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Have you ever fallen in creative love? Perhaps you idly chat about your favorite director, only to discover that you both love their most obscure film best. Over your first coffee date, you playfully square off about who has the worst set stories, but you share a laugh over the resiliency it takes to keep going. Now you're about to start a project, and your new creative ally is firmly entrenched in your corner. 'How in the world did I get so fortunate?' you wonder. If luck favors the prepared, t...

Whether you’re a new or seasoned Voice Actor, you don't get very far into voiceover without hearing about the mighty demo. Why is that? Well, since the beginning of professional voice actor-hood, demos have been used to showcase the vocal range and portfolio of voice talent. Today, demos are used as business cards or calling cards for Voice Actors. It’s one of the only ways potential clients can hear your voiceover chops outside of auditioning, so it’s pretty important to be sure our demos ar...

Being pushed and shoved. Getting punched and kicked. Just another day in the office. Being hit by a car. Getting blown up. Just another day in the office. Yes, I am talking about the, for many years, overlooked unsung heroes of the entertainment industry: Stunt actors. I have been privileged to have been part of that unique group of people. Some call us daredevils. Others call us adrenalin junkies. Still, others refer to us as fools. We are none of these. We are actors, and the risks we ta...

Anthropology, simply put, is the study of what it means to be human. A tall order, almost as difficult as the provocation “How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?” from The Sound of Music. Anthropologists, writers, storytellers, and artists are obsessed with finding authenticity. They both know that in order to get to the truth, you have to get deep into the messy zones, the gray areas, and the unknowns. And they are both up for the challenge. To embark on this challenge, anthropologists lea...

Happy Sunday, Creative Army! I've got my coffee in hand and your weekly dose of content coming in hot - grab your coffee of choice, and let's dive right in. When you're creating your film or television series, costume design is crucial to your story. It helps the audience understand the character, adds to the world, contributes to the tone, and can even elevate the plot. It doesn't just exist in period films but even in some of the biggest contemporary-set releases, such as DO REVENGE, NOPE,...

What keeps you from writing a new screenplay, TV pilot, or pitch? Or finishing the one you started last year? Or composing those dreaded query letters? You might be waiting to find the time to write. Have a million reasons to procrastinate. Feel intimidated by the words FADE IN. Or find writing alone uninspiring and, well, lonely. I was experiencing most of the above in January 2021, when I discovered Amy McGuire's "Friday Study Hall" and Louisa Burton's "Sunday Writers' Cafe" Zo...

As we head into the last two months of the year, you might feel the pressure of trying to complete those 2022 goals before the year runs out. Sometimes the pressure is good: in fact, I’d argue that this is at least part of the reason why NaNoWriMo and Stage 32's November Write Club are such popular challenges. It’s not unlike signing up for a 5K race to give yourself a deadline for starting those healthy habits you’ve committed to building. But sometimes, the pressure of a deadline can cause Res...

We had two buildings when I started working at Walt Disney Feature Animation in 1999. There was the Northside building up near the Burbank Airport and the Southside building across the street from the lot off the 134 Freeway. It's commonly referred to as the "Hat Building" because of the giant iconic wizard's hat from The Sorcerer's Apprentice on the west end. The original Disney Animation building still stands in the middle of the Disney lot, but now it's mainly production offices. It has a lon...

The last 3 to 6 months, whether you’ve been watching television, scrolling through social media on the internet, or receiving junk mail - you’ve noticed the spike in political commercials touting issues and candidates. From primaries happening almost every Tuesday through early voting and the general election, we are now in the Midterm election cycle. On the national scale, you are voting for your congressperson - your senator or the house of representatives. On the state level, you have...

Some folks say making a movie is like a marmite; you either love it or hate it. The desire to get into filmmaking started a long time before I made my first short docu-drama HUSH in 2003, which got screened at Cannes Film Festival and picked up an award at the UK's BFM International Film Festival. As a child, I was a lover of films and stayed up till the early morning hours, staring at my dad's action movies, watching the works of Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, and Clint Eastwood on the VHS play...