Networking

As we get ready to take in the Academy Awards this Sunday, I am tempted to think about some of my own memorable Oscar Moments and the lessons that those moments have taught me over the years. And, not only are they some of my fondest memories to date, but they read like a list of what to do and what not to do.   Sam, Oscar, and Ernie …   As you can see above, I got to hoist Ernie Borgnine’s Best Actor Oscar from 1956 that he won for portraying the title character in Marty. That was nea...

Good morning Stage 32 family! Happy Monday! I hope you are all ready to kick off another exciting and action-packed week in creative greatness! To help get us rolling and inspired, I want to share an update from a dear friend in the Stage 32 community. Late last year, I shared the story of Greg Mania, the winner of our 4th Annual Comedy Writing Contest, who wowed the judges with his hilarious semi-autobiographical pilot, “Mania”. Greg is a very talented writer who has written an independently...

Yesterday, we were thrilled to announce that Stage 32 CEO RB's book Crowdsourcing for Filmmakers: Indie Film and The Power of the Crowd is the textbook for the first-ever crowdsourcing class to be taught at a major US university! This triumphant news is the product of a powerful industry relationship that has been years in the making between RB and fellow filmmaker, Marty Lang.  Now, it's time for you to meet the actual students from University of Central Arkansas who will be taking Marty's cl...

Today in the video below, you're going to see Stage 32 networking at it's finest which resulted in something very cool for our fearless leader, Richard Botto and fellow award-winning filmmaker and Stage 32er Marty Lang.   Back in 2014, RB and Marty met at the Austin Film Festival after being connected through our Stage 32 platform. A friendship grew as Marty went on to be a production manager at Chapman University and RB went on to start writing his book Crowdsourcing for Filmmakers: Indie Fil...

When you are a creative entertainment professional, you never know when inspiration might spark your next film. If you have ever had the pleasure of attending a film festival, you are undoubtedly familiar with the live-wire electricity that flows through festival screenings. The energy and inspiration are so tangible, you feel like you can literally walk right out of the theatre and start filming your next movie! Well, in the case of our fearless leader, Stage 32's CEO Richard "RB" Botto and f...

Call me J.C. It was called "National Screenwriter's Day 2020 with Stage 32 & ScreenwritingU". A mouthful for certain, but it was also an eye-opener for me and worth every moment of it. President of ScreenwritingU Hal Croasmun, Producer and Stage 32 Director of Script Services Jason Mirch, Stage 32 Founder and CEO Richard Botto, and Literary Manager Krista Sipp brought me screamingly up to date about the status of the screenwriting industry today. Doubtless, all of you already knew about what...

Welcome to 2020, Stage 32 Family! It’s the big first Monday of the year, and we’re coming out guns blazing with a big Stage 32 success story. If you’re looking for some inspiration for getting your work out there in the new year, listen to this story from Stage 32 member Laurie Ashbourne who has been a Stage 32 member for over 8 years. Now Laurie has not one, but two projects set up through Stage 32! One of which is going into production in March with a massive genre producer on board. I will...

Happy New Year, everyone. Hope you all had a terrific holiday season and are now ready to launch into 2020. Those of you who have been around the site for a while know that on New Year's Day we utilize the Stage 32 Blog to discuss and share our plans for the coming year. So, what are you looking to accomplish in 2020? What are your creative goals? What skills are you looking to learn? What fears are you looking to overcome? What strategies are you planning on implementing toward reaching your...

Welcome to the last Monday of this decade! I hope everyone had a safe, happy and healthy holiday week! And obviously, we’re just around the corner from the big one! I am really excited for all that 2020 holds and I am sure you are right there too. But man, what a year it has been! Many members of the Stage 32 community have been blessed with success over the course of the year. In fact, there were so many that I had to break this blog into two parts. If you missed Part One of the blog, you can f...

Trying to make it as a screenwriter is a tough choice to begin with. It's a long, drawn-out process that takes a long time before any significant results can be achieved. Sure, there are exceptions. Every once in awhile we hear about the “overnight success”, or the first-time writer who scores a sale or sees their script already set up for production. But for the rest of us, we slave and toil away. It continues to remain a marathon, not a sprint. And that also means there's going to be A L...