Horror Filmmaking Your Script
This is a lesson I have taught before on my screenwriting blog and I am going to teach it here. I hope that some of you will get this one simple point that should rule the plots that you select for your scripts.
I will believe anything once.
Your audience will believe anything once.
The world will believe anything once.
If you are writing a comedy this rule does not apply, but if you are trying to be serious follow this rule no matter what else you may do.
I will believe that the ghost of dead pirates have come back to claim revenge of the town responsible for their deaths. The Fog. (The original)
I will believe that a man escaped after many years locked away in a mental institution and headed back home with the sole purpose of killing the last member of his family, his sister. Halloween.
I will believe that a band of cave explorers have found themselves trapped in a cave that is inhabited by carnivorous human like creatures. The Descent.
Take any good horror movie, Jaws, Alien, The Exorcist, Saw, The Thing, The Ring, The Blair Witch Project, The Grudge. They will all have one thing in common and that is that they are at their core about one thing.
Pick a bad horror film and I promise you that 95 percent of them ask you to believe more than one thing. Watch scifi channel and the mega shark lobster spider BS that they put on the air every week and you will quickly get my point.
Find one subject and stick to it, even if you get bored. A bored audience is better than a pissed off audience.
“But I got lots of ideas.”You say.
Good, then make lots of different movies.
The one script writing rule you must follow to create a good Horror Film is pick a subject and stick to it. I do not care if it is a killer bunny rabbit or a possessed block of ice, stick to that plot line to the end.
Killer bunny rabbit trailer alert:
Hey people still watch this movie. It still comes on cable a few times a year. It is a stupid plot, but they stuck to it and did you get a look at that cast?
Final advice on writing. Read as many scripts as you can and write every day. Like weight training you do it ever single day until it becomes a habit. Even if you are writing notes write something every day. I almost forgot one more thing. Do not confuse horror with suspense. In a horror film something is chasing you, in suspense you are chasing something. Disturbia is suspense the lead is chasing answers to his suspicions. While Fright Night is horror. The plots are close, but Charlie is being chased for most of the film by the neighbor who knows that Charlie knows that he is a vampire.
Good luck and remember to stumble us on stumbleupon and tell a friend about this blog.
This is a lesson I have taught before on my screenwriting blog and I am going to teach it here. I hope that some of you will get this one simple point that should rule the plots that you select for your scripts.
I will believe anything once.
Your audience will believe anything once.
The world will believe anything once.
If you are writing a comedy this rule does not apply, but if you are trying to be serious follow this rule no matter what else you may do.
I will believe that the ghost of dead pirates have come back to claim revenge of the town responsible for their deaths. The Fog. (The original)
I will believe that a man escaped after many years locked away in a mental institution and headed back home with the sole purpose of killing the last member of his family, his sister. Halloween.
I will believe that a band of cave explorers have found themselves trapped in a cave that is inhabited by carnivorous human like creatures. The Descent.
Take any good horror movie, Jaws, Alien, The Exorcist, Saw, The Thing, The Ring, The Blair Witch Project, The Grudge. They will all have one thing in common and that is that they are at their core about one thing.
Pick a bad horror film and I promise you that 95 percent of them ask you to believe more than one thing. Watch scifi channel and the mega shark lobster spider BS that they put on the air every week and you will quickly get my point.
Find one subject and stick to it, even if you get bored. A bored audience is better than a pissed off audience.
“But I got lots of ideas.”You say.
Good, then make lots of different movies.
The one script writing rule you must follow to create a good Horror Film is pick a subject and stick to it. I do not care if it is a killer bunny rabbit or a possessed block of ice, stick to that plot line to the end.
Killer bunny rabbit trailer alert:
Hey people still watch this movie. It still comes on cable a few times a year. It is a stupid plot, but they stuck to it and did you get a look at that cast?
Final advice on writing. Read as many scripts as you can and write every day. Like weight training you do it ever single day until it becomes a habit. Even if you are writing notes write something every day. I almost forgot one more thing. Do not confuse horror with suspense. In a horror film something is chasing you, in suspense you are chasing something. Disturbia is suspense the lead is chasing answers to his suspicions. While Fright Night is horror. The plots are close, but Charlie is being chased for most of the film by the neighbor who knows that Charlie knows that he is a vampire.
Good luck and remember to stumble us on stumbleupon and tell a friend about this blog.
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