Tips

Award-winning filmmaker James Kicklighter has been featured in the Hollywood Reporter, The Times of India, Ain't it Cool News and more and has been directing narrative films for the the past 12 years. His films have screened at the Cannes Film Festival and more! He has spoken all over the world on filmmaking. Kicklighter offers tips for aspiring directors, suggesting they start with two important things before diving in. Kicklighter suggests directors start with two important things before div...

Hello, Creative Army.  Hope all who are celebrating are enjoying the remainder of the Thanksgiving weekend. Let's get right after it, shall we? First up, a look at one of my favorite films of the 21st century, the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men.  This one is from our friends at Lessons from the Screenplay and comes with the mandate - don't underestimate the audience! Next, short and sweet, some sage acting advice from the versatile Hugh Jackman. As always, I ask that you share thi...

Everyday, we here at Stage 32 do our very best to offer blog posts that educate and inspire. We get contributions from filmmakers, writers, actors, and other creatives at every level of success. And when we don't share a contributor post, we share links to posts from other creatives out there in the world. Sometimes the posts we share fit you and your needs more than they fit someone else's.Sometimes they won't fit you at all.That's going to happen. With over 500,000 thousand members all ov...

On behalf of the Stage 32 team, I'd like to wish all celebrating a very Happy Thanksgiving. We are all extremely grateful for the members of this community and for the incredible relationships and friendships that have bloomed over the years. Truly, we feel blessed. As I've mentioned in past Thanksgiving blogs, I like to use the end of each Turkey Day for some quiet reflecting on the year thus far. What was I hoping to accomplish? What can still be done with the month remaining? I find this to...

As many of you know, the journey of an actor is not without its twists and turns. Fresh out of acting school, one doesn’t picture a day when the compass is lost and the all-consuming career is set aside, sometimes without conscious thought. This happened to me. One day I woke up and realized that, without having made any decision to do so, I’d been out of the industry for years, many of which were focused on creating my own web series. My web series came about by accident. I’d been challen...

If you're an actor, you know that looking for the next gig is always on your radar. Actors today have more options than ever to find work. Actor, filmmaker, and director Elyes Gabel has appeared on Game of Thrones, World War Z, Scorpion and more! He was on a Stage 32 panel at the Hollyshorts Film Festival and shared some advice on how his fellow actors can maximize their reach with casting directors... Click Here For Elyes' Advice!       Remember, if you haven't subscribed to our YouTube...

I’ve been in this industry for several years and in that time, I’ve seen dozens of talented people give up because success didn’t come when they wanted it to. It didn’t come in an expected time frame and therefore, they left town. Maybe they spent some time at an agency before they packed it in. Maybe in that time they booked a few commercials. But they got tired because nothing else ever came beyond those commercials. And when they got tired, they gave up and drifted away. It sounds brutal,...

Happy Sunday, everyone.  Hope you're all enjoying Introduce Yourself Weekend. Coming to you live from the Seattle Film Summit where Stage 32 is serving as the education partner.  It's been an inspiring few days of speaking and mentoring.  Also been fantastic to meet so many Stage 32 members in person. You might think all this would prevent me from bringing you Coffee & Content.  You'd be dead wrong!  Let's get to it. First, from Art and Story, a deep dive into text, subtext, and context. ...

By now you've read dozens of articles on the passing of Stan Lee. Me too. But there's one that caught my eye that was written by Stan Lee in 1947 titled: There's Money In Comics! The publication sold for a mere 25 cents, but the information he shared is priceless.   Lee wrote the article for Writer's Digest when he was in his mid-20's. To serve his memory and offer a piece of writing history that can still teach writers something today, Writer's Digest republished the article that shares...

  It’s simple: to be successful as a voice actor, you have to be productive. A recent research report on How to Become a Successful Voice Actor found that voice actors who auditioned 7 or more times per day stood to make up to $20,000 more per year. However, voice actors also face the challenge of having their productivity tied to their ability to be creative on demand. This is not only difficult, it can be downright draining. So what can the average voice actor do to be their most productiv...