Tips

Greetings Earthlings! For those of you who may not yet know me, I hail from the universe of planet5D and I am the legendary planetMitch - the only guy who can claim he is his own planet! Actually, I make a lot of jokes with this 'planet' thing but it is just a little fun that hopefully gets you to enjoy what we're doing and not think of me as some boring old gas giant about to die out in a blaze of a supernova. The team at Stage32 invited me to be your guide thru some of the events going on...

It was one of my (mostly) daily tips in the screenwriting lounge that spawned this post, but it was also mentioned that perhaps the community would be interested in things I’ve learned and could relay in regards to my experience. So, I put the two thoughts on the simmer burner of my brain and when I went to check the pot, I remembered that both my creative approach to projects and my personal approach to professional accomplishment, are one in the same and that is the most valuable tidbit I coul...

No Weekend Blog this week as RB attends to Stage 32 and personal business at the Sundance Film Festival. Should be noted, the Stage 32 panels have been incredibly well received. We'll be posting clips over the coming weeks! In the meantime, we wanted to bring you a recent interview RB did for the radio show Acting Up Radio hosted by Will Roberts. In this interview RB goes over when he was producing the Sundance Award-Winning film, Another Happy Day, how that helped spur the idea of Stage 32. H...

I’ve been fortunate to have my work screened at some pretty amazing festivals. Thin Line in Texas. The London Underground Film Festival. And most recently at TRIFI in my home state of Washington. It’s not only a thrill to know people will be watching your work on the big screen. It’s also exciting to be in the audience with them. To do a Q&A afterward. To rub shoulders with other filmmakers. To visit a new city. The whole package. But sometimes your expectations don’t match your reality. The...

I’ve recently had the pleasure of working as Christopher Lennertz's scoring assistant for Universal Picture’s Ride Along 2 (coming out tomorrow - Friday, January 15th, 2016!). I’ve worked on many projects in this role since then, but being a scoring assistant on my first big studio film taught me many lessons.   1. Always Know What’s Happening/Get CC’d: Try to get yourself cc’d on as many email chains as possible. Sure it makes for a crowded inbox (Gmail filters/folders are a huge help!) bu...

When considering your options with a script you've written (or even one that you are producing) it's important to consider all avenues for its exposure to development, including contests and coverage. Today our Founder & CEO, RB, goes over why it is important that you know the keys to each. In this 5-minute clip (which is part of his Film Courage interview series), RB goes over the #1 one most important criteria to consider when entering a screenwriting contest. In addition, gives 3 pieces of...

One of the biggest challenges we face as artists is how to balance the creative and business demands that are required to have a successful career. Oftentimes, it is these difficulties that lead us down a path of 'getting a real job' or 'settling down' – and giving up on our dream, but, if you’re in this industry, you’re in it for a reason – because you HAVE to be. Living a life of comfort and stability is nice, but not if the cost is your dream. Speaking as one of you and having faced this chal...

Many of us feel panic and dread when we sit down to write our bios, cracking under the self-imposed pressure to paint a perfect portrait of who we are in this point in time.   But what if I told you that a great bio simply started the conversation of what you can bring to a project and then motivated your reader to to keep that conversation going with you – through a meeting, an audition, a Twitter follow, or a viewing of your reel? Most of us make the mistake of writing a bio that looks bac...

Hark, Filmmakers! For I hath climb’d the Big Data Mountain and I returned with holy verses for when thouest plans to commit thyself to speak to the masses via crowdfunding and ye shall thee listen… ok I can’t keep this up. I’ll be honest – I liked the headline, but carrying on the tone will get tiresome for you and I. So here’s the skinny. In the past few months I’ve been studying a lot of crowdfunding campaigns by filmmakers. 47,809, in fact. I gathered data on all crowdfunding campaigns laun...

Hey guys. A couple of months ago, we posted the screenplays for Ex Machina (which we're breaking down on Tuesday - click here for more details! and 4 other indie darlings here. Today, we're back with 10 more screenplays, all with awards buzz, available for free including Spotlight, Straight Outta Compton, Carol, The End of the Tour, Trainwreck and more.   No matter what your discipline, there's something to be gleaned from reading successful screenplays. And for screenwriters,...