Hello! ¡Hola! Bonjour, hallo, namaste, olá, kon’nichiwa, and annyeonghaseyo! With a global film, television, and digital media community, sometimes you have to cast your net wide to get your message across. What about receiving messages? Casting a net isn’t the only step in panning for gold. It takes movement, attention, and above all, patience. No matter where you are in the world, though, you can find what you are looking for on Stage 32!

Earlier this year, our fearless leader, Stage 32’s Founder & CEO RB hosted an “Ask Me Anything” to launch 2021’s “Great Content Goldrush.” Let the record show that Stage 32’s community is the gold mine. It’s up to you to find the riches within! So, what are you doing to find quality information, connections, and resources?

You are already off to a great start! Stage 32 blogs are curated to help keep you connected and current. So be sure to subscribe, fold it into your daily reading of the trades, and comment to connect with professionals in the industry!

Today’s #SocialSaturday blog will guide you through the steps for mining the wealth of opportunities hidden in plain sight in the Stage 32 Lounges. So even if you’re not keeping up, you can still catch up. Here’s a sampling of recent lounge posts and how to mine for gold!

Mining for Members: Scroll Through the Lounges

Most social media platforms are built first and foremost to shout into the void. Talk, but not listen. Post, but not respond. Advertise, but not converse. It’s a myopic and lonely approach to being “social”. The lounges on Stage 32 are built to invite you to stay longer, have more in-depth conversations, and make more impactful relationships in the industry.

If your goal is to find quality collaborators, then be sure to scroll through the lounge you post in. You never know who you’ll meet! For example, if I had not explored the Filmmaking Lounge, I would never have met this filmmaker who started in the art department of the Lord of the Rings films.

What super-cool members have you met through the lounges? What lounges have been helpful in meeting like-minded creatives?

Mining for Topics: Scroll Through Multiple Pages

Such valuable information is being contributed in the lounges, but it can be swept to the second or third page of a lounge as new posts come in or older posts are commented on. If you know keywords for the topic you wish to know about, you can search the lounges on the home lounge page.

The best way to ensure you’ve scoured the lounge you scroll through is to make sure you check several pages back. This post about finding funding through grants and/or sponsors gives some fantastic advice from a veteran fundraiser, but with few comments, it won’t be on the first page for long. Be sure to ask follow-up questions as well!

Now that you know how to dig a little deeper, what gold have you found on subsequent pages? Was it a whole post or a particularly informative response?

Mining for Answers: Scroll Through the Comments

Some members post questions in the lounges, while others provide reflections and words of encouragement. On rare occasions, an experienced professional will offer their time to answer any questions - and actually answer them! Scrolling through the lounges is absolutely worth that extra bit of time, but with posts like this, it is also worth your time to scroll through the comments to learn a ton from the prompts. Check out these answers to questions about Animation Post-Production, and feel free to ask questions as well.

Have you stumbled across other posts of professionals offering to answer questions? Share in the comments below!

Mining for Perspectives: Scroll Through Adjacent Lounges

We have an incredibly robust and active Screenwriting Lounge, but screenwriters can learn so much from adjacent subjects. Have you considered dipping your toes into other topical lounges for the answers or inspiration you seek? This post in the Authoring Lounge is a fantastically written reflection on the importance of structure, especially if the story is to be effective for both novel and screen.

What other lounges do you visit to find perspective on your work? Acting? Filmmaking? Post-Production? We welcome visiting viewpoints as well!

Mining for Resources: Save Resource Posts

Ultimately, mining for content gold requires you to collect and organize those resources. Production Managers are notorious for having spreadsheets of contact information for crew, rental houses, and locations. What a gift when someone shares their collection of resources with the community! This recent post is a list of Transmedia Books, a burgeoning topic for creators who are looking for a home for their content across multiple mediums (e.g., books, comic books, video games, etc.):

This resource post in the Cinematography Lounge is also awesome and well-worth a hearty “thank you”.

Are you collecting resources for a project or a subject matter? Are you brushing up or diving into a new venture? Do you create a resource sheet for yourself or share new information with your team?

No matter where you are in your process, you are always welcome to start the conversation in the Stage 32 Lounges! Not sure where to start? You can DM me or email me at K.Ross@stage32.com For now, why not start with the links above? Click, read, comment, and start a post of your own.

Speaking of casting the net wide, let’s get the rest of the socials a taste of what they’re missing! Share this blog, include the hashtags #SocialSaturday #Stage32 and #ContentGoldRush, and tag @k.osswrites, @rbwalksintoabar, and @stage32. Keep your eyes to the skies, and I look forward to seeing each of you in the lounges!