Success Stories

I’ve been writing a long time - initially novels, then drama for the stage and radio, and then screenplays. Over the years I have built a portfolio of ten feature scripts and two TV pilots, which I have been pitching and submitting to competitions and mentoring programmes. At first, every submission made me nervous, and I waited impatiently for the response, finding it hard to turn my thoughts to other projects. If the answer was a pass I could be floored for a day or two before picking myself...

We're looking forward to meeting and mingling with our Stage 32 members in and around the London area! Join us as we partner with the 27th Annual Raindance Film Festival for an exciting week of events. To start, we've arranged a huge perk for Stage 32 members - If you'd like to get full Raindance Film Festival passes you can get 20% off your badge price! Go to https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/raindance-2019-festival-passes-tickets-69404112569 Use code: stage32pass Get 20%, just like that!...

One Stage 32 blog post.Two hours to write.Three opportunities as a result. (And one of them is in Scotland!)When Stage 32 member Joey Madia wrote his first Escape Room narratives for an organization, it was in 2017. He wrote them for two 5-star escape rooms on the Crystal Coast of North Carolina. Those rooms are still active today. Not long afterwards, he wrote and published a blog post right here on Stage 32 called Seven Steps for Writing Escape Room Narratives (And How to Find Opportunities...

As the result of my winning the Stage 32 TV Writing Contest, Jason Mirch and his team have been setting meetings up for me all over town. It’s been a whirlwind water bottle tour! And all the industry professionals I’ve met with so far, have really positive things to say about their association with Stage 32. One of those meetings was with Brooklyn Weaver of Energy Entertainment. Brooklyn is a very intelligent and personable guy with a ton of knowledge about the film and TV industry. We met at Ch...

I'm afraid of heights. I don't like climbing ladders. But I also like to get where I want to go, even if it means going up high. The most important thing I have learned in trying to raise money for my first feature film is that I needed to start small—at the bottom of the ladder. Of course, I didn't do that. The first thing I did was try to get a feature made from one of my science fiction/horror novels, the budget of which I estimated would be in the $50 million range or higher. After two y...

Good morning everyone! It's Monday and we are kicking off another exciting week of creative work. Can you believe we are already at the end of July! The summer is flying by, and at Stage 32, we have a lot to be excited about. I want to let you in on a little behind-the-scenes with Stage 32.   This summer has been one of our most successful yet, with writers in our community being optioned, signed, and requested through connections made through Stage 32.   If you missed my blog last week, I...

Happy Monday, Stage 32 Family! I hope you all had a productive and creative weekend. I wanted to take a moment to talk about screenwriting contests. As you probably know, we just closed the extended deadline on our 5th Annual Feature Contest. I hope you were all able to submit a project for consideration. I was speaking with a writer recently who questioned the value of screenwriting contests. He had been a winner or finalist in several different screenwriting contests in the past, but ultima...

Good morning Stage 32 Family! Can you believe that we are already halfway through July?! This summer is flying by and the successes keep piling up for our writers! We’ve had the privilege of hearing directly from a few of our writers in recent weeks as they tell their success stories! But those are just a fraction of the success our community members are enjoying this summer! First, I want to send a huge shout out to the winner of our 4th Annual Comedy Writing Contest, Greg Mania, with his pr...

I remember joining Stage 32 years ago, shortly after it was launched I believe. I hadn’t yet moved to Los Angeles, and I certainly hadn’t begun writing, but it immediately became a welcoming community of creatives from all over the world. I started as an actor. I performed in plays my entire life, went to college for theatre including a semester at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland, and then moved to Seattle to pursue a career on the stage. But when I began auditioning for TV and...

Back in 2017 I pitched a reality TV project to the VP of Development of a prominent and well-established production company specializing in reality programming. Spoiler alert: the show didn’t get picked up, but not everyone gets the benefit of a serious conversation with a VP of Development, so it was a learning experience if nothing else – an experience I’d like to share with all of you aspiring screenwriters and/or producers. Especially if you’re at a point where you’re willing to put in the e...