Trending Lounge Discussions

Hey, Jack Binder. I think you're a great guy. Congratulations on all your success, and I hope you have a lot more! I'm looking forward to hearing more about your two films in advanced stage development!

Maurice Vaughan Haha, thank you, likewise! :)

Abhijeet Aade Thank you. Kindly feel free to reach out via my website for answers to your questions.

The entertainment industry needs more Jack Binders!

Hello, nice to meet you.

Congratulations on your great accomplishments in filmmaking, and thank you for sharing your journey with us. I always enjoy reading about success stories.

This sounds like such a solid opportunity! With animation growing so fast, learning how to craft strong characters, build immersive worlds, and pitch scripts confidently is huge. Definitely bookmarking this lab. Thanks for sharing James Lagrimas.

Same here Cyrus Sales It's an excellent opportunity. Animation has been killing these past few years at the box office and the Emmy's.

Whoa! That's amazing news!

Michael David I know! I'm super excited for what it means for writers and filmmakers thru us! <3

For me, it's definitely anywhere in Louisiana because I'm from there! Love seeing the Crescent City Connection (bridge) and any wrought iron fence with fleur de lis spike toppers. Within seconds I can usually tell if something was filmed there - the last notable one was Your Honor, which is a brutally dramatic show, but somehow watching it made me feel nice inside because it reminded me of home haha

Juliana Philippi Great topic! Like Pat I am drawn to areas that highlight geography I am familiar with. Ozark springs to mind immediately. Dukes of Hazzard, Hillbilly Elegy, Justified, etc...so long as it doesn't MAKE FUN but rather knowingly pokes fun and reveals how honestly we're pretty much all the same at our core.

Pat Alexander Louisiana is great! Such a rich culture, past, history, the beauty...and if you're from there, it's that heart and memory connection. Yes! Steel Magnolias, Interview with a Vampire, Benjamin Button, and so many more...haven't seen Your Honor, I'll check it out.

Darrell Pennington Yes, the knowingly capturing the essence and traits of the people and places, with love and yes some comedy, but not mocking or belittling. That's something else entirely. And the Ozarks are such an amazing place....I mean, the vastness, the place is a living, breathing story in itself...that place of Earth, she must have many secrets.

Good question—Earth. The whole Earth, haha.

That can be true Thunder Levin and the vomit approach is not for everyone. I definately write this way and then I pull out what works and leave out what does not. Cheers!

Really appreaciate that Diana Levin and have a great writing rest of the week!

Blueprints do come in many drafts CJ Walley and are rewritten many times, revised and redone. Have a great rest of the week!

Not a proponent of the "vomit draft." I think it's a waste of creative energy and teaches or reinforces bad habits. On the practical side, since .most of us "break in" with assignments rather than specs, it means you will work on a draft that you won't be paid for. A "vomit draft" is not a deliverable.

Of all of the beauty language creates it’s a pity that rude expressions of bodily function are used to describe the first result of creative effort. It’s like calling your new baby ‘Vomit’.

For a new screenwriter, if it's your first script, then likely you dont have a saleable screenplay yet. and are not ready for representation. you will need at least 2 great samples to get signed 90% of the time. get professional feedback, do rewrites, make sure its ready. then get on that next one while you start creating your network.

Pat Alexander sounds like a plan, but it must involve spending money to travel to events just to have a chance to meet people who may or may not have the necessary connections. With a FT day job this becomes challenging.

Hey Tuvan Uner look for events/meetups/screenings on nights and weekends in your area. If there's a big city nearby, I'm sure they host an annual film festival, which would be great to check out. Also, see if you can get involved as a volunteer or paid worker for the fest. Working at fests is a great avenue I found to meet people, having spent weekends down in Newport Beach (90 mins south from me) and up in Mammoth Lakes (a few hours north of me) working festivals, where I easily 10x'd my network and got to get exposed to all sorts of new and interesting films!

Pat Alexander It's worth a shot even though I live on the East Coast. Appreciate your responses.

Danny Manus I'm getting started on my 2nd screenplay. The practice will help. Thanks.

Maurice Vaughan I am going to use script consulting, send this draft to one of the executives who has read my previous work

Even better — draft two of pilot two. That’s momentum. Keep building.

Congrats Justin Groats! Keep going!!

Congratulations to you. Best of luck with your pitch sessions.

Congratulations on finishing your draft!

You are very welcome Mahdi Zamani.

Hi Mahdi! Good to see you again! And so glad you took a moment to introduce yourself during IYW.

Music guides the soul in the journey of the film. A lot of times, the music moves me before the scene does. That's the power of the one universal language (music).

Hello Mahdi Zamani

happy IYW to you and welcome to the community.

Hey Elle Bolan ,

Thank you for your kind words.

I'm completely agree with you Elle!

Hi Meriem Bouziani ,

Thanks a lot!

I'd light it like Stanly Kubrick did 2001, absolutely no diffusion, radiosity in space - the void. Shadows would be absolute.

It kind of depends on what you are looking for, Scientifically correct is just a black void. If it doesn't have to be completely black you might do something like my image attached. It is intended to give the feeling of desolation but also give the feeling of distance.

Maurice Vaughan

I love that idea, Maurice.

A mix feels honest.

Soft cosmic glow for presence…

Deep shadow for mystery.

The void shouldn’t feel empty.

It should feel aware.

Like something is there…

but not fully revealed yet.

That’s powerful Morgan Aitken,

Kubrick-style lighting would make the void feel clinical and infinite at the same time.

No diffusion. No comfort. Just pure existence.

Absolute shadows would emphasize isolation.

Almost like light itself is struggling to survive in the darkness.

That tension really fits the emotional weight of pre-creation.

You’re right David Alan Kleve

Scientifically, a true void is pure black.

But emotionally, cinema needs texture.

I like your idea of subtle depth—

not fully lit, but not flat either.

Desolation with distance.

Space that feels endless… yet personal.

For this story, the void isn’t just physics.

It’s psychological.

Hi Ansh, welcome back! It’s great to see you here again.

I’m really glad you reintroduced yourself, especially with everything you’re building around Yohana’s World. I’d love to invite you to tomorrow’s Community Open House. I’ll be walking through some of the newer resources available on Stage 32 and how to better utilize the tools here to build traction, visibility, and meaningful connections:

https://www.stage32.com/education/products/stage-32s-february-2026-commu...

It’s a great opportunity to reset, refocus, and make sure you’re using the platform intentionally.

I also strongly encourage you to reach out to our Success Team at Success@Stage32.com to discuss Yohana’s World and your current goals. They can help you think through curated next steps, whether that’s development, representation, or connecting with producers aligned with your genre.

Really glad you’re back, Ansh. Let’s make this next chapter count.

Thank you Ashley Smith for this warm welcome back. :)

Hi Ansh ! welcome back to stage 32. I'm also interested in how the spiritual meets technology. What sort of filmmaking do you do over in Mumbai?

It's a great show Maurice Vaughan, definitely give it a watch.

Banafsheh, I agree about the tonal shift in season 5 — the darker direction added emotional weight, but the pacing didn’t quite allow the transformation to breathe. It’s interesting how long gaps between seasons can affect creative cohesion. Still, the visual evolution was impressive.

Banafsheh Esmailzadeh I am a HUGE fan of Samurai Jack. The way they build tension in many of their episodes with the use of silence is masterful. I do agree with you though. In Season 4 you could see them losing steam. Typical when you have plotted out 3 seasons and did not expect a 4th. I had the same issues and praise you have for season 5. I appreciated the cleaner more structured art and the seriousness of the themes and his emotional arc, but it definitely feels like a huge departure from the original tone, which was a bit of a challenge to accept initially, after such anticipation of the series continuation. It did feel like a rush to just end the franchise. Overall though, still a master piece for me.

For sure Charmane Wedderburn, I really liked how Jack was hallucinating following losing his sword, as well as his internal battles with Inner Jack, and of course his redesign following the loss of his sword. I wish it would've lasted a bit longer to make regaining his hope even more satisfying.

Agreed wholeheartedly Kevin Jackson, even though I wasn't entirely a fan of how isolated most of the episodes in the first four seasons felt (one of my favourites was when he learned to Jump Good; I hated how in following episodes he completely forgot how to do that when it would've helped him), they had that undeniable cartoon energy we all love. I missed that in season 5 where it was noticeably more grounded and cohesive (but again, rushed so it didn't hit like it should've), devoid of much of the hijinx in favour of maturity. Hence my saying it both works and doesn't.

I feel like season 5 would've been better as a standalone spin-off geared towards adults rather than part of the main canon because like you said, it really did feel like they rushed to end the franchise. I think the decade-plus hiatus before it contributed to that as well; it's very hard to maintain the same energy and even enthusiasm as when you started after long stretches of time.

I entered my script Outlaw Frontiers; it's like American Holocaust meets Without Sanctuary. (Yes, I know those are books.)

I am eager to hear about everyone's scripts. I entered my epic mythic coming of age story set in ancient Ireland and Scotland about a wannabe druid who gets more than she bargains for in a feature called Of Mists and Gods.

Druid one sounds fun. Mine's called "The Confectioner." In 1930s Chicago, at the height of the great depression, an orphan gets a job apprenticing under a charismatic but deadly chocolatier. But when he suspects his boss is responsible for a rash of wealthy child murders, he realizes it's up to him to bring the monster to justice.

My script, Hawk Dreamer, is about a Japanese American incarcerated during WWII on a Native American reservation who forges a brotherhood with an Indigenous attorney who helps him fight for his civil fights. It's proof of concept, The Blue Jay, is screening on March 3 at the TCL Chinese Theaters in Hollywood. Please join us and meet the actors and crew.

Hi, I'm telling the story of Captain Klaus, the legendary mercenary of the Byzantine emperor, and his journey in 13th-century Europe to find his son, who was forced to participate in the Children's Crusade and subsequently enslaved. My story is titled "THE LOST SON".