How to Write a Film Based Off an Original Idea or Comic Book Adaptation
Other education that may be of interest to you:
Film Contracts: What You Need To Know (5 Downloadable Templates)
"Very informative and complex concepts were broken down so folks without a law degree could understand them." - Elisha B. When you are putting together a deal as a writer, producer or filmmaker there are many things to think about when it comes to your contracts - between option agreements, purchase agreements and negative pickups it's important you understand what deal you're getting yourself into before you start development. Your Stage 32 Educator is entertainment attorney Jordan Barel, who's a California attorney that has worked with AMC, New Line Cinema, Generate and Alloy. He is also a producer who develops projects based off IP and started out as the television coordinator at Verve Talent & Literary Agency. You will cover three different types of contracts: purchase agreement, option agreement, and negative pickup. Jordan will discuss terms in both a legal and practical matter so that you get the information needed to be prepared to negotiate your next agreement. Such things will include material and boilerplate terms, what can or can't be negotiated, and how lawyers themselves will be reading and reviewing your agreement. This will be an in-depth, but accessible, legal discussion walking you through each part of a standard purchase and option agreement. Plus! You'll get 5 contract templates to download! Whether you're a producer, filmmaker or writer learn the overview of contracts to give you a competitive advantage in your next negotiation! **All materials have been prepared for general information purposes only to permit you to learn more about certain types of contracts within the entertainment industry. The information presented is not legal advice and is not to be acted on as such, please consult your lawyer for issues specific to your contract. PRAISE FOR JORDAN'S TEACHINGS: "Very informative and complex concepts were broken down so folks without a law degree could understand them." - Elisha B.
How to Strengthen Your Supporting Characters & Subplot in Your Script
Writing the hero or main characters of your story is always fun. You typically have an immediate sense of who your character is, what they like, where they live, their strengths and weaknesses, and how they relate to the world around them. What may not be as easy and might be considerably more difficult is writing your supporting characters - particularly when it is a large ensemble of characters that you need to introduce. It is just as important to develop your supporting characters as it is your main ones. Your supporting characters add tremendous value to the arch of your main character’s journey and therefore require a sincere investment to their development. A supporting character can be a sidekick, sibling, or best friend of the main character. Whoever they are, they have an important role to play in your story. The last thing you want is to leave the potential of the supporting character sitting on the back burner. It’s time to bring them up front and really brainstorm what they can bring to the table of your script. A supporting character can greatly enhance your subplot and move the general plot forward if you truly understand how to utilize them. We have the tools to help you master this exactly. Jordan Barel is a seasoned filmmaker, television coordinator, an award winning publisher, and business owner who founded Loaded Barrel Studios, publishing graphic novels and obtaining international awards, including the Independent Publishing Book Awards (2012, 2013), The LA Book festival, the Geekie Awards ®, and many others. He has optioned his incredible books and screenplays with producers such as David Uslan, Brendan Deneen who has done work for MARVEL Entertainment and DC, Jeffrey Erb, and Aaron Berger who has contributed to projects like TURBO and CRIMINAL MINDS. Jordan will demonstrate the effective approach on how to utilize your supporting characters to enrich your storytelling. Jordan will discuss how your supporting characters can be utilized to bring depth to your story and connect it to the Hero’s Journey of the main character in your script. He will also touch on using supporting characters as a unique element to deliver key exposition and tools on ways your supporting characters can deliver a subplot. Jordan will break down case studies of various film types and how they use supporting characters & sub plots in story. By the end of this webinar, you will feel well-equipped with ideas on how to strategically use your supporting characters to magnify your story to its fullest potential. Jordan is thrilled to deliver this exciting material to members of the Stage 32 community. PRAISE FOR JORDAN'S TEACHINGS: "It was absolutely excellent information." - Gerri G. "Great speaker, lots of great info. Thanks!" - Ron H.
How To Pitch Your TV Pilot To Cable Networks
Cable networks all have their niche. For example, AMC has really honed in on intense dramas, such as The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, and Mad Men; USA focuses on character driven mystery dramas such as CSI, House, and NCIS; TBS centers around comedy sitcoms like The Big Bang Theory, Ground Floor, and Cougar Town; ABC Family focuses more on sitcoms relating to family, such as Melissa and Joey, Baby Daddy and The Fosters. Knowing how to tailor your pitch to a specific cable network opens up immense opportunity for your TV pilot. Every cable network can be a real home for your work - it’s just a matter of the how, when, and why. Knowing how to appeal to multiple networks gives your pilot a better chance of getting picked up! In this Stage 32 Next Level Webinar, host Jordan Barel will teach you both how to pitch your pilot and how to tailor your pitch to the right cable network. In addition, he’ll go over what kind of shows live on each network currently, and what may be the right fit for you. You will walk away with a clear understanding of how to pitch effectively as well as a clear understanding of how to make your pilot what each network is looking for. Your host host Jordan Barel is a writer, producer and lawyer for Loaded Barrel Studios. Based in LA, he's worked for New Line Cinema, AMC, Verve Talent Agency and was recently named in Variety's Hollywood Movers and Shakers list. He worked for Paul Scheer through his producing deal at FOX, working on development with his projects as well as bringing in new writers for him. Jordan also works at Abominable Pictures in their comedy and TV department. Previously, he worked as the Television Coordinator for Verve Literary Agency, producing the company's staffing video which lead to a 200% increase in the company's staffed writers. While there he also vetted all new TV and film clients. Jordan knows what will make your pitch stand out and is here exclusively for Stage 32 to help guide our writers toward success!
Structuring Your 30 Minute Pilot: Your A, B and C Story - With 3 Free Pilot Script Downloads
Learn From Meghan Pleticha, A Television Writer Who Has Worked On Shows For HBO, FX, ABC and More. Plus! You'll Receive The Pilot Scripts For FX’s ARCHER, NBC’s SUPERSTORE and Netflix’s GLOW! If you want to work as a TV writer on comedies, you need a great writing sample that showcases your voice and that comes in the form of a pilot script. Writing a pilot is hard, though, and writing a great pilot is even harder. One of the most common pitfalls is failing to write a compelling story that showcases your characters and world. But it’s that story that will get a reader to finish the script. It’s that story that can help you get a job. Figuring out the best version of your pilot story often comes down to structuring the script into an A, B and C story. This will allow you to introduce your characters, world, and plot points while still maintaining a pace and shape to your script. Writing a great pilot script is a tricky balancing act, ESPECIALLY for a 30-minute show. In just 30 pages, you need to establish your world, your characters, and your ongoing stories without overloading the audience with exposition and while still injecting the episode itself with its own story and arc. That’s a lot of plates to spin, but if you can’t nail your pilot’s structure, your characters and world won’t reach their full potential. So how can you structure your own half hour pilot into an effective script with a clear A, B and C story? How can you find the balance and spin every plate so you can have a standout pilot script and writing sample that can get you the attention and opportunities you’re looking for? Meghan Pleticha is television writer with over ten years of entertainment industry experience who has most recently worked as a staff writer on HBO’s Emmy Nominated comedy series SILICON VALLEY. Her work has also appeared on Cartoon Network’s POWER PLAYERS, and in Escala, AeroMéxico’s official in-flight magazine. Previous to being staffed on television shows, she worked as a writer’s assistant and script coordinator for shows like FX’s MARRIED, ABC’s CHARITY CASE, and VH1’s HIT THE FLOOR. Meghan’s career as a writer as well as her experience teaching other aspiring creatives has given her powerful experience with television story structure, and she’s excited to bring what she’s learned to the Stage 32 community. Over two intensive on-demand sessions, Meghan will dive deep into how to effectively structure a 30-minute TV pilot script, focusing on finding the pilot’s story and building it out with an A, B, and C story. In the first session, Meghan will dissect what makes a great A story for a pilot, discussing the goals you should have for this story as well as helpful strategies and secrets to bring it together. In the second session, Meghan will look deeper into B and C stories, how to integrate the into your A story, and how to use them to further define your series and world. Plus! Meghan will be providing the full pilot scripts of FX’s ARCHER, NBC’s SUPERSTORE and Netflix’s GLOW, and will use these three pilots as examples as she illustrates what makes a well structure half hour pilot. Praise For Meghan's Teaching “Meghan is a wealth of knowledge and a fantastic teacher. She's truly an ally to all writers." -- Carol L. "Megan taught me so much more than just structure of an episode of TV. I feel very well versed in the craft and business of television after working with her." -- Nick M.
60 Minutes With Emmy Award Winning Producer Kip Konwiser
I was born for this. Started on street corners tap dancing, doing comedy, telling stories & holding an audience until they pay me J A Masters Degree from USC Film School and three decades later there hasn’t been a day when I wasn’t writing, directing, producing or managing as an executive a feature film, television, documentary, live event and/or new media program. I’ve been blessed to learn from and collaborate with some of the luminaries of sports and entertainment producing and business management. For these efforts, I picked up a shelf full of awards & trophies, maintained an upward financial trajectory and learned to enjoy the ride. A few of the collaborations in my career include: Netflix, YouTube, NBC, CBS, ABC, Univision, HBO, Showtime, TNT, MTV, VH-1, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate Studios, Legendary Pictures, Blizzard Entertainment The Grateful Dead, Quincy Jones, Michael Jordan & David Falk, Phil Knight/NIKE, Magic Johnson, Peter Guber/Mandalay, Dr. Dre, Snoop & Eminem, Arthur Miller, Michael Bloomberg, Laurence Fishburne, the NFL, MLB and NBA, and most of the financing entities in Hollywood. I’ve established tax incentives that spark states into profitable production while structuring large scale financing. Easier said than done, trust me! Now, I’m thrilled to join with Stage 32 to talk about my journey and share my experiences from over the years. I love to give back to up and coming filmmakers and I’ll be holding an online Q&A to talk with you, the Stage 32 community, and tell you about the things I’ve learned along the way. If you’re in the middle of your filmmaking journey, now, no matter where you live in the world, I’ll be taking questions from you live, so ask away! So relax, this opportunity to not give up on your daydream just got a lot closer. Clint Eastwood, Kip & Kern Konwiser Kip & Virginia Madsen Kenny Ortega (director/choreographer), Jim Belushi, William Levy, Emilio Estefan Kip, Ron Shelton (director/writer), Pete Rose, Kurt Soderling (DP) Pre-production at Legendary Studios "The Konwiser Bros." Kern & Kip Konwiser
Ask Me Anything with Stage 32 CEO Richard "RB" Botto: F@#$ 2020 Edition
Hello Creative Army! Well, we did it. We made it to the end of 2020. I believe you will welcome me in saying, hasta la vista to this wild year. 2020 has been a challenge, to say the least, but it has not been without a silver lining or two (or twenty...if we're being optimistic). Over the last year, the entire Stage 32 team has been working tirelessly to help you stay connected, creative, motivated, and informed. As always, we are committed to bringing you networking opportunities, education and mentoring from top-level industry executives and professionals, and access to decision-makers around the globe all from the comfort of your own home. Every day, the Stage 32 team is on the phone and communicating with industry professionals. Our goal is to have our finger on the pulse of what's happening in the moment, so you have the tools you need to make moves in your careers. 2020 was not without its faults, but there has never been a better time to take stock of your career and get ready to step on the gas and dominate as we enter into what I am calling The Great Content Gold Rush of 2021. So I invite you to kick 2020 straight in the ass and enter 2021 on a high by joining me for my final AMA of the year. As part of our Holiday Jump Start, I was thrilled to be hosting the "Ask Me Anything" F@#$ 2020 Edition. ALL creatives and professionals were welcome. Looking to further your craft? Now's the time. Looking to learn more about the business? We got into that. Want to find out what I'm hearing from our roster of execs what's going to be happening industry wide in 2021? Let's F@#$'ing rock. As always, registering for my AMA is completely FREE and it's available for immediate viewing! And the more the merrier, so do invite any of your fellow creative friends and peers on your social media channels, your email lists, and through your online groups to join us as well. If you missed my last few AMA's, you can view them here! Now you can say F@#$ off to 2020 with me. Cheers! RB
Register / Log In
