Acting

A few days ago, I found myself sitting on my couch staring at my suitcase, trying to convince myself to unpack it. My voice was still raspy. My feet hurt. My inbox was overflowing. And despite having just spent an incredible 8 days in Cannes representing Stage 32, I felt completely and utterly exhausted. To make matters even more exciting, my journey home turned into a 33-hour travel nightmare involving delays, missed flights, airport chaos, and far more time sitting in uncomfortable chairs...

This was inspired by a recent webinar here on Stage 32 with Janice Lee as the executive. Her words – ‘find your weirdo’s’ changed the game for me! It’s easy to sit on the sidelines of this industry and feel like you’re falling behind. You watch other writers land Open Writing Assignments. You see option announcements. You read about scripts being packaged, developed, and moving forward. And somewhere along the way, a quiet thought creeps in: Maybe I’m not good enough. Maybe there’s somethi...

This started with a comment on Stage 32 and ended with a short film called Sol Rise. It began on a post by our friend Sebastian Tudores, directed at Juliana Philippi and me: “I need to get you two together to sing on film.” I had casually mentioned that I used to sing with the Houston Masterworks Chorus, and Juliana had shared that she’s a singer as well, so naturally, he ran with it. The Debate That afternoon, I turned to my wife and said, “Honey, this guy seems nice… I don’t think he’...

Happy Sunday, Creative Army! Let’s kick things off with a huge shoutout to everyone who has already jumped into this month’s Introduce Yourself Weekend. Thousands of creatives from around the world are connecting, sharing their stories, and building relationships that can lead to collaborations, opportunities, and lifelong friendships. If you haven’t made your introduction yet, you still have time. Head over to the Introduce Yourself Lounge before the weekend wraps. Be bold. Introduce yourse...

The Cannes Film Festival is almost here, Creative Army! In just a few short weeks, the global film community will once again gather on the Croisette for one of the most important, electric, and opportunity-filled events in our industry, the Cannes Film Festival and the Marché du Film. And this year marks something special for us at Stage 32. We are proud to be returning for our 12th year as the official Education Partner of the Cannes Marché du Film. For over a decade, we have worked side...

As an independent producer, I'm always planning my next project. With a stack of screenplays (many of which are my own), and no Mr. Moneytree waiting to spread his love, it can be challenging. This is why I've taken the Robert Rodriguez approach when it comes to filmmaking. For those of you unfamiliar, Robert Rodriguez's first feature film, El Mariachi, had no crew. And almost no budget. At a meager 7k, he was the writer, director, cinematographer, location scout, sound, and editor. With inflati...

There is no shortage of acting techniques for the actor in training. From Stanislavsky and Chekov to Demidov and Meisner and Adler to Strasberg and everything in between. There is a shortage, however, of methods for safely accessing and regulating emotion in the process of using these acting techniques when developing a Character. The Traditional Traditional acting techniques have their own philosophies on how to access emotion. From Demidov’s “passively surrendering” and being guided by the...

In over 15 years of working in the entertainment industry, I’ve learned that there will be many ups and downs in a dream pursuit. There will be obstacles, and good days, and opportunities, and rejections. The High Achiever (a.k.a. you!), needs a game plan through it all. The High Achiever needs to handle all of these moments intentionally and carefully, in a way that effectively keeps them on the path to success. That’s why I developed the 10 Pillars of the High Achiever. Here are the 10 pillars...

There’s no doubt about it—self-tape auditions are all the rage and certainly here to stay. And, with pilot season fast upon us, the timing is perfect for talking about what makes a self-audition submission likely to succeed. A quick Internet search will yield an abundance of self-tape how-to articles and videos, which is great, and I encourage you to watch and read them. But they mostly focus on the technical aspects of the process (cameras, lighting, sound, setup) and far less on the actor’s...

Happy Sunday, Creative Army! I hope your weekend has been a creative one so far. Whether you have been writing, filming, editing, or sketching out the next spark of an idea, I have something today that will give you a boost. So grab your coffee, and let’s dive in. This week’s featured video comes from Thomas Flight- Why Some Movies Feel More Alive What I like about this piece is that it takes something most viewers barely notice and shows how important it really is to the experience of a f...