OnStage

OnStage Home

About the Project (Brief Description)

Traditional industry platforms prioritize résumés, representation, and networks, which leaves many talented creatives unseen. OnStage flips discovery into a collaborative process, allowing users to showcase their creative voice, style, and interests so they can find the right people to bring stories to life.

We built OnStage to reduce gatekeeping in the entertainment industry and make opportunity more accessible to emerging creatives.

Inspiration

We were inspired by how many talented creatives struggle to break into film and media because discovery is tied to who you know rather than what you can do. Great scripts sit unread, actors get typecast, and directors often rely on closed networks.

We asked ourselves:

OnStage is a discovery platform for film and creative professionals that helps scriptwriters, actors, directors, and crew find collaborators based on creative alignment rather than just credits or connections.
Traditional industry platforms prioritize résumés, representation, and networks, which leaves many talented creatives unseen. OnStage flips discovery into a collaborative process, allowing users to showcase their creative voice, style, and interests so they can find the right people to bring stories to life.
We built OnStage to reduce gatekeeping in the entertainment industry and make opportunity more accessible to emerging creatives.

What if discovery worked more like collaboration and less like networking?

OnStage was born from the idea that creative alignment should matter more than connections.

What It Does

OnStage connects scriptwriters, actors, directors, and crew through:

Creative-first profiles (genres, tone, influences, tagged reels)
A swipe-based discovery feed for projects and creatives
Messaging and document sharing to support collaboration
An AI-powered assistant that helps users find collaborators based on their needs (e.g., “I need a director for an indie thriller”)

Instead of static résumés, users show their creative identity and intent.

How We Built It

We built OnStage as a web platform using:

A modern frontend framework (React) for interactive profiles and discovery
Mock data to simulate a creative ecosystem
YouTube embeds for demo reels and trailers
A clean UI focused on creative storytelling rather than corporate networking

We focused on rapid prototyping to validate the idea during the hackathon.

Challenges We Ran Into

pushing and pulling, and merging on github
implementing a database and chat bot

Accomplishments We're Proud Of

Creating a platform that feels tailored to creatives rather than recruiters
Designing profiles that capture creative nuance (tone, influences, style)
Turning a complex industry problem into a simple user experience
Learning React

What We Learned

Discovery problems are often UX problems, not just technical ones
Creatives want to express identity, not just list skills
Even a prototype can spark meaningful conversations about access and gatekeeping
React