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Happy Sunday, Creative Army! I hope your weekend has been a creative one so far. Whether you have been writing, filming, editing, or sketching out the next spark of an idea, I have something today that will give you a boost. So grab your coffee, and let's dive in. This week's featured video comes from In Depth Cine- How Guy Ritchie Shoots a Film at 3 Budget Levels. I hear it constantly: "Once I get the budget, I'll make the film I want to make." This video is the best argument against that...

I believe in growth on both a personal and professional level. Next-level greatness is only accessible if we know how to do a regular check-in ourselves and take inventory of where and how our energy is spent. As Aristotle has said, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act but a habit." Career longevity of 30 years brings gifts. I have applied myself on many levels, from branding to marketing, to selling to learning how to finance, network, create marketing materials, and be aut...

As an audiovisual creator, protecting your project from legal issues is just as important as its artistic quality. This guide will help you understand the fundamental aspects of the clearance process (legal authorization) that you need to consider before exhibiting your work. What is Clearance, and Why is it Important? "Clearance" is the process through which you obtain all necessary legal authorizations to include any material or element in your audiovisual production. This process protects...

In independent film, early production meetings are usually about protecting the creative vision. We celebrate the "indie hustle," the grit and passion it takes to push a project through development and into production.   But there's an operational truth we don't talk about enough. Artistic freedom can't survive if the hustle is grinding down your cast and crew, or if sloppy bookkeeping is putting your investors' money at risk.   Treating people ethically can't live in good intentions, handsh...

Hi everyone, Laura here. Most weeks, this series is about what the trades are buying. Once a month, it's about what you're doing. This is that edition. In September, Stage 32 members signed with reps, landed a shopping agreement, got pitched to showrunners, and had executives come back asking for a second and third script. In just two weeks of pitch sessions, members also earned 92 script requests and 132 meeting requests. Nick Nelson signed with Daniel Herther after the two connected on Sta...

For most of my life, I’ve been a writer. I majored in Screenwriting at USC Film School, have written five bestselling books about breakups and dating while simultaneously building a career telling stories for brands including Barbie. On the side, I’ve written pilots, features, romcoms, and vertical dramas. But directing? That was for… directors. Or at least that’s what I told myself. Then, in my 50s, I got tired of waiting for Hollywood to give me the greenlight. So I made a short film. And s...

Happy Monday, Creative Community! Welcome back to On Location, our monthly look at where production is physically happening around the world, what's driving it, and what it means for the crew, ADs, production staff, location managers, actors, and producers doing the work. August was the strongest month of the year. September pulled back. But the most interesting story this month isn't the total. It's what shifted underneath it, and the policy news that could reshape where productions go next...

Happy Sunday, Creative Army! I hope your weekend has been a creative one so far. Whether you have been writing, filming, editing, or sketching out the next spark of an idea, I have something today that will give you a boost. So grab your coffee, and let's dive in. This week's featured video comes from Adam Savage's Tested: Adam Tours the Vaults of Hollywood History. Adam spends twenty minutes inside the Academy's Margaret Herrick Library, and I walked away thinking less about the treasures...

We can all agree that it’s nigh impossible for a finished film to be even 90% close to the original screenplay. Budget and logistic constraints can be very limiting for the filmmaker, and often the creative vision changes according to the ebbs and flows of the production. Locations are changed, dialogues are added, and sometimes even characters are edited out. As a result, when the filmmaker has finished post and is busy procuring deliverable material required by film festivals or the distribu...

Five weeks ago, we asked you to do something this community has been doing since day one. Stage 32 wasn't built by an ad campaign. It was built by word of mouth: one creative telling another there was a place worth showing up to. It's a community built for you, by you. In our 15th year, we wanted to honor that the best way we know how. We asked you to invite the people who have made a difference in your creative journey, so they could come make that same difference for others. The acting c...