Screenwriting

Another analogy I heard about AI ... think of the electric guitar. Les Paul went deep dive on figuring out how to AMPLIFY the sound from guitars. He experimented with a piece of wood, a door hinge and other materials. His "early models" were not what folks ultimately made award winning music with.

You pick an electric guitar and play it without an amp, and yes you are creating sound on the strings, but it's not getting very far.

Crank up the amp and the auditorium can be shredded. Does that negate good acoustic work? No. you still have to know how to play.

Does that amp negate good songwriting?

No. In fact, a great amp will amplify your failure very loudly. Garbage in, garbage out. And yes, AI does make some great music too.

So yes, AI can do a lot of what we do, but you still need to know how to write gud.

https://bricartsmedia.org/ai-in-screenwriting-series-2026/

I think what people dislike so much about AI right now is that its patently incorrect, misleading, and wrong so frequently, in addition to being shallow / surface level in almost every area. It fakes depth and research that anyone using it would be so much better off just researching themselves! It's use is paradoxical in that way, and built for all those friends you had growing up in school that wanted to copy your homework last minute to get a grade. It also isn't even a useful supplemental tool for someone educated on a topic. It's primary usefulness benefits novice/neophyte types who know nothing about a subject who can then press a button and get "up to speed" -- while creating a mass never-ending dunning kruger effect.

Creatively, AI can do very little for you. Sure, we all dream of a idealized future where your own solitary precious thoughts can create worlds and you can have infinite knowledge at your fingertips. That's all great. But that is fundamentally not what these LLMs aka "AI" are capable of right now. They are capable of so much less than that, while using up lots of energy resources that harm our planet and communities. And it's nauseating how anyone who can see AI for what it is right now just has to live with so many people who think it's a "cheat code." It's a cheat code for a race to the bottom. Also, the regulation (or sheer lack thereof) is a massive privacy, safety, and security issue. As Joseph Gordon Levitt so aptly put it "I don't understand why AI companies don’t have to follow any laws."

I think it should be used as a tool but yes, agree, you can see a pattern and it does sounds generic if you ask it for creative things. So, figuring out how to use it to help but not to actually do the work.

I get why people are angry about AI, especially in film and screenwriting. This industry is built on voice, pain, experience, and taste—things you don’t download in an update. I’ve experimented with AI the same way you test a tool on a workbench: push it, break it, see what it can and can’t do. When it comes to emotion, subtext, and genuinely original storytelling, it falls flat. It can imitate structure, but it can’t mean anything. Anyone who’s tried to get real human truth out of it knows the result feels hollow, mechanical, and honestly a little embarrassing.

That said, I’m not anti-AI—I’m anti-bullshit. I use AI the way a professional uses reference books, research assistants, or Google. It’s useful for logic checks, technical questions, historical context, and learning fast. It’s a calculator, not a conscience. It can help you understand the terrain, but it doesn’t decide where to plant the flag. I don’t let it touch the soul of a screenplay, the character choices, or the emotional architecture. That’s where taste and life experience live—and those are earned, not generated.

So no, I don’t use AI to write screenplays or build story structure for me. I use it to sharpen my thinking, challenge assumptions, and speed up the boring parts so I can spend more time doing the hard, human work. The problem isn’t AI—it’s people trying to replace craft instead of augmenting it. Used wrong, it makes bad writers louder. Used right, it stays invisible and lets the storyteller do what only a human can do: tell the truth in a way that hurts just enough to matter.

Getting interviewed is a great way to promote projects, Ron Reid! I haven't thought about doing that. Thanks for the idea. Congratulations on the role, and congratulations to you and everyone on the show being promoted on a national channel!

Congratulations on surpassing your goals beyond the Write Club challenges, Pink Matzke! I hope the meeting goes great! I'm rooting for you to reach your goals going forward! Reach out to the community if you need anything.

Congratulations on your progress and surpassing your goals! You've done amazing and I can't wait to see how you keep bringing it in the future!

Actually my meeting went phenomenally well! I was actually given contact info from that exec. so that we can keep in touch!

Congratulations, Pink Matzke!

Hi5!

The recording will be uploaded in the next 24 hours for viewing

Thank you Ammon for all the knowledge and Seb for moderating!

Any questions, please email edu@stage32.com

I can't find the replay on my library

Hey, Natalie, Please email us at edu@stage32.com and we will help you find this!

Thank you, Sydney S, for such an uplifting holiday note! I love how Stage 32 Education continues to remind us that rest and creativity can go hand in hand and that this season is the perfect launchpad for the year ahead. These opportunities are such a gift; whether it’s sharpening our writing or finally tackling that new project, it feels empowering to know we can step into 2026 with both inspiration and practical tools. Wishing you and the whole Stage 32 family a joyful, abundant holiday season!

Happy Holidays, Sydney S! Thanks for sharing these!

So excited for this lab!

Tom i think it’s quite clear that the main reason the market won’t support PRAETOR from a debut writer is simply because it’ll cost a fortune to do an episodic legal procedural set in Ancient Rome

BUT there are at least three ways to go about this without putting the project in the KIV pile

1- instead of a series which basically costs nearly as much as a dozen feature films per season, make one intense feature film with a couple of main characters and very few sets—a comp which springs to mind would be NO WAY OUT. save the budget for big name actors. then if it’s successful there’s room for sequels. the feature film becomes a pilot in this sense

2- if we do a series, I’ve always seen it having an inherently comedic backbone (lots of SUITS is very funny and the Aussie series RAKE is pure gold), so call our show TOGAS and make it deliberately the opposite of prestige production—make no-budget be the feature and not the bug

3- going down that rabbit hole, make it a metafictional series set in modern times, about filmmakers trying to shoot a series about Ancient Rome. we get parallel plots and can make do with a low budget as the green screens will really be shown as green screens and the emperor with an impressive top is wearing jeans underneath because it’s only a closeup headshot

Gregory you certainly have a unique voice—which is rare to see here, without the taint of AI—and you’re unconcerned about stating your opinions!

Gregory Baker - yes ... "he knows Doctor ... he has reasoned it out" -- Spock

James LO - excellent ideas but all of this has to be run through The Crucible ... our nemesis is this guy who signs the checks ... we need a guy who does that to chime in ...

OK so the Pay Per View Take that you guys are missing is one of the key concepts I was slammed with a few years ago about this process. attachments

What is actually needed with this project is that in order to get this project altitude is an attachment by a serious, noted, respected director, a-list actor, or other respected industry professional.The only way they can do that is to see the quality they expect. They will rip it to shreds to see if it can pass basic investment strategy.

So that means the project has to be developed and built out. How committed are any of you to seeing this happen? until then it's just cheerleading.

regarding my last comment, i spectacularly misremembered the Weapons writer-director’s name: it’s Cregger

Sandy Lane I definitely have experienced how meditation, relaxation, and being free from coded patterns, social group rules, and basically the things that we think we are, have to do, and keep us stuck...enhance any artform. When we are in peace, free, in our expansive, multidimensionality, well, then you magnetize. You call in the ideas, and the ideas matching your frequency, they come to you, and go within your heart, connecting to your imagination, and uniting your inner kingdom, then well...prepare to feel your hands dance the typing dance like there's no tomorrow. And, this is work, this is not some fanciful tale, this creates work, this brings in your voice, and whatever story is meaningful to you, it is valid, and it is your genre, and it is from you. It's all a matter of vibration, perspective...and commitment to the work, after the muse and you connect.

Absolutely! Carl Jung referred to "downloads" ...

I search for a wide variety of influences that will either create new or connect existing mental pathways. There are so many ways for that to happen that taking any off the table seems to restrictive to me and how I search for and receive inspiration.

Since I started this whole conversation, I suppose I owe you my own open answer.

For me this whole thing started after feeling frustrated and heartbroken, failing on yet another unrewarding project. And in my moment of desperation I found; the square. One of those magic manifestation boxes, wherein you draw your new timelines, fold it neatly and hide it in a drawer like a polite spell. I asked for a big creative project to occupy me – nothing too dramatic, little that I know it was about to consume my soul!

I forgot it about it for a while and days later, I woke up with a name, spoken out loud, in my head. Then a visionary flash of myself writing. Then the phrase: secret agent. Then: screenplay. Naturally, I did the sane thing and grabbed a notebook at 6 a.m. The first words of the saga were born before I’d even had my coffee.

At first, I thought I was writing a fun spy tale with a bit of mystery. So, I began digging into the world of secret agencies, thinking I’d learn a few tactics and code names. But the deeper I went, the more I found myself tangled in threads far older and stranger than classified MI6 dossiers. What started as casual research turned into a full-blown descent into ancient orders, esoteric symbols, lost manuscripts and conspiracy theories that felt oddly… plausible.

After a while I realised I did not just want to write a story – I wanted to open minds. Which meant I had to crack open my own first (preferably without entirely losing it). So I followed many white rabbits into psychedelic mycology and herbalism, tarot, runes, pendulums, ancient symbols, brainwave states, surrealist art and absurdism… to name a few. Basically, if it felt fringy but oddly profound, I devoured it.

All the while, my characters began evolving on their own. I'd write scenes for them without knowing why and weeks later they’d fit the puzzle like small Eureka miracles. And in many ways, I feel I’m being guided through it. Because while writing, I don’t just see the scene – I’m fully submerged. I can picture the lighting, the close-ups, the atmosphere, even the breath of the actors. It’s my ultimate escapism. My drug-free, slightly suspicious vice. My way out of reality… and into something possibly more real. Someday.

I’ve always let intuition guide me before anything else, therefor I don’t write with a commercial goal in mind. Oh, no. To feel your mind's edge shift, to feel the liberation when tracing the strange, electric pathways that fiction can open, that's pure bliss.

So nowadays, before I write, I light a candle, throw some stones, shuffle some cards, and swing my pendulum as if they’ve become second nature – just to dive right back in there.

And honestly, I asked because I was curious to find even more ways to open up those creative gateways; little rituals, tools, prayers, superstitions. Or should I join the 'Authors Anonymous'?

Elle Bolan My favorite sound is rain. Coupled with a good graphic or video, window view or walk through a city, it's very soothing for me. Puts all else on the backburner for a while and lets me focus better.

I sneak away to my vinyl album collection, find a classic that fits my mood, and work on a jigsaw puzzle. Removes all the noise in my head and gives me a fresh start to tackle the world when I reemerge.

I listen to music mainly and space out lol, or watch/read something and space out. I rediscovered Kill Hannah and still love them as much as I did in high school, and as an adult I really appreciate how romantic most of the lyrics are. It’s waking me up in so many ways :D

Elle, I like to use music to feed that creative soul in me...whether it's listening to music or performing it. (Mostly, for me, it's listening.)

I used to be inspired by movies. Now, writing is work for me, so as soon as I start writing, the inspiration comes on its own.