Tips

I am excited to announce a new partnership that continues Stage 32’s expansion throughout Mexico and Latin America. Stage 32 Certification has entered into a strategic collaboration with the Baja Film Commission to bring internationally recognized training and certification opportunities to the filmmaking community of Baja California. This initiative focuses on one of Mexico’s most internationally connected and production-friendly regions, a state that has played a significant role in both H...

Once on set, I think of the 1st AD as the present, planning and keeping the day moving forward. At the same time, the 2nd AD is the future, planning and spreading information for the following days. Before Filming Begins The 1st AD gets the script and breaks it down into a schedule with all the puzzle pieces – Working closely with the director, everything having to do with the script is decided - locations, cast availability, equipment, day vs. night, sets, props, stunts, special effects, and...

One thing I am excited about every day as a representative is that animation does not just exist in the movies and television shows we watched growing up. It stays with us for a lifetime. Yes, that may sound cliché, but animation is constantly evolving and will always be a part of our lives, no matter our age. The stories being told at both the independent and studio level have purpose. They have something meaningful to say. They entertain, inspire, challenge perspectives, and connect people a...

Happy Sunday, Creative Army! 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- Every Jon Favreau Movie, Explained by Jon Favreau. In it, Favreau walks through his entire directing career, from the scrappy creative partnership of Swingers and Made, to launch...

Over the last 20 years, I have employed a lot of people for crew positions on features that I have produced and directed. As much as I would love to say I use the same crew every time, unfortunately, that is not always the case. When starting out, the logical choice of course is to hire people with the most credits on their resume, however, that is not necessarily the smartest approach. As I reflect back on the films I have crewed, I have learned a few things that I would like to pass along to y...

Most animated series begin with a script that defines characters and narrative. Scripts build a written world and expand gradually into visual storytelling. But what happens when you start from something entirely different — not a script, but a body of music? That’s the question I’ve been exploring while working on an animated series currently in development. And it has required rethinking some of the assumptions about how stories, characters, and even production pipelines are built. For a...

Exclusively on Stage 32, one of the top production and management companies in Hollywood has opened their doors to our community and we're excited to announce we've partnered with Citizen Skull Productions & Management who will sign a shopping agreement to develop and package the winning script of our brand new International screenwriting contest! Hey Stage 32 Community! We're proud to announce the Stage 32 + Citizen Skull International Screenwriting Contest to help discover the next great i...

An independent filmmaker today has enormous challenges. The biggest challenge is to find the money to get your film made. I have heard so many stories that have frustrated me over the years. Producers with no experience meeting a billionaire and getting a film made. Producers with tons of experience grinding it out to no avail. But that’s not what I want to talk about. And frankly, that’s not what you need to hear anymore. That catch-22 has jumped the shark. We got it. It’s hard, and there is no...

Happy Sunday, Creative Army! 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 StudioBinder- How Back to the Future Uses Perfect Blocking to Tell the Story. If you have ever wondered why Back to the Future feels so alive, this video pulls back the curtain. It walks thr...

Animation is one of the few genres that has continued since the 2020 pandemic in a relatively unharmed way. The fact that animation can to a large extent be produced entirely remotely, put it in the spotlight of the film and television production community when the world came to a halt during the first months of the pandemic. The ability to produce animation remotely, in combination with the availability of cross-border high-quality animation and talent, production incentives, and lower costs,...