The Stage 32 Lounge

Welcome to Stage 32!

I can sing,dance,act,draw and write horror stories.....Greets from New York, Nishela, - - - - - - - - - - - - I'm a retired film making and television teacher and one of my best friends was from Sri Lanka. I haven't seen Prasanna Goonewardena in two years but I work with writer/creators who can act and want to make a name for themselves. I love working with horror and I noticed you write horror stories. Did you know that the most lucrative feature ever made in the entire world was made in 2007 and it was made by a writer/creator who had an idea for a horror story?- - - - - - - - - - - - Luckily, he also wanted to direct his film. Many New Media feature movies are being made with script and character outlines (without finished screenplays) by writer/creators who want to get known and know what they want to happen in their movie. After I retired as a hobby, I began working with people in many countries who want to get known and I mentor, teach and train them to make features. - - - - - - - - - - - - Zain, one of my students in Pakistan recently completed his first feature (he had never directed even a short film before in his life) and I understand his film has been seen by about 60 million viewers in his country and now two hundred million more are watching it in India and Bangladesh. If you ever decide you might want to direct your film in Sri Lanka, keep my e-Mail. - - - - - - - - - - - - filmtiq@gmail.com

That's moving, and when you get your first Oscar your great grandfather will be watching

Thankyou so much! you guys are awesome! @Allen Lynch @Kyle Climans @Aray Brown

Hey, thanks and dont worry i will keep your email.... love you so much! i love stage32! @Stanley N. Lozowski

You mean sex wasn't just discovered by the current (regardless of the date) teenagers? Gosh, blush, shuffle, shucks :-)
Lots of pre-code pictures were pretty explicit, Everyone in this industry must have had the education of watching "Intolerance" by D.W. Griffith. "Cleopatra" starring Theda Bara, and of course everyone's favourite poodle, Betty Boop. Further the code only applied in the USA, the rest of the world had their own approaches and full frontal was not unknown going back to the earliest cinema.
Mea West tweaking the nose of prudes seems tame, dated and yet daring on her part. Good for her.
Thanks for the posting Linda

Congrats! Good luck to you!

the journey is so often underrated and underestimated and yet it is, at it's core, the entire point so please ENJOY THE BLOOD SWEAT AND TEARS. I applaud you all for your efforts. As they say in the south, "t'ain't ezay."

Congrats!

Ben. Congrats.

Ben: Rock on laddie!

Dear Phillip E. Hardy:

Once upon a time, I am sure living in LA was very, very helpful, and I'm sure it is still helpful today; But with how technology grows, and allows people to connect from all over, and sites like Stage32 for networking, the need to be in L.A. isn't as great as it used to be.

As your example shows, and Pete proved, the "have to" portion of writing is the writing; It doesn't matter where you are, or where you are from, all that matters is the writing.

As the Ted Mosby's of the entertainment world, Pete found his yellow umbrella of opportunity. As more people poke the skies to break through the myth, hopefully the rain comes down to bring out more yellow umbrellas.

God Bless.

Sincerely,
John German

Thanks for sharing the news, Phil. He's not the first Aussie to sign a deal and he certainly won't be the last and to all those who turn their noses up at writers who don't live and work in L.A. or N.Y; well, you probably know what I'm thinking.

Robert, they don't appear to do screenplays. If people are looking to have their screenplays proofread and edited they need to hire somebody who knows screenplay format or their script will end up in worse shape than when they started. Screenwriters should never use non-screenplay editors.

Many great voices here! I love it! Thx!

I think about the marketplace first - the audience type, and the producer type. I try to write stories that are relevant to today's marketplace types, and that hopefully fill the needs of a specific producer type. Then I write.

I have just found that I write a story which has naturally occurring elements and then add more compelling conflict through dialogue and reoccurring themes to push my point. I have to agree that you could do 100 re-writes but are you selling a script or the concept? You pitch the concept. If you have it on paper conceptually, it's done and sell it. Pay me to polish it.

When most people think of “screenplay success” they automatically think of a screenplay that sold. Like Dan M said a spec screenplay is a screenwriter’s calling card. You use it to meet people in the business that can help you launch your career. It usually takes a long time but that is how most people break in. Having a remarkable story is good but you want people to read your screenplay and conclude you know the business and how to write for it. You want to be the screenwriter that they want to know not the one just trying to sell them something.

Dan & Dan are both right (or write). Make yourself visible. Write a compelling story in a properly formatted manor and pass it around. Shoot a great short and hand out DVD's to everyone you talk with. Eventually someone will take notice or you'll find something else to do.

Your central character must have a goal and some obstacle preventing them from achieving their goal or you'd have pretty dull story.

Beth Fox Heisinger Way to go Beth!!! Perhaps some of the other "Happy Writers" will now understand the simplicity of intention and obstacle. And knowing now from who it's coming from will lend some credibility to this approach of writing a great screenplay.

Steven: that's been an essential element of Eastern drama for over 4,000 years, and for Western dramatic action for over 2,500 years - ever since Thespis won the first tragedy competition in Athens.

Denial of intent increases tension.

One of Aaron Sorkin's other famous quotes is "the trick is TO FOLLOW THE RULES of classic storytelling." Aaron Sorkin sure knows how to write, and he sure knows how to follow the rules, just like all great storytellers do.

Bill - Yeah I recall that Athens competition - during my early days. Thespis was a handsome lad in his silky white toga. But I was robbed - I came in second.

some movies seem to be based on events and use those events to inform the viewer about the character(s), in the same way a character sketch might give us in impression of the subject. Common in slice of life/biopics.

The movie, An Angel at My Table, might be a good example. In movies like this, the goal and conflict is still there but rather than informing the audience of when the movie's over, the goal is subject to the experience.

You could say that the protagonist's goal in, An Angel at My Table is - to become a writer. But after she successfully does this, the movie isn't over. We follow her through her career. It could be - to be loved. However, she never reaches her goal and doesn't ever NOT reach her goal. So in the classic sense, the goal isn't answered.

It's the goal that proposes the question the audience asks themselves throughout the movie, letting them know the movie's over. But in movies like, An Angel at My Table, the audience isn't offered the comfort of a verifiable question. The question in movies like this is often a statement, like - experience the life of Janet Frame, the famous writer.

Once the filmmaker feels they've captured enough of the subject's essence, they'll usually end the movie on a note that helps underline the character. It feels resolved but in a different way.

It certainly isn't a "popcorn" experience with a large built-in audience but movies like this can be so great to watch. It's a bit like trying to convince someone why Jackson Pollock deserves to be called a painter. Everyone knows he isn't a painter in same sense as we've been accustomed to, but sometimes playing against our expectations is just as interesting. Sometimes, it's fun to have our expectations painted on.

AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE: https://youtu.be/xfMh-fRSH5E.

Some famous writers used to write with only one or two brands. If you're into writing pencils Blackwings have some cool releases. They were originally Eberhard but thanks to typewriters/keyboards, bit the biscuit. Palomino picked it up. I like the Pearls. Not too hard. Not too soft.
BLACKWING: http://palominobrands.com/blackwing-pencil-story/.

Back in the day, one of my neighbors was a PA on Ally McBeal. He would sometimes drive to David E Kelly's house and pick up scripts; Kelly hand-wrote all the episodes on yellow legal pads, never missed a deadline.

Dan, my hand hurts just thinking about that.

Nice to meetcha Mark. From the Ike era - you're still a young'un (I'm a war baby). I'm in OR so you'll have to have a beer by yourself.

Niksa, 15,000 people are NOT on the production company's payroll but the production and distribution of the film worldwide involves up to 15,000 people, is what they are saying, and they're talking right down to the pimply-faced kid making popcorn in a cinema in Uganda who has a job because the cinema shows movies like this one. The copy setter at a newspaper company in Berlin who sets the cinema ad for the week. A small printing company that prints the posters for the cinema walls or subway ads in Sydney. Anybody whose job touches on the production or distribution of this movie is impacted. That's what they're talking about so 15,000 is not hard to believe.

I think the producers are also making the point that if you steal the film or fail to support films like this it puts 15,000 jobs at stake. Important point to make.

Pierre, let me start with this. If we somehow manage to find a creator of this "Message" and we ask him to explain to us in plain English, what does this message mean, I'm not sure he or she could even remember why they even posted it. Let's get back to this magical 15.000 number. Imagine 3.000 people were directly involved in production. It leaves us with 12.000 people. This pimply-faced kid who makes popcorn in a cinema in Uganda. That's 1 person. What about a person who sold you a ticket and the one who you showed that ticket to. That would be 3 people so far. Then someone will have to press play button, so the audience can be able to see this movie. Once the movie ends, someone will have to clean all the popcorn left behind, not to mention leftovers from any other food the audience consumed. That's 5 people so far. Is there a security guard who will protect all the money generated by tickets sale? Than again there's always a manager whose job is to make sure everything gets done, just as it was planned. That's 7 people so far unless, this One-Man-Army popcorn salesmen can somehow manage to complete all the tasks by himself, which I doubt, this mathematical formula won't work and I'm pretty sure if you include everyone who works in movie theater chains in California and New York only, the number would be about 5.000 maybe even higher. Whatever calculator or method they used to come up with this number, I suggest you throw it away and get another one. Bill Costantini is right. The entire towns and cities usually turn into a ghost towns when production ends. Sometimes they simply don't have a plan how to maintain continuity or in most cases it's a plain and simple greed, give us more, more... you know what happens when bubble explodes. Game Over. The main reason I asked this 15.000 jobs question was, I needed to start somewhere. The big picture here is the entire filming process, from cradle to grave. If I write down the entire list, some steps or process' will need to be rearranged, 1 or 2 things would be added, nothing would have to be removed. Things would go even faster and always cheaper, no matter which calculator or formula you use. Look, no matter how good you are of how fast you type, it will take about 2 years before anyone even decides to read your title page. I mentioned this before, there's a way to wipe out the Filming Permit. Then, the entire rearrangement would create a chain reaction but not a single job would be lost. I can start a new lounge discussion or continue here or call me crazy and I'll drop this topic. We can always find something else to talk about.

What is the goal of your question? Why worry about American Show Biz when you're not a part of it?

I never worried about American Show biz even when I was a part of it; now that I'm not, I couldn't care less. Don't worry, be happy.

Welcome to Stage 32, David!

Hope more peeps come along to help you!