Stage 32Reviews 102

Tried the written pitch review service and received results, not only late, but filled with confusing statements that I'll never get to ask about. There wasn't anything that helped me in this review. Should have followed my gut feeling about this pay to play service.

I've tried using Stage 32 several times and, from the transaction itself to the services, everything royally sucked -- each time I gave it a try. To begin with, their site is poorly set up and it's hard to find things. Their customer service tech support people don't follow up and signed me up for something without my consent. They charged me for a service I never signed up for and then canceled it before I could use it so I'm out $40 for something I never paid for and then they blocked my access.

Their classes are terrible. I've worked in the industry for many years and was suckered into a class advertising professional level knowledge when what they offered was not even the quality of something you'd get in high school. The "community" of people online willing to pay their good money to get feel-good feedback must be keeping them afloat. Rather than do real work and risk a bad grade in college and learn the right way from professionals, it seems the wannabe's are at Stage32 without the rigors of a real class and the accountability that comes with it. If you've gone to a real film school or have worked in the real industry for any amount of time, you don't need the "education" provided by Stage32. You already know what they have to offer and it'll be beneath you.

Dont fall for the smoke and mirrors that Richard Botto and his staff try to dazzle you with. This "social network" is a side hustle for people with nothing but a title. They leverage that title into hustling you for a few hundred bucks for script reviews and pitches that go nowhere, until you eventually realize its snake oil.

Look at the body of work for any of these so-called executives. Most of them are currently self employed with executive titles they gave to themselves. They have a few imdb credits for being attached to films where they worked for a real executive, and now their job is giving you false hope for giving you a few pages of notes and nothing more.

They don't even honor the service turnaround commitments on their script coverage service. When I first ordered 2x script coverage, the order said the turnaround time was 14 days. At some point they changed it to 3 weeks. Its been over 3 weeks and i still have not seen a single response for my money. Ask yourself, if you're really trying to work on a screenplay and get it contest ready, or submission ready, do you really have 3 weeks to sit around waiting for 1 round of feedback? Do yourself a favor and find a legitimate, professional coverage service. Stage 32 is for suckers.

Customer service takes days to answer any question no matter how simple.
Once a pitch is uploaded you can't change it even if a month away, terrible.
They also don't say in advance that the pitch if rerecommended then an entire screenplay must be submitted in 48 hours
Feedback is minimal, couple sentences and on the last occasion showed they had not even read the entire pitch which included a poster and 900 words and was inside the 2-page limit.
In my opinion, is nothing more than a $35 dollar donation and not to be used

OMG, if it weren't for this Stage, I don't know where I would be. I came to LA, living in my car with my dog. I'm and actor and writer with no resources and as soon as I became a part of the Stages community I became full of knowledge, so many resources with great tips and advice. Even though I'm still living in my car and about a quarter of the money I make from waiting on tables pays for the pitch sessions and webinars. I can feel like I'm getting closer and closer to real success! It's been almost 3 years now since we've lived in the car(me and my dog) and at this point I'm okay with it. I think we have to sacrifice everything for our art! One day I will win a 33 contest and go the Grammys! I've made a little video of my life in the car with my dog- I actually sent this video in on a written pitch session and I was disappointed because the reviewer said it was poorly done- oh well, I'm just going to keep trying. Here's the video: https://vimeo.com/*******

The site is weird. It's an industry networking site but the only people in the industry on the site are the paid guests the site pulls in to schill their knowledge or input on your script. They aren't actual members and don't contribute anything for free. You can't network with them. The actual site members are mostly newcomers breaking in.

It's truly a great business model. An endless amount of desperate hungry writers and a matching supply of struggling disingenuous "execs" waiting to take advantage of them. Brilliant idea. No surprise why many of them stay anonymous now.

Paying to pitch is a waste. You'll find it's a total dead end toward development and it should just be illegal. Most execs selling their time to hear pitches couldn't accept any I. P. or submit anything to the companies they work for even if they wanted to. One told me flat out they only take scripts from the top 5. Yeah? So, uhm, what are you doing listening to my pitch?

In the same way that paying an agent to find you work is against the law. Paying to pitch should be as well. Only a matter of time till someone ensures that's the case and this ridiculous circus act is brought to a close.

I have sent in a number of pitches on my two Scripts to be analyzed and reviewed by professionals. I can only say that I have never heard of any of these people but I have been out of the industry for sometime since my co-writer passed away. There is often times a long wait for a response. However, if you send an Email requesting help you will most certainly get it as I have. That website is Writer *******@stage32.com. Yesterday I responded to an email sent asking if they were on vacation this month as I had not received any emails noting producers looking to read Scripps or pitches. I immediately heard back. So, I sent a reply saying what about the script contest when is that going to be announced? The response I got was. " what contest? ". I have not received a reply from my next message which read "the annual screenwriting contest which I entered" I do think that sometimes the producers don't have time to read the Scripts and so, they just go to anyone who can read them. My general impression is good but open to calling it a scam. LOL