Distribution

Most filmmakers, creatives, and writers involved in the filmmaking industry don't take the time to sit down and write out a thorough business plan. It's a harsh truth that could cause issues. From creating an outline showing how money will be allocated to make the film, to building out what it takes to pay your team, distribution costs, marketing, and every other line item that needs to be considered, business plans are often overlooked for various reasons, including the fact that they can som...

Happy Sunday, everyone. This is going to have to be a quick one. As the official film networking and educational partner of the conference, it's been wall to wall for the Stage 32 team at the American Film Market (AFM), and this morning I am leading a talk on independent film financing with the CEO's of Hyde Park Entertainment, Bold Film, Cold Iron and the President of Millennium Entertainment. So, in short, time has been limited. But you know I wouldn't leave you hanging with just your coff...

Nearly five years ago I started the journey to becoming a filmmaker. At the time I had a great job with benefits, three weeks of vacation, a decent salary, and great co-workers… ...but I was miserable. I wasn’t doing the one thing that burned with an unquenchable fire within me. All I wanted to do was make movies. Now mind you, I am a father of three awesome children and husband to an amazing wife. I have a mortgage, a car payment, and of course your standard American credit card debt. But...

Some of you have seen the power of connecting right here on Stage 32.Some of you are still discovering that power. Here is one story of how Stage 32 connections are changing the way we move and connect with other creatives in the film industry. More Than a Hello When Stage 32 decided to become the networking partner for the first ever VIP Film and TV Summit in Washington D.C. on August 25th, 2018, we had no idea that our fast-growing social and education network was a big part of how event...

Earlier this year, Stage 32, in conjunction with Oscar nominated and Emmy Award winning producer Kip Konwiser, offered a Mentorship program called Getting Your Projects Made Inside of One Year with Kip at the helm. Kip and his brother Kern have collaborated and partnered with luminaries such as Kenny Ortega, Quincy Jones, Peter Guber, David Falk, Magic Johnson, the Grateful Dead, Carlos Santana, Herbie Hancock, Chuck D, Oliver Stone, Darren Aronofsky, Laurence Fishburne, and Clint Eastwood, amon...

Man, you guys brought the goods to the table.  I mean, you had me riled up and as passionate as I've been in a long time.  I'm grateful...seriously. Hundreds of you attended my live AMA (Ask Me Anything) last week.  What was supposed to be an hour of me answering your questions quickly turned into two hours of spirited, inspiring, and motivating craft and industry talk. From acting to screenwriting to filmmaking.  From film producing to film finance to attaching talent.  From making valuable...

  I’m honored to announce that Stage 32 has been named as the official film networking and education platform of the American Film Market for the 3rd year in a row. As you know, we're big supporters of AFM, not only for all they do to connect producers, financiers and distributors all over the world, but for the progressive nature of how they program their panels and workshops. Head Honcho, Jonathan Wolf, truly has his finger on the pulse of what's happening in the independent film scene...

Over the past few years, we here at Stage 32 have been thrilled to be recognized throughout the industry as the leaders in online film craft and business education. This past spring, we joined forces with Cannes to help provide education throughout the festival. November will be our 3rd straight year as the official education partner of AFM. And last month, we joined forces with one of the most prestigious, and one of the few Oscar qualifying short film festivals in the land, Hollyshorts, as not...

I was fortunate enough to be an integral part of the 90s Independent Film Movement (producing David O. Russell’s Spanking the Monkey, Scarlett Johansson’s breakout role in Manny and Lo, and IFC’s seminal independent film series Split Screen, etc.) and I really believe a new very exciting opportunity for independent film is on the horizon, and not many people are talking about it. There are many ways to raise money for films, for example - foreign sales, grants, studio system, friends/fami...

With so many distribution options available for filmmakers these days, it's inevitable that VOD, SVOD and AVOD are part of the discussions for your film. We sat down and talked with Zahida Kazar, the Director of Operations for Gravitas Ventures, who, once a film is acquired works with the filmmakers to deliver their films to places like Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, cable operators and more. Today, on our Stage 32 YouTube page we've posted a video where Zahida gives a great piece of advice to make su...