HEY CREATIVES: Struggling with imposter's syndrome? Fear of rejection? I made a little video about how I deal with those things and hopefully it'll help you cut through the jungle of self-doubt. Any questions, hit me up here. #writingtips https://t.co/J1WGPxSTN2

Likely the wrong place to get a decent answer to this question, but is the East Wing of the White House ballroom thing destroying the original construction? Cause that sounds kind of awful, if so.

When I find myself exhausted with the current political climate and all of its buffoonery, I turn to history. Here's JFK from June 10th, 1963. https://t.co/5jpWOw2yvi

The fact that someone may retaliate for not receiving a Nobel Prize, is likely a big reason they wouldn’t be considered for a Nobel Prize.

Why guess when you can know?

Last night when the SHELBY OAKS trailer played before GOOD BOY, the guy behind me gasped, “Chris Stuckmann, yes!” And then cheered when Chris’ name appeared on screen. Feels like Neon’s got another winner.

That's neat.

As storytellers, sometimes we're bought in simply because of the aesthetics or genre. I LOVE cyberpunk, as a genre. If it vibes, that's all I need -- but I don't have to pretend to be anyone in the work. I can just vibe and I'm solid, but actors need more than that to invest.

🚨 Actress Diane Keaton’s Cause of Death Revealed Read more

...when you're directing a thing, you're likely going to have to meet with actors and often times convince them to work on your project. Think about it from their point of view, what their work has to be. Make sure there's something there for them, and speak to them about it.

Folks are coming at Charlie, but please keep this in mind. Charlie is an ACTOR. His job is become a character and play the character and find an emotional way into it all. He literally can't focus on aesthetics. Not his job on the team. Why it's important to think about this....

Ultimately, we're trying to get audiences emotionally invested and engaged with what we're doing. I see a lot of technical advice here, but not a lot of people reminding people to be emotionally engaged, so I wanted to share that. Consider it. Might help you build allies.

Rehearse your pitch to the point where it doesn't feel rehearsed. Like a stand up comic. Josh Johnson has bits and jokes. He's a professional, but he FEELS conversational -- because he knows his material so well. You can do the same thing.

-- consider thinking about your zoom like your "live YouTube Channel" We all have YouTubers we watch. And they're often just talking to a camera. So are you on a zoom. Think about it like being a solid YouTuber and you're telling a story, engaging an audience.

I'm also taking writing-directing meetings, sometimes with fancy pants actors, sometimes with financiers, and it's the same thing. Get folks emotionally invested by turning them into an audience. And if you're doing Zoom, which I often am --

If you can get the audience of executives to CARE, then you have a stronger chance of getting their support. Currently, I'm writing a project for an "a lister" and it's full of the scope and style -- but I came in with the emotion of it all. I think that helped.

So your decks and concept art can wow with design and cool -- but consider focusing the verbal part on the emotion, like you're telling a story around a campfire and trying to engage folks in an emotional journey.

I, most often, do decks for meetings, and I'll use imagery during the pitch. The main utility there is the imagery helps sell the world, the design of it, the set pieces, and that frees me up to focus on the emotion in the telling.

If you can turn a room of executives, digital or otherwise, into an AUDIENCE that's genuinely being emotionally engaged by your story -- you're doing the real work. And you'll get a real result.

Make sure you really know the emotional journey of your characters, and that YOU care about that journey. For every "set-piece" have an equally important EMOTIONAL MOMENT that ideally has a choice and a consequence of that choice.

So while you're highlighting concept, and set-pieces, think about the meeting less like "This is where I can get a job" and more like an opportunity to engage an audience emotionally. It's a performance, story sharing, as much as it is an application to get an opportunity.

Most of my work is in genre, of some sort, both big genre, and dramatic genre. One of the most important things you can do, and I learned this from Greg Walker, is make sure you have an EMOTIONAL story along with the genre elements.

I'm also sort of convinced that much of news and social media is a psy-op to keep us hating each other so we're less productive and easier to manipulate...but I digress...okay, here's some stuff to consider if you're starting a writing or writing/directing career...