Trending Lounge Discussions

thank you. I'll have to put one together and add it to my list of things to do

Thanks for posting the breakdown, Jack Binder. I remember reading it. Great breakdown!

ok.so instead of starting my next 10 pages I need to write a treatment to protect my work by copyright ok. thank you everyone

You can, Tony Sterago, or you can finish the script and register it before pitching the project.

It's never, EVER too late to follow your passion, Tony. Best of luck.

Hi Camila, so the usual casting sites like Mandy, starnow and Backstage would be good places to start. If you have the credits then there's always spotlight, also spotlight does have a large directory you can look at for things like agencies and other useful info.

Hi, Camila G A. You could check Stage 32’s Job Board (www.stage32.com/find-jobs). It gets updated regularly.

There is a lot of information to be gleamed Camila G A just by scrolling through this lounge. Some actors even have YouTube channels, packed full of info. I also encourage you to check out the Education tab. There are multiple webinars on the subject. You can reach out to success@stage32.com with your goals and questions, and they will point you in the right direction. You can ask edu@stage32.com for a curated list of webinars and classes.

Hello Camila G A ...I live in Florida and my second agency is in London. I am using Spotlight, Filmmakers EU, and etalenta. I've been on Spotlight for the past three years since being repped by my UK agency. Filmmakers EU and etalenta is new for me, so I can't speak much to those.

You're welcome, DJ Gautam. Stage 32 has an on-demand webinar called "How to Better Rewrite and Polish Your Feature Screenplay or Pilot" (www.stage32.com/education/products/how-to-better-rewrite-and-polish-your...). It's taught by Steve Desmond. He co-wrote M. Night Shyamalan's movie Knock at the Cabin.

A strong, active structure is more important than polish for making a good film, and this is where most writers fail, but the polish might be more important as a sales tool when getting reads and trying to market the script.

DJ Gautam That happened to me, maybe all of us, when we first started, generalized descriptions and connectors as I call them. Don't worry, your voice is still shaping it sounds like. Finish the drafts fully without judgement, and to me, focus on typos and grammar mistakes at first, to be polished in that way, and let your own voice grow and stretch as it sees and feels like it, depending on the story and emotion. Trust your imagination, and focus on proper grammar and spelling, especially in those final drafts. Execs, producers, etc.. really expect that, spelling, grammar, polish, but they want to hear and see you, your world, and your unique point of view. Hope this helps.

CJ Walley great advice and excellent analogies. Reading scripts definitely is one of the best ways to help hone your writing. I remember a writing mentor once told me, "Books are great to learn the rules and frameworks, but to truly understand how to be a great writer, read scripts and watch movies. Read good, great and bad scripts so that you can know what makes them tick or not tick."

Totally agree Juliana Philippi focus on finishing and ensuring grammar and spelling are polished first. Many reviewers have said, when the grammar, spelling or format is off, it makes it hard to read which messes up the pacing for them and almost always automatically fails the script, because they have been so pulled out of the story, that they cannot focus on what the film is trying to say.

Hi, Michael Fitzer, MFA. Congratulations to you and the team on being back on track! Back when I tried to make two feature films, my biggest fundraising obstacle was finding investors. And I didn't know a lot about film financing.

Maurice Vaughan , I'm not sure of your situation but what I find is there are so many people out there wanting to jump in and direct a $1M+ feature with only a few years in the business and no experience as a feature producer or director. I've been at this a long time and have lots of credits, but none as a feature director (though lots of commercials and docs), so I had to go back to square one and start with small narrative directing gigs. A short here and there. $1000 budget, then a $10K budget, then a $25K budget. I had to show investors and actors that I know how to SUCCESSFULLY take a story from script to screen. There is a lot of wisdom in starting small. I recommend it for everyone wanting to fund their first feature. Here's the biggest takeaway... I found that I don't like directing narrative feature work. I love writing it, shooting it, producing it, but when it comes to being a feature narrative director... I'll leave it to people better than I am at making it all come together. Shorts are still fun though. ONWARD!

"there are so many people out there wanting to jump in and direct a $1M+ feature with only a few years in the business and no experience as a feature producer or director." That was me, Michael Fitzer, MFA, except I was producing and the first movie was a big-budget project. If I was to do it again, I would go with a micro-budget feature script or micro-budget short script. Thanks for the info and takeaway.

I would say, don't do it. Whatever time you save in the draft you're going to use in editing. and in the end, it doesn't make a difference. You are still going to spend hundreds of hours editing. Not worth the short cut. It may lead you stray.

Personally, I find it a useful tool. You can't actually write with it because it' produces laughably bad results, but as a way of doing research, or searching for the occasional word, I think it can be quite helpful.

For instance, I was thinking about a scene where the criminals murder someone by staging his death to look like a fiery car crash, so I asked, what might a Medical Examiner find in an autopsy under those circumstances that could indicate the crash wasn't the cause of death? It actually gave me a bunch of actionable material to consider. So, for stuff like that, it's pretty cool

Hey Debbie - It's been a few years since I've written anything so this AI stuff is all new to me; a Masterclass on AI screenwriting assist would be welcome. I haven't directed or produced anything in years and have no intention of ever doing that again. But writing still flows through my veins. I'm going to try getting one more strong commercial script out before I become extinct. I had two years of research done before The Stolen Kingdom and another two before The Hooded Summer - AI seems to be much faster.

I understand it hallucinates a bit - most of us did in the '60s - that doesn't bother me. I'm looking for an assist; that's all.

People have tried to put together courses on using AI for screenwriting and they've been met with pitchforks. It's still a very contentious topic.

I’ve been using it for two reasons: to guide me with the script structure and to correct my English. But there are a lot of copyright concerns with that, so I decided to start from scratch on my own. After that, I’ll look for a correction service.

Welcome, Qiana Bailey - hope you're getting your bearings here. By all means message me directly if you ever want a one-on-one chat with someone.

Hi, Qiana Bailey. Great to meet you. Welcome to the community. 11 screenplays since April is really impressive! Congratulations! Congratulations on getting awarded quarter finalist in the Filmmatic TV pilot awards!

Stage 32 has a blog that'll help you navigate the platform and connect with creatives and industry professionals all over the world. Producers, directors, executives, writers, and more. www.stage32.com/blog/how-to-successfully-navigate-the-stage-32-platform-...

Stage 32's November Community Open House was last week. It'll help you navigate Stage 32 and connect with creatives and industry pros. The recording is up now. It's free to watch. www.stage32.com/education/products/stage-32-s-november-community-open-ho...

Reach out to the Success Team at success@stage32.com. Geoff and his team can help you connect with reps, executives, and more.

Qiana Bailey Welcome to the site - there's definitely a lot of ATL filmmakers around. you should have an easy time finding some cool film collabs

Hi Qiana, I'd like to read some of your social issue pieces, maybe you'd like to read some of mine. Exposition and pacing is so critical in social issue stories, i'd like to learn how to do that more effectively, I have a giant challenge ahead of me with a new story I started. Would live to chat.

How long ya got hahah

Actors - Florence Pugh, Rebecca Hall, Hamish Linklater, Colin Farrell, Justin Theroux, Jake Gyllenhaal, Tom Hardy, Rebecca Ferguson, Idris Elba

Filmmakers - Mike Flanagan, Paul Thomas Anderson, Ari Aster, Demian Rugna, the Philippou Brothers

Yes - and I sometimes unashamedly hide subtle clues as to who they are in my scripts. Actually, I hide lots of things in my scripts.

Martin Scorsese would be top of the list, his enthusiasm for cinema of all kinds is infectous and I would like to talk film with him. He's dead now but Robert Altman would be one as would the also deceased David Lynch. Would love to hang out with Jim Jarmusch as well. These are all directors but I could add more actors, writers etc.

That sounds crazy, but I’ll say it anyway:

I want to work with Christopher Nolan. Lol

God no. I don't do this to meet celebrities. There are artists I respect tremendously, and I'd love to chat with them and learn more about their process and thinking, but working with them brings a complicated dynamic, especially if you're coming at it as a sycophant.

I see it on set a lot and it causes me to lose respect for people.

100% feeling all of that Juliana Philippi :)

Juliana Philippi What a powerful reflection, and such a beautiful way to close out the year. There’s something really special about that shift from resisting the work to embracing it, and you captured that perfectly. Once you show up consistently, the creative momentum starts to feel like it’s meeting you halfway. I love how intentionally you’re approaching your slate, and I can’t wait to see all the projects you’re lining up come to life.

Ashley Renee Smith Thank you!!! I will always remember your email, or post, asking me what I was doing, and if I would join November Write Club.

Juliana Philippi so well said!

Darrell Pennington Thank you so much: )

I’m doing something similar with my next project. It’s a sci-fi/horror/romance, which is a balancing act on its own in terms of tone and genre. I’ve found my sweet spot is locating dread in big concepts while grounding it in smaller, human themes. That’s how I keep things balanced and bring both sides to the same place. I look for the humanity inside the larger ideas, and the deeper meaning inside the quieter moments. Not sure if any of that makes total sense, but it works for me somehow haha

Thank you so much for your thoughts — I really appreciate your perspectives.

martin graham

I love what you said about finding humanity inside the big ideas. That balance between concept and the quieter, more intimate moments is exactly what I’m trying to explore in Glitch. Letting the emotional truth guide the high-concept elements feels like the right compass.

Meriem Bouziani

You’re absolutely right — sci-fi can easily drift into something too technical if we don’t stay grounded in the characters’ inner lives. In my case, I try to show the world through the characters’ eyes, so every societal shift or catastrophe is felt emotionally before it’s explained logically.

How they react, what it awakens in them — that’s where the story breathes.

Thank you both — your insights are really inspiring.

Haha thanks Meriem Bouziani, space travel is so much fun because you can do literally whatever you want (in my novel Branch, for example, there's a canonical library planet because why the hell not). In Finding Elpis proper I have an Amazonian/Barbarian planet, a mermaid planet, a flower people planet, and naturally a dog planet and in RoP's rewrite I finally got to have a beloved little wine planet show up. It's especially fun if you know a little bit of astronomy at least as far as names go, because then you can decide for yourself how much you want to live up to the names of existing galaxies and constellations in addition to making your own.

Lol now I wanna draw out some of the planets from both Petal and Finding Elpis's universes xD

Wow, so cool and so beautiful Banafsheh Esmailzadeh

It feels like Game of Thrones but on a cosmic level — each planet with its own unique atmosphere, all in conflict,

and in the end only one must win.

That’s what I imagined.

Thanks Meriem Bouziani, that certainly was been true once upon a time, but then Elpis the band got popular and the wars stopped xD but I like the way you think!

Kat Spencer I'm yet to have designated writing hours and have much ground to make up so I'll be writing through the holidays to stay on track.

So...I have a (relatively) unique tradition lol I have a special set of Christmas/winter-themed scripts I work on every December(helps me get into the mood of the holidays) while I take a break from whatever stories or ideas I've been working on throughout the year.

I’d probably take a break too… if my brain ever stopped thinking and overanalyzing everything! :)

Kat Spencer, I love this question. This time of year affects everyone so differently.

For me, this holiday season is going to be a creative pause, but in the best possible way. My husband and I are moving in a few weeks, so every bit of “free time” is being poured into packing, organizing, and preparing for the new space. I know I won’t get much actual writing done, but I’ve decided to be okay with that.

What I do love is how creatively fueling the pause can be. While packing, I’ve unearthed old journals, half-finished stories, abandoned outlines, and ideas I forgot I even had. Skimming through those things has given me a surprising shot of inspiration, almost like reconnecting with earlier versions of myself as a writer.

So even though I’m not drafting right now, I feel like I’m quietly refilling the well. And once I’m settled into the new place and have a fresh, organized space to create in, I know I’ll be ready to dive back in with renewed energy.

Love that Ashley Renee Smith! And it points to the fact that you don't have to be sitting down to be writing. Inspiration comes from so many places. Good luck with the move! I bet you're excited to be in your new place. And WOW to everyone else's responses here. So great to hear from all of you! Happy writing and pausing. It is all valuable.