On Demand Webinar - Available for immediate viewing and unlimited access.
On Demand Webinar - Available for immediate viewing and unlimited access.
Sabelo Mgidi is the screenwriter of Netflix’s Original hit action movie SILVERTON SIEGE which debuted at no.2 in the world on Netflix in April 2022. He is also the sole screenwriter of Netflix’s African hit series KINGS OF JOBURG Season 1 & 2 which went on to dominate the number one spot for several weeks on Netflix Africa, Jamaica, Australia and a few other countries. Sabelo is also an author of 3 fictional books and has recently released his first non-fiction book about the film industry and navigating the world of entertainment as a young filmmaker in the new world of streaming and interconnectedness within the world of content. The book is titled “DRAMA” and its follow up edition is titled “FAMOUS” which releases on the 25th of DECEMBER 2023. Full Bio »

Learn how to create and write an action movie that can resonate around the world with Sabelo “King Of TV” Mgidi, an esteemed screenwriter & the Executive Producer of Netflix’s SILVERTON SIEGE and KINGS OF JOBURG!
PLUS! You will receive the shooting script for SILVERTON SEIGE, the No.2 Netflix movie in the world!
With today's global distribution landscape it is becoming more possible every day to create a movie or TV show wherever you are in the world that catches fire and gets global distribution and becomes a hit with audiences everywhere
However, creating a story and film that resonates with people from different regions, cultures and languages is no easy take. There are certain elements in your story that are critical to include if you want your film to be adored by fans across the globe.
In this exclusive Stage 32 webinar, you will learn what elements you need to highlight in your script to make an action film that becomes a global success no matter where you live. You will learn how to take your personal experiences, cultural knowledge and story and turn all that into something every audience member in the world wants to pay attention to. Every story is important, it’s in the structure and how we set up the story that gets the rest of the world engaged.
Teaching you how to make an action film that becomes a global hit is esteemed screenwriter Sabelo “King of TV” Mgidi. Sabelo is the screenwriter of Netflix’s original hit action movie SILVERTON SIEGE which debuted at no.2 in the world in April 2022. He is also the sole screenwriter of Netflix’s African hit series KINGS OF JOBURG (seasons 1 & 2) which went on to dominate the number one spot for several weeks on Netflix Africa, Jamaica, Australia and a number of other countries.
Over an information-packed 90 minutes, Sabelo will share with you can create and write an action movie that resonates with today's global audience.
You will learn how to think globally in your writing and include internationally compelling characters and set pieces. You will also learn how to network effectively with international constituents to ensure your action film is a global phenomenon.
If you’re looking to write your action film that becomes a hit with audiences all over the world, this webinar is a must!
PLUS! You will receive a copy of the shooting script for SILVERTON SIEGE to help in your own writing.
"Stage 32 connects with Africa in this new age of streaming where content and connections from anywhere in the world can find a global audience! I am truly excited!!!" - Sabelo Mgidi

Sabelo Mgidi
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Learn From Meghan Pleticha, A Television Writer Who Has Worked On Shows For HBO, FX, ABC and More. Plus! You'll Receive The Pilot Scripts For FX’s ARCHER, NBC’s SUPERSTORE and Netflix’s GLOW! If you want to work as a TV writer on comedies, you need a great writing sample that showcases your voice and that comes in the form of a pilot script. Writing a pilot is hard, though, and writing a great pilot is even harder. One of the most common pitfalls is failing to write a compelling story that showcases your characters and world. But it’s that story that will get a reader to finish the script. It’s that story that can help you get a job. Figuring out the best version of your pilot story often comes down to structuring the script into an A, B and C story. This will allow you to introduce your characters, world, and plot points while still maintaining a pace and shape to your script. Writing a great pilot script is a tricky balancing act, ESPECIALLY for a 30-minute show. In just 30 pages, you need to establish your world, your characters, and your ongoing stories without overloading the audience with exposition and while still injecting the episode itself with its own story and arc. That’s a lot of plates to spin, but if you can’t nail your pilot’s structure, your characters and world won’t reach their full potential. So how can you structure your own half hour pilot into an effective script with a clear A, B and C story? How can you find the balance and spin every plate so you can have a standout pilot script and writing sample that can get you the attention and opportunities you’re looking for? Meghan Pleticha is television writer with over ten years of entertainment industry experience who has most recently worked as a staff writer on HBO’s Emmy Nominated comedy series SILICON VALLEY. Her work has also appeared on Cartoon Network’s POWER PLAYERS, and in Escala, AeroMéxico’s official in-flight magazine. Previous to being staffed on television shows, she worked as a writer’s assistant and script coordinator for shows like FX’s MARRIED, ABC’s CHARITY CASE, and VH1’s HIT THE FLOOR. Meghan’s career as a writer as well as her experience teaching other aspiring creatives has given her powerful experience with television story structure, and she’s excited to bring what she’s learned to the Stage 32 community. Over two intensive on-demand sessions, Meghan will dive deep into how to effectively structure a 30-minute TV pilot script, focusing on finding the pilot’s story and building it out with an A, B, and C story. In the first session, Meghan will dissect what makes a great A story for a pilot, discussing the goals you should have for this story as well as helpful strategies and secrets to bring it together. In the second session, Meghan will look deeper into B and C stories, how to integrate the into your A story, and how to use them to further define your series and world. Plus! Meghan will be providing the full pilot scripts of FX’s ARCHER, NBC’s SUPERSTORE and Netflix’s GLOW, and will use these three pilots as examples as she illustrates what makes a well structure half hour pilot. Praise For Meghan's Teaching “Meghan is a wealth of knowledge and a fantastic teacher. She's truly an ally to all writers." -- Carol L. "Megan taught me so much more than just structure of an episode of TV. I feel very well versed in the craft and business of television after working with her." -- Nick M.
You’re ready to take the next big step in your writing career, but you’re not quite sure how to break in. So, how do you go about finding and securing the right manager for your screenwriting career? Managers are inundated with material from potential writing clients. It’s a situation that can puts emerging writers in a tailspin - how do you start your dream career when that first step feels so daunting? The answer lies in being strategic; focusing on finding the right fit for your career, and don't take a scattershot, any-manager-will-do approach and, most important, keep writing regardless of if you have a manager or not - if you build it, they will come! Teaching her secrets to finding and signing with a manager is Krista Sipp. Krista is a manager and producer at Heroes and Villains Entertainment. Her client’s credits include IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA, ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK, SENSE8, TRANSPARENT, PRECIOUS, HOUSE OF PAYNE, and many more titles. Prior to Heroes and Villains, Kista was a founding partner at First Friday Entertainment, and has worked at Circle of Confusion, New Wave Entertainment and Authentic Talent & Literary Management. Krista has built her career around finding and elevating unrecognized voices and will share what she has learned from her side of the table. Krista will walk through how literary managers operate and what you should be doing to ensure you can get the representation you need to get your writing career to the next level. She will begin by giving a rundown of what exactly lit managers do and how they differ from agents and attorneys. She’ll explain why managers are often the first type of representation for emerging writers and how you should know if you’re ready for a manager of your own. Next Krista will explain how managers go about finding new clients. She will teach you how to find and approach a potential manager for representation. To do this she will go through the tools that are available to you in finding a manger and how you should research potential managers and what kind of information you should look for to make sure they’re the right fit for you. She’ll then give you tips on how to mobilize your own personal network to attract a manager and then will lay out how to best write a query, including what you should also include and what you should never include. Krista will then talk about what you should do if a manager asks to read your material. She’ll talk about how to best manage the manager/client relationship and what to do if that relationship isn’t ultimately working. Finding and working with a lit manager can be challenging, but also incredibly important. Krista will give you the tools to navigate the process better and hopefully put the right actions into place to find a great manager for your career. Praise for Krista's Stage 32 Webinar "Krista laid everything out so clearly and made me feel a lot more comfortable and confident in finding representation for myself" -Stella G. "I thought Ms. Sipp was extremely informative and very detailed. I learned a ton." -Sarah H.
The barrier of entry into filmmaking has never been lower, and the opportunities for distribution have never been higher. While the channels of distribution have never been more diverse and accessible, the education for filmmakers of how to best utilize those channels is often hard to navigate. Is theatrical or VOD your best bet? Will the film festival circuit help you? What can a distributor do for you? And how much money are indie films even making these days? With so many different opportunities and new platforms arising constantly, how do you choose the best path for YOUR film? Content still over-saturates the marketplace and standing out has become particularly difficult. Independent films that find success in this landscape do so by being creative, by approaching distribution in unconventional ways, and by uncovering platforms and strategies that others might not have considered. Creative distribution takes a good amount of work and forethought, but it’s also fully possible for any filmmaker who’s up for thinking outside the box. First, it will be important to have a better understanding of the free and paid opportunities to market your film, connect with distributors, build audiences, and team up with collaborators who will help amplify your efforts. Let us give you the tools you need. Liz Manashil was the manager of Sundance Institute's groundbreaking Creative Distribution Initiative and worked in impact distribution for many content creators during her time at Picture Motion. Prior to Sundance and Picture Motion, Liz spent several years as a film critic for the Hulu series JUST SEEN IT, which she also helped produce and direct. As a filmmaker, her debut feature, BREAD AND BUTTER, was released by The Orchard and can be seen on VOD nearly everywhere. Her second feature, SPEED OF LIFE, was released by Giant Pictures, can be seen on Showtime. Liz spends her time advocating for filmmakers to have healthy and productive relationships with their distribution partners. Liz will walk you the options you have to creatively distribute your film and strategies you can implement to build your audience and optimize your film’s release. She’ll begin by outlining the state of distribution today, how it’s changed in recent years, what success looks like now and what’s realistic or normal for independent films. She’ll then go into what ‘creative distribution’ means and how it can benefit you as an artist. She’ll teach you about film aggregators as an option for distribution, including how to find good ones, and red flags to watch out for. She’ll then discuss tips for finding traditional distributors. She’ll go over different types of distribution rights you might not have considered before and explain how to determine which distributors could be the right fit for your film. Liz will also talk about how to navigate distribution contracts and the main clauses and sections to look for. She’ll then teach you ways to market your distributed film to build your audience, with both free and paid strategies. Next, she’ll delve into impact distribution as an option for releasing your film. She’ll go over what it is and how to use this method to run a successful screening tour. Finally Liz will talk about how you should be adjusting your distribution goals post-COVID and use this time to your advantage. With the lessons and strategies Liz lays out, you’ll be armed with an large array of ideas and practices you can apply to your own independent film to give it a release and audience you might not have thought possible Distribution is constantly changing. Whether you are a first time filmmaker or a seasoned veteran, the landscape and the market are both constantly in flux. I'm so excited for you to join me in our session about alternative forms of distribution. I'll give you a bird's eye view of how to get your film out, how to build audiences, and how to make a difference with your movies. -Liz Manashil
As an independent filmmaker, screening your project at a film festival may be the best opportunity to put your film (and yourself) on display. It remains a powerful platform for filmmakers of all levels to have their work seen. In fact you’d be hard-pressed to find a successful filmmaker working today who didn’t get their start at a festival. It’s where films get sold, where talent gets discovered, where reputations are crafted, where communities are built, and where the best networking can happen. And with the current movement away from the theatrical model and towards streaming, festivals can also often be the only possible way to physically show your film on the big screen to an audience during its life cycle. Film festivals are indeed often the next desired destination for a filmmaker, but it’s not always easy to get in, even with a great film. It can be disheartening after finishing a film and investing so much money and resources into it to realize there is still more money to be spent in going the festival route. The act of submitting to festivals can set you back hundreds, if not thousands of dollars simply through festivals’ submission fees. It’s probably going to add up no matter what, but it can set way pricier without a plan in place. It’s common for filmmakers ready with a film to more or less blindly submit to festivals: “Sundance? Check. Tribeca? Check. Cinequest? I heard that one was good, let’s do it.” Yet just because you’ve heard of a festival, just because it’s a legitimately great festival, doesn’t mean it’s the right fit for your project, and it doesn’t your film is the right fit for them. Successfully navigating the festival landscape requires a lot more effort and a lot more time than just pressing that submit button. Yet doing the research, understanding your goals, and carefully building your strategy will not only yield more positive results, but will also save you money on unneeded submission fees in the long run. For nearly a decade Harrison Glaser has been immersed in the professional film industry working for Austin Film Festival and Stage 32. As Austin Film Festival’s Film Competition Director, he programmed the festival’s films for five years and discovered his passion for identifying deserving projects and championing exciting and unrecognized talent. During Harrison’s tenure as AFF’s Film Competition Director, over 100 films he programmed went on to secure distribution, six short films were later nominated for Oscars, and one that he qualified ultimately won the Academy Award. His work with Austin Film Festival and Stage 32 allows him to champion undiscovered storytellers and help them amplify their work. He also serves as a professional moderator for many different film related industry panels both online and offline. Through his many years leading AFF’s film selection and working closely with other film fests, he has become intimately familiar with the inner workings of larger festivals, as well as the common missteps many filmmakers make when working with them. He’s excited to share what he knows exclusively with the Stage 32 community. Harrison will walk you through how best to develop your film festival strategy and choose the right festivals for your film, well before you start submitting. He will begin with the basics of why you should or shouldn’t be submitting to festivals in the first place, and how to best think of festivals as a tool. He’ll then lay out what the festival landscape looks like, including what makes up the “Festival Circuit”, what Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 festivals are, and the lowdown on both niche festivals and destination festivals. Next he will delve into the importance of having your own specific festival goal and how to find it. He’ll provide six examples of valid and common festival goals and how best to adjust your submission strategy for each. Harrison will go deep into how to research festivals before submitting and what you should be looking for before you should feel comfortable paying their submission fee. He’ll also offer various strategies to choose the right festival and giving yourself the best advantage in getting accepted, including considering niche festivals, finding your ‘in’ and developing your network. He’ll spend some time explaining how scam festivals work and what you can do to spot them and stay away from them. He will offer some tips and context of what you should do if you film is ultimately rejected from one of your top choices, and also what to do if your film is ultimately accepted. You will leave with a slew of strategies to tackle your festival run more strategically and more effectively. Praise for Harrison's Previous Stage 32 Webinar: "This was great. Very comprehensive about festival strategy and works for shorts and features. Probably the best content about this topic I've seen" -Paige F. "The teacher really knew his subject. He was also friendly & warm and made the students feel relaxed. A well spent event and I learned so much." -Toni M. "Appreciated the way Harrison did not gloss over any point — he spoke thoroughly about everything." -Elease P. "Very knowledgeable, open, easy to follow" -Marilyn L.
As the Vice President of Three Point Capital, Viviana Zarragoitia is one of the most prolific financiers who routinely lend on tax incentives, both domestically and internationally, on independent films. She is aware of the rules and regulations of tax incentives in many jurisdictions, and have spoken on numerous panels about tax credits. In this webinar she will cover working with transferable vs. non-transferable credits, give an overview of the states and countries that are most popular right now, the reasons why and the incentives that each of them offers. Viviana will also go through the general steps that are required to take advantage of tax incentives from beginning to end, as well as the requirements to qualify for tax incentives. She will highlight the importance of working with CPAs, the roles of production accountants and line producers, as well as how all departments in a production are affected. She will also use 2 states as case studies for how to go through the process of applying for and receiving a tax incentive. You will walk away gaining a deeper understanding of the details involved with tax credits; how to take advantage of them, how to monetize them and how to follow the guidelines to ensure they are in compliance with the rules.
Learn How To Run A Professional Set From A DGA First Assistant Director Who Has Worked With Some Of The Biggest Directors And Showrunners In The Industry Whoever said "time is money" must have been thinking about an Assistant Director's job as the AD Department keeps your trains running on time during physical production. Assistant Directors can make or break your project. If even one member of your AD team is missing or unqualified, it can stall your production and create setbacks you’re not prepared for that can affect your shoot and the entire production. Whether you’re looking to land a job as an AD, build your resume to join the DGA, or you’re a producer or director working to ensure a great production, this course will show you every crucial responsibility and task that assistant directors have and how to excel in this essential role. In this Stage 32 exclusive on-demand course, you’ll dive into all of the AD's production team positions, discussing who does what and how they all work together harmoniously for a smooth production. You’ll break down scripts, learn what to ask the director and producer to create a pre-production plan, and move into creating a calendar and production schedule so that every department is ready when the shoot begins. You’ll cover call sheets, production reports, timeline targets, and even practice breaking down scripts. This is the real nuts and bolts of production that everyone should know. Taking you on this educational journey is DGA first assistant director, Korey Pollard. Korey has worked on films including ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO, STAND BY ME, THAT THING YOU DO, WATERWORLD, CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER, and SPY KIDS 2, among others, and hit TV shows like DEADWOOD, MONK, GREY’S ANATOMY, SALEM, THE ORVILLE, THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE, and many more. Korey also holds a position on The First Assistant Director/Unit Production Manager Committee of The Directors Guild of America. Korey will share his first-hand experiences as an assistant director so that you know how to clearly communicate with your director and crew to maximize the potential of any shoot while also being prepared to recover from inevitable missteps. He'll also walk you through several key documents that First A.D.s use including call sheets, production reports, script pages, script breakdowns, and more. After these four sessions, you’ll be on your path to joining the Directors Guild by working as an assistant director. You’ll be prepared to create an achievable production plan and schedule, the tools to work with your team, and know this vital role in making any feature film or television series.