by Voyage | Mar 2, 2018 | Audience, Blog post
BY: ELIZABETH UPTON A friend of mine recently told me, “If you don’t have 20 minutes to meditate then take an hour.” I laughed and found this amusing, but it got me thinking… I had always heard that meditation has the potential to improve productivity, but never felt like I had enough time to devote to the activity. If I’m already spread thin, how can I find more time? It’s a catch 22. In order to explore this idea a bit further, my colleagues at Voyage and I decided to give it a try… For the last year, we’ve been doing 10-minute meditations at the office three times a week. And we’ve had some pretty extraordinary results! Prioritization ~ I get more done in less time. Instead of just jumping from traffic into my chair thinking about a million things I need to do for the day, the 10 minutes we take to meditate actually helps me to prioritize my thoughts and helps me slow down. It’s the opposite of what you think you need to do, but it’s actually the trick to accomplishing more. More Clarity & Mental Focus ~ I’m less stressed. By taking a few minutes to deal with my stress effectively, I find that I’m more able to focus on my own goals as well as the goals of the company. Additionally, by removing clutter from my mind I am more easily able to hone in on the things that matter. Improved Communication ~ I express myself more clearly. A clear mind expresses clear thoughts and successful communication includes attentive listening. After meditation, I... read more
by Voyage | Feb 13, 2018 | Book to Film, Entertainment Business
BREAK THROUGH BY BREAKING THE ROUTINE BY: ROB BOWMAN Culture shock. That’s what it was. The phenomenon that many people had less than eloquently described to me over the years had taken a hold of me.Finally, it was my turn. It didn’t disappoint. I was in the back of a tuk-tuk with my sister as we squared off with Delhi’s rush hour traffic. Sensory overload was in full effect. I watched as lanes of traffic transformed into a current of chaos. I heard car horns and new languages volley interchangeably. I felt my comfort zone contract to the point where the hair on my skin was foreign. As for smell, I’ll let your imagination fill that in. Needless to say, my mind was racing. I was overwhelmed. But not in the way I was used to. This was different. It was a spark… And that’s because of what my brain was actually doing. By travelling someplace far away from my norm, both geographically and culturally, I was literally sparking different synapses in my brain by immersing myself in new sights, sounds, smells, languages, tastes, and sensations. To put it simply, I was re-wiring my brain by doing one simple thing: traveling. Now, traveling has been linked to many different health benefits (lower stress levels, stronger immune system, healthier heart), but one thing you may not be familiar with is traveling’s effect on creativity. In general, creativity is related to neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to form and reorganize synaptic connections. By experiencing new environments and cultures, unused neural networks within the brain fire and respond allowing you to broaden how you think. This, along with creating new habits,... read more
by Voyage | Jan 3, 2018 | Audience, Blog post
It’s been an incredible year for the Voyage family and we’re so grateful to you for your hard work, dedication and commitment to your craft. You’ve inspired us in unimaginable ways. As we prepare for an even better 2018, here are some highlights we want to celebrate looking back… Welcome Baby Myles + Our Revitalized Commitments to You We are thrilled to announce that our Operations Manager Elizabeth Upton gave birth to a healthy baby boy in November! If you were at our gala in May, you may have caught a peek of Myles with his mama walking the red carpet 🙂 Mother & baby Myles are doing well! In other Voyage news, this year was huge for our commitment to altering the way Hollywood does business by building a studio for the creator, by the creator. We launched a crowdfunding campaign this year that produced some extraordinary results: 357 investors joined our ever-growing family We raised nearly $400,000 for our creator-owned studio The first $100,000 raised in just one week Thank you to our investors who joined our mission to create a friendlier Hollywood that works for everyone & share great stories with the world. We’re so happy to have you in the mix! Coming off the heels of our successful crowdfunding campaign, we were inspired to up-level the Voyage Mission & Vision by making some heart-centered updates to our commitments to our community, partners, investors & society. We did a deep dive look within the company & spent two days in a retreat honing in on our mission & vision for the company & the... read more
by Voyage | Dec 27, 2017 | Blog post, Entertainment Business
Vision: Voyage has established an open platform on which the creative spark has a seamless conversation with the market, and together we join in the creation of entertainment. The entertainment community has welcomed our passionate crowd of original voices and has participated in a free flow of information and connections in a world of magnificent inspiration. The stories have found their home and the closed doors of Hollywood are open for business! Commitments: The company is committed to… Being a beacon of what’s possible and leading the industry further into its heart, reminding all of us of the original inspiration of why we’re playing this game Living true in the architecture and environment we’ve designed from our original intent. Everyone has an opportunity to fulfill on his or her life’s calling and to live an extraordinary life Having new voices and the market collaborate in an entirely new and innovative way that brings fresh, original stories to life The experience of working with Voyage being delightful and empowering for everyone Challenging the status quo and altering the way the entertainment industry does business Our team is committed to… Being uncompromising in living from our calling and fulfilling the company’s mission and vision We do impeccable work and every detail matters Creating an environment in which we are empowered to do our best work, are lit up, and are fully self-expressed Being a self-generative, high performance team, producing extraordinary results Being accountable to each other, and we can say, “I love my life!” We are committed that our customers… Feel all stories are welcome and given every opportunity to find... read more
by Voyage | Nov 7, 2017 | Blog post, Book to Film
A LOOK AT THE ‘DO SOMETHING PRINCIPLE’ & SELF- MOTIVATING By nature, writing is a solitary exercise. Most of us don’t sit in an office full of other writers to bounce our ideas off of. Similarly, there’s no boss to get on our case about making those edits to our screenplay or completing our next chapter. So in order to move a project forward, we have to motivate ourselves to get it done. But sometimes self-motivation can feel like the most daunting task in the world—like an un-climbable mountain… But what if there was a way to eliminate the necessity to self-motivate to achieve a goal? What if there was a way to alter the way we think about the relationship between motivation and action? Consider this… Action isn’t just the effect of motivation, but also the cause. What if, instead of identifying motivation as the cause of our actions, we thought of our actions as the cause of motivation? Think of it this way: action is always within reach. It is always possible to do something. Even if that something is writing a few crappy pages, you can take the action of writing and harness your reaction to it as a way to begin motivating yourself. Plus, you will often find that you’re actually inspired by the act of writing itself and are able to turn those crappy pages into your next masterpiece (and even if it’s not a masterpiece, it’s something!) The mere action of writing will inspire new thoughts and ideas. But that new insight will never come if you simply sit around and contemplate it.... read more
by Nat Mundel | Oct 20, 2017 | Blog post, Entertainment Business, Font Page
Yes, absolutely. He is 100% responsible for his actions (as we all are). But there’s also a whole lot more at play… I woke this morning and, as in every day leading up to this one, Harvey Weinstein is in the news. And now, as you may know, Roy Price, the head of Amazon Studios, has resigned as a result of a sexual harassment firestorm that’s come out as a result of women in Hollywood finally feeling like they can have their voices heard. Much has now been said on a culture of harassment in Hollywood, and the complicit behavior that goes along with it. BEAUTIFUL GIRLS scribe Scott Rosenberg articulated it clearly in his ‘everybody knew’ letter you might have seen on Deadline. In it, Scott paints the picture of Harvey as ‘a goose laying golden eggs’ that everyone coveted (and therefore kept their mouth’s shut even though they knew what was going on). What I want to address is how the ‘old’, centralized Hollywood model created the inevitability of all of this. When so much power resides in the hands of a few select people – the power to make (or break) a career, the power to greenlight (or kill) a project on a personal whim, the use of implied (or explicit) threat that results in 1000s of voices forced into silence (over decades!) – bad stuff is going to happen. Actors feel like they have to endure unacceptable (and in some cases illegal) behavior lest they not be able to fulfill on their dreams and calling. Writers who give ‘voice’ to so many great and inspiring... read more
by Voyage | Oct 10, 2017 | Book to Film, The Expert Network
3 TIPS FOR BOOSTING CREATIVITY IN 10 MINUTES OR LESS As creators we have all experienced the dreaded Writer’s Block in one-way or another. Whether you’ve caught the bug for a few hours or several days, you know just how debilitating it can be. So next time you’re feeling less-than-creative, blast your writers block with one of these three tips we love to use at Voyage. 1. Meditate Meditation is a wonderful way to clear your mind, which comes in handy when writer’s block strikes. Taking 10 minutes to yourself away from your creative project, technology, and other people can work wonders for the brain. And the best part is, there is no ‘right’ way to meditate! Sitting quietly in a cozy corner of your office for 10 minutes with your electronic devices silenced and out of sight, or counting your breaths for a couple of minutes are great ways to unplug. We love the app Headspace at the Voyage Office and use it to meditate every morning as a team. There’s an awesome 10-day free trial that gives all levels of users wonderful guidance for how reset and find clarity. Each guided meditation is 10 minutes and is a great way to start your day! 2. Do some wacky creative writing When you’ve been working with the same story and characters for months or years, it’s pretty easy to get bogged down by the details. To counteract that obstacle, put down your project and write something totally different. You still get to flex your writing muscles and by focusing on a new story, you will get your creative... read more
by Voyage | Jul 7, 2017 | Book to Film, Entertainment Business
4 Steps To Finally Writing Your Book So here you are with a great idea for a book. Maybe it’s your own story, a story based on true events, or simply an awesome idea. You may have even been sitting on this story for months or years. Well it’s time to finally do something about it… But where do you start? I’m glad you asked 🙂 Whether you’re working on your tenth book or your first, use these steps to get that story out of your head and on paper. Decide what the book is about You may be thinking to yourself, “Yeah, obviously.” But you’d be surprised at how difficult this step can actually be. Let’s say you have a compelling life story—but you have so much material (your whole life!) to draw from that it can be overwhelming. It’s important to boil down the main plot points early on in the writing process so as not to get bogged down in the details. It’s also a good idea to decide on the goal length of your book at this stage too. That way, you can more easily outline the book ahead of time (and not end up with a 100,000 word epic-novel based on that one week you spent abroad in college). Set a daily word count goal We’re all busy. We all have things going on that could stop us from writing. But if now is the right time for you, you need to make time for it. Make it part of your daily routine, like brushing your teeth or walking the dog. Even if... read more
by Voyage | Jul 7, 2017 | Blog post, Entertainment Business, Font Page
By: Dan Benamor, Voyage Producer In film, there may be no key creative more marginalized than the screenwriter. Screenwriters are fired and re-hired, rewritten and written out, and generally cede power to the director, producers, studio executives, and so on in the filmmaking process. If you are fortunate enough to sell a screenplay, once you as the writer have signed on the dotted line, you relinquish control. The writer is often on the low end of the totem pole in the film world, but it’s a reality screenwriters usually have to come to terms with. As tough as it may seem sometimes to break through and maintain a creative vision of your script as described above, there is an exception to this rule… You can decide to produce a micro-budget screenplay. Taking this journey will require a screenwriter to utilize skillsets more akin to a producer, and/or (if so desired) a director. But by taking control of your own career in this way, you can guide the process, both creatively and pragmatically (there’s no one to blame but yourself if the film is not made). Micro-budget films can be made for extremely low budgets with the modern state of film technology. Crowdfunding has become a valuable resource to the micro-budget filmmaker, and on the back end of the process, VOD has democratized everything. A case in point here is a film I co-wrote, INITIATION. The film was released on just about every VOD platform last August. That means that if you are scrolling through VOD titles on ITunes or Amazon or any other VOD platform, you could easily find my film... read more
by Voyage | Jul 6, 2017 | Audience
By Tom Cartier Screenplay + Biography= Screen-Plography. In movie form they’re known as bio-pics, and throughout the history of cinema, Hollywood has always had an insatiable appetite for them. But before going any further, a disclaimer alert… I would never condone anyone trying to sell a film based on someone else’s life without first securing their rights. When shopping a project on the open market, always secure the rights first. However, if you’re just looking to make a big splash as a screenwriter or simply trying to get read, by all means. So long as no money changes hands, and the project is used strictly as a calling card, this can potentially work as a strategy that’s launched many a career. First and foremost, the basic story should be about someone who has done something extraordinary. The origin story of George Washington. Ted Kennedy’s ordeal at Chappaquiddick. The tale of how Francis Ford Coppola created his masterpiece The Godfather against all odds. All three of these ideas are scripts, currently making in-roads in Hollywood for the writers who created them; and all are great examples of what I consider to be Screen-Plographies. The key to it all is composing that perfect mix of personality and story, that flashpoint where truth and fiction collided to evoke something spectacular; a world where the truth actually did become stranger, and more arresting, than fiction. Oftentimes, it’s about telling the story of how a given person achieved fame, changed the world or made history. But just as frequently, it’s about that uncovered gem, that little known chapter in a well-known person’s life that’s absolutely riveting. Being a household name certainly... read more
