Trending Lounge Discussions

The hottest discussions in the Stage 32 Lounge.

Liked by Maurice Vaughan and 3 others

Abhijeet Aade

Amanda Toney Interesting read. Independent filmmakers today seem to be exploring more creative financing models beyond traditional studio funding. From crowdfunding and private investors to new fintec...

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Jack Binder

Amanda Toney Absolutely. Innovate or die. The one constant is change.

Grady Craig

Great article. It’s encouraging to hear that independent filmmakers are adapting in these uncertain times and evolving for the next chapter of entertainment. Independent financing is just the start. I...

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Liked by Amir Sadeghi and 7 others

Yaman Najm
What if the “victim” is actually the predator?

I’m working on a psychological thriller where the person everyone thinks is fragile is actually orchestrating the hunt.

The challenge: building suspense, fear, and audience empathy while keeping the hero’s true intentions hidden, until the very last moment.

Producers, writers, and fellow screenwriters...

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Yaman Najm

João Pimentel Thank you João

I really like your example of “Atomic Refuge.” That kind of perspective shift is exactly the type of structural tension I’m exploring: keeping the audience aligned with the...

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João Pimentel

Yaman Najm, I'm glad you liked my idea.

Grady Craig

If done right, this is a great trope to play with and lends itself to natural tension and a great payoff. As a reader or producer, I’d want to see micro-leaks in their persona—tiny, almost indiscernib...

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Lisa Zambri

Producer here - making the character vulnerable and finding an agenda to root for will emotionally twist us when we find out we were connected to the wrong character!

Daniel Silvas

Yaman Najm Was thinking about another film that might be even closer to what you're envisioning. EX MACHINA. Something Lisa Zambri just mentioned which is so key. Vulnerability. The whole time you're...

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Liked by Johnson Owoniyi and 12 others

Spencer Robinson
Writing for Late Night TV

A great way to break into TV writing is through “late night” television. Daily Show, SNL, Fallon, Bill Maher, etc are regularly adding writers to their staffs. They usually do this though submission packets where writers who want those jobs have to submit a unique sample based on the prompts they se...

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Pat Alexander

Hey Spencer Robinson great post - how important is social media in getting staffed on one of these network late night shows? do you have to have pages flooded with bits and sketches or stand up clips...

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Spencer Robinson

Pat Alexander From my experience, not important at all.

John Fife

Spencer Robinson Thanks for the pulling back the curtain. Interesting.

Abdilatif Mohamud

This is really valuable—especially the idea of preparing before the opportunity shows up. What stands out to me is how different this skill set is from long-form storytelling—being sharp, concise, and...

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Liked by Amanda Toney and 13 others

Abdilatif Mohamud
Do you start with the ending or discover it while writing?

Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on developing my voice in the action-thriller space and recently started putting together full projects instead of just ideas. One thing I’ve been focusing on lately is making sure the story feels strong structurally before worrying about anything else.

I’m curious—when...

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Alex Bridge

I never start with the ending, because during the long journey of writing many unexpected things happens - so possible finales evolve along the way.

Lisa Zambri

Having developed hundreds of scripts and writing my own, I'll advise - if you do not know the ending, you don't know the beginning. But sometimes in order to find the ending, you need to write to disc...

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Pat Alexander

To parrot Lisa Zambri this is very true. Which is why it's great to outline before writing. You have to have some sense of how the characters are going to evolve and change over the course of the stor...

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Abdilatif Mohamud

Appreciate all of this—seriously valuable insights.

I think what I’m starting to understand is that it’s not really one or the other. Having a sense of the ending gives direction, but staying open duri...

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Sanna Peth

Hi!

Personally, my project started forming in my head about four years ago. I probably restarted it around twenty-seven times, and got stuck just as many times. At some point I stopped, because even as...

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Liked by Michael David

Huneyn Ja'afri
A few questions about incoming projects

Hey everyone, I'm Huneyn. I am a 25-year-old first-time creator. I have been working on some projects (Eight and counting), and you know it's quite ridiculous how ideas just come to you, and afterwards your eyes widen, realizing what you wrote.

So, just like that, I wrote a 3-season-long epic about a...

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Abhijeet Aade

Hey Huneyn, welcome!

Honestly, the ideas themselves are less important than the perspective you bring to them. AI-human love, religion, even psychological killers—these have all been explored before, b...

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Huneyn Ja'afri

Abhijeet Aade Hey, thanks for commenting! I think the angel story? It's the most personal one to me. But, I don't know, people say I talk about things through my works. They say I ask questions throug...

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Abhijeet Aade

Huneyn Ja'afri Hey, I actually think that’s a strength.

The stories that stay with people are often the ones that make them a little uncomfortable or force them to think differently. If your work is as...

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Huneyn Ja'afri

Abhijeet Aade Hey, yeah I wasn't conciously writing what I was doing. But I was in a bad mental space, and I just expressed it all out in that story. The story starts off with a lovely romance moment...

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Liked by Amanda Toney and 6 others

Catherine James
Hello Everyone, I'm Catherine James, Esq.

Hello Stage 32 community,

I’m Catherine James, an entertainment and business attorney and the founder of Catherine James Esquire, a boutique law firm dedicated to creatives, influences, models, gamers, and entertainment businesses.

Formerly known as Cre8ors Power Legal Services, my practice has evolv...

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Maurice Vaughan

Hi, Catherine James. Great to meet you. Welcome to the Stage 32 community. Stage 32 has a blog and video that'll help you navigate the platform and make connections:

www.stage32.com/blog/how-to-success...

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Amanda Toney

Great to have you here Catherine! What state(s) do you practice in? Do you handle corporate business formation outside of entertainment? Also, I looked at your profile and Hot Flashes & Highways sounds awesome!! That sounds like a lot of fun!

Liked by Marilyn Jaye Lewis and 6 others

Bobby Cinema
Third librarian detective series.

It is a tough market to get a movie green lighted.

Bobby Cinema

Three stories in one book. I wrote three stories in one book. If you want to read it or buy it. I will give you the Amazon link.

Bobby Cinema

Go ahead and buy it or read it.

Daniel Dove

okay I will go ahead, kind drop your mail here so I can contact on mail.

Liked by Lauren Hackney and one other

Karen "Kay" Ross
How Much Does It Cost to Self-Publish a Book?

Found this great video from Reedsy that chimes in - BUT I also know that TONS of Stage 32 authors have been self-published, too. So, I'd love to hear from y'all - how much did it cost YOU to self-publish? LET'S TALK NUMBERS & ROI!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jieZ3K6VY6E...

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David E. Gates

Effectively, nothing. I created my covers through Canva and uploaded the files to Amazon/Draft2Digital for distribution myself. Only time I've ever had a cost attributed to a work is when I've licence...

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Jeff Gregory

Before I self-publish, I register the copyright, and I obtain my own ISBN. After those costs, self-publishing is free through Draft-2-Digital and through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. The true URL...

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Liked by Arthur Charpentier and 10 others

Sandra Correia
What Do You Think About Prequels?

Hi filmmakers,

With the industry leaning more and more into world‑expanding storytelling, I’m curious about your take on prequels. We’re seeing big examples like House of the Dragon, a prequel to Game of Thrones, and the various Lord of the Rings expansions, where creators return to earlier timelines...

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Lindbergh Hollingsworth

Back 20 years ago most of the studios where looking for prequels to their properties. Not a lot happened. A good prequel will make it. Don't know if the studios are open to prequels as much anymore.

Pat Alexander

Think there's something interesting to them, if done right. The creator of the Netflix series Ratched famously launched his career that way - just by really liking One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest and...

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Muhammad Muhammad

prequels keeps the story going and encourages for more. Unless the prequel is easy to predict the plot

Subin Karkani

I think prequels require extra care. They need to match the same level and potential of the original, because the usual reaction is, “Nah, it’s not as good as the first one.”

Grady Craig

The trick with prequels is making the background/origin story feel like a new discovery of the material and world rather than just repeating the original story with a different angle. It's no secret s...

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Liked by Oleg Mullayanov and 4 others

Ashley Renée Smith
Scooby-Doo Is Getting an Origin Story… and a Whole New Format

I saw this casting announcement for Netflix’s upcoming Scooby-Doo series and it got me thinking about how animation IP continues to evolve:

This version isn’t just another iteration; it’s an origin story. We’re going back to h...

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Netflix's Scooby-Doo Live-Action Series Casts Shaggy, Velma & Fred
Netflix's Scooby-Doo Live-Action Series Casts Shaggy, Velma & Fred
Netflix has cast Tanner Hagen, Abby Ryder Fortson & Maxwell Jenkins as Shaggy, Velma and Fred in its Scooby-Doo live-action series.
Bradford Richardson

WHAT!? I am so in!

Maurice Vaughan

I can't wait for Netflix’s live-action Scooby-Doo series, Ashley Renée Smith! I love the origin story angle! I think you should keep the key characters, tone, and sense of mystery and humor while addi...

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Mike Boas

I still have fond memories of the “Pup Named Scooby-Doo” Saturday morning show, which had fun animation and a subversive sense of humor. The characters were all kids, so it served as an origin story....

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Liked by Amanda Toney and 10 others

Till Olshausen
Middle - End - Beginning ?

Here‘s a first little thought about the intricacies and effectiveness of storytelling structure.

One of the most basic storytelling advices I suppose everybody heard a lot of times is that a good story needs beginning middle and end. But even this simple truth is a lot less basic than it seems at fir...

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Herman Yenwo

Every movie cannot be Comedy!

Doug Nelson

Your job as a screenwriter is to entertain (not to preach, command, dictate...) Leading the audience astray a little bit here & there can certainly be entertaining at times and has its value but tying...

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Jeff Guenther

Memento (2000) is a story about someone with retrograde amnesia. It is presented in reverse order. to give viewers the feeling of the world as the MC experiences it. I had to see it twice to get past the discomfort of the situation.

Kimberly Cummings

This is a great breakdown of structure. I really appreciate how you explained the difference between flipping beginning/end vs. starting in the middle.

I’ve actually experimented with reverse storytell...

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Lindbergh Hollingsworth

Feel free to organize your story in whatever order you wish. As long as it can be understood and delivered at its highest potential is all that matters!

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