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i can assist in writing?

S K pleasure to get connected. I saw your connection come through. I'll shoot you a message.

Great to see you, Cyrus Sales - thank you for all you do for the community. For someone creating an animated film or TV series, what are some of the best resources that you can recommend?

Hey Christopher Wells nice to meet you.

I agree good sound is important. Just recently I shot my first feature, we shot it with the Blackmagic Pocket 4K and used some 32 bit mics to record really nice audio, which I'm in the process of working on right now.

Happy Introduce Yourself Weekend, Christopher Wells! Love to see you jumping in and reintroducing yourself!

Agree 100%

Christopher Wells As someone who works in post-production sound, thank you for highlighting that, it really can’t be overstated. Too often, we get contacted as an afterthought, with the hope that audio can magically be brought back from the dead. Giving sound the attention it deserves from the start makes such a huge difference, no matter the budget. Absolutely agree on the phone filming too, creativity matters more than gear. Keep creating!

Yes, Christopher Wells - sound is so important and often overlooked or not prepared for properly. I was just speaking with an animator - so not apples to apples - but we touched on how shows like South Park and Bevis & Buthead are so simple visually but are huge hits because of the sound design - the jokes and ideas and music land so well. Audiences generally are more forgiving on visuals - if something goes out of focus for a beat or if a camera shakes durig a hand held shot - but not if the sound doesn't land.

D Stenard ir seems to have worked out for, though. :-)

Kimberly Cummings Hey Kimberly,

thank you for asking.

I think that reverse storytelling for example works well with who-done-it stories like detective and crime. It's not super fresh in that case and almost the name of the game because most of the time the crime is committed and the detective has to piece it all together going backwards.

But, what's exciting here is that the investigation also goes forward until the suspect has been pinned down.

So flipping this around by ending with the crime and beginn with an investigation where the audience does not immediately know what crime it's for could be a nice idea.

Psychological genres are great too because there some disorders and/or mental states where the feeling of time is distorted. Déjà vu is a classic but there are also veritable disorders like chronophobia or dyschronometria. While those will surely be suffering experience, they can certainly be used for haunting movies.

Could talk for ages about that... :-)

Hey Till,

I really appreciate your perspective especially what you said about reverse storytelling working well when the audience is uncovering something they don’t fully understand at the beginning.

I actually have a completed story titled The Table of Regrets that’s written entirely in reverse. Instead of focusing on a traditional crime, it centers on a character’s life and the unraveling of their choices, where each step backward reveals deeper emotional and spiritual consequences.

What you mentioned about psychological elements and distorted perception really resonated with me, because the structure naturally creates that feeling, like the audience is piecing together truth while the character’s reality becomes clearer in reverse.

I’d love your thoughts on whether positioning it more as a psychological unraveling versus a traditional reverse narrative would make it stronger for screen adaptation.

I like the good middle and end. It helps me better than the traditional three act format. Frankly if I don' t have a good opening and don't know how my story ends, I don't have a story.

"Starting in the middle" is "opening in media res", and while it can work because you open your story at a moment of crisis or action? A lot of editors/script readers/producers HATE it, and call it a "fraud", because to them they now have to read all the build-up! I disagree with that assessment, but it's one I've gotten a lot....

If it really works for your story then go for it anyway, but expect some pushback.

Thanks so much Ashley Renée Smith~

Hello again- always great connecting with you!

Really cool to have you here Banafsheh Esmailzadeh. I always enjoy catching your posts on the home tab. Cheers.

Thank you Libby Wright, you as well~

Thanks so much Michael Dzurak~

Yes. All the time. You are always learning the different ways people tick.

Judith Pajer I develop stories as an outlet — a way to put what’s inside me out: experiences, thoughts, ideas, knowledge. It’s more about expressing than consuming; maybe that’s age or just where my focus is, but writing is how I process and make sense of what I’ve lived through. Scenes and characters let me shape memory into meaning, turn pain into plot, and find clarity in the chaos.

Thank you for sharing this, Jason Green — that’s beautifully put. I really resonate with the idea of turning experience into meaning. There’s something powerful in that process.

So true, David Taylor

Congrats Shamila Habibi! That’s truly a milestone! Wishing you the best of luck

Shamila Habibi this is AWESOME!!!! COngrats.

Massive congratulations, Shamila Habibi. Love that title!

Thank you so much, Richard "RB" Botto . Stage 32 has played a big role in helping me navigate this path. I’m not sure I could have moved this quickly without Stage32. Grateful for the support of this community.

Judith Pajer Darrell Pennington Thank you!! I appreciate your support.

Sounds like a cool project Alex! Have you thought about writing a screenplay adaptation?

Amanda Toney it's very screen-friendly, not least as the haunting leads to a movie franchise!

But I'm not keen on adapting my own work, I rather like the idea of leaving it to someone else.

"Hi Alex, your project sounds amazing! I admire how you’re blending meta elements with suspense—this kind of storytelling really pushes boundaries and engages the audience on multiple levels. I also focus on creating tension and atmosphere in my own work, and I know how much impact well-developed characters and subtle visual cues can have in keeping viewers invested."

Hi Alex,

Congrats on the upcoming publication of "The House That Screamed" a meta horror with found-footage elements already suggests a strong atmospheric engine, and framing it as Amityville for the digital era is a very clear hook.

It sounds like a project with natural screen potential, especially if the narrative plays with perception, authorship, and the reliability of what we’re “seeing.” I’d be interested to hear how you’re using the digital layer whether it shapes structure, character psychology, or the escalation of dread.

Wishing you a strong launch in June. It’s always exciting to see dark fiction that leans into both concept and emotional unease. Would be great to stay connected and hear how readers respond.

Hey Libby Wright congrats and best of luck putting a team together.

Sounds like an amazing project Libby Wright Much success assembling your team.

Happy Introduce Yourself Weekend, Libby Wright! Love to see you reintroducing yourself! Definitely keep reaching out to the Stage 32 Success Team at Success@Stage32.com, so they can help you find a partner that aligns with what you’re looking for.

Abhijeet Aade Appreciate that — the emotional architecture was the hardest part to get right. The horror only works if the grief underneath it is real first.

The specific challenge with this one was making the jungle itself move psychedelically as the story develops — not all at once, but incrementally, so the reader isn’t sure when it started. The little things the team doesn’t notice but the audience does. A root that moves wrong. A reflection that goes too deep. A conversation that reads completely normal on the surface while something is wrong in the background that nobody names. Making an ordinary exchange feel like dread through context rather than content — that’s the work.

And underneath all of it, you have to keep dangling just enough hope that the audience stays invested. The situation has to feel genuinely hopeless while still leaving a thread. Pull that thread too hard and you lose them. Let it go slack and they stop caring. That balance is probably what I spent the most time on.

Curious about your submission — what are you bringing to AFF and where are you in the process? Did you go through many drafts to get there, or did the story find its shape early? Always interested in how other writer-directors navigate that stretch between the version that works on the page and the one you’re actually willing to let go of.

Good luck at AFF — would be glad to trade notes along the way.

Jason Green That makes a lot of sense — especially the idea that fear comes from the space before something happens.

That’s the kind of tension I’m trying to lean into. Letting the audience feel something’s wrong before they can explain it.

I appreciate you breaking that down. It helps put a clearer shape to what I’ve been aiming for.

Congrats on getting THE LINE OF DEPARTURE across the finish line, Jason. That kind of sustained push especially on a prestige horror piece where tone and emotional architecture have to stay precise is no small achievement.

It’s also great to see you targeting festivals that understand both craft and genre positioning. Launching a script into the right ecosystem can be just as strategic as the writing itself.

I’d be genuinely interested to hear how you approached escalation and psychological tension over feature length that’s often where even strong horror concepts either deepen or plateau. Wishing you strong momentum on the circuit, and I hope the right readers find it at the right time.

All the best with the next project.

Elara Wright I really appreciate that — especially what you said about escalation and maintaining tension over a longer form.

That balance between deepening the concept and letting it plateau is something I’ve been trying to navigate. I tend to lean toward letting the atmosphere carry it, but making sure it continues to evolve is the challenge.

Thanks for taking the time to share that.

Elara Wright Thank you — and you’re right that festival selection is its own discipline. Getting the script in front of readers who understand both craft and genre positioning matters as much as the writing itself.

On escalation — the approach was a slow, graduated erosion. The script opens with a genuinely bad situation these men are trained and ready for. A coup. A firefight. An evasion. They handle it. That competence is intentional — you have to believe in them completely before the second situation arrives, which is an impossible one they’re also trained and ready for. Except this time, being ready doesn’t help.

From there it’s attrition. Not just physical — reality itself starts going. The light is wrong. The compass disagrees with the watches. Trails loop. And while all of that is happening quietly in the background, I’m targeting individual phobias. Heights. Depth. The thing moving at the edge of vision that stops when you look directly at it. Each man gets his own version of wrong.

What makes it work, I think, is taking away the things that should be there. Self-confidence is their entire currency — these are men who have built their identity around competence and control. Strip the environment of its rules and you strip them of themselves. By the time the active pursuit begins they’re already half gone. The chase is just the confirmation of what the jungle already decided.

The inhospitable environment does a lot of the work if you let it. I just made sure it was always slightly more wrong than the scene before it.

I don’t find a pilot harder than a feature to write, cos I always think, does this story have legs? Although feature films are time limited, I often leave enough rope for prequels & sequels. Regards pilots, for a closed end episodic or a longer serial, I obviously need more plot lines & character growth etc, but the work is more of the same, rather than more difficult.

I am right there with you. I started my journey writing novels and chapter books then moved to feature film screenplays. I can't write for TV - hard no. So I am with you on this one!

I love how you're sharing your genius with us here on Stage 32. That's amazing!

Nice to meet you Gareth Taylor. So what kind of stuff are you working on now?

Me I'm in post with my first feature film.

Hey Gareth Taylor .

Gareth Taylor!! Happy Introduce Yourself Weekend, my friend! Have you been working on anything new that you’re excited about?

Ashley Renée Smith Vital Butinar My latest feature premiered 2 weeks ago. Here's the trailer: https://vimeo.com/1172795610?fl=tl&fe=ec. Besides this, I shot a commercial last week and have a documentary coming up in April. Sadly, this is as busy as I've been in the last year. It's been painfully slow.

Ela Ilham Schoening I love this idea! There is an album by one of my favorite bands, Rush, called 2112 that addresses very similar themes.

Hi Ela,

Great to meet you, and The Singer sounds like a very evocative concept. A world where music is forbidden immediately creates both thematic tension and strong visual storytelling possibilities. Coming from a music background is also a real advantage rhythm, silence, and emotional pacing can shape how scenes breathe in a way that feels very cinematic.

I’m always interested in projects that balance high-concept world-building with intimate human stakes. If you’re open to sharing more, I’d be curious how the prohibition of music affects everyday life in your story and how your protagonist’s voice begins to disrupt that system.

Wishing you real momentum with the project, and I’d be glad to stay connected and exchange ideas as it develops.

Servus back from here.

Hello Ela Ilham Schoening , good to meet you virtually. Much success with the Signer and looking forward to your project thrive. Are you looking to shoot it in Germany?

Hello Ela Ilham Schoening Congratulations on your project and being a Stage 32 Member! Bravo!

Ela Ilham Schoening, thank you for reintroducing yourself, it’s so great to learn more about your work. I’d love to hear how your music background influences specific scenes or moments in your writing.