Ok well im about to start to write my first script and its going to be a horror flick. I want it to be a serial killer type like Jason or Mike Myers. Its weird, i have all these ideas in my head, i have some great ideas for some scenes...one problem is tying everything together like why is the killer killing people?. Would u guys sudgest me doing a short or a feature im going to be directing it myself if it comes out good(or to my likeing). I have no real experience with narative films besides a cupple music videos ive helped out on but i think i would be able to do it. Am i in over my head? Any tips on would help!
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Me doing a horror film?
- Thread starter brettzdamn
- Start date
You should definitely make a short first and then worry about doing a feature once you've already been through the whole process of completing a film.
Try to think of an original story idea, plan the beginning, middle, and end, and then begin writing. Use a limited amount of characters and locations if you're just going to do a short.
Hopefully that helps a bit.
Try to think of an original story idea, plan the beginning, middle, and end, and then begin writing. Use a limited amount of characters and locations if you're just going to do a short.
Hopefully that helps a bit.
Begin with building a story.
Story = Characters + Conflict + Resolution
You can get your killer/antagonist (with a plausible motivation) through the steps in this chart in a sensible three to five minutes.
Assuming there's a edit/cut every two seconds that's thirty edits per minute, so 90 to 150 edits to shoot and cut ought to give you plenty to begin with.
Plan your story around settings you have simple, easy access to: Home, friend's home, school grounds after school or over the weekend, the woods, the shore, train tracks, bridges, commercial property for sale, service areas behind strip malls, parking lots.
Be discrete when shooting in public.
Plan, plan again, review the plan with your peeps, get in get done get gone.
Don't make us listen to terrible audio.
I don't wanna listen to all these grown men whine and gripe. That irritates me more than minutes of mumble-static four yards out intercut with a 8x10 drywall echo chamber blabfest.
GL!
And I wouldn't go hog wild with the red food dye and kayro corn syrup with chocolate.
A, it'll stain the cr@p outta everything.
B, you're in Florida, it's summer, bugs. DUH!
C, stuff dries a nasty mess.
Maybe he can strangle victims instead.
Story = Characters + Conflict + Resolution
You can get your killer/antagonist (with a plausible motivation) through the steps in this chart in a sensible three to five minutes.
Assuming there's a edit/cut every two seconds that's thirty edits per minute, so 90 to 150 edits to shoot and cut ought to give you plenty to begin with.
Plan your story around settings you have simple, easy access to: Home, friend's home, school grounds after school or over the weekend, the woods, the shore, train tracks, bridges, commercial property for sale, service areas behind strip malls, parking lots.
Be discrete when shooting in public.
Plan, plan again, review the plan with your peeps, get in get done get gone.
Don't make us listen to terrible audio.
I don't wanna listen to all these grown men whine and gripe. That irritates me more than minutes of mumble-static four yards out intercut with a 8x10 drywall echo chamber blabfest.
GL!
And I wouldn't go hog wild with the red food dye and kayro corn syrup with chocolate.
A, it'll stain the cr@p outta everything.
B, you're in Florida, it's summer, bugs. DUH!
C, stuff dries a nasty mess.
Maybe he can strangle victims instead.
Yeah the basic idea is gonna be School just got out and 6 friends (who were seinors just graduated) are going camping(or to a secluded area) for the weeknd and the area they end up going to, their is a killer living their(im not sure why though).But even if we havta rent a log cabin in the woods somewear that would be a good shooting location. Im going to keep going over the chart their its verry helpfull. Thanks!
Also about the blood? Since im not sure why or how the killer is going to be killing yet im not sure how bloody its going to be but i definatly wanna have some fun with blood! Dosn't everyone?!?
Also about the blood? Since im not sure why or how the killer is going to be killing yet im not sure how bloody its going to be but i definatly wanna have some fun with blood! Dosn't everyone?!?
one other thing i feel i wouldnt we able to fit all the stuff on that chart into a short script...you know?
Watch the first five minutes of Kung Fu Panda.
See how much cr@p they cram in there.
The problem with most of us rooks is that we putz around, story wise, when we need to get our story-a$$es moving.
Just read the first four pages of this and then consider how much has happened before they even get to the interrogation room.
Read the first five pages of this.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's some UK folklore critter in there many UKers aren't familiar with. Just... be mindful of the story, characters, settings, actions and whatnot that are in motion.
Do-able?
Yeah - but it's gonna take some hard editing on your behalf.
No ten second walk to the end of the pier just to have antagonist rise from the mirror smooth lake, anchor rope in fetid hand to garrote B-grade protagonist.
Yeah the basic idea is gonna be School just got out and 6 friends (who were seinors just graduated) are going camping(or to a secluded area) for the weeknd and the area they end up going to, their is a killer living their(im not sure why though).But even if we havta rent a log cabin in the woods somewear that would be a good shooting location. Im going to keep going over the chart their its verry helpfull. Thanks!
Also about the blood? Since im not sure why or how the killer is going to be killing yet im not sure how bloody its going to be but i definatly wanna have some fun with blood! Dosn't everyone?!?
I don't mean to sound too presumptuous but this sounds very cliched. It may be good, of course but you would have to put a whole new spin on the idea, and serial killer character possibly to make it more different, then the others. To be fair I've never actually sold a script or anything, just written some. Just going by other movies.
I did a ton of research on serial killers before writing my own serial killer movie. Gruesome stuff!
Their motivations are basically always the same. As John Douglas, noted FBI profiler, points out in his somewhat sensationalist books: Manipulation. Domination. Control. There is also often a sexual gratification element, but it still hinges on the three basic motives. Serial killers are typically people who felt powerless growing up, or still feel powerless as adults. Abducting and murdering somebody makes them feel powerful and in control -- almost godlike.
Plus, a psychopath feels no empathy, and sees people as objects; as toys for their amusement. Check out, for example, how Jeffrey Dahmer depersonalized his victims and performed horrifying experiments on them. They can be outsiders who don't socialize well (like Dahmer), but they can also be master manipulators who prey on the trust and gullibility of others to get what they want (like John Wayne Gacy).
There's a classic triad of behavior that acts as a warning that your kid's a potential psychopath: bed wetting, arson, and animal torture and/or murder. If a kid has two out of three, look out, but all three is a big red alert. Especially animal murder; animals are a psychopath's testing ground for human victims.
Or, you can just make your killer some random, cartoonish nut job like in the films you mention. Who cares about realism when somebody's just offing folks in spectacular fashion? For the purpose of films, "they kill because they like it" has often served well enough. Backstory just slows the process of getting to the splashing blood.
Thanks!
Wow thats verry helpfull! Thanks alot! You got some ideas flowwing in my head! Now i just have to get them flowwing on the paper!
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... and if you can incorporate your murderer project with Chris' mirror project then you two could create the penultimate singularity in the space time continu--
I'll shuddup, now.
What if the good/bad reflections in Chris' mirror begin unfolding your story about the lake-side cabin murders instead of the current "content"?
You film and edit your parts.
Chris films and edits his parts.
Then the two of you figure out where to Franken-edit these two together!
Co-lab-O-RATION!
I'll shuddup, now.
What if the good/bad reflections in Chris' mirror begin unfolding your story about the lake-side cabin murders instead of the current "content"?
You film and edit your parts.
Chris films and edits his parts.
Then the two of you figure out where to Franken-edit these two together!
Co-lab-O-RATION!
Ray i just red what u wrote on my my thread so i jumped over to his and checked out the script and red your posts.....ITS pretty dam good idea! It might be a little hard becuase of the fact that hes in NY and im in FL but i guess anything is possible with the internet! Ima look into it!
Thank you, sir.
Would you believe systems integration is a fun little thing for me?
It would work fine.
You two just kibitz over email, build a celtx project file (not just the PDF), add as an attachment and send back and forth with revisions.
No big whup.
The creatively constipated NY pothead scenario has been figured, it just needs better dialog or "purposeful outcome" of dialog.
Your FL killer needs an unfolding motivation as the campers drop like geese on opening day.
You two will have to craft some sort of parallel story line between either:
- Pothead Protag & Killer Antag
- Pothead Antag & Killer Antag
(Somehow, I think crafting a Pothead Protag & Killer Protag is asking a bit much).
Pothead could easily be a very bad man himself, not "just" a loser stoner.
Haha maby even the "pixies" that the stoner sees. Could be the same "pixies" that tell the killer to kill people....but that would make it kinda comedyish lol
That's an excellent idea and it depends upon the execution.
How the Coen Brothers would direct George Clooney, how Guy Ritchie would direct Jason Statham, and how Eli Roth would direct Javier Bardem for the same role ain't anywhere near close to each other.
In fact, that's a good point you bring up; not only the genre (obviously horror) but the flavor or mood of the final product will need to be established.
Are both stories dark comedy?
Is the killer a straight horror drama while the reality is dark comedy?
Are they both horror drama?
Are they both dark comedy?
Is the reality dark drama and the killer's story dark comedy?
Bonus: What if the killer is reality and the stoner is his fantasy disassociation from his own acts?
Mobius twist: The Pothead's muses are actually telling him about the killer as the killer is telling the last victim about his revenge for them screwing up his screenwriting career after he wrote a story about his muses in the mirror telling him about the killer as the killer...
And since I may not be alone in loathing the narcissism of Hollywood writing about Hollywood you guys can/should consider making the pothead some other semi-professional.
Pothead/killer could be an musician, athlete, political candidate, or dentist! Everyone wants to get money out of dentists, right?
Maybe the victim is a county health inspector that shut down the local greasy spoon or dentist. Mad with debt, loss of livelihood and sanity his psyche fragments into the mirror as he tries to figure out how to exact revenge.
Or something like that.
How the Coen Brothers would direct George Clooney, how Guy Ritchie would direct Jason Statham, and how Eli Roth would direct Javier Bardem for the same role ain't anywhere near close to each other.
In fact, that's a good point you bring up; not only the genre (obviously horror) but the flavor or mood of the final product will need to be established.
Are both stories dark comedy?
Is the killer a straight horror drama while the reality is dark comedy?
Are they both horror drama?
Are they both dark comedy?
Is the reality dark drama and the killer's story dark comedy?
Bonus: What if the killer is reality and the stoner is his fantasy disassociation from his own acts?
Mobius twist: The Pothead's muses are actually telling him about the killer as the killer is telling the last victim about his revenge for them screwing up his screenwriting career after he wrote a story about his muses in the mirror telling him about the killer as the killer...
And since I may not be alone in loathing the narcissism of Hollywood writing about Hollywood you guys can/should consider making the pothead some other semi-professional.
Pothead/killer could be an musician, athlete, political candidate, or dentist! Everyone wants to get money out of dentists, right?
Maybe the victim is a county health inspector that shut down the local greasy spoon or dentist. Mad with debt, loss of livelihood and sanity his psyche fragments into the mirror as he tries to figure out how to exact revenge.
Or something like that.
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