Happy FriYAY, Stage 32 Community! I’m thrilled to share that the Stage 32 Community Open House is back this month — and if you’re joining us for this weekend's November Introduce Yourself Weekend, this is the perfect next step to dive deeper into the Stage 32 ecosystem, meet your fellow creatives, and discover how to make the most of everything this community offers. For anyone joining us for the first time, welcome! Stage 32 is the world’s largest online platform built by creatives, for cre...

On behalf of the Zagreb Film Office, it is my privilege and pleasure to celebrate our partnership with Stage 32 Certification, an amazing resource for the creative community of Zagreb, Croatia. As someone deeply committed to the growth and global competitiveness of Zagreb’s filmmakers, storytellers, and crew, I am genuinely excited about the doors this partnership opens for our local talent. The Stage 32 Certification program is far more than a badge, it’s a transformative training program tha...

I spent this week talking to two financiers and two buyers, and the landscape has shifted. The new sweet spot for horror and thrillers is $10-15M…a significant jump from where we were just 18 months ago. Action films are climbing even higher into the $30-50M range. Even companies that built their reputation on sub $5m dramas are now chasing bigger, more theatrical projects. This is why I'm hearing more and more that projects are too small. That's creating a massive gap in the independent space...

Happy Tuesday, Creative Army! It’s that time of year again — the time when the business of film truly comes to life. Today marks the start of the 2025 American Film Market (AFM), and I couldn’t be more excited to celebrate what this event represents — not just for filmmakers, screenwriters, and producers around the world, but for Stage 32 as a community. This year is extra special for us because it marks Stage 32’s 10th year as the official Education Partner of AFM. That’s a decade of empo...

After spending 10+ years at Coverfly, Imagine Entertainment, ICM Partners, Paramount, and now that I’m heading Stage 32’s Development of Services. I've seen thousands of creative partnerships: the ones that lead to produced projects, and the ones that fall apart before they even start. One of my key roles for the past seven years has been matchmaking: connecting writers with the right producers, directors with the right material, and creatives with the collaborators who will actually help them s...

Happy Sunday, Creative Army! Have you had a creative weekend so far? Whether you’ve been writing, filming, editing, or simply dreaming up your next big idea, I’ve got some inspiring content to fuel your passion and keep you moving forward. So grab your coffee, and let’s dive in. This week’s featured video comes from Film Stack: When an Actor Didn’t Care About Fame. Viggo Mortensen didn’t become an actor to chase fame, he became one to tell stories. He didn’t “make it big” until his forties...

My name is Stephen Notley. I'm a screenplay contest reader as well as a screenwriter, so I've written and received loads of script analyses (also known as "coverage"). With this experience on both sides of the coverage game, I thought I'd offer some thoughts you folks might find useful.   My last blog post was called "A Reader's Notes on Proofreading," which I thought was a nice, simple, straightforwardly objective subject on which to chat. This time, though, I'm going to try to dig a bit de...

Finding Myself in After All When I first read the script for After All, I was deeply moved by how honest and human it was. The story follows three generations of Southern women navigating family, trauma, love, and loss, and I could see my own Texan family in them. Their dialogue, humor, and the quiet strength behind each of them all felt familiar and true. What struck me most was how the script found humor even in the most painful circumstances. That’s real life. No matter how heavy things ge...

Happy Thursday, Creative Army! The countdown is on — next week, I’ll be heading to The American Film Market (AFM), and I can’t wait to reconnect with so many of you in Los Angeles. Every year, AFM brings together thousands of creatives from across the globe — filmmakers, producers, writers, executives, and financiers — all there for one reason: to make things happen. As the official education partner of The American Film Market, Stage 32 is proud to continue empowering filmmakers, producers,...

In today’s market, one thing has become crystal clear: your logline is everything. It’s your first impression, your calling card, and often your only shot at capturing an executive’s attention in a crowded marketplace. We’re seeing more and more that executives are sparking to high-concept ideas rather than slice-of-life projects. Why? It’s “easier” to market. A clear, compelling concept that can be explained in one sentence is what gets scripts read, meetings taken, and deals made. Your logli...