Yen Tan is an award-winning Malaysian-born writer and director who has helmed multiple projects that have premiered at Sundance Film Festival, South by Southwest, and others. His critically acclaimed feature PIT STOP premiered at Sundance and was nominated for a John Cassavetes Awards at the Film Independent Spirit Awards. Yen also co-directed UNTIL WE COULD an Addy-winning PSA for Freedom to Marry that was narrated by Robin Wright and Ben Foster. His most recent film 1985, which was inspired by his Short of the Week short film of the same title, premiered at South by Southwest and became a New York Times Critic’s Pick Feature. Yen has been a fellow of Austin Film Society’s Artist Intensive, IFP’s Film Week, and Film Independent’s Fast Track and was named one of Out Magazine's OUT100 of 2018. Yen is based in Austin, where he also works as an award-winning key art and graphic designer for independent films and documentaries. His celebrated work as both a director and graphic designer has given him deep knowledge and ability to create effective lookbooks for his own projects and others. Full Bio »
Includes a case study of a real lookbook Yen created for his film 1985!
Before you can even take a seat in that director’s chair, you must be able to convince decision makers to give you the job or support our project in the first place. To do this effectively, it’s crucial you can share your vision through a director’s lookbook.
A common hurdle directors face early in their careers is the realization that having what it takes to be a director and being able to convince others that you have what it takes to be a director are wholly separate skills. You could be able to create stunning works of cinema, but if you convince producers you have this capability, it’s not going to amount to much. A great lookbook can get decision makers excited about you and your ideas in a way a simple pitch can’t. But what does a great lookbook look like and how do directors go about making them? And how can you use this tool stand out and find the opportunities you are after?
Yen Tan is an award-winning Malaysian-born writer and director who has helmed multiple projects that have premiered at Sundance Film Festival, South by Southwest, and others. His critically acclaimed feature PIT STOP premiered at Sundance and was nominated for a John Cassavetes Awards at the Film Independent Spirit Awards. Yen also co-directed UNTIL WE COULD, an Addy-winning PSA for Freedom to Marry narrated by Robin Wright and Ben Foster. His film 1985 premiered at South by Southwest and became a New York Times Critic’s Pick Feature. Yen has been a fellow of Austin Film Society’s Artist Intensive, IFP’s Film Week, and Film Independent’s Fast Track and was named one of Out Magazine's OUT100 of 2018. His celebrated work as both a director and graphic designer has given him deep knowledge and ability to create effective lookbooks for his own projects and others.
Yen will walk you through how exactly to put together a director’s lookbook that will catch a decisionmaker’s eye and help you land opportunities or find support for your own projects. He’ll begin by going through the basics of a lookbook, outlining their purpose, when you should make one, who you’re making them for and in which scenarios they’re helpful. He’ll also explain different types of lookbooks you can create, including general lookbooks and character breakdowns, and will show examples of past look books he designed to help illustrate. Yen will next delve into what a lookbook should look like, focusing on appropriate length, visual vs. text balance, typography, and how to split up page-by-page. He will also discuss how to find add images. Next he will talk about different software options—both free and paid—that you can use to make your own lookbook.
Yen will even offer an on-cemera demonstration, putting together a page of a hypothetical lookbook using free online software and resources. Finally, Yen will share the lookbook he created for his feature film 1985 and discuss why he made the decisions he did in putting it together.
Yen Tan
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Learn everything you need to know to make a short film that festivals will love and that can kickstart your filmmaking career from an award-winning short filmmaker! PLUS, receive exclusive handouts from your instructor to help make your short film. Whether you have a great idea that can be told in a several minutes or you want to create a proof-of-concept for your feature film, a short film is a fantastic way to get your foot in the door of the entertainment industry. But you don't just want to make a short, you want to make a short that grabs people's attention. That means getting accepted into festivals, filling up screenings, getting the word out, and more. And in this exclusive Stage 32 webinar, we're showing you how to make your short film - from concept through post-production - and get it the attention it deserves. This webinar is for any filmmaker looking to jumpstart their career or add to their portfolio with a short film. You'll learn all of the practical tools for producing a short film from concept through marketing and even festival debuts. You'll discover how to shape an idea into a short script, how to fundraise and access resources, what's required to produce a short film, and gain crucial directing techniques every filmmaker should know. Most importantly, you'll cover what it takes for a short film to get into a film festival and how to market your short so that your project gets seen. PLUS, you will receive exclusive handouts, such as a production resource guide and sample short film documents, including a script, shot list, lookbook, budget, and the final product. With so much to cover in a short amount of time, we brought in an award-winning short filmmaker, Tash Ann. Tash is a writer, director, and producer who launched her short film career with BIZARIA, which screened at Hollyshorts, was quickly licensed by ShortsTV, and aired for three years on DirecTV. Tash currently has a web series pilot, ABSTRACTION, making the festival rounds, and to date, it has won 22 awards and screened at 10 additional festivals. She has also directed 10 short films and produced 45 pieces of short-form content for Icon Media. In addition to the years of experience and knowledge Tash brings, she'll also be answering questions from you and your fellow filmmakers. Tash knows from experience how easy it is to get lost in making a short film when you lack previous hands-on experience. She'll show you how to avoid common pitfalls like writing without a budget in mind, creating a story that's too big or long for a short, not budgeting enough time or money, and hiring the wrong people. By the end of this on-demand webinar, you'll know what makes a good short film story, how to produce a short film, and how to get your short film into festivals and in front of audiences, all so that you can take your career to the next level. Don't miss out on your chance to learn from Tash's incredible experiences and kickstart your short film journey. TESTIMONIALS FOR TASH'S WORK: "Tash is very dynamic and extremely hard working. She is very passionate about her work and creating meaningful and powerful stories. She's an extraordinary talent with a beautiful vision for crafting and producing films and videos that truly impact her audiences." -- Aastha Lal Vice President of Operations, Icon Media
Class Space Limited: Maximum 20 Writers August 13, 20, 27 and Sept 10 from 1pm-3pm. Your TV Series Bible is an extremely important, and often overlooked tool for selling your pilot in the industry. It’s a document which explains in detail – who your characters are, what they will be up against, where future conflict will come, and what themes your show will be exploring. It gives studio and network executives confidence that you know what you’re doing, and that the show has the story potential to live on for multiple seasons. The problem is that there isn’t a lot of literature out there detailing how to construct a bible. This Stage 32 Intensive is aimed to give you the information and guidance that you need to write a strong bible that can be used when sending out and selling your pilot script. Each week, your instructor Michael Poisson (Director of Development at Silent Machine Entertainment, Krysten Ritter’s production company that has a first look deal at Universal TV) will be giving a lecture about how to write one section of your series bible, and then you’ll be assigned to write that section for a project of your own. The following week Mike will offer one-on-one skype sessions to discuss your work, give you any notes, and answer any questions that you may have. So, at the end of this Intensive, you will have a strong and well-executed bible that you’ll be able to use as a selling tool for your own TV series. Mike has worked at CAA, two production companies, and as a showrunner’s assistant on a TV series, and at each job he has seen the importance of bibles and how they have been used to get series sold and on the air. As a writer, Mike has also used them in his own writing career, and a well-written bible of helped him to secure his manager, and get multiple production companies interested in his work.
4 part class taught by Producer Michael Wormser, whose online distribution projects have reached over 30 million viewers! AVAILABLE ON DEMAND! Have you ever wondered how so many people have films, trailers, shorts and webisodes online that have achieved massive fan bases and are making millions of dollars? Well the truth is they aren’t any different than you, and in today’s world you have the same resources available that they do. There are many outlets to reach an audience, but how many of these are effective? In this course, you'll find out the best ways to not only reach an audience, but to engage and successfully grow an audience online. Stage 32 Next Level Classes is excited to bring you the previously-recorded 4 part class: Zero to Hero: How to Build an Online Audience taught by Michael Wormser, who brought the viewership content of Maker Studios from 40M to 250M monthly! Learn how you can see success in this competitive directly from an executive who's mastered it. Purchasing gives you access to the previously-recorded live class.Although Michael is no longer reviewing the assignments, we still encourage all listeners to participate!
A professional budget is essential to every film, TV, and digital production. It's important that you get your financials in check in order to avoid any surprises once you yell "Action!" This will help avoid overages, delays, and frustration on the set. Putting together a professional budget is not as difficult as you think! Even if Excel and Movie Magic aren't your specialty, that's OK. You can still learn what you need to do to in order to make sure your budget looks professional. For starters, you must make sure that you have all the pertinent production details and supporting information. You need to proofread your work before it's submitted for the production. In short, before you can create a budget that will keep your production on track, you need to understand all the elements that will make is so. It's not as intimidating as you think, and we're here to help. Rosi Acosta is a Unit Production Manager, DGA, who has worked on over 75 TV and Film projects and over 100 commercials. She is a valued name in Hollywood as a top UPM who's worked on films such as DRIVEN, SPEED KILLS, IMPRISONED and many more. She's committed to helping you understand the basics of creating a professional film budget. You'll examine all the pertinent elements of a film budget so you have a clear understanding of what is considered industry standard. You will learn the basics of Movie Magic software and what support documents you will need to help you prepare a professional budget. Rosi will take away the anxiety and simplify the process of creating your film budget! This presentation will give you confidence to move forward with a professional level budget to ensure your production goes off without a hitch! "Rosi Acosta is, in a word, awesome. She is a treasure of knowledge and easy to understand! Incredibly detailed." - Lawrence W.
Payments plans available - contact edu@stage32.com for more information. 4 of 10 Spots Remain It's hard enough to break an original story on your own, but how do the professionals do it as a group on an idea they didn't create? Working in a writers' room is the dream for many, but once you're in, the work is just beginning. This webinar shows you exactly how a writers' room operates by putting you in a mock room to try and create an episode from scratch as a team. Do you wonder what it's really like to work in a writers' room? When should you speak up versus listen? What are the different roles in a writers' room? Whether you want to write one-hour procedural or serialized television, the ability to write a close-ended episodic is an incredible skill that will benefit you throughout your career. It can be intimidating to enter a writers' room, and you want to have some knowledge to enter confidently. That's where Kate Sargeant and her exclusive Stage 32 course have you covered. In this eight-week course, you'll work with the instructor and a handful of similarly ambitious and creative writers to break an episode of the network procedural CASTLE, including the A, B, and C-story, using a virtual whiteboard. You'll work step-by-step through the process for the most in-depth experience as you work from pitch through a draft as a group together, pitching ideas and learning to communicate with one another. This format gives you invaluable direct, practical, and real-world experience to assist your long-term television career. Running your mock writers' room is professional screenwriter Kate Sargeant, who has staffed in numerous rooms, including CASTLE, CSI CYBER, NCIS NOLA, BLINDSPOT, and more. She's also directed the short films CHANGING LANES, FACING LIFE, and YOU CAN'T DO THAT ON THE INTERNET, as well as the streaming series VIRTUALLY SINGLE. You'll have access to Kate during the eight weeks in class and outside of class via email for any questions you may have. You'll also have the opportunity to develop a genuine working relationship with your classmates, networking with writers with similar goals to your own that can extend beyond class time. "Working with Kate was unlike any other! She's so fun and personable and gives the best advice." - Noella J.
It's hard to get past the gatekeepers and know your script is in a decision maker's hands. If a writer's sample script is excellent enough, the pieces start to fall into place: an entire script read, the writer recommended, the manager's decision to represent, the long and fruitful thousand-mile career. If a producer's script is perfect for the marketplace, a reader will get excited, move it up the ladder and then the wheels start in motion for finding financing, attaching talent and going into pre-production. None of it happens, though, if the script never makes it to the decision maker's desk. While the agents and managers of Hollywood excel at their jobs, they only have so much time in the day and most of it is not spent seeking out new talent. That job falls to the "Gatekeepers", the assistants and pro readers who tackle stacks of scripts every week hoping to find the diamond in the rough: a script they can confidently recommend. So, who are these gatekeepers, how do you even get to them and, more importantly, how do you win their endorsement to help move your script up the ladder? It's time to find out. Gabriel Chu works with artists, writers, and directors to identify and develop new ideas and stories, shepherding them from page to screen. As a story analyst at Sony Pictures, he works on current projects alongside the executive team and helps to field incoming submissions and identify new talent for the studio. Prior to joining Sony Pictures, he was an executive at Vertigo Entertainment, working closely with award winning directors and writers on both animated and live action film projects for Warner Bros., Lionsgate, and Fox Animation. Gabriel started his career at Bad Hat Harry Productions, and has also worked at Summit Entertainment and Mandalay Pictures. Through his career, Gabriel has served as a gatekeeper in multiple roles and knows intimately what it takes for a script to break through and make it to the right person’s desk, and he’s ready to share what he knows with the Stage 32 community. Gabriel will give you a rundown of how gatekeepers manage script submissions and what you can do to give your own script the best chance to be noticed and make it past those first rounds of coverage to make it to the eyeballs you’re aiming for. Gabriel will begin by explaining how scripts are able to get submitted to studios and other gatekeepers in the first place, including through agents and manager, through script competitions, other types of referrals, and through networking. He will also explain how taking the assistant route at an agency could help your chances of getting that script noticed. Next he’ll outline how coverage actually works at production companies and studios. He’ll explain the differences between the procedures at production companies, studios, and other organizations and what their differing expectations might be. He’ll delve into what roles read your script at what point in the process, focusing on the verticals at production companies and studios. He’ll explain the roles of interns and assistants, coordinators, story analysts, and finally executives, and what each role looks for when reading scripts. Gabriel will teach you the common formatting errors that knock scripts out of the running before people even start reading for content, including title page expectations, font and spacing, dialogue formatting, and other issues. He will share real examples of scripts that exhibit these errors to share what they look like on the page. Next he will go over narrative issues that can also sideline a submitted script. Finally, he’ll share other strategies that can make your script stand out to readers in these positions. Through demystifying the process of script reading and coverage as well as the people behind it, Gabriel will leave you with a concrete sense of how to get your script in front of the people you want to read it, and practical ways to help your chances. Praise for Gabriel's Stage 32 Webinar: I was very pleased with the webinar. The speaker got right to the point and explained exactly how the screenplay selling process works. Steven W. I loved how Gabriel didn't pull any punches and gave a realistic assessment of the realities of breaking into the industry as a writer. -Peter M. I loved this webinar because Gabriel talked about a variety of things from how to approach agents/managers/producers, to what not to do in a script. I learned a lot! -Melissa P. Amazing. I liked the "no sugar coating" approach. -Candice E.