Eric Gozlan is a movie producer with over 15 years of experience in the business. Since opening Goldrush Entertainment, Gozlan has successfully developed, financed, and produced over a dozen feature films for worldwide distribution. In 2010, his drama feature, "Beautiful Boy" won the FIPRESCI Discovery Award (Prize of the International Film Critics) at Toronto International Film Festival. His latest releases include Bandit (2022) and Door Mouse (2022). Eric Gozlan is happily married and resides in Montreal, Quebec with his family. Full Bio »
A New Exclusive Webinar!
One of the industry's top independent film producers spills his secrets on how to overcome one of the biggest strategic dilemmas producers face - should you try to cast talent or raise money first for your feature film?
You're facing one of the dreaded catch-22s of our industry... what should you try to secure first for your feature film - your cast or your financing?
It can feel like you cannot have one without the other, yet you have to start somewhere.
Surely, having a great name attached to your project is bound to attract investors' attention, right? At the same time, with investor funding secured, agents' attention is much easier to grab, which will help land A-list talent for your project. Having the best of both worlds is not easy... but it's entirely possible!
In this exclusive Stage 32 webinar, producer Eric Gozlan will teach you the exact strategies you need to navigate this critical scenario. Eric brings 15 years of experience as an industry insider, producer, and business developer. He will walk you through the nitty-gritty of creating a bulletproof strategy for your feature film. His 2022 film BANDIT, starring Josh Duhamel, Elisha Cuthbert and Mel Gibson is currently available on Amazon Prime, Hulu and more.
Eric will teach you how to make the key decisions that set the tone for your entire project. You will learn how to properly assess a piece of talent's value, what investors are really looking for and what casting decisions can move your project ahead. Eric will share tried and true tips and tricks when it comes to pitching investors and attracting the right talent for your feature.
You will explore the pros and cons of pursuing a cast before funding and vice-versa. But what if you were to pursue both at the same time? Eric will explore that scenario too!
Don't miss out on this exclusive chance to learn from one of the industry’s top independent film producers and walk away with a clear, actionable plan that will jumpstart your feature film project!
Want to have both a great cast and financing for you film in hand? Join the webinar to discover how!
PRAISE FROM ERIC'S TEACHINGS:
"Eric is a world-class producer and a great communicator. There's nobody I'd rather work with when putting an independent film together." - Sam W
Eric Gozlan
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Learn how to effectively execute your pre-production from a multi Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and author! It might not be the most glamorous, but pre-production is arguably the most important aspect of putting together a film. The crucial decisions you make and the team you build during this phase will determine the success of your production and ultimately, your film. But no matter what experience level you are at, pre-production can quickly become an overwhelming process. From hiring and budgeting to location scouting and scheduling there are always going to be a lot of plates you have to keep spinning. Yet approaching pre-production with a plan, with discipline, and with the appropriate knowledge will keep your film on track and even elevate it to a level you might not have previously thought possible. Whether you're filming a project for $1 million or $1,000, pre-production is the foundation to make sure your production goes smoothly. But with so many I’s to dot and T’s to cross, there are A LOT of traps and pitfalls you can fall into as a producer. That’s why it’s imperative you have a clear understanding of the work and challenges you have ahead of you and what you need to be aware of to ensure you can ultimately get your film made. So what exactly do you need to ensure gets done during this critical phase of your project? How can you build the best team possible and put together the resources you need without going over budget? Let’s dig in. Multi Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and author Shane Stanley has worked in almost every capacity on and off the set with hit shows like ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT and SEINFELD and producing films like Sony Pictures’ GRIDIRON GANG a #1 box office hit starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. For three years, Shane was Vice President of Sheen/Michaels Entertainment where he produced several motion pictures starring Marlon Brando, Mira Sorvino, Thomas Hayden Church, Donald Sutherland, Marisa Tomei, Sean Penn, John Travolta, and Charlie and Martin Sheen. Shane recently released his book What You Don’t Learn In Film School, which covers filmmaking from concept to delivery and has already landed on required reading lists at several universities across the country. Shane continues to produce and direct independent films of all levels, and just wrapped production on his latest action thriller BREAK EVEN. Over the countless films he has produced, Shane has gotten pre-production down to a science and knows what it takes to prepare a film of any level. In this exclusive Stage 32 on-demand webinar, Shane will dig into his deep producing knowledge to break down the pre-production process and outline how you can best prepare for your own project. Shane will explain how to define your budget, including where you should put most of your money towards and will dive into crewing up, focusing on the five most important members of your team and how to find the right fits for your project. He will next discuss the challenge of finding locations, how to do so for cheap, and how to best communicate with property owners and take care of permits. Then Shane will give tips on how to schedule, how many shooting days you should plan for and how to adjust when things inevitably change. Lastly, he will talk about the final steps producers should take before moving to production and when you should feel ready. Praise for Shane's Previous Stage 32 Webinar: "Shane was thorough, gave me a realistic view into the market as it is now, yet encouraging. Easy to listen to and follow. I'll be signing up for other classes he teaches in the future." --Karena K. "Just straight-forward, real, the kind of producer most of us would kill to work alongside." --Clark R. "Shane was relevant, knew what was happening, and could walk the walk." --Chuck R.
Learn from an entertainment and intellectual property lawyer who's worked with HBO, NBCUniversal and Lionsgate how to protect your film or television project's future. PLUS! Receive Handouts Including A Production Rights Cheat Sheet and Sample Location Agreement In today’s marketing world, your project’s title and content is its brand. You’ll use your film or television project’s title for social media handles and the website URL. It’s one of the most vital tools for getting the word out about your project. It can also be something that grows much bigger. For example, HARRY POTTER started as a book series, but the franchise includes movies, spin-offs, toys, clothing, theme parks, and so much more. When determining the title for your project, you need to think of the bigger picture and how best to protect you title, and brand, to ensure it doesn’t conflict with other brands so that you can capitalize on your project from all angles. In this exclusive Stage 32 on-demand webinar, you’ll learn everything you need to know about title clearances and how to protect your project’s title and brand. You’ll also cover script clearances to ensure that you’re safe to include the people, places, real events, and existing material and brands you want to use without fear of reshooting your project from legal issues. Without the necessary title and script clearances, your project could receive legal notices to halt marketing because of a conflict with another project. You might have to reshoot valuable footage if the script isn’t cleared. But you can avoid these stressful legal and financial setbacks by doing the work correctly now. Walking you through these legal processes step by step is Kennington Groff, an attorney who launched her own firm, Lilenfield PC, to focus on entertainment and intellectual property. Kennington has extensive experience with clearances and has worked with top entertainment executives at HBO, NBCUniversal, and Lionsgate. Kennington will show you how to protect your title and the differences with the process in the US versus internationally. You’ll cover error and omission insurance (E&O), the differences between copyright and trademark protection, finding out if your title isn’t available, and more. Save yourself the time and frustration later by joining Kennington for this invaluable webinar, and protect your project’s future.
If you’re a writer, producer, or creator working to get your television show on a streaming network, it’s hard to know where to start. The magnitude to which the television landscape has changed over the past few years really can’t be overstated. Traditional models have been shattered and the dominance of network and cable television has given way to the streamers. With the way paved by Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Video, the past few years have seen an explosion of streaming platforms and with it, new content and new opportunities for creatives to jump on board. These platforms continue to innovate and reinvent themselves to stay current and compete with their fellow networks, and as they change, so does what they’re looking for and how they look for it. There are always isolated articles in the trades as well as whatever you can find out through word of mouth, but what you might really need is for someone to lay it all out—what are the players right now, what content is performing well on their platforms, what are they looking for, and where are they headed? As luck would have it, Stage 32 has put this all together for you. Arielle Cohen is a Senior Manager in Strategy at NBCUniversal's streaming service Peacock. In this role, Arielle works to grow and improve Peacock by researching what’s working and where the industry is headed. Arielle is also a Development Executive for Broadway Producer Eric Falkenstein's Spark Productions, whose Broadway credits include MOULIN ROUGE and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. She is on the board of the Hollywood Radio and Television Society Associates, a member of TEDx Young Professionals, Women in Cable Television and Ladies of Comedy Association (LOCA). Through her work, Arielle has become a veritable expert in the world of streaming television and has a clearer view than most of where it’s headed. Arielle will provide a comprehensive look at the world of streaming TV today, focusing on who the major players are and what kind of content they are focused on. She’ll begin with an overall look at the television industry and how it has changed. She’ll also explain what the current streaming landscape looks like today. She’ll lay out the major players and how the recent additions of streamers have altered the ecosystem. She’ll also explain the difference between premium and ad-supported streamers. She will then offer strategies for you to determine which streamers could be the right fit for your project. Arielle will offer a deep dive into the seven biggest streamers today, going over their top performing shows and where they’re headed. She’ll do this for Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Peacock, Apple TV+, HBO Max and Disney +. She will next delve into where we are going from here, including new trends and developments we should expect to see and whether we can sustain so many streaming networks moving forward. Finally Arielle will offer suggestions of what streaming execs are looking for and suggestions for making your own project more interesting to them. You’ll leave with a much clearer and fuller picture of this quickly shifting industry.
Do you want to break in and get staffed in a TV writers' room? Being a successful writer in the world of television is only possible if you’re successful in a writers’ room setting, and as it turns out, you need more than just writing chops to shine in this context. Pitching ideas, working and getting along with fellow writers, story editors, and showrunners, overall presentation and how you hold yourself—all of this plays a role in how well you do in a writers’ room and how you can build your career as a TV writer and producer. For these reasons, it’s critical to understand how writers’ rooms work and how to best to perform. As it turns out, not all writers’ rooms are built equally. Rules and expectations change depending on the genre of the show, the network or platform, who the showrunner is, and how many writers there are. As a result, this is not a one-size-fits-all situation, and writers who might fit in well at a episodic network drama room might have to adjust if they are later staffed in, say, a comedy room for a streamer. That said, there are still strategies, tools, and things you can understand to better break into a room, fit in, and rise through the ranks. Let’s take a closer look. Mike Gauyo is an accomplished TV writer who has most notably written on Netflix’s hit series GINNY & GEORGIA. Originally born in Port Au Prince, Haiti, Mike broke into Hollywood as a production assistant on reality shows like AMERICAN IDOL and SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE until being discovered by Issa Rae who staffed him as a writer on her fiction podcast FRUIT. Mike entered the world of TV writers’ rooms serving as a writers’ assistant on the TNT show CLAWS and currently serves as Story Editor on the final season of HBO’s comedy hit INSECURE. Mike is also developing his own content and at the top of 2021 launched a mentorship program for pre-WGA Black writers, called the Black Boy Writes & Black Girl Writes Mentorship Initiative. Mike’s varied background in TV writing has allowed him to experience many different writers’ rooms and has given him a keen sense on how to best write and perform in these settings. Mike breaks down how different TV writers’ room work, and how you can best break in and interact in these settings to build your own TV writing career. He’ll lay out the different types of writers’ rooms and go through the general hierarchy of any room, from assistants to showrunner. He’ll offer advice and strategies on how you can best break into a writers’ room in the first place and then explain how to work your way up once you’re in, including getting promotions and finding opportunities for set or production experience. He’ll finally teach you what good etiquette in a room is, how to form relationships, pitch and effectively work with everyone else in the room. Whether you're currently in a writers' room looking to advance or move to a different show, or a writer looking for your first television experience, Mike will offer the knowledge, strategies, and perspective to help you take the next step you're looking for. Praise for Mike's Teaching: "Well, I now know who to turn to for help and all my questions on TV writing - Mike! He's an amazing educator. Seriously. Bravo to Stage 32 for having this quality of teacher on the platform." - Markus M. "Definitely informative and helpful for anyone looking to get into writing!" - Sarah L.
As creators we can get swept away in the excitement of having our film or television project greenlit. Imagining "lights, camera, action", the collaborative process and the excitement of having a successful and profitable project is the reason we pursue a life in film and TV. But, before you step on set and get rolling, you'll need remember that this is, in fact, a business. It's a business with a great deal of money at stake for investors who want to make sure their money is protected. In order to do this, you'll need to understand how to set up your project as an entity and the tax implications involved for you and your investors. It may be the least sexy, but certainly the most crucial component to putting together a film - the accounting process. Someone (or maybe even yourself) has taken a chance on investing in your dream, and that means that investment should be treated with care. Taking the important step of understanding what entity type you should set up and the tax implications that go along with it, will help you avoid major headaches down the road and give you the peace of mind that will allow you to concentrate on making your project the best it can be. Having your project setup correctly from the get go will also help you avoid costly mistakes with investor distributions. And, let's face it, you hope to show that you know the ins and outs and that you can deliver a successful project so your investors will stay with you and invest in your next film or TV project. John Thomas and Kristy Clabaugh are Atlanta based CPAs that specialize in providing services to the film & entertainment industries both abroad and in the US. Kristy also serves on the executive board of directors as Treasurer for both the Georgia Production Partnership and Women in Film & Television Atlanta. Together they have worked on hundreds of film and television projects assisting clients in all stages of project implementation from investor relations, entity structuring, waterfall projections, budgeting, pre-production and development, production accounting to post-production. John and Kristy will teach you the differences between an LLC, Corporation, S-Corporation and Foreign Entity and the common strategies that go along with each. You'll understand the tax effects of your selection and how dividends vs. distributions will work. You'll also learn how to work with tax incentives and financing. And, most importantly, you'll understand how to talk with your investors and what you'll need with K1s, Section 181, money flow, loan-outs and more. They will teach you everything you need to know to set up your entity correctly, protect yourself legally, give your investors the comfort and security that they're money is protected, and that you're in the best position to see a return. PRAISE FOR JOHN & KRISTY'S TEACHINGS: "This is the holy grail! John and Kristy are so knowledgeable about so many things with the business side of the film!" They made this part of the process actually fun!" - Wade N. "All I can say is wow. I have seen the light and now feel beyond comfortable putting together my next film." - Jennifer L.
Location Department 101: How You Can Pick and Successfully Manage Your Film’s Locations There are two things that a production starts doing as soon as they have the “green light” - casting for actors and scouting for locations. In a way, a location scout is like a casting director for locations and to be able to manage locations take a tremendous amount of skill and organization. Unless a film is shot entirely in a studio with sets or green screen, locations are integral to how the film will look. Anyone can become a location scout, but to become a GREAT scout and manager that people call again and again takes a keen eye, good people skills, and on-the-ground experience. Alan Forbes has served as Location Manager or Production Manager on over 40 feature films including THE IDES OF MARCH, THE INSIDER, SEABISCUIT, THE AVENGERS, CAROL AND POINT BLANK. He began his career crewing on commercials and then went into film production management. He knows first hand what it takes to find and manage locations for a film or TV project and he’s here to teach you exclusively how to do that! In this webinar Alan will guide you through the entire process of scouting and managing - from the moment you get the script, to when they call “Action!” on set. Alan will offer you tips and insights from his decades of location and production management experience. Whether you are someone considering a career as a scout, or a filmmaker looking for ways to increase your production value and anticipate potential location problems, this is the webinar that will help you learn the basics about locations. PLUS! You will receive a Locations Communications Handouts that you can use for your own project!