Inspirational

Making films wasn’t my first thought on what I wanted to do with my life. An artist, sure, but what kind I had no idea. I floundered around up in Santa Barbara for a decade trying to figure this out. After surviving Isla Vista I found myself downtown taking every art course offered at City College. I took about 12 pages worth when I found myself getting a DJ job at a local radio station. One day it clicked, I love sound, all sounds, pictures also, drawn or photographed. I should think about goin...

The Film Prize of Robert Bosch Stiftung Foundation has announced the call for film submissions for the interested young German and Arab filmmakers. The prizes, each worth up to 60,000 euros, are awarded for film co-productions in the categories: short animation, short fiction film, and short or feature length documentary.   2016 winners of the Film Prize of Robert Bosch Stiftung Foundation   The deadline for submissions is on Thursday the 21st of July, and 12 projects will be selected...

Is it possible to make “networking” feel creative, sexy, and fun? (Answer: #Yaaaaas) If you’re a screenwriter, producer, actor, director, etc. then you need to have a “network.”  What is a “network,” exactly? It’s the web of relationships that allows you to do the work you love and get paid for it. You might think, “Ugh, networking is so tedious and annoying!” but that’s a seriously unproductive attitude. Besides, it’s not like networking is a recent development. Since the dawn of time,...

The job of a film score composer is to elicit an emotional response from the audience viewing the film. Bing, Bang, Boom!!! In a nut shell that's it! That's the job description! Sometimes the score needs to terrify the audience or fill them with suspense, other times it calls for a triumphant feeling. Composers are called to make people laugh, cry and even fall in love. Each composer has their own 'voice' and their scores encompass an enormous variety of styles of music, depending on the natur...

STAGE 32 NEWS Live From Cannes - Talking Stage 32 Member Success & Cannes News - We wanted to share a Cannes update. So far we have met hundreds of Stage 32 members from all around the world, 32 which have films screening here at Cannes, and that are competing, which has been so inspiring!  Listen to RB's update from the Variety party in Cannes and get the news on amazing things going on here! 10 Reasons To Release Your Feature As A Web Series - You can now shoot a movie on a phone. You can e...

You can now shoot a movie on a phone. You can edit like a pro on a laptop. You can share your work with a few billion people with just a few YouTube clicks. The revolution is here. So why are we stuck on old business models? Why do we still think the best way to further our indie careers is to make a low budget feature, do the film festival circuit and be discovered and signed like it’s 1999? I’m over 50. (Yikes!) and it’s time to let go of decades-old indie filmmaking ideals. It’s tim...

Once, back in Russia, I parked my car overnight near my house instead of parking it in the garage. The next morning, I was preparing to take my little daughter to the swimming pool when my next-door neighbor suddenly grabbed my attention. He was so agitated! He spoke very, very fast, pointing to the back of my vehicle. I couldn't understand what he was saying, so I went to him and to my huge surprise, I realized that the back tires were gone. Neat, accurate rectangular red brick structures were...

As a woman, I'm sometimes asked why I picked a male dominated business to be in. My response is always the same, “Besides nursing and teaching (with the exception of university, then the workplace mostly consists of males), most professions are already male dominated.” They stop and think about it and then say, “You’re right.” Any woman that wants to have a professional career of her own must always compete among the men. So I have had to learn to adjust myself, to not only compete against them,...

If I ever told my mother that I was homeless when I stayed in Savannah, GA for film school, she would have killed me.  I remember the day I graduated from Virginia State University and thinking to myself… 'What the hell am I going to do now that I graduated school?' I just received my bachelor’s degree in Hospitality Management, but I knew that was not what I wanted to do. My heart wasn’t in it at all. I knew what I wanted to do, what I wanted to be, but I just didn’t have the balls to do it -...

Are you familiar with the 80/20 rule? It’s originally known as the Pareto Principle and it basically says that 20% of the input creates 80% of the result. In other words, only 20% of you will do whatever it takes to become published, produced, or put on display in the world of writing. Only 20% of you will ever see the project you started come to fruition. Only 20% of you are willing to be criticized, crucified and ridiculed in order to become part of the 80% result. The question is th...