Inspirational

Hi Stage 32ers! We're Sam Sokolow and Rosemond Perdue, and we're now running the Stage 32 education department. We both bring extensive backgrounds in many different aspects of the entertainment industry to the table and will turn over every stone to provide you with important and meaningful education to support your creative and career journeys. Our goal is simple but powerful, to democratize the entertainment industry so content creators, producers, financiers, and artists of all kinds all...

The Talking Draft Method is the fastest way for playwrights or screenwriters to create scenes. A writer records audio of themselves improvising all the dialogue and action, the audio is transcribed, then the text is reformatted into a script. This is not new, it is actually one of old Hollywood’s best-kept secrets. How is started The story goes that in 1934, novelist William Faulkner’s Hollywood career was circling the drain. His friend, film director Howard Hawks came to the rescue. Hawks bo...

Happy Sunday Creative Army! First of all, congratulations to all of you who have already participated in our monthly Introduce Yourself Weekend! Thousands of connections have been made between entertainment creatives and professionals from every corner of the globe. Whether you are a long-time member, or brand new to Stage 32, take a moment to pop over to the Introduce Yourself Lounge and say hello before the end of the weekend. First up, In Depth Cine shares a breakdown of how writer/direct...

Since joining Stage 32, I have connected with many great people. This amazing site can lead to great opportunities in the industry.  I left school at 16 and went straight into the workplace. I didn't want to go further into education because I had been relentlessly bullied my whole school life and couldn't face studying any longer. At school, I had been made to feel worthless. I felt like a nobody, but once I found myself in the workplace, I realized it was a world where people were kind...

Hi there, Stage 32! I’m Shellie Schmals, Stage 32 Director of Community and self-declared Cheerleader of Creativity! Previously, I was the Senior Program & Industry Relations Manager at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, where I played a lead role in selecting the nearly 800 films that are considered for each annual Festival. I currently sit on the national board of the Film Festival Alliance (FFA), state-wide Georgia Production Partnership (GPP) as Membership Chair. Locally, I am the Vice Pres...

You probably already know this, but there is no one way to succeed in Hollywood. Everybody has their own story, their own steps, their own specifics that got them to where they are. But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn anything from them. Dreams tend to feel out of reach until there are tangible steps to take, so we need something to grasp to help us move forward. While everyone’s stories are different, there are steps that most people take for every dream. I call this the Foundational Ladd...

Can’t Find The Time? You Got To Make The Time! You have it all down. You have the story, the plot points, and you may have even started the script. But you just can’t find the time to finish it. Like many of us, life just gets in the way…whether it’s work, family, or friends. What do you do when you can’t find the time to finish your screenplay? Well, here’s the good news: everyone gets a fresh batch of 24 hours to use every day. With a little planning and a lot of discipline, you can steadi...

Through 14 years of working in the entertainment industry, I’ve learned that there will be many ups and downs in a dream pursuit. There will be obstacles, and good days, and opportunities, and rejections. The High Achiever (a.k.a. you!), needs a game plan through it all. The High Achiever needs to handle all of these moments intentionally and carefully, in a way that effectively keeps them on the path to success. That’s why I developed the 10 Pillars of the High Achiever. Here are the 10 pillars...

You Know More Than You Think You Do When I was a struggling writer and actor in my twenties, I worked as a waiter in an Asian-fusion restaurant. Lots of double shifts, very few studio offers (read: none). When someone told me “Write what you know,” I thought they were telling me that I should write a screenplay about a white twenty-something and the dramas they experienced in the restaurant business. (And, to be fair, maybe they were.) And I didn’t want to write about that, nor did I think anyo...

Happy Tuesday Stage 32-ers! Over the past 10 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. We are honored to be partnered with some of the most prestigious film festivals and markets in the world including the American Film Market, Cannes Film Festival and the Marché du film, and Raindance Film Festival in London, to name a few. Now, for the 7th year in a row, we are thrilled to be joining fo...