Introduce Yourself

Congratulations for all your success and I hope all your goals will be a great success in 2026!

merry Christmas to you all ❤️

You had me at Skyrim.

Merry Christmas, Desiree. Wish you a lot of sucess, peace and good energy

Merry Christmas!

That´s great @Jane Tumminello Congratulations for your fantastic 2025 and Bad Clown. Wish you an excellent 2026 and a Happy Holiday Season.

Thank you Maurice Vaughan and Happy Holidays to you! Wishing you lots of success in 2026!!

Thanks so much Maria Caeiro! Happy Holidays and may the new year bring you lots of success!!

You're welcome, Jane Tumminello. Thanks!

Congratulations Jane Tumminello

Hi Brandon Keeton you are another moderator I haven't yet met. One day! Awesome to end the year with a bang! I am thinking about how I want to reposition myself for 2026. I would like to open up more opportunities, not sure yet what that means for me.

Hello, nice to meet you. I hope you have great success with your next projects, and happy New Year.

Shadow Dragu-Mihai, Esq., Ipg Yeah, we made contact back a few years ago when I was trying to get distribution for "Turbo Cola". Good to see you're still around!

And to everyone else, thanks for the well wishes. Right back at you! I hope everyone has a GREAT holiday and a strong 2026!

You're welcome, Brandon Keeton. Thanks. Hope you have a GREAT holiday and a strong 2026 too!

Happy Holidays, Anthony Spadaro! Great to meet you. Welcome to the community. 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, writers, executives, and more. www.stage32.com/blog/how-to-successfully-navigate-the-stage-32-platform-...

Stage 32's next Community Open House is Dec 29th (www.stage32.com/education/products/stage-32-s-december-community-open-ho...). It's free to attend, and it's an interactive event where you can ask questions. It'll also help you navigate Stage 32 and connect with creatives and industry pros. Even if you can’t make it to the Open House, sign up and you’ll get the recording in your Stage 32 Education Library when it’s available.

I've heard a lot of success on here. Script requests, jobs, signed a shopping agreement for my game show, etc.

Welcome Anthony Spadaro - honored to meet you! Glad you’re with us!

Welcome to the community, Anthony! What genre of stories do you like to write?

Bravo!

Jack Binder , thank youuuu

Beautifully said Sandra Isabel Correia . It sounds like a fascinating idea. I grew up loving film. I'm currently working on finding my voice with my thriller concept.

And I love that Marie Hatten. My first short film is my first thriller, The Misstep and now I wrote the feature :)) I love thrillers, but it was the first time I wrote one and direct:)) You’ve got this! I am cheering for you. Merry Xmas Marie <3

Sandra Isabel Correia, you're welcome! Ready for 2026 aesthetics and more! Plans for motion graphics, effects and others aspects can be discussed to be added using the artwork!

So much anticipations!

Hi Shadow, thanks for the detailed response – you clearly know your stuff on the technical side. That said, I think there are some other angles worth considering:

On consumer AI tools – I'd push back gently here. Tools like Claude and ChatGPT have become genuinely transformative for a lot of professionals – writers, researchers, small business owners, production managers, smaller independent studios etc... The line between 'enterprise' and 'consumer' AI is blurring fast when someone can streamline real business workflows with a $20/month subscription. The value isn't just in the Hollywood VFX pipeline.

On simulation limitations – Fair point that diffusion models aren't physics engines today. But it's worth noting this is more of a priority gap than a fundamental limitation. Most AI development has focused on text, code, and image generation because that's where the perceived immediate demand was. Researchers are actively working on physics-informed AI models, and studios like Disney are already using machine learning to assist with environmental physics like snow and water simulation. The gap is closing; it just hasn't been the main focus yet.

On model collapse – This is definitely a legitimate concern the research community is watching. Worth noting though that mitigation strategies already exist – studies have shown that maintaining human-generated data alongside synthetic data prevents the collapse feedback loop. It's a challenge being actively worked on rather than an inevitable dead end.

On power consumption – The challenge is real, but some context helps: data centers account for less than 10% of projected global electricity demand growth through 2030 – EVs and air conditioning are actually bigger drivers. The grid strain is significant, but it's an infrastructure and investment challenge rather than a fundamental limit of the technology. Nuclear partnerships and efficiency improvements are already part of the industry response.

On quantum – The breakthroughs in 2024-2025 have been genuinely exciting, and the power efficiency comparisons are compelling for certain problem types. That said, quantum isn't quite positioned as a near-term replacement for classical AI workloads – you can't run an LLM on a quantum computer yet, and current systems can actually consume more power than classical computers for some tasks due to cooling and error correction overhead. Practical fault-tolerant systems are still targeting around 2029. More of a 'both/and' than an 'either/or' I think.

Appreciate you adding to the conversation – always good to dig into the nuances!

Shadow Dragu-Mihai, Esq., Ipg That is all heartening and provides me personally with glimmers of hope. I have no expertise in any of the technology that AI rests on or the actual challenges that the technology will continue to face as it tries to move forward but in general I do think that we collectively can use history as a guidepost for potential outcomes and my concern is that the level of resources that will continue to be funneled to continue to improve AI and push it ever closer to universal adoption in all aspects of life. So I hope the pessimism many have is warranted and I am Chicken Little as it relates to what I think are likely negative outcomes. But beyond all of that, I think there is a malevolence being crafted by just a handful of people that are going to provide us all the options we have in life. All in the name of ease, comfort and progress.....

Darrell Pennington On S32 and in our circles we talk a lot about generative AI, but that's really small AI. Big AI is the real game changer and it's already a fact. We're in an industrial revolution and there's no going back. Whole industries are being re-configured or going the way of the dodo. Economies are shifting. Consider that ~20 years ago we in North America started farming out tech support and customer service support to the third world. We lost a lot of jobs here - to the advantage of people outside the country. However, those countries have not advanced much, while our own work force has adjusted. Now one of the things AI is wiping out almost entirely is tech support and customer service. Those economies that have relied on that as a product are pretty screwed. Lower to mid level programming, website design, and lots of research positions (at least the internet research kind) are no longer needed as well. I myself have been able to forego a fully paid researcher for our AI and quantum computing initiative, and I get my results in minutes instead of weeks. This, as well as the fact that AI is now heading to a spot where it decides what objective truth is... and you can see the challenges. But it's far too late to complain - the trajectory started in WW2.

Joshua Young I do not disagree on most of what you say, though as far as image/video I must stand my ground. For several reasons but one being that script writing software never made anyone into a writer who wasn't already using a pen and pencil, and the hi-rez cell phone camera never made anyone a filmmaker who wasn't already shooting something on their camcorder, and more recently Unreal Engine hasn't given anyone a lift into filmmaking who wasn't already doing VFX. Generative AI is a visual tool. I see a host of hobbyists playing with the new toy, but I don't see the lines between professionals and hobbyists converging in reality. The tools are just now starting to be useful to professionals and it isn't a magic formula. In fact, it can create almost as many problems as it solves, including a copyright minefield and the "uncanny valley" effect, which has been clinically proved on AI generated video. On simulations - no. Generative AI will not be able to do this, until it merges with actual simulation techniques, raytracing, Monte Carlo processes, et al. which are all costly in compute. We are working on that integration ourselves, but it's not going to be something that any consumer can take advantage or, or should care about, IMO

We agree on the main thing: tools don’t create craft. Like cameras, software, or Unreal, AI doesn’t turn someone into a professional without taste, training, and experience.

You’re also right that generative video can introduce serious friction right now, including uncanny valley, legal uncertainty, and workflow headaches. It’s not a magic formula, and sometimes it adds as many problems as it solves.

On simulation, we’re aligned in principle. High-end results will require hybrid approaches with established techniques, and that comes with real compute and cost implications.

Appreciate you sharing your perspective. AI is evolving quickly, and different teams are going to land on different timelines and use-cases.

Merry Christmas, Bryan Emmanuel! Welcome to the community. Congratulations on your success in the Nigerian film industry!

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

Stage 32's next Community Open House is Dec 29th (www.stage32.com/education/products/stage-32-s-december-community-open-ho...). It's free to attend, and it's an interactive event where you can ask questions. It'll also help you navigate Stage 32 and connect with creatives and industry pros. Even if you can’t make it to the Open House, sign up and you’ll get the recording in your Stage 32 Education Library when it’s available.

Hope you and your family have an incredible time during the holidays, Eileen Cope!

Happy holidays Eileen

Suzanne Bronson Oh the LA burnout is real haha. I think for now I will focus on horror films. I've written pilots in the past and just find I enjoy film more. That's not to say I'll never explore it, though, as I love the series Mike Flanagan has done. He's a huge influence. I definitely lean into elevated horror over slasher/traditional. I liked Elm Street, Halloween, Scream, etc but I definitely enjoy the darker, more elevated stuff we've been seeing over the last ten years or so.

Ryan Wilford Thanks! Appreciate you checking it out, and happy to do the same! Enjoy the holidays!

Hello @MartinGraham Welcome back and back into writing. Happy Holidays and yes, if you know where this year went kindly do advise! Good luck in '26!

Martin Graham Those are great choices; that’s a creative lineup. Nightmare on Elm Street is actually my favorite from your list, too, such an iconic concept and execution. Growing up, my favorites were The Descent, 28 Days Later, and Resident Evil. Honorable mention: 13 Ghosts. Always love hearing what shaped other people’s taste, it says a lot about the kind of stories they’re drawn to. Appreciate you sharing yours.Can’t wait to see more of your work as well.

Nice to see antother Horror writer.

CHROME DESIRE sounds really great Parker! How did you get interested in AI?

Hi Parker, neat video

Hello, Answer to question, It is sort of long, but I got into AI over a year ago working on my short sci-fi film , SALLIE SMILED. I was in a not very good place and struggling to get my film made. AI started to become more advanced so I got in early knowing that this is the game changer for me, and so far it has been.