Greetings!
I’ve been a member of Stage 32 for quite some time now, and I’ve utilized the paid services quite a bit such as pitches and booking meetings with film development execs, so my concern comes from a place of experience with utilizing their services. I even posted recently praising these services.
Having searched their roster of film industry professionals countless times that Stage 32 members can hire for consultation, something I’ve noticed is the lack of diversity of the film execs that we can choose from and hire for consultation. Even in their 2nd Annual Diversity Springboard Screenwriting Contest, 70% of the judges are not diverse (white). Now surely non-diverse judges can judge diverse writing material (no pun intended), but it would feel like a more “authentic” effort at promoting diversity if that was not the case.
There’s clearly a problem with a lack of diversity in Hollywood, but one would expect an organization like this which is a “springboard” for many of its members' careers to have accurate representation of the gatekeepers who can provide access into the film industry.
For the record, I’m not “angry” or “upset” and I plan to remain a member of Stage 32 and continue to purchase their paid services, but as a member, this is a concern that I’d like to draw attention to. This is something I’ve noticed for a while actually, but the issue that prompted this post was when I considered submitting to the 2nd Annual Diversity Springboard Screenwriting Contest, and when I researched the judges, I realized that now is the time to speak on this.
I’ve emailed them as well so I’m looking forward to see how the concern is addressed.
