Cinematography

Welcome to the first weekend of 2015, everyone, and a very Happy New Year to you all. Due to travel and time constraints, there is no Weekend Blog this week. Instead, I thought it would be a great time to discuss and share our plans and goals for the coming year. Some of what I am planning on accomplishing in 2015 includes writing 2 scripts, completing my crowdsourcing book for Focal Press, dipping my toes back into acting, filming a short and implementing a myriad of Stage 32 initiatives....

Welcome to 2015. This is it. This is YOUR year. You are going to achieve all you've ever wanted to do creatively and Stage 32 is here to help. The New Year is a time for setting goals, getting a fresh start and achieving all that you've wanted in film, television or theater.   This month we are bringing you the best possible webinars with top teachers on all aspects of the business including:   Navigating your Film into a Major Film Festival taught by Amanda Johnson Zetterstrom from A...

ACTING – 10 Monologue Tips from Ruth Kulerman  1. CHOOSE AN AGE APPROPRIATE MONOLOGUE. Now I could do Juliet’s monologues deliciously but they’d call Bellevue or the loony bin, since if Juliet had a grandma it’d be me. Just because you can play 35 doesn’t mean you should choose Lady M’s letter scene–if you are 17 years old. The saddest audition I ever saw was an exquisite innocent angelic awkward 12 year old singing a sexy, come-on suggestive bump and grind number. I wanted to cry–but only...

On shoots for some of our bigger clients at the first agency, I'd had opportunity to be around a few "big shot" commercial directors. Evidently insecure men who made their way with more b.s. than talent. I remember one guy in particular who would scream and try his best to humiliate crew members in front of talent and client. He was one who obviously got off on the power his position gave him. This was one of my first and vivid memories of what I did NOT want to be. What I observed from this sit...

This is the same story I'm sure you've heard before, maybe even your same story ... the story of how I always wanted to make movies. Some of my earliest and most vivid memories are of my mom taking me and a few friends to the Alexandria Mall or the Don Theatre, just across the river from where I grew up in Pineville, La, to see Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Rocky. Close behind those memories are Simon & Simon on Thursday nights, Dukes of Hazzard on Friday nights, Magnum P.I., etc.,...

On my social media rounds this morning, I read a quote by Alfred Hitchcock: "In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director." Certainly I don't fancy myself as a god -- if I were I would be using a RED camera instead of a Canon 60D -- however I do feel responsible for the worlds I decide to build and the characters I create. A little background before I return to Hitchcock and the divine attributes of filmmakers. Since I was but a wee lad, I have been a movie addi...

I'm one of those people standing on the outside of the film industry circle wondering how to get in. One of my attempts was started on this very site, Stage 32. The concept seemed simple; connect with as many people as humanly possible. Collaborate with writers, collaborate with crew, make a solid film, and enter a film festival... and win. OK so maybe the last part is the tricky bit, but it is important to take something like this step by step. The film festival I had in mind was on...