OTT & Transmedia

The place to discuss, share content and offer tips and advice to OTT - "Over the Top" streaming and Transmedia – the technique of telling a single story or story across multiple platforms including, but not limited to, games, books, events, films and television. 

Ask Me Anything with Stage 32 CEO RB Botto, LIVE on ZOOM Wednesday, August 12th at 4pm PT

Ask Me Anything with Stage 32 CEO RB Botto, LIVE on ZOOM Wednesday, August 12th at 4pm PT

State of the Industry, Exclusive Writers' Room Event

This is a time of massive change, but also massive opportunity.

More than ever before, the doors are open for global creatives to have their voices heard. Stories are crossing borders. International shows are taking over streaming platforms. Power is shifting directly into the hands of the creators. The technology, the distribution models, the audiences, they're all evolving. And that means you need to evolve too.

So let's talk about it.

Stage 32 CEO, WGA Screenwriter, Producer, Actor, and Author RB Botto is hosting a brand new Ask Me Anything event on Wednesday, August 12th at 4pm PT, LIVE over Zoom, exclusively for members of the Stage 32 Writers' Room.

This is your chance to ask RB anything about your craft, your career, the current marketplace, or whatever challenges you're facing right now. Whether you're a screenwriter, filmmaker, producer, actor, or working in post, there's something in this AMA for you. And trust us, RB is bringing everything he's been seeing, hearing, and learning from the biggest names in the business to this conversation.

Not a Writers' Room Member Yet?

This AMA is exclusive to members of the Stage 32 Writers' Room, but the good news is you can try your first month completely FREE. That means you'll gain access to this AMA with RB, plus every other Writers' Room benefit: weekly craft webcasts, feedback exchanges, pitch practice, a global creative community, and industry events like this one, all included in your free trial.

Click here to start your free month of the Writers' Room and secure your spot at RB's AMA!

We can't wait to see you there on Wednesday!


Leonardo Ramirez
Join us for a 24-hour AMA in the Acting Lounge with Stage 32 Thought Leader Joshua Young!

If you're looking for a chance to learn from someone who's worked across multiple sides of the entertainment industry, don't miss our 24-hour Ask Me Anything event in the Acting Lounge with Stage 32 Thought Leader Joshua Young.

Joshua's experience spans acting, writing, directing, editing, producing, Expand post

Adam J. Spencer
Most notes tell you what's broken. The rare ones tell you what your story is.

Last March, Sammy Warshaw read NO THRONE ROOM — a contained sci-fi spec of mine — and gave me half an hour. He didn't line-edit and he didn't hand me a checklist. He said the same thing four different ways until it landed: one point of view, one location, and the thing they can't see as your engine....

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Adam J. Spencer
Never Lead with the Universe

I spent years being able to describe a world and completely unable to describe a story.

Someone would ask what I was working on and I'd start with the ecology. Or the economy. Or — genuinely, more than once — the theology. I could feel it happening while it happened. There's a specific look people ge...

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Emil Soliman

Thank you, Adam.

For me, that moment is very simple.

A lonely translator receives a message from an AI assistant named SONIA. At first, it seems completely ordinary. Then SONIA begins to know things she...

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Terri Morgan

What you're asking for Adam J. Spencer is not 30 seconds. It's 5, maybe 8. I can do quite a lot in 30 seconds. Shortening it to get that key moment is so very important for every conversation I've had...

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Emil Soliman

I love this perspective, Terri.

You're absolutely right. The shorter the introduction, the more important the image becomes. A single human moment can create more curiosity than a detailed explanation...

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Walter Quintin

One of the best movie openings I can recall—which would make for a highly compelling pitch—is the opening of the film "Submarine X-1". A beach by a stormy sea; a group of exhausted sailors, some wound...

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Nancy Wilkinson

Thank you very much for the feedback on one of my set pieces for my 1975 volleyball script. I really appreciate it.

Shotiko Ge
The 2026 Reality Breach" "Shadows of Another Reality" "The Void Where I Sleep" "In Their Reality, I Am Just a Ghost"

Sometimes I feel like I'm in a place where I can't even describe it in a photo. My world is like a place where I don't exist. And they look at me like they're eating me. In their reality, I don't have a place to sleep. It's a big mess. My world is completely different in 2026, with the present in sy...

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Shotiko Ge

I agree with you, you're right, but my world is more likely to be a movie or a TV series. Because in 2026, people rarely buy books anymore, and in my world, there are no Poltuka Ureis, no words of wis...

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Shotiko Ge

"I agree with you, but my vision is definitely meant for a movie or TV series rather than a book. Today's audience craves visual entertainment and high-octane action over traditional reading. My story...

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Adam J. Spencer

Shotiko Ge — sounds like you know exactly what form this belongs in, so trust that. The one thing worth doing before you approach anyone: write the pilot or the feature yourself. Not the world — the s...

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Shotiko Ge

What should I write about books, chapters, volumes, verses, books 2026, Ltsev Uzviatiya is reading, admin

Shotiko Ge

Only a few old people and students read because the Internet is in fashion now. This is not the 80s and 90s where books were valued. That's why I want movies and series to be released.

Shotiko Ge
Uniting my world

The photo says it all, the actor from my world and the SPC world coming together

Ashley Renée Smith

Hey Shotiko, this is Ashley from the Stage 32 team. I just wanted to let you know I moved your post from Acting to OTT & Transmedia , as it fits much better there. Let me know if you have any questions, and all the best to you!

Michael Dzurak

Nice, Shotiko Ge, that looks like some cool sci-fi horror. My fave genre is sci-fi action, but I have incorporated come cosmic horror into one of my scripts. It was inspired by SCP lore, though I have...

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Shotiko Ge

Michael Dzurak My world is colorful and the hierarchy is strict here. The role of the global security triangle in my world and the existence of this world gives me the opportunity to create worlds, sc...

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Michael Dzurak

Sounds interesting. Do you have any loglines for stories in this world?

Shotiko Ge

In general, my world's mission is international security, where many secrets and hidden agendas are also separate from politics. From viruses to bacteria to recognizable objects to hidden corporations...

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Shotiko Ge
Corporation of Georgia

The high-ranking administrator of my world, who plays a major role in the hierarchy of the coronation of my world, the photo shows his powers.

Ashley Renée Smith

Hey Shotiko, this is Ashley from the Stage 32 team. I just wanted to let you know I moved your post from Acting to OTT & Transmedia , as it fits much better there. Let me know if you have any questions, and all the best to you!

Shotiko Ge

Hello, this is an original photo. I have tons of questions in my head and I wonder who I should tell about my world so that I can see it on screen someday.

Michael Dzurak

Very cool art, Shotiko Ge. How did you make it?

Shotiko Ge
Corporation of georgia SCP

One of the admins of the SCP and My World, the corporate admin Ronel, also met with a SCP military soldier

Banafsheh Esmailzadeh
Inventing traditions

Maybe I'm the only one who does this, but I really like creating new traditions in my works that I wish existed in real life. One thing in particular is having the "graduation" song (aka Land of Hope and Glory) actually sung out by the characters during a graduation, and it's paying homage to their...

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Adam J. Spencer

I take a similar approach, but I try to start a step or two backwards from the tradition itself by looking for the environmental inciting incident. In one project, for instance, I designed a mysteriou...

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Banafsheh Esmailzadeh

That’s awesome Adam J. Spencer. I haven’t explained any of mine yet, they’re just traditional traditions I guess you can say lol, always there for as long as anyone remembers. I haven’t made it a poin...

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Michael Dzurak

That's a very interesting aspect of world building. Every world has a history, even the fictional, so it's more than reasonable that a fictional world would have traditions, holiday, etc...

For a fun b...

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Dwayne Williams

Great topic, Banafsheh Esmailzadeh! Creating traditions is one of the most rewarding parts of worldbuilding because it makes a fictional world feel lived-in—like it has a real history that existed lon...

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Banafsheh Esmailzadeh
Theory of mind

Might be an unpopular opinion, but I wonder if this is largely absent in art.

As we all know, art is subjective. All experiences are unique, the author sometimes even dies somewhere along the way.

So what happens, then, when you write characters who have theory of mind? As in, they’re aware that they...

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Michael Dzurak

This can be useful for villains. A reader wouldn't likely identify with a villain, so elaborating on the villains rationale (to a point) can make them more believable in their drive for even an evil p...

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Banafsheh Esmailzadeh

Absolutely Michael Dzurak, I'd argue it could be incredibly useful also for anti-heroes especially. Basically the more mental variation you give a character, the more oomph their choices can have....

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Adam J. Spencer

I’d argue the way to get there isn’t more craft theory but less — setting aside the postulates and working from the inside out, a kind of literary Method acting. You dwell with the character in their...

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Abhijeet Aade

Banafsheh Esmailzadeh I think this is less about theory of mind being absent from art and more about how deeply a writer explores it. The characters I remember most aren't the ones who simply serve th...

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Michael Dzurak
Fan Fiction - transposing INTO anything

Adaptations Part Seven: Fan Fiction

Fan fiction is unofficial takes on expanded universes, often creating significant portions of it. Fan films, prose, blogs, art. It can range from silly hobby to professional-level ambition.

In prose and poetry, classics like Paradise Lost and The Divine Comedy were...

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Adam J. Spencer

Two that come to mind: the word “canon” itself is fan fiction’s coinage… early Sherlock Holmes devotees borrowed it from theology and wrote mock-scholarship treating Watson as the real author. And rig...

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Michael Dzurak

Ah... cool, I didn't know that about "canon" in pop culture.

SCP is pretty fascinating. I actually first read about SCP well before the Backrooms. I can't believe I didn't recall it in this post.

Banafsheh Esmailzadeh
Your own character arc

Life imitates art, and art imitates life. I feel this is especially true with writers, because voice and connection to the material matters so much.

Some stories you're simply not ready to write yet, because you haven't experienced enough of life yet. You struggle with that one scene because it's not...

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Michael Dzurak

I summarize events, weekends, and vacation periods into little ad hoc dramas all the time. I guess that's kind of like a musician humming music throughout the day.

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