyone you know for a referral." Sure, it feels shameless, but if you never ask, you'll never know either. So you gotta have the courage to tap into your own network and ask for a good word from people who already like you!

Get in front of executives. If you're at the stage where every writer friend who reads your work says "wow this is great" and you feel like there's not more room from improvement so far as you can tell, there are avenues to get your work in front of Producers, Managers, and Agents. Whether that's a pitch session, a script read and consultation, or through the Writer's Room Open Writing Assignments (OWAs), these are legitimate, vetted channels where executives like to scout for new material. And they use Stage 32 because we make things turn-key and easy for execs to see lots of projects from writers all over the world.

There are industry scouts everywhere out there. Way more than you know. They're lurking, reading, taking pitches, gathering submissions all over the place. You're in front of them often, but if you're never putting your work up and only waiting for the business to come to you, you'll often surf right past them.

2. The Time Trap: Balancing Writing with Everything Else

The Pain Point:

"Finding the time is my biggest obstacle." — Breyanna Tolbert

Nearly every writer struggles with this. Day jobs. Family obligations. Health. Other creative commitments. Even retirees report feeling overwhelmed with daily demands that leave little energy for writing.

Strategies That Work:

Build accountability structures. Breyanna joined two writers groups specifically to create external accountability. When writing exists only in your own head, it's easy to deprioritize. When other people are expecting to hear about your progress, you show up differently.

Set "writing-first" nights. Jim Boston carves out specific evenings where writing happens before email, LinkedIn, or other tasks. Protecting even 1-2 nights per week as sacred writing time compounds significantly over months.

Build healthy habits. Design your writing time to be very specific. Have a set chair, at a set table, at a certain time to write consistently. Maybe even reward yourself with a little "treat" when you write 10 pages (okay, 5 pages). When you make writing a healthy habit instead of something you do on the fly or at random, you build discipline to get through pages even when your mind isn't running at full tilt.

Accept imperfect progress. Catherine Cole shared: "I can't truly define this as holding me back, but a constant is not having enough time in any given day. Still, constantly putting one foot forward at a time achieves results." She just placed as a Semi-Finalist in a contest. Small, consistent steps matter more than waiting for "enough time" that never arrives.

Like your body, you have to work out your writing muscles to keep them sharp. When you're trying to lose weight, it's never do this one thing and you lose 20 pounds. It's consistent effort, consistent learning or trial and error, and consistently not letting the bad days stop your progress that gets results in the end.

Reclassify your goals. As one writer put it: "Sometimes the most helpful thing you can do is pull back and reclassify your goals. Focus on just a few clear, achievable steps instead of trying to solve everything at once." Like Fred Astaire who once sang, "Put one foot in front of the other / And soon you'll be walking 'cross the floor / You put one foot in front of the other /
And soon you'll be walking out the door!" 

Try the Pomodoro method. To improve focus and reduce mental fatigue by breaking work into 25-minute intervals (called "pomodoros") separated by 5-minute breaks. Many writers swear by this method. 

Log off and turn off the noise: At some point, you have to stop doomscrolling, you have to let your mind clear, and you have to do the work. My trick, set strict time slots in the day where you can look at social media. If you miss them, you miss them. No excuses, no cracking open the apps for a quick peek or catch up, until tomorrow. Always. This one habit I have means I'm not beholden to the algorithm's power over my attention span. You control how much attention you give the distractions and disciplining yourself on healthy ways to engage online the right amount that's best for you - makes a huge difference. 

3. The Money Problem: Financial Barriers to Progress

The Pain Point:

"Lack of funds are holding me back. Almost every contest I find fitting for me costs money I do not have. To be honest, I'm about ready to shelve everything and go back to working 50-60 hours a week." — Charity Pleasant

Contest fees. Pitch sessions. Professional coverage. Production costs. For many writers, every opportunity requires money they don't have—, especially international writers dealing with currency exchange challenges.

Strategies That Work:

Prioritize free resources first. Before investing in paid services, exhaust what's available at no cost: Stage 32 Lounges for quick feedback and networking, free webinars, blog articles, podcasts, webcasts, video tutorials, script swaps with other writers, and building relationships through consistent community engagement.

Put yourself out there. It is also entirely free to build an audience. All you need are forums and social media accounts, where you can post anything and everything. You don't have to be "creating content" all the time to build an audience either. Thoughtful, insightful posts can organically build your profile as a thought leader, and with modern technology you can often schedule posts in advance - you can even do a big haul one day, then schedule your posts for the month and let your intelligence and voice build your profile for you. 

Build your network. You can and should be adding anyone to your network that you cross paths with. Just follow people and if they like your vibe, they will follow back. Try to connect and build reals relationship over shared interests (like movies!). You never know who you might get along with and it's important to be curious and get to know people on a real level. If you can, attend local screenings, mixers, networking meetups, and workshops in your area. They're a great way to 10x your network with relevant people fast. Start with a goal of meeting 2 people you like per time out. Do that once a month for a year and you have 24 new allies in the film business.

Discounts, Grants, Etc. Grants exist all over. There are funds, initiatives, fellowships, and opportunities out there for undiscovered writers. Do your research and find ones that could be a fit for you and apply. There's no guarantees, but hey if it's free, it's free. If you don't know of any or you're bad at research. Ask! Ask the people who you think might know, ask the people in your network you've built. And ask for discounts too. If you see an opportunity you like, don't be afraid to ask the team behind that opportunity for a discount. *hint, success@stage32.com, hint*

Make something you control. Several writers mentioned creating proof-of-concept shorts or self-produced samples. Vital Butinar is finishing Pure Vortex, an ultra-low-budget feature: "I honestly think this is the limit of what can be done with no budget. But a finished project becomes a tool. It shows what you're capable of when you do have support." Seeing is often believing and you can say "I've got the next big thing" all you want, but the gulf from idea to execution is large, and if you prove you can bridge that gap, that's worth it's weight in gold.

Work toward it incrementally. Many contests are annual. If you can't afford to enter now, set aside small amounts monthly so you're ready for next year's deadline. Working long hours every week doesn't mean abandoning writing, it might just change your pace.

For the entrepreneurial minded: Start a side hustle. Doesn't have to be forever, but do it to raise the funds you want at a given time. Take on an extra shift one night, go thrifting and become an up-cycler, do cool crafts and sell them, consult on something you have expertise in, pose for an art class one time, drive Uber for a night, bet your friend $50 you can do 100 pushups and WIN THAT BET, collect the cans/bottles you use for a month and take them to the recycling center to collect the fee, sell something you need to get rid of or even do a garage sale, wash your neighbor's fence, mow your grandpa's lawn, change your friend's oil, bet another friend $100 you can beat him in a race and WIN THAT BET TOO, paint a picture and convince a rich friend you're gonna be famous one day so they'll overpay for it, etc. 

4. The Revision Loop: When Finishing Feels Impossible

The Pain Point:

"I am revising a draft and revisions keep rippling through the script, demanding more revisions. I really don't think this is a page 1 rewrite, so I am pressing on." — Michael Dzurak

As writers, we sometimes get trapped in endless polish cycles where fixing one issue creates three more problems. The script never feels "done," so it never gets submitted.

Strategies That Work:

Separate drafting from editing. Mitchell Parod realized: "I catch myself trying to manage the story instead of letting it breathe. What's helped recently is separating those phases more intentionally and letting myself write something imperfect first, then coming back later with a more critical eye."

Set a "good enough" deadline. Linda Harrison is finishing her first draft while already seeing what needs improvement: "I know getting the story down is the first thing, then build from there." Perfection in draft one is impossible. Completion is the goal. So complete, give yourself a week or two to recover mentally, then dive in and give it a polish.

Use external deadlines strategically. Contest deadlines or pitch session bookings force you to call a draft "done" and move forward. Sometimes external pressure is exactly what breaks the revision paralysis. 

When it comes to revisions, don't be afraid to trust your gut and go with what feels right to you. If people tell you one thing, but that's not your instinct, you don't have to listen to them. That being said, the best way to develop great instincts is to read more scripts - produced, un-produced, from friends, from enemies, whoever. Every great screenplay I read has another new little trick I learn that I put in my back pocket and save for later. When it comes time to revise and polish, I rarely find I don't know how to fix anything because over the years, I've collected so many little tricks to get out of any sticky situation I write myself into!

5. The Confidence Crisis: Self-Doubt That Prevents Sharing

The Pain Point:

Fear of rejection, imposter syndrome, and the belief that your work isn't "good enough" prevent writers from sharing material, which guarantees nothing moves forward.

Strategies That Work:

Take action despite fear. Sasha Tomas admitted: "Confidence, courage, and persistence have been my biggest hurdles. But some days, I have to give myself a pep talk. I said F it. Booked some pitches and am going to do it." Courage isn't absence of fear. It's acting anyway.

I always say pitching is a contact sport. You may not like to have to stand up and face the music, with the possibility of rejection hanging over your head, but as long as you step up to the plate and try, you're taking a step forward. No matter the results. And continuing to put yourself out there helps you get reps where you can learn how to take any critique, then how to reframe, restructure, revise what you're doing to get better results.

Reframe feedback as data, not judgment. When Roberto Negron felt "experts were denying his creative chops," the issue wasn't his work, it was treating every note as a referendum on his talent. As one writer pointed out: "If you hear a note once, consider it. Twice, take a serious look. Three times, something's not landing and it's worth addressing." Just don't take feedback personally. It's the worst thing you can do. Like my old high school strength coach used to say, "I'm not attacking you. I'm attacking the problem." If there's a problem someone points out, hear them out and consider. It's not the end of the world. It's just a data point for you to have on what might be a hang up for some people. Clock it and adapt/adjust from there.

Share imperfectly. Grace Balistreri was waiting to complete her entire series before sharing anything. The advice that shifted her thinking: "You don't have to wait until everything is complete. Even sharing a logline or the first 10 pages can start opening doors and help you refine the project in ways you won't see on your own."

Every writer goes through a crisis of confidence at some point. There's so many "nos" in this business and getting to a yes feels like the plot of that new Japanese thriller movie Exit 8. When you're getting every door slammed in your face and the rejections keep stacking up on top of each other, just know -- you're in good company, alongside every writer in existence (even the famous ones!). When I'm feeling low confidence, I always harken to that famous Maya Angelou quote: "You are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody." Then, keep operating.

6. The Isolation Factor: Writing Without Community

The Pain Point:

Writers in smaller markets, international locations, or niche genres feel creatively isolated. No local collaborators, no writing partners, no one who understands the specific challenges they face.

Strategies That Work:

Build community online consistently. Chase Carmichael struggled with isolation and lack of local animation collaborators. The recommendation: "Stay active in Stage 32 Lounges regularly. Engage in conversations, offer feedback to others, and share your projects. Relationships build over time through consistent visibility." 

You never know who you're going to meet or get advice from in a lounge. Execs frequently contribute and comment on posts. There's a wealth of great advice all over this site and you can find solid community around it.

Share your work. It's something I see too infrequently - writers clamoring that no one will read them. It often comes down to well, who did you share it with? Your community are your allies. Ask your allies and your friends if they'll read your work. Many will say yes, and they'll be excited to see you in a new light based on the stories you tell. Everybody likes to be excited, entranced, scared, fall in love, or laugh. Show your friends you can do that for them and you just got a big +1 in their books.

Don't wait for opportunities. Get out there and meet people. Network anywhere you can, go to screenings, mixers, meetups, and put yourself out there. The more people you meet, the wider your circle gets; the wider your circle gets, the more opportunities you become aware of by volume of proxy. If you want to get on sets, call up your local state Film Commission and ask to see what kinds of jobs are available or that they're always hiring for. <- This is why Stage 32 offers Certifications - so you can get training to work on sets, as a First AD, a Locations Manager, a Production Manager, and many more roles where you can put yourself out there and meet people en masse!

7. The "What's Next?" Paralysis: Not Knowing Industry Steps

The Pain Point:

"I don't know how to move something from interest to firmly setup and moving along. How do you discern between strong interest and passing interest?"

You receive positive feedback on your script ("This is great!") but don't know how to convert enthusiasm into concrete next steps, meetings, or deals. 

Strategies That Work:

Ask direct questions. After positive feedback, ask: "What do you see as next steps? Are you interested in coming aboard as a producer? What's your timeline for deciding whether to move forward? Is there anyone in your contacts you would share this with?" Executives expect these questions. Vague enthusiasm without follow-through wastes everyone's time. So make a direct ask, and even if it's a no, at least you didn't waste any time getting there.

Propose concrete next steps yourself. Instead of waiting: "Would it make sense to schedule a call next week to discuss how you see this developing? I'm happy to put together additional materials—do you need a pitch deck or series bible?" If you have an exec on the hook after reading your script, try to reel them in by setting yourself another opportunity to impress them. It's a business, so you do at some level want to exhibit a little business savvy and chase after the opportunities that are in front of you.

Watch for action, not words. Strong interest includes scheduled calls, introductions to collaborators, requests for materials, and clear timelines. Passing interest is compliments without commitment, and it's important to learn to distinguish politeness from pilot season green-light worthiness. If months pass with no movement despite your follow-ups, keep pitching elsewhere.

Producers who genuinely want to develop something act quickly because they're competing with other producers who might also want it. The projects I've worked on, I was usually reached out to immediately after someone read my pitch or my script. Now, not everyone is going to read your work the very second you send it to them and script reads do take time, but in my experience, the response has typically been very quick after they read / do their process because they don't want to miss out. Seeing something they like with clear market value makes execs act fast.

One example I'm constantly sharing is about this writer Darren Yeboah, who got his script requested from a pitch session in 2025 by an exec. Life happened, the exec got slammed and never got around to reading, it was just stuck on his pile. Until last month, the exec reached out to me and was like, hey i finally read Darren's script, I need to meet with this guy! So we got them together that week. When an exec wants to work with you, believe me, it will be very apparent!

8. Finding the Right Collaborators

The Pain Point:

Writers know they need creative partners but don't know how to find people whose skills and vision align with their projects.

Strategies That Work:

Be specific about what you need. Market your project for the right people to self-identify. Vague "looking for collaborators" or "I need a producer" posts don't work. Specific needs do. So don't middle. You get to decide what you want your story to be, so own what it is and be clear and direct about what it will realistically take. Do research to better inform yourself on what's been done before, what the comps are, what the realistic budget range could be, so you can position your project as close to exactly what it is. It's the difference between when my girlfriend says "I'm hungry" vs. when she says "I want tacos tonight." For the former, we're in trouble because I don't know what she wants. For the latter, I know exactly how to plan and execute a strategy to get great tacos. Producers are good at executing strategies to make films but want to see clear signals from you, so they can properly gauge what they will have to do to make it happen. 

Engage where your collaborators already are. David Weinberg is looking for a romcom director. Advice: "Spend time in the Stage 32 Filmmaking Lounge. Share a bit about your project and connect with directors actively looking for material. Strong creative partnerships often start from engaging in those discussions." It's so true. If you engage with people outside your immediate circle, you meet more people, learn new perspectives, and eventually come to understand what others need. This is all data, which can help you shape and learn what kind of people you should be getting in front of and you wand to collaborate with. 

Lead with what you bring. Don't just list what you need. Communicate what you're offering. Do you have financing conversations happening? Attachments? Contest validation? Make collaboration mutually beneficial. If you bring nothing to the table but your hand out, then you're probably not going to be the type of person others want to collaborate with.

Ask for suggestions. Ask people you know in the industry or execs you meet with: who do you think this would be right for? If you have no idea who to pitch, email success@stage32.com and I can give you tailored suggestions based on your script's logline, genre, and format. It never hurts to ask those more informed and having those conversations every day to learn how you should be moving and positioning yourself.

Know when to say no. Sometimes a great opportunity has major drawbacks. It's okay to say no and not let yourself get burned, when things don't feel aligned or you don't like the vibe. It's important to protect yourself and turn things down when you don't believe they're the right fit. This will save you loads of stress and headaches in the long run.

9. Health & Physical Limitations

The Pain Point:

"Right now, it's struggling with low energy physically." — Jeffrey Pemberton

Chronic illness, disability, and temporary health setbacks create real barriers to consistent output and networking capacity.

Strategies That Work:

Work within your capacity, not against it. Marie Hatten battled flu while trying to finish revisions: "Two weeks of the flu has not helped." Sometimes the strategy is simply: rest, recover, then return. Pushing through exhaustion often produces worse outcomes than pausing strategically. You have to take care of your health first and foremost because this industry is an absolute marathon and not a sprint!

Leverage remote opportunities. Virtual pitch sessions, email networking, and online community engagement level some playing fields for writers with physical limitations. You don't need to attend in-person events to build industry relationships anymore. You can do it all online and at your comfort/speed.

Adjust expectations without abandoning goals. Progress might look different than you hoped, but it's still progress. Small steps sustained over time compound. Don't give up because it's not working right now. Taper your expectations and keep moving. 

Adjust your diet/exercise. This one isn't critical, but studies probably show that eating healthier and exercising more boost your mood and give you more energy. With a boosted mood, you're more likely to write and be creative. So take care of your body and treat yourself nicely, so that you can maximize the energy you've got in a given day.

Final Thought: You're Not Alone and You're Not Behind

One writer said it perfectly: "Obstacles are part of the journey, both in stories and in life. The difference is choosing to keep going anyway."

Every writer in this article is navigating real challenges: time, access, confidence, geography, health. What separates those who break through from those who don't isn't luck or talent alone.

It's showing up consistently despite the obstacles.

It's asking for help when you're stuck. It's taking imperfect action instead of waiting for perfect conditions. It's building community so you're not doing this alone.

Your roadblocks are real. But they're not permanent.

The writers who succeed aren't the ones without obstacles altogether, they're the ones who keep moving forward anyway, one stubborn step at a time.

What's one obstacle you're facing right now, and what's one small action you could take this week to move past it?

Pat A.
Writer Liaison
Stage 32

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!

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They want scripts that are efficient. Scripts that can attract talent and directors. Scripts where the story doesn't just move forward…it is propelled forward.
Catapulted. Every scene earning its place. Every page keeping the reader hooked and turning to the next one. Lean. Mean. Purposeful.

I recently spoke with a literary manager whose sentiment echoed what we've been hearing consistently across the industry: there is a fundamental mismatch between what screenwriters are trained to do and what the market is actually buying.

Most writers were trained (consciously or not) on the indie films of the 1990s. Long, beautiful, character-driven dramas. Scenes that breathe. Moments that linger. The kind of work that gets celebrated in film school and dissected in screenwriting books. The problem? A lot of that material ends up on the editing bay floor. And editing bay floors are expensive.

That doesn't mean everyone should be writing action movies. Voice matters. Character matters. But understanding what the industry is actually buying is not optional. It's the difference between a script that sits in a drawer and one that gets into the right hands.

And right now, the mandate data collected from over 3,000 executives reading and meeting with writers and filmmakers on Stage 32 is clear:

• Feature Scripts: Action, thriller, and romantic comedy are dominating executive requests — by a significant margin.

• Pilot Scripts: Grounded thrillers and mysteries are leading the way, with buyers responding to contained, propulsive storytelling that hooks audiences from the first episode.

Writers’ Room members who attended our Q&A with writer-producer Donn Kennedy and writer-producer Kraig Wenman (66 feature script sales, 31 produced films, and 5 films with 100% on RT) heard something similar. Screenwriters need to think about what's being made and write with directors, actors and producers in mind. You can't create in a vacuum.

You can't follow every trend, but you can't ignore them either. The data we share can help you find your audience. Write your story. But write it with urgency — because that's what's getting read, requested, and bought right now.

This Week in the Writers' Room

New! Hybrid: Q&A + Pitch Tank with Kelly Needleman- Wednesday, April 15th at 4pm PT!

Kelly brings a rare combination of perspectives to this event. His career spans Wayfarer Studios, CBS/Paramount, and Vanishing Angle, and his on-set experience includes collaborations with Sylvester Stallone, Charlize Theron, Chris Pratt, and James Gunn. He has been actively developing pilots and features with agencies and management companies in LA — which means the feedback he brings into the Pitch Tank comes from someone who understands the full journey, from the first draft to the development room. And he’ll be answer your questions about development and production!

If you would like to join the Writers’ Room, access weekly events, submit to dozens of open writing assignments, and attend exclusive pitch tanks with industry executives- click HERE to accept my offer for a free month!

This Week’s Exciting Announcements!

This week, we're spotlighting Stage 32 Member, Ted Sperling, and won the Stage 32 x Pathfinder Comedy Contest!

Ted Sperling is an LA-based comedy writer known for the feature film WHERE’S THE MONEY (Lionsgate) and his work as a writer and Creative Lead for YouTube personalities Topper Guild, Collins Key, and Rebecca Zamolo. A native of Portland, OR and a graduate of Cornell University, Ted also studied improv and sketch writing at Upright Citizens Brigade.

“TREASURE INC. is a propulsive ensemble comedy with elevated stakes, genuine heart, and an original voice that also feels familiar. Ted Sperling wrote a screenplay that plays like a crowd-pleaser and earns every beat of it. I’m excited to work with him.” - Director Todd Biermann (IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY, MYTHIC QUEST)

Click here to connect with Ted and say "Congrats!"

This Week In The Stage 32 Community!

If you want to understand why some pitches get immediate traction while others fall flat, there’s a conversation happening right now in the Screenwriting Lounge that you need to see.

Stage 32 Executive and Thought Leader Josh Reinhold, a producer, screenwriter, and creative executive who has reviewed nearly 100 pitches through the platform in the past month alone, has identified a pattern that many writers don’t even realize they’re falling into.

He calls it the “Beat Sheet” pitch.

Instead of pulling the reader into a compelling, emotional, and cinematic experience, many pitches are reading like instructions. Step-by-step breakdowns. Character lists. Plot beats. Essentially, writers are presenting the blueprint of the script rather than the story itself.

Josh’s analogy is spot on: these pitches feel like recipes. You are listing ingredients and explaining the process, but you are not making anyone hungry. And that is the core issue.

Because the goal of a pitch is not to prove that you have structure. It is not to demonstrate that you understand story beats. It is to make someone feel something. To create momentum. To spark curiosity. To make the executive on the other side think, “I need to read this.”

This conversation ties directly into what we are seeing across the industry right now. Executives are looking for projects that move. That grab attention immediately. That feel alive on the page and in the pitch. If your pitch reads like an outline, you are already losing that momentum before they even open the script.

If you have ever struggled with pitching, whether written or verbal, this is the kind of discussion that can immediately sharpen how you present your work.

Jump into the conversation, ask questions, rethink how you’re framing your story, and make sure your next pitch leaves them wanting more.

Click here to join the discussion!

Need help navigating the industry? Contact success@stage32.com

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!

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As a producer and co-director of An Order from the Sky, I’ve learned that every film changes you in some small way, but once in a while, a film resets your entire understanding of what filmmaking means. An Order from the Sky did that to me.

The idea began years ago, during my work as part of the team behind Pebbles: The film that went on to win the Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2021. There was a long take in Pebbles that ran over thirteen minutes. It wasn’t meant to be a technical exercise; it was simply the most truthful way to follow that moment. But that experience planted a seed in my mind: What happens if you take away editing entirely? What happens if the story unfolds at the exact speed of life?

That was when the idea took root. When director Karthik Radhakrishnan shared An Order from the Sky with me, our vision aligned naturally. This ultimately became the Indo–U.S. feature we made: a 76-minute real-time, single-shot, single-character film captured with sync sound and natural light, inside a functioning rural shrine.

Synopsis (Spoilers)

Aagasam, played by actor Baskar, is a small-time thief, begins his morning inside a rural shrine. He brings offerings, bargains with his deity, threatens, pleads, waits. He cannot move until he hears the gecko call, his chosen divine signal of permission. Only then will he dare to steal.

From Page to Stillness: Adapting Imayam’s Story & Why We Chose Single Take

Our beginning was not in visual ambition but in text. With Imayam. Imayam is widely regarded as one of the most significant contemporary Tamil writers, known for his realist, socially rooted writing. Over a writing career of more than three decades, he has authored multiple novels and short-story collections and been honoured with major literary awards—including the Sahitya Akademi Award (2020) for his novel Selladha Panam, and the Kuvempu Rashtriya Puraskar (2022) for his contribution to Tamil literature.

When we adapted Imayan’s story, it did not ask for cinematic adjustment; it arrived whole, with a single man waiting for a sign only he can read. He is simply a man waiting for life to allow him forward, even if the permission comes through the small, uncertain gecko sound at the old shrine. To honour that stillness, we did not rush to reinterpret or stylise it. Instead, we approached the cinematic translation with restraint rather than invention.

Rather than altering the source, we focused on extending its internal space for the screen. The hen remained a quiet presence at the filming site, sharing the frame without being directed or assigned meaning. And for the same reason, we kept it in a single take.

The single take was never chosen for novelty. It came because the waiting itself has no cut in the story. The gecko call does not appear with dramatic rhythm. It appears in its own timing. So we did not interrupt it. If Aagasam waits, the audience waits. If the moment stretches thin, we stretch with it. Cinema usually cuts to command attention. Here, cutting would have changed the meaning of waiting. His hesitation is not build-up; it is simply how he moves through his day.

Real time was the only form that left his inner climate untouched. We were not proving stamina or technique. We were simply avoiding interference with his prayer, his fear, his negotiation with something larger than him. Imayam’s words already carried the weight; our task was only to hold the moment without breaking it apart.

The Hen Who Became a Performer

One of the strangest and most beautiful elements of the film was a live hen that appears throughout the story. Our team rehearsed with the hen for more than six months, not to “train” her, but to help her feel comfortable inside the world of the film.

What surprised us wasn’t how much she adjusted to us, but how much she committed to the rhythm of the scene. She moved through the shrine with the kind of instinctive honesty that even trained actors spend years trying to achieve. At times it felt like she was performing her own version of acting, responding to camera position, movement, atmosphere, emotion, and energy in ways none of us could predict.

It reminded us that real-time cinema doesn’t just record performance.It records presence.

All animal handling on set was supervised, and any moment of positioning or tethering was done solely for continuity and safety during the continuous take.

When a Prop Entered a Community as Sacred Presence

We built a deity specifically for the film, a piece of art meant only for the character’s inner conflict.

When we installed it inside the rural shrine, something unexpected happened. Villagers began to treat it with reverence, integrating it naturally into their existing worship practices. Offerings appeared. Community rituals began to include it alongside the other terracotta figures. And slowly, the prop stopped belonging to the film and began belonging to the community. Today, that terracotta figure still stands in my hometown, and the community continues to hold it within their daily practices.

As filmmakers, we often talk about “world-building.” But here, the world built itself around us. It was a reminder that cinema does not always sit apart from real life. Sometimes it folds directly into it.

Directing When You Only Get One Chance

A single-take film is shaped less by correction and more by trust. Actor Baskar had to carry an emotional arc without interruption for the entire 76 minutes. Cinematographer Vignesh Malaichami had to move beside him with absolute fluidity, adjusting instinctively without second chances.

Director Karthik Radhakrishnan’s approach was to guide the emotional temperature of the space rather than choreograph every beat. The challenge wasn’t staging, it was sustaining truth long enough for it to breathe on its own.

My role as producer and co-director required balancing two realities:the creative instincts of a micro-budget Indian production environment and the structural discipline I had learned while working in the U.S. I traveled frequently between the two worlds during development and pre-production, and that movement became part of the film’s DNA, flexibility from one culture, precision from another.

The Skill of Micro-Budget Filmmaking

People often assume micro-budget filmmaking means cutting corners.In reality, it means choosing with intention.

Natural light wasn’t a restriction: it was a visual philosophy.A real shrine wasn’t a location: it was a living emotional space.A small crew wasn’t a compromise: it was the only way to stay invisible inside the moment.

Every constraint sharpened the storytelling. Every limitation forced clarity.

When Time Becomes the Story

Single-take filmmaking is often described as technical, but for us it became spiritual. When we finally completed the continuous take, exhausted, silent, and unsure what we had captured, there was a moment when no one moved. Not because of fear or pressure, but because we felt we had witnessed a piece of life that would never repeat itself.

That is the gift of real-time storytelling: cinema stops pretending and simply becomes.

And as a filmmaker, that changes you forever.

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 .

Hey Stage 32 Community!

Ever dreamt of seeing your TV Comedy script come to life and stream on flat-screens in living rooms across the country? This is your chance to turn that dream into reality! We're proud to announce the 6th Annual Stage 32 TV Comedy Screenwriting Contest to help discover the next great TV comedy pilot script!

Our Grand Prize Winner will win a Career Accelerator prize package valued at $4,000 that includes script & career development, writer branding and an education package and will be set up on VIP MENTORSHIP meetings with the Head of Studio at Kevin Hart's Production Company HartBeat, a Manager & Producer from True Talent, and a Development Executive behind shows like BLOCKBUSTER, THE UPSHAWS, & THE VINCE STAPLES SHOW!

Comedy is a staple of TV entertainment that brings us together through laughter. From the relatable family adventures of MODERN FAMILY, to the totally cringe and spastic outbursts of IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA, to the witty quips and eyebrow raises of CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, audiences can’t get enough exciting comedic storytelling. This year alone, beloved TV series like THE COMEBACK and MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE have brought us delightfully funny new seasons, while new shows like ROOSTER and THE BURBS are taking couch potatoes by storm. The appetite for amazing TV shows is insatiable, and we want your story to be the next smash hit!

Stage 32 is proud to present the 6th Annual TV Comedy Screenwriting Contest!

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 got 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- Hollywood Is Not A Movie Making Town. In the interview, filmmaker Pedro Correa shares a perspective that may feel jarring at first, but it is one every creative needs to understand if they want to build a real career in this industry: Hollywood is not just a movie-making town. It is a movie marketing town.

And whether you love hearing that or not… he is right. Because while we all enter this business for the love of storytelling, artistry, and filmmaking, the reality is that film and television are also products. They are investments and businesses. If you want your work to get made, sold, financed, or distributed, you have to understand how your project fits into that ecosystem.

Pedro talks candidly about the brutal reality of trying to raise financing for his feature My Dead Dad, and one of the most important takeaways from his story is this: People do not just buy scripts. They buy vision. They buy confidence. They buy clarity.

When investors were struggling to “see” his project from the page alone, Pedro pivoted and created a concept trailer to help communicate the tone, style, and emotional feel of the film. That one decision changed everything for him.

Why? Because people are busy. Executives, financiers, and producers are busy. The easier you make it for someone to understand your vision, the easier it becomes for them to say yes. That does not mean the script does not matter. It means your ability to package, position, and communicate your idea matters just as much.

This is something many creatives miss early in their careers. They spend years perfecting the art, but never take the time to learn the business of selling that art. In today’s industry, understanding both is what separates hobbyists from professionals.

This conversation naturally leads into something I get asked all the time: Do short films still matter?

Short films still matter tremendously, but only if you understand why you are making one in the first place. The value of a short film is all about how strategically you use it. If you are creating one as proof of concept for a larger project, it can be incredibly valuable. If you are making one to showcase your directing style, your visual eye, or your voice as a storyteller, it can be a fantastic tool. If your goal is to use that short as a calling card to get managers, agents, producers, or executives to take notice of your talent, then yes, it absolutely matters.

And if that short gets into the right festivals, starts building buzz, or earns recognition? Even better.

The important thing to understand is that a short film is not just content for the sake of content. It is a tool. It is proof that you can execute on an idea. It shows that you can create, that you can take a concept from idea to final product, and that you can deliver something polished and professional. That matters in this industry.

And trust me when I say people are still paying attention. Managers watch short films. Agents watch short films. Production companies watch short films. Junior executives, assistants, and development teams are constantly looking through shorts, festival winners, and proof-of-concept pieces to identify emerging talent.

Now, that does not automatically mean everyone should go out and spend massive amounts of money making one. In some cases, if you have the resources and the ability to stretch your budget into making a feature instead, that may actually be the smarter long-term move. But when approached strategically and with a clear purpose, a short film can absolutely be the thing that opens your first real door in this business.

So let me ask you this- What do you think is harder in today’s industry: creating a great project, or learning how to market and sell that project once it is finished?

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

Film Courage | Hollywood Is Not A Movie Making Town

RBWalksIntoABar | Do Short Films 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 .

The Traditional

Traditional acting techniques have their own philosophies on how to access emotion. From Demidov’s “passively surrendering” and being guided by their “intuitive perception” to find the Character’s “impulses” to Stanislavsky’s Active Analysis and experiencing the physical life/actions of a Character that the actor will, “as a reflex”, experience “the inner feelings” of the Character. Fast forward to the 21st century, and what we know now about trauma. As amazing as imagination, empathy, and physical action is to immerse oneself in a fictional experience, it’s also an excellent conduit for stirring up vicarious trauma or personal resonances and potentially reactivating past trauma. For actors whose own traumas are being activated by the script's content, they are more likely to have a fight, flight, or freeze reaction than a healthy, intuitive, and spontaneous response that the great acting teachers spoke of. I believe what’s missing is the absence of a device to manage emotional dysregulation, which can be caused by engaging empathetic imagining and physicalization of a Character’s emotional life.

A Trauma-Informed Approach

I just want to take a minute and explain what a trauma-informed approach is to acting and why it’s important. In my opinion, any Character worth watching on stage and screen has been traumatized, regardless of whether the trauma appears in the story or not. Writers and directors are continuously giving voice to traumatic experiences, which translates to more actors embodying them. This translates to finding new ways to work with actors that ensure a healthy working environment. “Trauma-informed” is having an understanding of the harmful effects of traumatic experiences and involves employing fundamental principles of compassion and respect. In my practice, this is true when working with actors in prep and when exploring their Characters. A large part of the trauma-informed lens is understanding the importance of emotion regulation when acting in the style of psychological realism. I define emotion regulation in acting as a process in which emotion is managed through the acknowledgment, acceptance, and articulation of its expression for the purpose of increasing emotional range, fluency, proficiency, and control when crafting a Character.

For the actor who is carrying unresolved trauma, they have found ways to cope emotionally and are now living in a protective state. However, in some of these instances, cognitively they may think they’ve moved on from their trauma but symptoms can remain hidden for years until something triggering happens. Like acting in a traumatic story. How many of us have been in a situation or have witnessed actors struggling for a line as soon as they start to feel an emotion they’re not used to? They may well be tapping into unchartered emotional territory, most likely caused by a past trauma, that has not yet been regulated. Hence, they freeze or have a ‘deer in the headlights’ response and lose their train of thought. What’s actually happening is the Broca’s area has shut down. This is an area in the left frontal lobe of the cortex that controls speech. It allows you to put your thoughts and feelings into words. What happens during a traumatic event, and even during a flashback is this area shuts down. The point is, actors push themselves or allow themselves to be pushed by educators or directors to the point of unintentionally triggering their symptoms. And in other instances, actors are aware of their trauma, have not moved on, and intentionally shut down or plow into their emotions and get overwhelmed and struggle to regulate afterward. In either case, the traditional acting techniques for accessing emotion do nothing to support, regulate, or further develop their emotional apparatus.

Decompressing From Distressing Characters

In 2020, Danielle Szlawieniec-Haw conducted a study that found when actors are decompressing from distressing Characters, emotions can be challenging to label and give words to, which makes it harder for the actor to express and therefore process. She concluded that having a space for processing is a “fundamental part of the actors’ health and wellness”. My own practice of Actor Care® works backward from Szlawieniec-Haw’s conclusion. In other words, it gives actors the space to first articulate emotions for their character. Then embody them affect by affect before they dive in and experience it as a whole. You might think this takes the spontaneity out of a performance, but it’s actually quite the opposite. Because of the containment it provides, it allows for courageous choices to emerge, thus greater emotional depth and dimension. It also increases emotional range and fluidity. It slows down the entire process of Character development. The basic premise is to embody strengths before embodying vulnerability. It operates on the principles of Resilience, Boundaries, Defense Management, and Self-reflection. All four principles are designed to accommodate the actor's mental wellbeing by methodically and safely constructing a Character’s emotional life. The principals not only support the actor while in Character but also provide the necessary containment before and after embodying the role.

The Actor Wellbeing Facilitators Collective (AWFC)

When it comes to psychological realism in acting and the potential for experiencing vicarious trauma or (re)traumatization and the resulting impact on actor wellbeing, the many acting techniques for tapping into emotion are not a ‘one size fits all’ approach. While they are useful for some actors, for others, they can be harmful to their emotional wellbeing without proper support. Integrating emotion regulation techniques that support brave choices is an admirable goal for actors, trainers, educators, and coaches. Actor Care® is among the dozens of specialized offerings that are available in the Actor Wellbeing Facilitators Collective (AWFC), a global group of educators, researchers, therapists, acting coaches, well-being practitioners, and specialists of which I am a founding member, along with my colleague, Dr. Mark Seton. Our intention is to support the well-being of actors in education, production,n and lifestyle. Not one of us do exactly the same thing, which speaks to the vastness of the gap we are filling. Techniques like Inscaping, developed by Dr. Sara Lovett, to Emotional Fluency Training for Actors, developed by Tom Stroud and Innis Buchli, all have a place in the world of actor/performance wellbeing.

As research suggests, the world’s population has experienced some form of trauma. The impact of which alters our mind, body, and brain. It’s time to expand the wheelhouse of acting techniques to include our new understanding of how trauma impacts human nature. It’s time to bring wellbeing approaches to acting into the training institutes, onto film sets and rehearsal studios. ‘Trauma-informed’ is not a term to shy away from, but rather embraced and respected for the insights it can offer in our approach to acting and actor training. Having DIY tools to regulate emotion during performances is a game-changer. It’s the difference between an actor suffering for their art and an actor being in control of their craft.

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 .

Pillar #1: Abundance Always

Hollywood loves to preach scarcity: there are never enough opportunities; succeeding is incredibly rare. That’s a cute story, but I’m not here for it. Successful people don’t believe in scarcity, they believe in abundance. The truth is, there are an abundance of opportunities available to you at any given time.

When you focus on a shortage of opportunities, you put a lot of pressure on anything that comes your way. That pressure creates anxiety and affects your performance. It creates an energy of desperation like, “Wow! I got an opportunity! I better not blow this because it may be the only shot I get.” Ick.

When you believe in abundance, it takes the pressure off of any single opportunity. It also leads to consistent strategic moves—moves that you wouldn’t take after a rejection if you believed another opportunity was never going to come. If you lost an opportunity and were completely crushed, you may never get back up. But there is always another opportunity available. Abundance creates motivation to keep going and keep trying.

Pillar #2: Decisions Come From Desire, Not Fear

Most people make fear-based decisions. But you’re not most people! Successful people make decisions that support their dreams, even if it feels scary.

For example, let’s say you have contact information for a person who could potentially help you with your dream. But you’re scared to contact them. You don’t want to bother them and you’re scared they won’t want to help. So you decide not to contact them. That is a decision made from fear.

The successful person may still have those fears, but they contact the person anyway because it could help their dream. This also happens on a grander scale, when it comes to taking a big leap, investing in yourself, or taking any kind of risk. If you’re consistently making decisions out of fear, that means you’re not taking any risks. And when you’re not taking any risks, you’re not reaping any rewards.

Whenever you make a decision, pause, and ask yourself: Am I making this decision out of fear? Or does this decision help my dream move forward?

Pillar #3: Obstacles Are Opportunities To Pivot

Successful people are solution-oriented rather than problem-oriented. Most people, when faced with an obstacle, focus on the problem. They focus on it so much, they can’t even see a solution. All they see is a dead end. The High Achiever believes in solutions. When they hit an obstacle, they shift into the energy of the solution. They don’t see a dead end, they see an opportunity to pivot.

Do you know about the hidden arrow in the FedEx logo? In the white space between the E and the x, is the shape of an arrow.

There is also a baking spoon in the lowercase e in Fed. I knew about the arrow, but when I heard about the spoon, my mind was blown. “Omg! It was there the whole time and I never noticed!” See where I’m going here? Solutions, or opportunities to pivot, are always there when you know to look for them. People who are problem-oriented never see those solutions, even if they are right there in front of them just like the arrow and the spoon.

Obstacles are inevitable. But so is your success (spoiler alert from Pillar #7!). Believe in ways to pivot, and you’ll see ways to pivot (Ross Geller style). In my experience, the obstacles have always led to something so much better.

Pillar #4: Events Are Neutral, We Decide What They Mean

The stories we tell ourselves dictate everything: how we feel, what actions we take, and the results we get. We’re really good at creating stories when something goes wrong (or when we’re rejected). The moment we are faced with a rejection, the conversation in our mind begins, “I’m not good enough. They didn’t like me. I’m not likable. I’m not talented. This is never going to happen. This won’t work. I guess I’m not meant for this.” Sound familiar?

I can tell you this for sure, we are all really freaking talented at bullshit. Am I right?! Those stories we tell ourselves are not the truth. But we are pretty convincing, so we believe them. The real truth is this: anything that goes “wrong” on your journey, or any time you’re rejected...those events are neutral. They are not good, they are not bad. We assign a meaning to them. We decide if it’s good or bad. We fill in the blanks with why we think it happened.

The High Achiever stops engaging in fictional storytelling. They don’t attach a negative meaning to a neutral event without facts and data to back it up. Events are neutral. You are the only one who gets to decide if you’re meant for this. It’s not up to fate, it’s a decision.

Pillar #5: How You View Your Past

It’s easy to use time as proof that you’re not going to make it. But time doesn’t dictate our potential. Only we can dictate that.

The High Achiever does not let the past determine their future. If you’ve had bad experiences in the past, it may lead you to believe that all future experiences will be the same. For example, if you've had bad experiences with agents, you may then assume that all agents are bad, and you may even stop looking for an agent. But your past doesn’t dictate your future. It’s like taking out all your previous dating baggage out on your new partner. Don’t let your past stop you from moving forward.

Pillar #6: How You View Your Present

The Present is where people get tripped up the most. It’s all about focusing on the process rather than the result. When you plant a seed, you don’t stare at it all day and yell, “FLOWER, WHERE ARE YOU?!” You water it and take care of it, and over time the flower blooms.

Give your present a little watering. Trust that success will come when you’re really good at the process.

Pillar #7: How You View Your Future

Speaking of trust, your Future is all about believing that your success is inevitable. When I’m working on a new big goal, I don’t have time to even consider that it won’t happen. That’s a waste of my energy. Believing that it won’t happen will delay my success.

Our actions are completely tied to our thoughts. When you believe your success is inevitable, you take risks. You make the ask. You keep going in the face of rejection. You get ideas that you wouldn’t have gotten if you were focused on the “statistics” or the “reality of the situation.” Successful people operate from the place of believing they will succeed. Success is a decision.

Pillar #8: Respond Instead of React

Just like Pillar #2 tells you not to make decisions based on fear, Pillar #8 doesn’t want you to make decisions from an emotional state.

When a rejection or obstacle happens, it’s important that you allow yourself to feel the feelings that come up. Let yourself cry. You’re not a robot, so it’s OK to be human and feel the emotions that come along with a situation. In fact, it’s healthy to let them out. I’m totally a crier. I cry all the time. I fully practice Pillar #4, and I don’t let myself stay there, in those negative stories. But I do let myself release it. What I don’t do, though, is make decisions from that state.

It’s easy to want to make rash decisions about your next steps when you’re feeling emotional. But that often leads to making decisions out of fear. You can have your reaction. But don’t respond until you’ve calmed down and can make decisions that support your dream (i.e. don’t decide to give up on your dreams when you’re midway through a pint of Ben and Jerry’s, sniffling through tears).

P.S. The more you do this work, the shorter the time it will take to feel inspired again. Instead of feeling sad for a month, you’ll feel sad for a day. Growth has its benefits!

Pillar #9: You Are CEO, This Is Your Business

This one might sound a little weird, but hear me out. Think about your dream right now. What is it? In order for it to come true, you have to think about it as something tangible, rather than a fluffy concept. When you think about your dream as a business, as something more serious in terms of tangibility, it’s going to manifest that way.

Think of the different aspects a business has: marketing, accounting, sales, and creation. While not every one of those will apply to every dream, they are still concepts that can help you move out of hobby mode and into reality mode.

Every business has 3 types of costs:

1. Startup
2. Maintenance
3. Uplevel

Startup costs cover any investments required to get your dream off the ground. This might include equipment, training, or even moving to a specific city. A photographer may need to invest in a camera, a doctor needs to invest in education, and a director might move to Los Angeles to get connected with a community. Maintenance costs cover maintaining your dream. For example, a realtor may have to renew their license every four years. Or an actor may have to get their hair colored every few months. Uplevel costs cover investments that help you move up to a new level. Like a teacher getting their Masters to qualify for a higher level position, or an entrepreneur hiring a publicist to help them reach a larger audience.

I know money can be a scary thing, but it’s also an important part of making your dream into reality. Thinking of your dream as a business is going to make all the difference. You are the CEO of your dream so it’s time you took charge of it and steered it into the direction of fully realized.

Pillar #10: The Ruthless Bouncer

These pillars will put you on the path to success. I know they sound great in theory, but what about when real life happens?

The hardest part is not letting other people’s words break this wall down. Because the Negative Nancys are out there and they will voice their doubts in very convincing ways. That’s why you need to be ruthless about what you allow into your mind and energy. These pillars set you up for success and the moment you slip back into Nancy’s limiting beliefs, your success is delayed.

Here’s how your subconscious mind works: whatever is stored in there, your mind thinks is the absolute truth (kinda like those people who argue on the internet and aren’t capable of seeing any other side...they insist their opinion is right and everyone else is wrong). Let’s go back to the FedEx example. If your subconscious mind only sees the orange and purple letters, it believes that is the truth and nothing else exists. It doesn’t matter that the arrow and spoon do exist in the white space—if your mind only believes in the letters, it will only see the letters (until you show it proof). So the information stored in your subconscious will always be reflected back to you in your physical world. You’ll see whatever is stored in there.

You will always find what you’re looking for because your mind is wired to find proof that matches the “truth” inside it. Just like the FedEx logo, if you’ve stored “I’m not good enough” in your subconscious, it will be reflected back to you in your life. You’ll constantly have experiences that prove this to be true, that you’re not good enough. And it won’t just be random experiences that fall in your lap and confirm you’re not good enough. Your mind will actually lead you to create those moments.

The good news is that it works this way no matter what is in there. So if you believe that you are good enough, you’ll seek out experiences that prove that true. Can you see the importance of what is stored in your subconscious mind? It plays a significant role in your actions and the results you see. That’s why you need to be ruthless about what you allow in there.

Picture this: your subconscious mind is a club—an exclusive club with a bouncer at the door. There is music pumping and people (a.k.a. your thoughts) dancing, having a grand old time. It’s no wonder that everyone wants to get in there! But, alas, there is that huge bouncer standing outside the club, deciding who gets in. Guess who that bouncer is? It’s your conscious mind!

How does your conscious mind decide who gets into the hopping Subconscious Club? It’s all based on truth. Let’s play this out: Let’s say you’re hanging out with Nancy and Nancy says to you, “That dream you’re trying to go after is really hard. It probably won’t happen.” Oh Nancy, always with encouraging words, right?! Well, at that moment, you have a choice. You can choose to believe what Nancy said, or you can choose to reject it as truth. That’s your Conscious Bouncer dude, deciding if this statement gets to come into the party. If you decide what Nancy said is true, then it’s in! Past the ropes, no cover needed, in it goes! If you decide it’s not true, then it’s not getting in the club and you just won this round of Your Dream vs. Disbelievers. Wooooooo!

As you can see, your mindset is everything. Your beliefs are everything. Now that you have these 10 pillars, it’s imperative that you become ruthless about what else you allow in. You can do this. You are amazing. Your success is inevitable. Anything less is not comin’ in da club.

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 .

Your ability to read like an executive.

Not just to enjoy material. Not just to react to it. But to evaluate it through the lens of the marketplace.

Your reading brain.

This Is Why Everyone Starts With Coverage

There’s a reason so many internships and entry-level roles in entertainment begin the same way: stacks of scripts, coverage, notes, and then doing it all over again.

At first, it can feel repetitive. It can feel overwhelming. And if you’re being honest, it can even feel like busywork.

It’s not.

It’s where the real training begins.

Interns are cutting their teeth learning how to identify which scripts actually align with the company they’re working for. Not just what’s “good,” but what fits the boss’s taste, the company’s brand, their current mandates, and even their financial capabilities. A great script on paper doesn’t mean it’s a great fit for that company at that moment, and learning to recognize that is a huge part of the job.

But it doesn’t stop at identifying alignment; you then have to articulate it.

You have to clearly explain what’s working, why it could be a strong investment, how it might appeal to a specific audience, and whether it has a realistic path forward in development or production. That’s where the real muscle gets built, not just in reading, but in thinking.

Because you’re not writing coverage in a vacuum, you’re writing it for someone who is busy, who is making decisions quickly, and who is relying on you to filter what deserves their time and attention.

In many cases, you’re even asked to go a step further. After submitting your written coverage, you may be pulled into a room and asked to verbally pitch your thoughts to the development team. To defend your recommendation. To answer questions. To think on your feet.

That’s not just an exercise. That’s preparation.

Because what you’re really learning is how to think like an executive. How to evaluate material within a larger ecosystem of business, audience, and timing. And for those who lean into it and really hone that skill, this is often the beginning of everything they’re working toward.

The Mistake Most Writers Make Early

And this is where so many writers, myself included, get tripped up in the beginning.

When I was fresh out of film school, I misunderstood this completely.

I thought good coverage meant defending what I loved. I thought my job was to champion the scripts that spoke to me personally, to fight for the ones that felt original or exciting to me, and to protect my taste as if that was the value I was bringing to the table.

But development isn’t about your taste.

It’s about discernment.

And that realization takes a minute to fully land.

Because the industry doesn’t run on personal preference, it runs on a combination of audience demand, market positioning, budget reality, timing, and strategy. A script can be beautifully written, emotionally resonant, and completely aligned with your personal taste… and still not be something a company can make, sell, or sustain.

That doesn’t make it bad. It just means it’s not viable for that moment, for that buyer, or for that business model.

Once you start to see that, everything begins to shift.

What You’re Really Training Yourself to See

As your reading brain develops, you start to notice that your instincts are changing.

You’re no longer leading with, “Did I like this?” Instead, you’re asking, “What is this trying to do, and does it succeed at that?”

You begin to read with a wider lens. You’re thinking about who the audience is and whether that audience is clearly defined or just vaguely implied. You start to consider whether the concept feels fresh within its space, or if it’s competing with ten other projects already in the pipeline.

You notice how the idea might translate beyond the page. Can it be produced at a realistic budget level? Does it have elements that could travel internationally? Is there a clean, compelling hook that makes it easy to pitch in a room?

You also start thinking ahead. Can talent see themselves in this? Does the concept have enough depth to sustain development conversations, rewrites, and potentially even a series engine?

None of these questions remove the importance of craft. They elevate it.

Because now you’re not just asking if something is good. You’re asking if it works in the real world.

You’re no longer reading as a fan! You’re reading as someone who understands that every script is a piece of a much larger puzzle.

The Hardest Shift: Separating Taste from Value

This is the part that takes the most discipline, because it asks you to quiet something very instinctive and very personal, your taste.

We all have it. The genres we gravitate toward. The tones we connect with. The kinds of characters and stories that feel like home, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But when that becomes your only filter, it limits your ability to grow.

Maybe you don’t enjoy horror. Maybe broad comedy doesn’t land for you. Maybe you’re not naturally drawn to period pieces or sci-fi. That’s fine!

But if you want to operate at a professional level, you need to be able to step outside of your own preferences and evaluate whether something works on its own terms. And that’s exactly why it’s so important to challenge yourself as a reader. To actively seek out scripts, films, and series across genres and styles that you wouldn’t normally choose. Not just to consume them, but to understand them. To study what makes them effective, what audiences they’re serving, and how they’re positioned in the market.

Because the broader your exposure, the sharper your instincts become.

A horror script can be incredibly effective even if you would never choose to watch it on a Friday night. If the concept is clear, the audience is defined, the budget makes sense, and the emotional or thematic core connects, that’s something you should be able to recognize.

That’s the shift.

You stop asking, “Do I like this?”

And start asking, “Does this work for the people it’s meant for?”

Belief vs. Preference

Now, this doesn’t mean passion disappears. Belief still matters. In fact, it’s essential.

If you’re going to develop something, advocate for it, and push it through multiple stages of feedback and refinement, you need a reason to stand behind it.

But belief doesn’t always come from personal preference. Sometimes it comes from clarity. From recognizing that a concept has a strong foundation. That it speaks to a real audience. That it fills a space in the market. That it has a path forward.

You may not have chosen it as a viewer, but you understand exactly why it works and why it should exist.

Training your reading brain means learning to see beyond your own experience and into the potential life of a project once it leaves your hands.

How This Skill Changes Your Writing For The Better

This is where everything starts to compound. Because once you begin thinking this way as a reader, you can’t not think this way as a writer.

Your feedback becomes sharper because you’re not just pointing out what feels off, you’re identifying why something isn’t landing and what could make it stronger.

Your notes become more actionable because they’re grounded in both craft and context.

Your pitches become more focused because you understand not just your story, but its place in the market and how to communicate that clearly.

And your writing evolves.

You start making more intentional choices from the beginning. You become more aware of your audience. You think about clarity, structure, and concept in a way that aligns with how your work will actually be received.

You’re writing with perspective.

How to Start Training Your Reading Brain Today

This shift doesn’t happen overnight, but it can start immediately.

And it doesn’t only start on the page. You can begin by watching content differently.

The next time you’re watching a film or a television series, challenge yourself to move beyond being a passive viewer. Start thinking about who the project is for. What audience is it serving? What makes it appealing to that audience? How is it positioned in terms of tone, budget, and marketability?

Pay attention to the choices being made. Why does this concept work? Why might it have been greenlit? How was it marketed to reach its audience?

Then take that same mindset into your reading.

When you pick up a script or revisit one of your own drafts, try adjusting the question. Instead of asking, “Did I like this?” take a step back and ask who the project is really for and whether it delivers on what that audience is expecting or hoping for.

Consider what makes it stand out. Think about what would make someone in a decision-making position say yes to this right now.

Even just slowing down enough to ask those questions, whether you’re watching or reading, will start to change how you process material.

And over time, those reps add up.

The Writers Who Break Through Aren’t Just Talented

The writers who break through aren’t just talented. They’re aware.

They understand the difference between what they love and what works. And more importantly, they learn how to align those two things in a way that feels intentional, strategic, and authentic to them.

Because this isn’t just about selling one script. It’s not just about landing a single option agreement or having one moment of momentum.

It’s about building a career that lasts.

The ability to consistently evaluate your work through this lens, to understand the market, the audience, and the viability of your ideas, is what allows you to keep creating, keep adapting, and keep selling again and again.

That’s what separates a one-time win from a sustainable path forward.

Now, tell me in the comments- What’s a film or television series you weren’t the obvious audience for, but ended up really enjoying? What elements made it work for you anyway?

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 entertainment industry is not a lottery. It is a marketplace with real signals, active mandates, and specific needs at any given moment. Studios are greenlighting certain things right now and passing on others. Managers are building particular kinds of rosters. Producers are attached to projects that tell you exactly what they’re looking for next. All of that intelligence is available…if you’re paying attention.

Read the trades. Every day.
Deadline, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Indiewire…They are a real-time map of the market. When you see that a producer just set up a thriller at Netflix, that tells you something. When you see that a manager just signed three writers from the same genre, that tells you something. When you see that a studio is doubling down on elevated horror or pulling back from mid-budget drama, that tells you exactly where the wind is blowing. Writers who read the trades don’t just know what’s selling: They know why, and they use that knowledge to position their work strategically rather than shooting in the dark.

Don’t write in a vacuum.
The best scripts don’t just tell great stories: They tell great stories at the right moment. That doesn’t mean chasing trends. It means understanding the landscape well enough to know where your work fits and who needs it right now. A contained thriller with a high-concept hook lands differently in a market where streamers are hungry for low-budget genre than it does in a moment when every buyer is chasing prestige drama. Context (and timing) is everything.

Use the people who know the room.
This is where most writers leave enormous value on the table. At Stage 32, our Success Team talks to executives, managers, and producers constantly. We know who is actively looking for material, what their mandates are right now, what they just passed on, and what would make them stop and say yes. That knowledge is available to you.

Before you book a pitch session or submit to an Open Writing Assignment, reach out. Tell us what you’re working on. Ask who on our roster would be the strongest match for your material. We have over 3,000 executives, managers, agents, and producers — and not all of them are equally right for every project. The difference between a pitch that lands and one that doesn’t is often not the script. It’s the room.

The writers who break through aren’t necessarily the ones with the best scripts. They’re the ones who combine great writing with real market intelligence and smart relationship-building. Those three things together are unstoppable.

This Week in the Writers' Room

The Pitch Tank with Sammy Warshaw- Wednesday, April 8th at 4pm PT!

Sammy Warshaw is joining us in the Pitch Tank — a producer and film executive who has spent over a decade working at the center of Hollywood with Jason Blum at Blumhouse on HAPPY DEATH DAY, HALLOWEEN, and BLACKKKLANSMAN, with Neal Moritz at Original Film on SONIC THE HEDGEHOG and ESCAPE ROOM, and as Co-Producer on SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2 and KNUCKLES at Columbia Pictures.

If you would like to join the Writers’ Room, access weekly events, submit to dozens of open writing assignments, and attend exclusive pitch tanks with industry executives- click HERE to accept my offer for a free month!

This Week’s Exciting Announcements!

This week, we're spotlighting Stage 32 Member, Julia Shackman who signed a 12-month shopping agreement on her book after meeting the producer in a Stage 32 consultation!

Julia is a feel-good romance author from Scotland, published with HarperCollins imprint One More Chapter. Her debut novel A Secret Scottish Escape has sold over 100,000 copies in e-book, and she has just signed a new two-book deal with the imprint. Her latest release, A Scottish Island Summer, is available now in e-book and paperback. Julia's warm, witty, and emotionally grounded romances are a natural fit for adaptation — think charming settings, sharp humor, and the kind of love stories that stay with you. She is represented by literary agent Selwa Anthony.

Click here to connect with Julia and say "Congrats!"

Announcing The Stage 32 + Mark Creative Management + 831 Entertainment Film & TV Drama Screenwriting Contest Semi-finalists!

We're thrilled to announce the semi-finalists in this year's Stage 32's Film & TV Drama Screenwriting Contest in partnership with Mark Creative Management and 831 Entertainment

Our Finalists will receive:

Our Finalists will receive a Career Momentum prize package valued at $1,500, including Career Development, a Writer Branding Workshop and an Education package, and will have your logline featured in a Stage 32 Look Book sent to over 2,500+ top entertainment industry executives, giving your work unparalleled exposure!

But that’s not all! Everyone who makes the Semi-Finals will receive a Career Breakthrough prize package valued at $1,000, our Quarterfinalists will receive a Career Elevation prize package valued at $500, and all Entrants will get a prize package valued at $100!

The Grand Prize Winning screenwriter will receive:

• Development placement for script development and packaging with Mark Creative Management
• Career Accelerator Prize Package ($4,000 value) including script development, career consulting, writer branding, and comprehensive education resources
• Personal Mentorship Track with dedicated 1:1 career development sessions from our success team
• Industry Marketing Campaign promoting winner to our exclusive roster of 2,500+ managers, agents, producers, and executives
• Strategic Partnership where Stage 32 and Mark Creative Management executives collaborate to prepare your project to take directly to market

This Week In The Stage 32 Community!

Every writer hits a wall at some point. The difference between staying stuck and moving forward often comes down to one thing, being willing to talk about it.

Right now in the Screenwriting Lounge, Head of Community Ashley Smith has sparked a conversation that cuts straight to the core of the creative process: What’s holding you back right now?

It’s a simple question, but an important one. Because the obstacles we face are rarely unique. They just feel that way when we’re in them.

• For some, it’s time. Balancing life, work, and writing can feel like an impossible equation.
• For others, it’s finishing a draft. Knowing where to go next, or how to push through the middle.
• And for many, it’s confidence. Feedback. Rejection. Not knowing if you’re on the right path, or what the next step should be.
• And sometimes, it’s all of it at once.

What makes this conversation so valuable is not just the honesty, it’s the solutions that come out of it. Writers sharing what helped them finish that script. What shifted their mindset. What small change made a big difference. Because progress in this industry is rarely about one big breakthrough. It’s about learning how to navigate the roadblocks as they come.

These are the conversations that remind you that you’re not behind, you’re in process. And that other writers are figuring it out right alongside you. If something has been slowing you down lately, or if you’ve recently pushed through a challenge, this is your chance to both get support and offer it.

Jump into the discussion, share what’s real for you, and be part of a community that understands exactly what you’re navigating.

Click here to join the conversation!

Need help navigating the industry? Contact success@stage32.com

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 .