Composing

Happy Wednesday, Creative Army! This week, we launched the Stage 32 Marketplace - and we also gave your Stage 32 profile a major upgrade. Why? Because discovery isn’t only about the project. It’s also about you. When an executive, producer, manager, collaborator, or employer finds your work, one of the first things they may do is click on your profile. So make sure what they see represents you at your best. UPDATE YOUR PROFILE YOUR PROFILE IS YOUR PROFESSIONAL CALLING CARD You...

Hey, Y’all! The Bash is BACK, and this year, it lands on Halloween weekend. Every year during the Austin Film Festival, the Stage 32 community takes over a rooftop in downtown Austin for one night of celebrating, connecting, and finally meeting the people we’ve been talking to online all year. This is our 13th year doing it, and it remains one of my favorite nights on the entire Stage 32 calendar. You’re invited. Stage 32’s 13th Annual Austin Film Festival Rooftop BashFriday, October 30t...

Happy Monday, Creative Army! Here's something I've learned in my years as Head of Community: the members who get the most out of Stage 32 are almost never the ones who understood everything on day one. They're the ones who found one thing that worked, did it consistently, and then found the next thing. This is the guide I wish every member had in their first week. I originally wrote a version of it in 2024, and enough has changed since then that it needed a proper rebuild. Whether you join...

Happy Thursday, Creative Community!  This one comes up in the Lounges constantly, and I've answered it in more comment threads than I can count. Usually in a few paragraphs, usually while a conversation is already halfway to an argument, and never with the space it actually needs. It's time we really dig into it. A member posts about a project they worked on. Or they post about a professional they've met and are excited to be working with. Someone else in the thread points out that the proje...

Happy Monday, Creative Army! Almost nothing in this industry happens because someone read a cold submission and loved it. It happens because someone knew someone. Because a producer remembered a writer they met three years ago. Because an executive asked their assistant if they knew anyone who could handle a rewrite, and the assistant did. That is not cynicism. It is not a complaint about gatekeeping. It is simply how a relationship-driven business works, and once you see it clearly, it chan...

Why Are We Still Making Film the Old Way? Let me start with a full disclosure. I work for a company that makes some of the products I’m mentioning here. I don’t want you to take that the wrong way. I’m still a filmmaker and actively use tools like these to produce content on literally a daily basis. But I know sometimes people get fussy, think I’m just promoting a product. In this case, that is true, but for all the right reasons. The Old Ways Are Dead I’ve been in the industry for over 30...

The creative mind is a powerful thing. It can build cities, worlds, and characters out of thin air. It can also create monsters and catastrophes—which, in film, can be incredibly lucrative. In life, it can create chaos. Calming the creative mind comes with two very different outcomes. On one hand, it can make space for creation to thrive. On the other, it can quiet the very noise from which some creations emerge. Creativity has always fascinated me because it seems to arrive from so many...

What's up, Creative Army! I have been on the road, in the meetings, and on the phone with executives, producers, financiers, and buyers all year long. And every time I come back from one of those conversations, the same thing happens. I want to sit down with the creatives in this community, and I want to tell them everything I just heard, because so much of it is information that would genuinely change how they approach their careers if they only knew it. So that is exactly what I am about t...

Happy Sunday, Creative Army! 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 yourse...

One of the most valuable things you can learn as a creative, whether you have spent years on set or have never stepped foot on one, is who actually does what on a film crew. It is the roadmap to how a production really works, and it is often the first step toward finding your own place on one. Most people, inside and outside of the industry, have familiarity with the primary "above the line" crew positions and the creative forces behind a project. Yet many of the "below the line" crew position...