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Hey everyone, Sam here. Most of what we cover in this series is about what gets bought. This week is about what happens after. Lauren Caster did everything the indie playbook asks. Her debut feature, RHYTHM IS A DANCER, world premiered at the Austin Film Festival, played theatrically in New York and Los Angeles, and landed real press. Then it hit VOD, the numbers came back, and she learned what a lot of independent filmmakers find out too late. Finishing the movie is only half the job. W...

Ever dreamt of seeing your horror story come to life on the big screen or 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 13th Annual Search for New Blood Screenwriting Contest to help discover the next great horror script! Our Grand Prize Winner will win a Career Accelerator prize package that includes script & career development, writer branding and an education package and will be first in line for V...

Twenty years ago, I packed my 2-door Honda and moved from Wichita, KS, to New York City. With my freshly printed journalism degree and the audacity of a young woman with nothing to lose, I walked through the doors of CBS News on West 57th Street. I would spend the next 13 years at the network chasing dreams that ultimately led me to Hollywood—which wasn’t originally part of the plan. From there, I went on to produce alongside an Emmy Award-winning director. These past three years, I have made...

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 FilmStack: The Decade Hollywood Stopped Saying No. The greatest creative run in American film history happened because an industry got scared. Not because it got generous. The door didn't ope...

For decades, publishing has been a lane of its own - a road lined with ink and paper, where words and pictures told stories that lived quietly on shelves. But as the world of storytelling expands across screens, sounds, and platforms, those clear-cut lanes are beginning to blur. Between those blurred lines - in the grey areas - lie exciting green lights: new possibilities for collaboration, audience engagement, and creative reinvention. Today, the question for writers and publishers isn’t just...

Happy FriYay, Creative Community! Ten days ago, a horror comedy about a haunted island town off the coast of New England walked away with more Emmys than any freshman comedy series in history. Fourteen wins. Outstanding Comedy Series. Outstanding Writing. Outstanding Directing. Three acting trophies. A record for the most wins by a comedy series in a single season, and the most performance wins of any series this year. On Wednesday, October 7th at 4:00 pm PT, we're breaking down its pilot...

Every story about leadership I'd ever read started with someone who wanted the job. Mine starts with someone who applied for a completely different one. To paint the picture: it was the beginning of COVID, the contract on my day job ended early, I was the live-in carer for my grandmother, and my dreams of producing films were firmly on the back burner. By nature, I am inherently a busy person, busy in mind, body, and soul, and I was terrified of slowing down and convinced that if I did, I woul...

Hi everyone, Laura here. At a midnight screening in Toronto this month, a room full of buyers watched a first-time director's slasher and started making phone calls. By Monday morning, Sony was at $8 million and still lost. Universal and Blumhouse Atomic Monster closed it for more than $10 million. The film is RIVER. It's about three people stranded on a boat. And the reason it went for that price tells you a lot about what's worth writing right now. What Actually Happened Josh Giulian...

Every script that comes through Stage 32 gets evaluated by a professional Industry Reader, someone who reads hundreds of screenplays per year, who knows story structure inside and out, and who can spot the same problems over and over again. When you get script coverage or submit to a contest, your script goes to an Industry Reader in our reader pool. All readers in our pool have at minimum 5 years professional experience working on a desk at an agency, in a Writers Room, in a production office...

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...