Advice

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic and power in it. Begin it now.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe    Do you love what you’re doing? If you could change anything, from tiniest niggle to largest adjustment, what would you do? Would you keep forging ahead for the dream du jour? Or would you modify, skew slightly left, leave the beaten path entirely? What will it take for you to pursue your dream? As a child, I dreamed of being an artist. If I couldn’t be...

Good morning, 32'ers.  Happy Oscars Sunday. Don't forget, it's not too late to get your Oscars ballot in.  Prizes and bragging rights are at stake.  Fill out your ballot here. Leading up to the ceremony, I have two more videos for your enjoyment as part of this edition of Coffee and Content. First up, a classic and extremely celebrated video of Michael Caine discussing acting in film.  Next, from Actualized.org, comes a terrific video on overcoming writer's block.  Whether you're writing...

Crowdfunding for independent film has grown up quite a bit since the very first edition of Crowdfunding for Filmmakers came out in 2013, and as such, those who partake in the privilege of inviting a crowd in to fund your latest movie must adapt to the changing landscape. As Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder sings, “It’s evolution, baby!” and one such evolution has been the advent of the campaign manager.   Yes, crowdfunding’s a booming industry, one that has spawned an ecosystem all its own: peopl...

The way we communicate has changed more in the past two decades, than it has since Gutenburg invented his printing press in 1440. But now Gutenburg's been replaced by Zuckerburg, and we're no longer analogue creatures. We're carefully curated digital representations, information junkies – constantly in the loop, all wired up to The Matrix. You may regard our new digital reality a dystopian wasteland – a bleak place punctuated by selfies, pornography and neon virtue-signallers. A lonely dimensi...

I started acting a little later than most of my fellow thespians. I’d always been a creative person: writing, drawing and playing music, but acting was something I feared. “Who am I to act?” “Who would possibly be entertained by my performance?” So, out of fear, I never tried acting. That was, until my 30s. My career in the toy industry had stalled and I was feeling less connected to myself. I was getting sick a lot, and I was having trouble finding direction or inspiration. In other words, I wa...

Hey guys. Very often, I hear from members of the community who are having a difficult time navigating the business side of the industry.  Honing their craft, no problem.  Building relationships, winning champions and getting past the gatekeepers, a challenge that not only puts many through the wringer, but dampens their creative spirit as well. I'm here to tell ya, the fear, the resistance, the reluctance can all be overcome.  And it doesn't take much.  In fact, just a few changes in commitm...

Last week we brought in the Emmy-award winning producer Kip Konwiser for an incredible 90 minute Q&A that left all of the creatives listening motivated and inspired. Kip has had a storied career having worked with Netflix, HBO, Sony Pictures, 20th Century FOX, Paramount, Lionsgate and more. For nearly three decades he's worked with some incredible talent including Darren Aronofsky, Laurence Fishburne, Clint Eastwood and much more. In this inspiring webinar we talked about whether or not you n...

We’ve all heard the stories. Paranormal Activity, a film with a budget slightly less than a used Honda, made $193 million worldwide and launched a profitable franchise. That film’s progenitor, The Blair Witch Project, had a $60K budget and turned out a $250 million box office haul. The most profitable films from 2010 to 2015 were all horror films. 10. The Last Exorcism ($68M gross vs. $1.8M production budget) 9. Annabelle ($257M vs. $6.5M) 8. Chernobyl Diaries ($37M vs. $1M) 7. In...

As part of the writing services team at Stage 32 handling a lot of the pitch sessions, I get a lot of questions about pitching, as well as some pretty keen insight into what executives like and dislike about pitches. Before me, Allen did the same thing and therefore experienced the same growth in KNOWLEDGE (said with an echo). So together he and I came up with a list of the ten most common mistakes we see in the pitches here. We then had a brutal fist fight to see who would have to go on cam...

Just when you feel like parking your pitching for the moment, along comes a breakthrough to give you new hope – this is my takeaway sentiment this Christmas just gone, and I would like to share with you all what I am talking about, as hopefully it will encourage you to keep pressing forward and to keep striving for your goals/dreams in 2018. I was reluctant to write this article, as I felt it was a little premature, but encouragement from Rosalind Winton, the wonderful official editor of Stage...