Filmmaking

Do you often intend to check your emails quickly before your day starts and end up sitting with them for longer than you wanted? Do you feel stressed from the massive amount of disorganization in your inbox and are spending more time organizing them than actually working on your goals? You are not alone. Email technology is amazing, I love it, however as much as it can empower us, it can overwhelm us. Staying in control of your emails allows you to save time and focus on other areas of your li...

I'll start by admitting there may be more important lessons to learn while scoring a feature film in four weeks than these, but I wanted to share some of the things I observed while going through the process on the latest film, Sacred Vow. 1. Deadlines Will Change - Except Yours Now that I've said that it's actually not always true. Your deadline can change but usually not in your favor. If it does change it will likely give you less time to complete the score. I remember being hired to scor...

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” ― John F. Kennedy, Address at Rice University, September 12, 1962   Filmmaking is never easy and it’s rarely fun, but I love it anyway. I have been making films since I was a child and growing up in LA. My high-school, of course, had a film program with a wind-up 16mm Bolex. My 11th-grade film teacher actually wrote on my report card that I was a “cinematic genius”....

Movies aren’t made with money. They are made with equipment, with artists, with technicians etc. Money is a key resource, but it is something that motivates and facilitates. It is not the movie itself. I like to think of it as energy. When you look at it that way, you begin to realize that there are a lot of ways to generate energy. You might find that even if you don’t have access to large amounts of money, you have more “energy” in a project than you thought.  Last year we shot a movie calle...

This week Stage 32 and the Stage 32 Happy Writers descend upon Austin, Texas for the Austin Film Festival. We are proud to be involved with the 2016 Austin Film Festival for the 4th year in a row! We invite our Stage 32ers to come join us! Here's what's in store: We have partnered with ScreenCraft and invite all our Stage 32 members for a fun night to celebrate the most creative community on the planet at the Handlebar Austin Rooftop Patio. This is a 21 and over event. This will be our 4th ye...

   /'wɪmɪn//'treil/ /ˈbleɪzər/ [noun]: A female creative that kick ass and take names. They have paved the road for other female creatives that want to kick ass and take names.   Every film and television show is a collaborative effort, it’s not just the stars or directors you see in interviews or on the red carpet. It literally takes a tribe to make the gems we watch on the big and small screen. And an integral part of this tribe are women creatives, who roll up their sleeves day in and...

He calls me, but then he doesn’t call me. One day I’m his best girl and there is no one else in the world for him and I’m top of the world, and I’m on a roll and I think this is it, we are finally in this together and we’re gaining momentum and everything is going just fine but then one day that’s it, the calls stop coming, he just falls off the face of the earth, no explanation. Is it something I did? Something I didn’t do? He’s just suddenly into somebody else and I don’t exist anymore.  You...

Independent filmmakers, the most important rules of marketing are start early and keep focused on your target audience and how to monetize those consumers. What is the point of making a movie and no one knowing about it? – Marketing is the key. Marketing is a very important element in the world of film. In fact, studios are marketing machines and focus a great deal of time on marketing. Independent filmmakers should learn from the majors as they truly understand marketing. Although the worl...

So you’re a filmmaker? How’d you get started in that? I have watched friends in this business succeed and fail over and over again. I have known some talented and crazy artists who have wound up on the streets (true story), and watched others go on to live their dreams. So what separates the good from the great? How did they make it? What’s wrong with me if I haven’t made it yet? Having the opportunity to work on a variety of productions, it’s important to remind yourself from time to...

Hello friends and fellow creatives! Erik here from the Stage 32 Happy Writers. We are very excited to be continuing our fall series of "30 Minutes with...", an online web-series where we bring in executives across the industry for a live interview and Q&A session with writers like you! As a writer myself, I have an undoubted advantage that most new writers never get: I get to look behind the curtain, I get to hear first hand what executives are really looking for, what they're tired of heari...