Inspirational

You’re in your artistic element, deeply connected to your creativity and performance. Just like a river flowing from its source into the world, it feels right. It’s a connection that transcends flaws, doubts, and fears. Your inspiration, passion, skills, and talents come together into one stream of expression. You’re becoming your song, writing, or your acting. In moments like these, you can feel the ripples of emotions between you and your audience. Time stops… Nothing else matters… You and y...

“Let’s talk,” he said with a misleading twinkle in his eye, “about what it takes to ensure that our immaculate and undoubtedly superior artistic vision is protected from the corrupting influence of all those collaborators, executives, and audience members who all want their own little piece of the creative process.” A film grows to its fullest potential when it’s nurtured by the relationships of all the people responsible for making it. Any filmmaker who is so locked into their creative vision...

As we come to the end of 2022 and our final Introduce Yourself Weekend for the year, I wish you another year filled with love, joy, and success! I’ve been taking stock of where I’ve been, where I am right now, and where I want to be. I have decided that lamenting the past and worrying about the future is a huge waste of time. Being a septuagenarian, one does not have the luxury of squandering a moment. That made me think about my relationships with family, friends, and colleagues. In sales, yo...

Happy Sunday, Creative Army! Have you had a creative weekend so far? I have some content here for you that is sure to get the creative juices flowing, so grab your coffee, and let's dive in. After looking at pre-production last week, it seemed fitting to take the opposite approach and go into post-production. The editing of a project can be a make or break. Editors are just as much creatives and writers as everyone else involved in your project, but you can't get to the creative part of post...

At my kids’ school, they’re putting up two new buildings, and I had the chance to watch them pour the concrete for the walls as I sat waiting in the carline the other day. What was really remarkable to me was the fact that in order to get to this step, they’d first have to assemble an entire framework that served as the mold for the walls. They’d basically built a building to build the building, in a manner of speaking. And then (because I’m a writer who likes thinking about the process of wri...

When speaking of my recent victories - I wrote and produced an award-winning 48-Hour Short Film called "Livin' with Lisa," co-produced an all-female-cast-and-crew short film, and just wrapped production on the most involved proof-of-concept short film I've ever produced - there is only one constant in every one of those victories. Relationships. "Exactly how connected do I need to be to be successful in the industry? Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon connected?" Sort of. The "Six Degrees of Separati...

Every year, I do an end-of-the-year creative review while preparing to set my goals for the new year. It’s helpful for me to do a deep dive into my process, into my productivity, and into the areas where I am most excited to improve. I’ve talked about my year-end review process on the blog before (you can check out that post here if you’re interested in more detail). Today I want to talk about a topic connected to the year-end review that’s very near and dear to my heart: measuring success....

There is no shortage of "success stories" here on Stage 32. And today, we've got a great one for our fearless leader and Stage 32 CEO, Richard "RB" Botto, who has been nominated for Shaker of the Year 2022, as part of the Movers & Shaker Awards at FOCUS in London, UK. RB is nominated for his contribution to the long-lasting impact on the global entertainment industry. RB joins fellow forward-thinking nominees Leo Anna Thomas (6ft from the Spotlight); Co. Production Team, Factor 42, EE, Supergl...

Have you ever felt stuck? Or wondered why you can't progress in certain areas of your life? Why do things you want desperately elude you? The answers to these questions might be hidden in your writing. Manifesting is all about sending out and receiving. But...as I have, you might have wondered why some things aren't coming to you. Things you want so dearly. How You Affirm Matters One reason for it not working might be down to how you are transmitting. If you send out: I WANT this to happe...

My love of wildlife and filmmaking began as a small child watching my father's homemade wildlife documentaries of Africa in the attic cinema of our London home. Neither of us could have imagined then that many decades later, indeed 17 years after my father left this mortal coil, my own wildlife documentaries would not only win awards all over the world, but they would be instrumental in helping to pass historic legislation in the United Kingdom that would mark the beginning of the end for the he...