Trending Lounge Discussions

SO many creative ideas listed here. Best wishes to everyone. I submitted an adapted screenplay for my own mystery/thriller novel Starless Midnight. Logline: A shocking mystery/thriller that pits a young bi-racial woman against a secret white supremacist group in her hometown. Her discovery of a murder victim close to home begins a race to save her own life, and she doesn’t know who in the town she can trust.

Everyone's scripts sound so interesting! I submitted Perfect Moments. Logline: A control-obsessed strategist who can rewind time must learn to let go of perfection before it costs her a chance at real love.

I wanted to submit my feature poster too. I did not see that as an option upon my initial post. Thank you all who uploaded pics, causing me to seek out how to do it. Good Luck to everyone!!

I entered by romantic drama, "When Will I See You Again?". LOGLINE: When a stubborn 75 year old man agrees to care for his lifetime first love now battling cancer, their rekindled romance forces them to confront the wreckage of decades while racing time to finally chose each other.

My submission is "King of Blades".

Logline: When her champion father is paralyzed in a train crash, a rookie virtual reality swordfighter aims to win the championship to prove her self-worth, going to extremes and risking her friendships and life in the process.

It recently finished second for Best Genre Screenplay at Moondust FilmFest Helsinki 2026 and is currently a semifinalist at the 2026 AREA51 Filmfest for Best Feature Screenplay. This competition is branching it out for TV as well.

Best of luck to everybody else here.

Nivs!

Impressive. Hello Maria.

Hello David, thank you so much!

Hi Maria Marta Ochner Valloud, welcome to Stage 32! I’m Ashley, Head of Community here on the platform. It’s great to have you here, and your experience is incredible. Having your music featured in projects connected to names like James Cameron and Samuel L. Jackson is no small feat.

I’d definitely encourage you to share more about your experiences and creative process in the Composing Lounge (https://www.stage32.com/lounge/composing) and the Filmmaking Lounge (https://www.stage32.com/lounge/directing). Those are great places to join conversations around both craft and the industry, connect with other composers and filmmakers, and offer insights that can really help others.

There’s a lot of value in sharing how you approach scoring different genres, how you collaborate with directors, and how you navigate licensing and placements. Those kinds of posts tend to spark really meaningful conversations and connections.

Really glad you’re here, Maria. Looking forward to seeing you around the Lounges and learning more about your work.

Good, simple medium shot where we can see much of the character and their emotion. Especially for a hard emotional hit or silent revelation. Many times there's a close up cut to capture the emotion when it's unnecessary.

I agree, the amount of emotion in something as small as a push in is so impactful. I also love a good tracking shot to convey energy and motion, nothing too fancy like from the show Adolescence but something to keep the scene flowing and moving.

When I began sending out cold query letters. That usually doesn't work. This time, it did, and a producer optioned my script, a shot through the heart.

Due to inexperience, I entrusted the editing of my novel and its translation into a script — to AI. But after reading the result, I realized that if you want it to be good — do it yourself. I had to spend another month in order to correct my novel on my own, and I am only now starting to correct the script. I am glad that I made a mistake, because by correcting mistakes, I learned a lot!

I create way more than i would ever wanna make myself, so I find dont value one project too much, $5.. $40.. nothing. its ink. and paper.. mostly. Write up something each day... start day 1.. 1 thing. day 2.. 2 things.. day 3... three things. i went to 26. Instead I write whatever I want, to or for, whoever I want. And you would be surprised how many people are flattered if you sent the project to their agent then they forwarded it, too them cause it was that good.. , and was like. . cool. And all you said was.. I would love to see you do something like this... not only can they all say no. they do.. mostly say do you have a complete script... or.. they likely wont answer. They might have read it. You dont know ever.. That is all you get. something in your sent box. Be more creative is all im saying.. Write up ideas for people that arent done... and seee. But you might see them in a interview and they do a shot out to you without saying you... or talks about how they have been "thinkn on a storyline they might do.. or all green light man.. or pulling lines for a different project and putting it in their movie.. i got a whole paragraph in a movie.. verbademn.. its awesome to hear any line you wrote in anything n movie or tv.. a line from your project, you sent free.. and it tells you, you are really right there. right then. that door is still open for more ideas, and they are way cooler than y o u thought. Mostly singers. .. they make a ton of videos and are mostly out of ideas after a number of years. Song ideas.. concepts to songs.. and video ideas.. you get to see something you were just like.. this would be cool to see.. a free to them project, cause you love them as a artist. like a "buy them a drink.." your stuff as the real video.. forever on that song. Its a trip. Its awesome. Those are my best ideas. Actors want full project ready to go. Their Agents do Too. or dont bother unless its like a good idea, and you are like.. you can have it?? It might become in a commercial for them... it might be a print ad. They make their money, other ways on the side. Thats where cool ideas go. If you have commercial for a brand and dont need paid.. write the marketing director of the product, to see it done. If you want to see something new in a car.. you write their facebook. you gotta say im not patenting it i just wanna see it. Check this idea out. U gotta find a director producer that likes ideas, and answers emails, and they are ready to go, in this industry. Good Luck..

Yeah I had one of those moments with shooting my feature Pure Vortex. In the film I had the main character's voice over and two days before we were scheduled to shoot the voice overs I started thinking what if changed the VO to a 4th wall break, because I was afraid that we didn't have enough footage to go over the VO. So we shot it that way and I'm really happy that we did because it works a lot better that way.

Not to be negative, but this just happened to me.

My best decision recently was to exit a project.

I was tasked with finding 50% of the budget (roughly 750K), physical producing on set in another country and acting as the sales agent / sales lead.

I found the money and decided it was time to nail down some details based on a few sketchy comments that the other producer made. I had completed two projects with this same team before, so I let the comments go aside from pointing out the error in said comments.

They sent me a budget and some elements to pass along as I set to secure the 50% funding, only to find that I was the lowest paid person on the ENTIRE crew - including production assistants. Talking 6K against roughly 1.5M.

When I questioned it, they apologized and doubled the fee without trying to properly negotiate or ask expectations. When I said that wasn't the solution to this problem, and I wanted to loop in my management to avoid any hard / personal feelings - the team went completely ballistic on me.

Their logic was that they suffered more on the last film, so it was my turn to "suffer" on this one. They had budgeted themselves in the 35-45K range EACH as writer/producer and director/producer.

What I was ultimately asking for was 3% finders fee on the share of the money that I found, not against the budget. And I was at the time willing to accept the other lumps as part of "independent filmmaking" with people that spend 2 years telling me we were ride or die together.

When I involved my reps and asked for 3% (their original offer reflected .9%, their second offer was 2%) they told me I was greedy, I was in it for a cash grab, involving management was a bad move and all sorts of other cliched gaslighting tactics to make me less than them.

I excused myself from the project, wished them the best of luck and told them that I didn't take it personally on this one and we'd find something to work on in the future. They chose to take it personally, severed friendships and lost not only my equity, but their other investor who preferred to work with me over their poor communication tactics.

But in the end - I learned that I not only was not their friend, but that I was not their ride or die - I was a tool to get their dreams made and was meant to be their personal assistant. They in turn lost their entire project and Im now working on putting those resources into a project of my own where people will not be told they are worth more or less than anyone else on set.

Hi Aaron, you’re definitely in the right place and congratulations, that’s an exciting opportunity, especially with a Broadway producer involved. Converting a film script into a stage ready musical is a very specific process, particularly when it comes to formatting, pacing, and integrating songs seamlessly into the narrative.

I work on script development and adaptations like this, including restructuring stories for stage performance while maintaining emotional flow and clarity. I’d be happy to help you transition your musical into a polished Broadway-style script that aligns with industry expectations.

If you’re open to it, feel free to share a bit more about your project or where you’re currently stuck I’d love to help you get this ready for that next step.

Alex, you wrote that with AI. ill bet $20 you dont have experience adapting musicals.

Alex thank you and will be in touch. It has taken several months with numerous mistakes in writing and creating my script and many revisions. Thank you to all the professionals, producers, agents, and managers for your feedback which has made a huge difference as I edited and improved the script for Film and TV. I believe it was always intended for the stage and Broadway and looking forward going in that direction. All the best, Aaron.

Take a break, go to a coffee shop or take a walk. Normally it comes out from watching something on tv.

I spent a decade working for international organizations before screenwriting. I've found that this means whether I like it or not, my screenplays come from a place of wanting to champion our common humanity. I set out to write a traditional action movie for the audience component, and it somehow turned into an action comedy featuring a nonviolent hero who uses alchemy to transform weapons and obstacles into beautiful or humorous things (Wonder Woman meets Inspector Gadget). Jonathan Jordan - completely agree with you. It would be wonderful to accomplish all three.

I suspect that all movies matter to at least someone. Whether they matter to me is pretty irrelevant. Most movies I'll never see but the joy, relief and sense of accomplishment everyone who creates something that gets produced matters quite a bit. The number of people may be small, but what matters isn't how many people enjoy something, it's if anyone does.

All of these reasons are valid and solid depending on you the writer the dreamer and purveyor putting it on paper with a big broad vision that will by default define itself in it's brevity and purpose. Follow your soul your muse and trust it will bring the results you envision and desire. Just write... it will define it's meaning as it evolves on paper.

Laura, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Pat, I understand what you are saying, but I am more of a producer than a writer. My main objective is to get it on the screen and Infront of an audience.

See the full schedule here: https://www.stage32.com/scriptservices/pitch-sessions

Thanks so much Laura Hammer! Great info!

David Ramey Gordon This is really helpful, thank you. I think I’ve been overthinking the access part instead of narrowing in on the right targets.

Focusing on smaller producer-directors and dialing in genre-specific outreach makes a lot of sense. I’m not expecting a big break out of the gate, I just want to get traction with the right people and build from there.

I’ve been writing for only over a year so all of this is still fresh and new for me

Steve Dini thank you, I appreciate it. It definitely shows that relationships matter more than anything. I’m building slowly but I’ll get there! good luck to you too!

Make comics books!

Preston Poulter I totally would if I can find an illustrator! I’m sure there’s some software out there. I do know a lot of talented artists in my area, actually. I never thought of that!

Kendall Helton I know too many illustrators and can recommend a number of them.

Very true.

Interesting to know this.

What are some of the titles of your books?

How did the pitch go?

As my first pitch, I was nervous, and I made a classic rookie mistake — I pitched it like an author selling his book. What I learned is that producers don't want a blow-by-blow of the story, even the good parts. They want to know who the protagonist is and what his/her goal is. That's it in a nutshell. Think of it as a long logline. That approach gives the producer a chance to ask questions, rather than you telling him/her what you think they need to know.

In my case, I set up the premise well enough — seven survivors stranded on an alien planet with two weeks of food and water and no way home for potentially decades. But instead of pivoting to the protagonist and his goal, I kept driving deeper into the plot. What I should have said next was simply that the story follows a reluctant leader who uses his wilderness survival skills to pull the group together and build something permanent — not just survival, but a real community — while a serendipitous bond between one crewman and an intelligent predator species changes everything.

If I had framed it that way and stopped there, I think I'd have gotten a request. Lesson learned for the next one.

I have two published available from Amazon and Barnes and Nobel. e-books on Amazon, hard and soft cover and audible editions, Survive! Marooned on Planet Tau Ceti g, and Survive! First Alien Contact. The third in the series, Survive! Galactic War, is in professional editorial development. Thanks for asking!

Hi Charles, welcome to Stage 32! I’m Ashley, Head of Community here on the platform. Thank you for introducing yourself and for coming back to update everyone on how your first pitch experience was. This is a great example of progress in real time.

I’d definitely recommend reaching out to our Success Team at Success@Stage32.com and sharing both your pitch experience and what you learned here. They can help guide you toward additional pitch opportunities, feedback, and resources that align with your goals and help you refine that approach even further.

Since you’re working across both novels and scripts, I’d also encourage you to stay active in the Authoring & Playwriting Lounge (https://www.stage32.com/lounge/playwriting) and the Producing Lounge (https://www.stage32.com/lounge/producing). There are great conversations happening around adaptation, pitching, and positioning IP that I think you’d really benefit from, and contribute to as well.

Really appreciate you sharing this, Charles. This is exactly how you level up quickly.

Welcome! I hope you'll join us at this week's webcast events. Sign up for a Free Month of the Writers’ Room to join: https://www.stage32.com/writers-room/plans-vip

Hi, Jasmine Stephens, welcome to Stage 32! I’m Ashley, Head of Community here on the platform. I’m really glad you jumped in and said hi.

I’d love to hear a bit more about you, what kind of stories are you drawn to writing? What are you currently working on, if anything? And do you have any creative goals you’re focusing on this year?

The more you share, the easier it is for the right people to connect with you and support what you’re building.

Looking forward to getting to know you!