CONJURING UP A BAD SEQUEL WRITING A GOOD HORROR FILM

 

CONJURING UP A BAD SEQUEL

I am writing this after seeing an early screening of the third Conjuring film, The Devil Made Me Do it. There were two factors that had me worried before accepting my screening pass. The first one was that the writer/ director, James Wan, had not come back for the third film. There are only a handful of Hollywood filmmakers who should be allowed near the horror genre and he is one of them. He decided not be in command of this project and instead selected the director of La Llorona, a man who has never met a loud noise that he did not believe could be improved by raising the volume.

The second thing that worried me was the trailer. If you were to watch the trailers for the first two conjuring films and were able to shorten a few clips these two films could have appeared to be dramas about families in distress. While the only way that you could cut the trailer for the third film is as a horror film.

I know that you are not here for a movie review but screenwriting advice and I am going to give it to you. Now please allow to say before I do this that this third film in the series is going to make money. Nothing could stop that from happening and if this was a generic horror film I would say that there is nothing wrong with that. Actors got to eat and bad directors need to get rehired.

Now let us look at what is wrong with this film.

What?

What did you say?

You do not have that much time?

Calm down, I can sum it up with one word.

Reality.

This movie does not occupy the real world or what we call reality.

Scene after scene after scene could only exist in a horror film.

From the first minute of the film we are clearly in a horror movie and it never takes time away from the jump scares to establish reality. The art of the great horror film is to establish a world that we all recognize and feel comfortable in. To ground us in normal life and then to flip it on its head. To have something dark and unknown attack what is normal. The problem with most horror films is that those worlds and the people in them do not exist in our world. They react in ways that poorly written characters do. We can do better. We have to do better because the number one horror franchise is headed toward a sad end.

Okay, this is the lesson for today.

If there is going to be a demon, a ghost, a vampire or a killer doll, the audience will respect what you have done and reward you handsomely if you first ground your story in the real world.  The Conjuring showed us a glimpse into the lives of a real family. The second film a real working class British family. They have real life problems before the supernatural elements arrive. My ultimate advice is to write your screenplay. Write a complete screenplay about the characters who occupy this world that you have built but leave out the horror elements in the first draft. If that first draft reads like a quality psychological thriller then during the second draft feel free to layer in the supernatural elements. Add the evil spirit, add the killer doll, add the vampire, the curse, the demon, the supernatural element.

 

Now let us look at the trailers for each film starting with the first one. The trailer is more effective the entire third film. 

 

Now the second film. I believe that the movie is better than the trailer. The first thirty minutes of this film is the most effective that I have seen in a horror film since the Exorcist. 

 

Now let’s look at the trailer for the third film. This is truly another universe that we are visiting. 

 

 

Before I leave you I want to offer a video that explains how James Wan sets up a horror scene.

 

Thanks for visiting the blog. Check out my book on screenwriting. Available on Audible.

THE CHANGING SCREENWRITING WORLD

THE CHANGING SCREENWRITING WORLD 
Years ago when I started this blog I took a lot of heat from writers who did not understand what I was trying to tell them.
 Five years ago I suspected that no budget screenwriting would be the future of the industry and those who had dreams of million dollar options hated everything that I had to say. 
 How can you write a screenplay for a movie that cost less than fifty thousand dollars to produce? Who would even make such a movie? 
Who would watch such a movie? 
And how would I get paid a living wage?
 I saw the Dslr revolution coming to the low budget film world. I was part of it. I understood that film could be shoot in 4K on consumer cameras and edited on laptops. I understood that the days of the big screen premiere were coming to an end and the days of streaming content had arrived. 
 Netflix started it and now there are half a dozen giant screaming services and dozens of smaller ones. To be a working screenwriter you have to think like a working middle class film maker. These filmmakers need to produce massive amounts of content. 
This means that they need screenplays. 
This means that we are in a golden age for writers who care about seeing their work produced. Writers who are willing to enter into partnerships with filmmakers and gamble on playing the long term game of profit sharing. If you are willing to learn the basics of micro budget filmmaking then you can and will see your work produced. From films to online series, the sky's the limit. There is a need for content out there and this is now the golden age for the content producer as long as he or she is willing to understand that the fifty million dollar star-driven suspense thriller has been replaced by the fifty thousand dollar indie horror film.

  Please do not panic. The road to fame, fortune and glory do not end there, it can begin there. Many writers of micro budget films have gone on to work at the major studios. To achieve that goal all that I believe that you have to do is to write a few micro budget films and get not only paid but the experience along the way.

Start with a Horror Screenplay

 Every screenwriter knows it is notoriously difficult to break into Hollywood. However, there is a way that is proven worthwhile if it is done right. Low budget horror screenplays are a great way to break into the industry, and they don't have to be bad B-movie's either.

  Consider this: the wildly popular movie Unfriended brought in forty-eight million dollars in the box office, while only having a budget of one million dollars. Horror is a low risk genre with massive potential, because there is already a built in audience. If you stick to a well thought out script without the major computer graphic or special effects, it could be your way in.

  You should be of course concerned with the quality of your screenwriting. Think of originality. There are so many horror movies that viewers don't want to be bored with the same old plots and scares. Try to draw out your own fears because this can inspire you to create even greater plots. It can also make you think of scenes that haven't been done before. Try to stay as close to reality as possible. The fact that it can happen to you is more frightening. Finally, don't overdue it. That makes your screenplay seem more like a parody than something truly scary.

  Think about the movie Seven. It is based off of the seven deadly sins. They used an incredibly low budget with no special effects, but the plot made it so that you could really think it could happen to you. Also movies like It Follows and Get Out have been huge hits as compared to budget.
Offering a low budget movie as your first screenplay makes your script that much more attractive to potential producers. Not only that, it could be a huge hit. If this is your genre, you have a great window of opportunity. If you take advantage of it, you could really prosper.

 This has been a guest post. Thanks to the writer and I invite others to post on screenwriting topics of their choosing. 
 

If you would like a mini masterclass in the art of micro budget screen writing my book on the subject is now available in audio form. You can find it at audible and on Amazon.

 
 

YOU WANT TO BE A HOLLYWOOD SCREENWRITER

YOU WANT TO BE A HOLLYWOOD SCREENWRITER?

I understand the feeling that comes from the idea of being a successful Hollywood screenwriter. It is like getting a lifetime membership to the country club. Vision of wealth and fame fill the imagination. That is the reality for those who reach the tip top of the food chain. For the average screenwriter you are going to struggle. The hard work that you did to get there is going to double once you get a foot in the door. 

 

This is not the worst thing that can happen if you learn the basic rules of how to write a quality screenplay. If you are doing something that you know how to do and that you love to do then no amount of work will seem too much for you. I love to write once I sit down to do it. I am sure that most of you love the process as well. Here at this blog I hope to share a few lessons that I have learned along the way and to offer you advice that have been posted by others.

I know that some of you are wondering if I have ever sold a screenplay to a Hollywood producer. When I was younger I entered the contest and tried to network my way in, but the game was not for me. Thankfully I decided to walk away from that chase just when the indie micro budget film making revolution was getting started. I found people who could shoot movies for under twenty thousand dollars and since I enjoyed the work more than the idea of wealth I have had the time of my life for the last few years and who knows if I ever write a breakout hit I could get to continue to have fun and freedom doing what I love and make a lot of money too.

Here I an excerpt from my book On Low Budget Screenwriting. You can find it at audible and on Amazon, to do so click image of book cover below.

   


 

AUDIO BOOK ON SCREENWRITING

A few years ago I decided that the best way to tell all that I knew about low budget screenwriting was to write a book. Some of you have read it. Now any more of you can little to it if you have an audible.com account. Please take the time to visit this link and after you have listened to it you could maybe leave a review. 

Below I have decided to post two random chapters from my audio book On Writing a Low Budget Screenplay. 

 







Thank you for visiting my site, please take a moment to share by hitting the share link of the audio clip. 

Good luck with your screenwriting and have a great day.

LOW BUDGET HOLLYWOOD DREAMING

LOW BUDGET HOLLYWOOD DREAMING

Ten years ago the Hollywood idea of a low budget film was ten to twenty million dollars. Now they actually produce films in the million dollar range that turn a huge profit. These films (usually horror or thrillers or faith based) are produced independent of studio involvement. These films can sometimes fool the screenwriter into believing that because of box office success they are Hollywood films and come with the massive up front paydays we have read about.



  Understand that if you are writing a low budget film that you are going to be dealing with a indie director or producer and not a studio. The pay is small, but the opportunity is amazing. Write the next Get Out, War Room, The Witch or Paranormal Activity or It Follows and your future in the industry could be very bright. Just remember that the rules still apply when writing one of these films. Limit the cast, limit the locations and limit the effects that are required to tell the story and you have a low budget film script.

 Even though the M. Night films The Visit (5 million to produce) and Split (9 million) were made by a Hollywood film maker these films are the prototypes to follow as far as crafting the low budget screenplay. If you were to illuminate the High price director and talent both films could have been produced for a forth of those budgets. 







  This post is about Hollywood, but I want you to keep in mind that being able to write a low budget screenplay will be a skill that you will need no matter where you end up working in this industry. To learn more I have a great audio book that will soon be available soon. That you for your time and good luck.

amazon paperback

BOTH SCREENWRITER AND FILMMAKER

In a world where film has largely been replaced by digital the modern screenwriter needs to consider the idea of being both screenwriter and filmmaker. 

 For the first century of film making the writer hoped to be part of the film making process as a voice on set or to work their way up to directing someday. This was because movies costed so much to make. Millions of dollars meant that there was a system that allowed very little if any vertical movement. Now low budget films are shot for under a million dollars. The ultra low budget film can be done for less than one hundred thousand. The micro budget film can be done and done well for under ten thousand dollars.


 If you want to be the writer, the producer and the director you can now do this. You do not have to use your own money either. You can shoot a scene of a minute or two to prove your concept and then use it in a crowd funding campaign. You can now craft a no budget screenplay, shoot it and use it to market your skills as a writer or better yet the all in one filmmaker. Let's look at the no budget short film.


 

  Perhaps it is time to consider that the best way to become a successful screenwriter is first to become a film maker. 

If you wish to learn how to craft a micro budget screenplay I have written a great little book that you can check out. It is a paperback that soon will be for sale as an audiobook. What I have suggested here is one path to becoming a successful screenwriter. 

In the next post we will look at the Hollywood way. If you wish to learn more about micro budget film making I would suggest visiting my other blog on the subject. Click here to do so. 


Thanks and good luck with your screenplay.

Adapting a Public Domain Comic Book

How About Public Domain Comic Books

 As we watch another summer where many of the massive budget films were adapted from popular comic books. as a micro budget screenwriter there are not many direct ways for you to get in on the action. These adaptations are for those who have worked in the Hollywood system for a while. There are however ways for you to prove yourself capable of writing one of these types of screenplays. I have superheroe dreams like many of your. I would love to do a Green Hornet screenplay, but no one is going to offer me a shot unless I have a track record. 

 How do you build a track record in this genre? 

 You can write a great fan film based upon one of your favorite heroes. The best micro budget superhero film that I have ever seen (better than a few of the big budget versions as well) is a fan film titled Joker Rising. That movie’s script is a great calling card. You could do the same thing. The only problem with this is that you either need to be a film maker or network with film makers who are interested in shooting a fan film.


    

 Recently I was introduced to a new concept. Instead of adapting a famous comic book into a screenplay why not adapt a public domain comic book. A little known fact is that there are thousands of comics that have fallen into the public domain due to the fact that the companies in the forties and fifties that released them went out of businesses and never renewed the copyrights. 

 “That was a long time ago. You can not be serious. Who wants to bring back a character from the forties or fifties?”You say. 

 

Superman, Batman, Wonderwoman and my favorite Captain America began their careers around World War 2. Those characters have endured and changed with the times. You should take the time to investigate these lost characters. There are also characters that are based upon mythical heroes such as Thor or Isis. You can take these heroes and created a screenplay featuring them as long as they do not resemble their comic book counterparts. Sci-fi channel does things like this all the time. They did a Thor movie and it was pretty bad, but they did it and had no problem with the copyright. 

You can make the Frankenstein monster into a hero an antihero like Dracula which is done to perfection in the anime series Hellsing.

 

  If you chose to do this you must first find a subject that you love. Read the original material over and over until you know every single detail and then get to work on the story. If you do not love a character and comic book based films are usually character driven stories then you should not attempt the task of writing a screenplay based upon that character. 


 Good luck with your project and please take a moment to add me to your google plus. I may have some news soon about a screenplay I have been working on for sometime.

Consider The Audience

Consider The Audience

 My favorite film maker Alfred Hitchcock would constantly talk about the audience. He always had what each and ever scene was doing to his audience. Film making to him was the art of conducting an audience like a conduct would conduct an orchestra. 

 When sitting down to craft your screenplay are you only considering the characters on the page or are you thinking about the audience that someday will be getting to know them. When you have mastered your craft you will find yourself considering what each scene and within those scenes what each line of dialogue and or action is going to be doing to this audience.

  

The first and best way to get the audience involved with your screenplay is to get them to care about you characters. These characters do not have to be likeable, but they do need to be understandable and relatable. If they care about your lead character or villain then you are half way home.


 



  Thank you very much for visiting my blog. If you are interested in learning all the basics of writing a micro budget screenplay then I would recommend my ebook on the subject. Good luck with your screen writing and have a nice day.

Screenwriting Advice, From the Pros

Screenwriting Advice, From the Pros


 I know that it has been over six months since my last post. I have been busy writing a series of ebooks, two of which will be available by the middle of the month of November. Until then I thought that I would touch base with all of my blogs. I have had little to say about screenwriting due to the fact that I published a really good book on the subject last year and the fact that it comes easy to me these days. 

Part of writing about any given subject is the effort to find a better way to understand that subject. I write about film making at my other blog because there is a lifetime of lessons left to learn on that subject. Returning to this blog I can predict that I will approach future post more from the angle of a film maker rather than a screen writer. 

As a writer first, I thought only in terms of story. Now I look at the screenplay in a new light. I will explain what I mean by this in future post. Right now I would like to share a backlog of videos from a few accomplished screen writers.

 First up is Joe Eszterhas. 

 

Next up is Peter Russell.





 The last writer we are going to hear from is Thunder Levin. If you do not know him he wrote a certain shark/tornado movie. Okay, fine, I will say it. He wrote Sharknado and he seems to be proud of it. 

 


 Thank you for visiting my blog and if you would like a complete tutorial on how to write a micro budget screenplay you may want to check out my book pictured below. Good luck and please take a moment to share this post and to like it on stumbleupon. 

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The Found Footage Vs. The Footage Script

                    The Found Footage Vs. The Footage Script


    The found footage film is here to stay as long as it grows and adapts. Adaptation is the key to this. The western, the gangster film and the horror film changed over time. The horror film of the silent era grew up to become the four star films produced by Universal films in the 1930's. The genre nearly died off and then came back with a vengeance in the 50's. Led by Hammer horror films and aided with a massive wave of the newly introduced scifi horror film.

    We all know the formula by now. A group of people, one armed with a recording device, find themselves in a life and death situation. This situation is usually supernatural or thriller related. Despite the best efforts of the mostly brain dead or functioning brain damaged lead characters they end up getting themselves killed while the camera is still recording. That death is symbolic for the death of the genre.

    Found footage, must become footage films. This is done at the screenplay level and that is the reason for this post.

    What I have found is that most found footage films are not written they are outlined. They are usually structured in the form of a treatment. The basic scenes are written in normal screenplay style. The interiors or exteriors are noted and then there is a description of what the characters are suppose to do and talk about in the scene without actually stage direction or dialogue being written. As a writer you are leaving to much to chance in the found footage genre.

    The footage film screenplay is the wave of the future.

    What is a Footage screenplay and have I ever seen an example.

    The footage screenplay is a screenplay that incorporates footage shot by someone or a series of people and or security cameras on screen and mixes it with footage from a third person shooter (the cameraman).  The best example of this kind of film making is the movie End of Watch. Where the editing is done so well that you have to really focus on each scene to notice when and where the switches are made.



 
    Below is a great example of how footage and found footage can be combined to produce a quality low budget film.  Screen was shot on a budget of about four thousand dollars and combines footage from iphones and the Canon 5d mark II.

    This style of screen writing gives control back to the writer to deliver a quality story. If you are going to put your name on a found footage screenplay even if you only wrote a twenty page outline you are going to be blamed if it stinks. For the sake of your writing career the Footage screenplay gives you more control over the content that will comprise the finished product.

    You will have to pick your devices and where and when to embed the on screen devices. Writing one of these films will require you to think at times as a director within the film itself.

When inserting them into the script put these scenes down as point of view (POV).

Character’s name and then POV.

POV of security cam or webcam.

    You will find the best way of doing this. Just think in terms of footage rather than found footage and this will be a gift both to characters and audience. The audience that views the finished product will thank you. The characters that survive rather than finding themselves laying dead in a pool of their own blood beside a sputtering camcorder will love you.

    Now go write some great scenes so that you or your director can go out and shoot some great footage.
That will be it for today. Please take a moment to add me to your Google plus and to share this post on your facebook.

The Low Budget Holiday Script

Another holiday season has arrived and we find movies in theatres and on television with holiday themes. This is nothing new. Holiday movies have been part of the film making landscape since the very early days. Simple stories about home and faith and family.

I say home and faith and family while leaving out Santa Claus because after watching two weeks non stop of these kinds of films I am going to suggest that we all take a step away from the I am Santa films.

I understand why many filmmakers pick the Santa film, it is a way of making a movie all inclusive and a way of avoiding questions of faith. I would ask those film makers the question “Is that what you really want to be?” The equivalent of oatmeal or canned tuna? The holiday film that embraces faith and family most of all is the most popular of them all, It’s A Wonderful Life. The second most popular are versions of A Christmas Carol. Even the story of Santa Claus is based upon the life of a Christian Saint.

To do something truly memorable and lasting you may need to embrace this part of the holiday theme.

Switch for a moment to the area of comedy I am not against in anyway films such as - Plains, Trains and Automobiles or the first two Home Alone films. Comedy has its place. Although those movies are not low budget. You should always try to find a place to include a little comedy in your film even if is a serious drama. A holiday film script that is too down beat can be a hard sell. I wish that good old fashion tear jerkers were still popular, but audience are not demanding them. A lead character with a strong sense of humor is a good thing. They may not tell the jokes, but they should be able to get the joke or have the ability to laugh at themselves. 

   

 The great thing about holiday films is that most of them are at their core very simple scripts to write. The plots usually come down to two subjects. Either going home or appreciating what you had at home. A nice twist on this theme is the Nicholas Cage film, The Family Man.

The going home plot can fit perfectly into the no budget screenplay world. You can set one of these stories inside of a car or on a bus. Keeping your characters on the move can keep your story fresh as you introduce new characters and situations every few pages.

A few words on watching your budget in the travel and home types of scripts. Do not constantly change mode of transportation. This works great in a large budget film like Planes, Trains and Automobiles, but will kill a micro budget film. If your character or characters are travelling by car you can change vehicles a few times without blowing up a budget. If it is by bus the same bus location can double for multiple buses locations. After all if you have seen the inside of one cross country bus then you have seen them all. Plane and train travel can be done on a low budget depending on area of the country and access to sets. If you or the person that will be shooting your script lives in LA. NY. or a Canadian film making center then this can be done without blowing up a budget.

Now a note on the faith based holiday film.

You can write for a larger cast and crew than a standard low budget film because the film maker will, if he or she is smart, partner with a church or community organization that will open the doors to many free locations such as churches and community centers along with many people who will be willing to offer their services for free. Just remember the trade off in this area is that you must present a G or PG rated story with no subject material that will be objected to. This will include Santa and elves, do not include them. In the faith based world Christmas is a high holy day. Christmas is the beginning of the love story between mankind and god. Although there are a few dozen new family and faith based films coming to television this year there is only one that will playing in theaters. The Christmas Candle, and it like almost every such film has been beaten up by critics. If you want to be loved by critics and to win awards you are not going to get them if you write in this niche. Critics did not care much for It’s A Wonderful Life so understand that you will have little to no hope of winning them over.
    

I may have suggested rules, but the truth is that there are no rules. You can tell your holiday story anyway that you wish if you are going to be the film maker. If you want to take your screenplay to market then you will have to consider some of the basic rules. Directors and producers seem to want the familiar. This is perhaps why there has been hundreds of variations of the Christmas Carol plot.

Last note on the subject, you can mine classic songs for material. By classic I mean those in public domain. If you want to use a modern song then go out and negotiate for permission to do so. One of the most popular Christmas films in recent years was the movie Christmas Shoes. I believe that most movies based upon songs are thinly plotted, but it can get you from start to finish and just finishing a script gets you ninety percent of the way to seeing it produced someday.

Now if you feel that I have left out the subject of horror and holiday films. I did this because I have seen all of the Silent Night Deadly Night films. A few about killer snow men and the legendarily bad Santa Slays. I do not want to aid you in writing a horror movie for the holidays.

Peace on earth and good will towards men.

Please take a moment to share this post, by Pinning it or stumbling it or posting in on your facebook.

Thank you for visiting and happy holidays. 

Your Screenplay, No Need to Type

Your Screenplay, No Need to Type Recently

I had a long talk with a film maker who said that she was not getting the types of screenplays that she could relate to. That the characters did not look like her. At first this struck me as sounding unusual, after all characters are characters. They are just names on a piece of paper. Well as we talk about it I began to see what she was saying.

The film maker in question is Asian and most of the screenplays that she had been sent introduced each character with a short description of the characters. Are you seeing where this is headed? Beyond the name and age of the character there was usually a lot of extras.

What this taught me a very important lesson that I wish to share with you. Film makers will come in all different shapes, sizes, ages and races. If your primary goal is to craft a screenplay that you can market then you need to consider this when you are doing your final edit. The best seller item on earth is generic. The generic brand is a great brand. I am not suggesting that you make a generic screenplay, but characters that can be preformed by as many actors as possible. Keep in mind that thanks to digital film making more and more actors are looking for material to produce for themselves.

Let’s look at it in Charles Angels terms for a second. You write a screenplay. You have Drew Barrymore in mind. She reads it, does not care for it, but Lucy Liu picks it up. She likes the script, but the lead character is clearly written for Drew, right down to her goofy smile. Lucy says no because of this. Lucy is a type and Drew is a different type. Both can give you a quality performance. More importantly both have the kind of resources to pay you well for your screenplay.

    

 In the low budget world of screen writing you are going to be introduced to film makers from all over the world and of all races and creeds. Keep the character description simple and generic unless it is important to the story. Also when you take a chance it would be cool to take a risk or two with characters. A woman could be your villain instead of the cookie cutter guy. Who would have thought a few years ago that the most well known drug trafficked in television history would look like the guy on Breaking Bad.

Make your screenplay more marketable by giving directors and producers more freedom to pick a cast.

One of my favorite thrillers is the movie Taken. I have written about it often here. The cast is solid, but the script and the direction are the things that elevate it to another level. This year I was introduced to an asian film that I was told was as good. The movie is the Man From Nowhere and I believe that it is actually a better film than Taken because the script does not allow us to look away for even a moment from the hard choices that the characters must make. You could find the movie on Netflix and I strongly suggest you watch it and tell me what you think. By the way, the trailer does not do it justice. The film and the script behind it works on so many levels.
  

 Thank you for visiting my blog. Please take a moment to share this post and to add me to your google plus. 

My Screen Writing Book

My Screen Writing Book

 I have just published a book on how to write a low budget screenplay. Hang in there for a moment this is not just going to be a shameless plug for my ebook  On Writing A Low Budget Screenplay, available now for the low price of 2.99 at iTunes, Barnes and Noble and Amazon. That was not totally shameless was it?

I thought that the book was needed when looking at all the other ones out there. No one really seems to get that this is becoming a digital - Dslr driven film industry yet and how to craft screenplays that can be made in that ten thousand dollar or less range. If you decide to invest in a copy of the book you will find that a third of it is made of post that have appeared on this blog. The rest consist of new content.

Okay today I would like to offer an excerpt from the book. A chapter about what I would like to call the SaberMetrics of Screenwriting. I hope that most of you have seen Moneyball and perhaps ever read the script. If you cut the on field stuff out and there is not much of that in the film, it could have easily been done on a low budget. Before we begin here is a clip from the film.

The Sabermetrics Of Screenwriting.

Many of you have seen the movie Moneyball. I think that I have seen it a dozen times largely due to the facts that I love baseball and I love the very idea that just because there is a way that things have been done, does not mean that there is a way that things will always be done or should be done.

If you are unfamiliar with the film and the concept of Sabermetrics. At the end of the day you can boil almost everything including baseball down to a single number. A mathematical equation that will make you a winner and or a loser. Despite the fact that this low cost concept worked there are many in baseball who believe to this day that it is all smoke and mirrors or dumb luck.

The micro budget film is sort of sabermetrics being played out in the film industry. Here comes another summer of bloated films that cost between one hundred million to two hundred and fifty million dollars. One of those films will win the yearly box office race. That is the top of the line number, but not the whole story. A super hero movie that cost two hundred million dollars makes one point two billion world wide and the studio heads go crazy. That is a 6 to 1 return on investment not counting in the two hundred million that was also spend to advertise it.

A low budget film like Paranormal Activity cost less than a hundred thousand to make. It gets two to four million in advertising. Most of it online. Let us say a total of five million invested in the release of a film that goes on to make over one hundred million in the US alone. The return on investment is 20 to 1.
The world that Hollywood has created will be rocked to its core when someone makes a comedy for thirty thousand dollars that makes a hundred million. This is going to happen and perhaps you will be the one to write it. The 1929 stock market crash moment for Hollywood studios will be one of us writes a super hero movie that is shoot for under a hundred grand and the thing makes a hundred million plus selling merchandise and spawning toys.

The goal of writing a micro budget film is not to create a movie that will generate a micro budget return. The goal is to write the best movie possible. To create a story that the whole world will embrace.

Your budget should be small, but your goals should never ever be small. The idea behind sabermetrics was that a small market team with a limited payroll could compete with the riches and most powerful teams on earth. They could beat them by paying attention to the little things that had gone totally ignored.

The script that you write can easily be better than the ones that will populate theaters this summer. Low to micro budget does not mean that your screenplay will not be fantastic.

You will be writing a small and compact story, but your aims should never be small.


     Okay that is it for this post. Please take a moment to share this post and to stumble it on stumbleupon. The idea of selling the book is a nice one, but the idea of screenwriters learning the proper way to not only write a low budget screenplay, but write a really good one is more important to me. I am not impressed so far by this summers big budget blockbusters and just as disappointed with many of the low and micro budget films I have seen. The weakness in most of these films begin and end with the screenplays. We can do better. We have to do better.

Thank you and good luck.

About Being A Writer

 
I have written over forty post on this blog and I have failed to mention one the most important thing.

We are writers.

It is not easy to be a writer.

If you are really good at it then you are a rare and wonderful thing. Writing is like performing magic. We start with a blank page. We produce something from no where and even after it has appeared we are the last person who could possible explain where it came from.

How did you do that?

How did you come up with that character?

Where did that plot twist come from?

The most frightening question of all is, “What are you going to write about next?” Screenwriting is still writing. It depends more on form, style and technique that the art of the novel, but it is still writing. In some ways it is harder than writing a novel because you have no real restrictions where the novel is concerned.  

  You have decided to write screenplays. You have a talent for writing in general or you would not be here or would not have chosen this path in life. I tell people that if someone would pay me money to play baseball instead of writing I would never write again. That is a lie of course. I was a pitcher and that was mostly by choice. You see the pitcher is the one who controls the narrative flow of the game or in other words the plot.

I remember that Mickey Spillane would say that he would be a house painter if they paid as much for painting as they did writing the Mike Hammer novels. Maybe he really believed that, but I believe that after a few weeks of painting walls he would have looked up at the end of the day to find that instead of putting primer on the wall he painted pictures of hot dames and sleek 45 caliber guns.  

If I were forced to do only one thing in the film making industry it would not be acting. I have wore the hat of a producer and will wear it again and that will only be because I will have to. I like directing, but I would not trade control of a film set for control over that blank computer screen.

I have written Fade In a few hundred times and only managed to write Fade Out less that two dozen times, but the act of finishing with those two words even though I knew at the time I would have to go back over it and cut and repair the thing over and over were still some of the happiest moments of my life.

Today I wanted to remind you that you are a writer.

When people ask you who you are and what you do the words, if they are true, will come immediately to your lips. Say to them, I am a writer. I write movies. I write screenplays. I am a screenwriter.

Screenwriting, A Learned Skill

Screenwriting, A Learned Skill


You need some talent to be a writer. Talent for the chosen field is a given, but just about everyone can tell a simple story. The art of the novel is 80 percent talent and twenty percent technique. The art of screen writing is twenty percent talent, forty percent technique and forty percent persistence.

The good news is that the technical aspect can largely be gotten through basic software programs. We have gone over them before and I can do a quick listing of some of the best no budget options for you.
 Celtx is great and is free to use. There is a upgraded version that cost about ten dollars. Unless you are going to be producing the movie as well the upgraded copy is not necessary. There is the great store and working on your screenplay online resource Scripped. This site s free to sign up at. Free to use. Free to store your screenplay there online. They have a screenplay registration service that is great if you do not use the writer’s guild or want to file for a copy write. There is also the free software known as Roughdraft. It has templates for stageplay screenplay and novel. It is great and very simple to use.

Next I can not teach you to have talent. Either you do or you do not. If you have little or no story telling talent that is okay. You can still find a way to craft a screenplay. You can adapt someone else’s story or a true story that you have read about or heard about. The talent to tell a great story is not needed if you can find a great story. Once the story is found all you have to do is to fall back on the technique of writing the screenplay. Identify the lead character. Figure out who or what are the protagonist and the antagonist. Learn all that you can about creating conflict. Conflict is what drives a narrative story forward. Opposing forces pushing against each other.

Next learn the basics of the three act structure. It is as simple as beginning middle and end. If you can understand that Act I is the beginning, Act II is the middle and Act III is how to script will reach an end.
Now since this blog is about low to no budget screen writing then I have to remind you that you must limit the size of your cast and the number of locations. To pick up and move a crew and actors cost money every time that you do it. To secure a location cost. To move equipment cost. Even if a production does not pay the actors they have to be fed and travel cost as well so keep those things in the back of your mind when writing your micro budget screenplay and in the front of your mind when rewriting it.

The last word has to be about persistence. You have to face that plank screen everyday. Write something everyday. Aim for a rough draft pace of five to six pages a day. That is between a thousand to fifteen hundred words. At this pace you can finish your first draft in about three weeks. It this pace is too much that is okay. One page a day, everyday, for a year is equal to four ninety page screenplays a year. That is a great
pace. What I am trying to tell you is that as long as you write something everyday you are doing better than ninety five percent of the writers out there. Write as often as possible. Writing is like lifting weights. You get stronger and it gets easier. Persistence pays off over time. Keep writing. Keep writing and did I mention that I think you should keep writing?

Okay that is it for today. Thank you for visiting and please take a moment to stumble us on stumbleupon and to share this post.

The Anthology Script, Know Your Nouns

The Anthology Script, Know Your Nouns

The problem with many Anthology scripts in not the individual stories within the movie. It is how they connect. Imagine trying to write a hit song and the backing music constantly changes with each verse and every time that the chorus repeats. That song would not sound good and it is a sort of back beat that is required for an Anthology film script to work.



What I am saying is that there needs to be a connecting element.

There needs to be something that binds it all together. That something is a NOUN. Some of us who are beyond the age of thirty learned first about nouns by watching a Saturday morning cartoon named schoolhouse rock. A really cool two minute song that taught us that a noun is a person, place or thing. Every person that you know and every place that you can go, you know that they are nouns, they are nouns.
The binding element should be a person, place or thing that recurs and connects each short film that will form the complete feature length Anthology film. There have been some good tries at making anthology films, but I think they missed greatness because of the problem with nouns. Look at the movie VHS, the connecting element is a video tape and I would argue that this is so vague that would it had been any different if they had used a television to connect the stories. The parts do not fit because the noun is not strong enough to hold the entire film together. We get two good stories and three okay ones that do not have anything internally to connect them. They are not even all the same genre.



When writing your anthology screenplay I would suggest picking your noun and sticking to it for three to six stories, any more than that and you are talking the ABC’s of Death and I do have to say that the alphabet is not the best way to connect one story with another. People will get tired after five or six stories. That is just the history of the genre. Again find the noun. A place that connects all the stories. This is a good idea when writing a micro budget script. Using the same location as much as possible really helps to keep a budget in line. Pick an object that connects the stories. It could be a book or a smartphone or a mirror or a ring. Anything that can move from person to person and or place to place logically. Then there is the person. The person can be the actor who will play many roles, think of the amazing anthology Trilogy of Terror where Karen Black plays a school teacher, then twins and then a woman being menaced by a killer doll. Always the same face with a different name and location for each story. The face connects the stories. A common character or group of characters and do this as well. A lawyer or a priest or a group of cops. They can begin the story together and spread out over the entire length of the film script and perhaps finish the story together.
There are a thousand ways to do this, but it will be so much easier to get from fade in to fade out if you keep focused on the nouns.

Final note about this subject. It does not have to be horror. I know that most modern anthologies are horror films, but it can be done with drama, suspense or even comedy. Do not limit yourself to one genre because it is popular or you think that it will make more money. Write what you love. If that noun allows you to combine genres then go for it.

Try to write everyday and try to read as many scripts as you can. It will make you a better writer.
Good luck guys and please take a moment to share this post with a friend.

Low Budget Screenplay, Characters and Dimensions

Low Budget Screenplay, Characters and Dimensions

The problem with most screenplays begin before we get to whether or not the plot is sound. The problems begin at the level of characterization.

You have heard about three dimensional characters. In an effort to produce such a character you go out and write a character with a series of traits and skills that you hope will add depth to your character. This never works. This is not how a three dimensional character is created.

Look at dimensions as layers. Try to create a character when writing your screenplay that has layers.


Ask yourself a question about the lead character.

Who do they say that they are?

If they say I am a good person who loves my family, my dog, my friends and the whole wide world. Or the reverse I am a good person, but I can not stand my family, my dog, my so called friends or this crazy world I live in.

That is fine to start of with, but if that is your character from page one to page one hundred and one you have created a boring one dimensional character.

Here is a quick glimpse at a villain who is definitely not one dimensional.



Go beyond this to the next layer.

Who is this person underneath?

I love my family, but I need to spend hours away from them one a fishing trip or at work just to get away from them. I love the world, but I do not care about everything that happens to it, on it or inside it. I love my friends, but I am tired of dealing with their problems, their drama or even their upbeat attitude.

Or I hate the world, but there is one person that would make me fight to save it. It could be a child. It could be a love. It could be someone that they know, but has never said anything to. Shyness in a character or self doubt is a great second dimension. There are any number of character traits that can add dimension to a character in your low budget script.

To review. What a character says they are or even what other characters say about the lead character and who or what they actually say or do in reality adds a second dimension.

The third dimension is more tricky.

Here is a character that is fully three dimensional.



It could be something that the character discovers about themselves. Something good or bad that they never knew was there. A hero finds out that he is a coward when the going gets really tough. A person who has never stuck his neck out for anyone finds that he is willing to risk his life for a stranger. It is what the character does not know that adds that extra. It surprises both the character and more importantly the audience.

Writing a low budget screenplay requires that you pay more attention to characterization. Big budget films can and do get away with paper thin characters. They can hide this behind massive special effect and stars. The success of your low budget screenplay will depend on how well it is written. On how strong your characters are. Get to know these characters. You will over time discover things about them as they discover things about themselves. I am not going to lie to you and tell you that it is easier to write fully realized characters. It is harder, but is is also more rewarding.

Good luck with the screenplay. Please take a moment to bookmark this post and to share it.

Horror Film Writing, Beyond Props

Horror Film Writing, Beyond Props

Hitchcock when asked about horror films said that he did not make them (maybe the Birds). He said that all they really amounted to were movies about walking props.

The Frankenstein monster was just a prop and the history of horror movies is mostly dependent upon them.


Jason is just a walking machete.


Michael Myers a walking kitchen knife.


Freddy is a walking glove that cracks jokes.


These films in their original forms were not all prop and no content. I would argue that Michael Myers in the
original film was more than a knife. The character represented a total lack of humanity that in is own way made him a compelling creation. In the Rob Zombie remake (the only remake worth talking about) the character represents aggression and rage. A kind of overwhelming rage that is triggered all to easily by people in the world around him.


Freddy when he was first introduced represented our own inner demons. Our worst nightmares come to life. Then the character began a franchise and soon after he became little more than comic relief.


When sitting down to write a screenplay we all to often go for the cheap scare. Creating characters who’s sole purpose is to die in as gruesome a way as possible. Is this the best that we can do?


Can you name any of the character who went out like that?


I can name Heather from the Freddie films because she is the only real character in those movies. She fought, she struggled, she tried to survive as any of us would do.


I know that Ripley was the star of the Alien films that were good.


I remember Sam and Juno from the Descent.


Can you name one single character from any of the Final destination films? Who were they? You do not know because you were never asked to care.


It is the character first and not the situation that makes for great horror films. Far too many horror movie scripts are written with situation in mind. When writing a horror screenplay it is easy to think up a place where character will find themselves trapped and then butchered by another character who is nothing more than a prop. Look at the movie Saw. It could have been just another slasher film and that is the problem with its sequels, but the first one does a great job of getting you inside the heads and lives of the two guys we meet chained in that filthy bathroom.


Writing about characters that you know and like will be one of the easier things that you ever do. Can you imagine being Sam Raimi and partner sitting down to write more dialogue for Ash in one of the Evil Dead movies. That trash talking character has become loved by millions of fans because he was first loved by the person who created him.


Create good characters and the story will take care of itself.


Or create Props and they will lumber around like the dead weight that they are.


No one ever said that screen writing was going to be easy. It is fun at times, but rarely easy. None of us really consider ourselves masters of this craft. We have good weeks and bad weeks. There are times when pages will flow and then there will be weeks when you will not be able to write more than a sentence or two. Just try to do one thing when ever you sit down in front of that blank screen, try to do your very best. Try to create characters that are more than blocks of wood.


Okay that is it for today. Please take a moment to share this post with a friend.

Horror Movie Writing

                Writing A Good Horror Film


    There is a pattern that has developed over the past few years at the box office. Horror films open up at number one and then the bottom drops out of their box office.

    Hollywood is a hype machine and they have become expert at hyping horror movies. The problem is that they pick really bad movies in an effort to steal a few quick bucks. Most of these movies fall into three categories. Terrible originals, terrible remakes and terrible redone versions of foreign horror films.

    Let Me In vs. Let The Right One In.

    The Chainsaw Massacre 3D vs. The Chainsaw Massacre.
   
    Some of this is the quest for money. Some of this is the directors fault and some of this is poor writing. In the case of Let Me In it is the director’s fault because the original has an almost perfect script.

    This post needed to be written for the simple fact that many of the micro to no budget scripts that will be written will be horror screenplays.

There are actual rules to writing a good one and I guess that it is about time someone wrote them down and reminded the screenwriting world of them.

    The rule that is broken most often and usually in the first five minutes. The rule that once broken the story has a huge mountain to climb before it can reach the level of watchable. The rules that you must keep in mind at all cost is,

    ESTABLISH REALITY!

    Your script must establish the real world before it can or should introduce the supernatural world.

    “But I want to start my script with a bang. I want to jump right into the story.”

    Seriously? If you want to write a great film that will be remembered over time then do not break this one rule.

    The movies that followed this rule as if it is religious doctrine are the following:

    The Sixth Sense. Wife, husband, home, normal world, violence, and then mom and boy, street, church and now the supernatural begins to creep in.

    The Exorcist, old Priest, dig in holy lands, people working, heart problems, a hint at something bizarre or supernatural. Jump to a city in America, a Mother and daughter, a home, a ordinary world that is rocked by something supernatural almost 30 pages later. The recipe for the greatest horror film of all time.

    The Descent, a rafting trip with friends, a drive home, a fatal car accident, friends gather at hospital, friends unite a year later for another group outing, they worry about the one who almost lost her life and did lose her family, they go cave diving in an un-explored cave because one of them is a risk taker and they end up in a life and death struggle with flesh eating cave dwellers.  Released at the end of a summer movie season, totally untouched by the Hollywood hype machine, barely lasted in theaters for three weeks and has gone on to be considered a modern horror classic.  (Note, I was lucky enough to see The Descent at a film festival where it won best after dark film. The house was sold out and the place rocked from almost beginning to end. There is nothing like seeing a really good horror film.)

    The Original Chainsaw Massacre watches like a documentary at times. The opening scenes of that movie establishes reality and then goes on to create what feels like a darker level of reality.
    The same could be said for the original The Hills Have Eyes.

    They all became classics by establishing reality first and then subverting it.

    The next Rule has been written about before at this blog and I must go over it again.
    Rule 2,

    THEY WILL BELIEVE ANYTHING ONCE!

    The audience will believe in a killer shark.

    They will believe in a possessed child.


    They will believe that a massive undersea creature is rampaging through New York, Cloverfield.

    They will believe in Vampires.

    They will believe in any one thing, but not two things. Two or more things is comedy and not horror.

    Child’s Play 1 and 2 are horror movies. Once you get to Bride of Chucky you are into comedy.
    A Killer Shark is Jaws, a Killer Shark that can swim under the sand is Sand Shark, it is a sci-fi channel film and it stinks.

    No matter what that second thing is do not include it in your screenplay. Do not make the argument that M. Night does it all the time. A twist ending is not the same as a second thing that they must believe. Hey I do not like the ending of The Village any more than the rest of you guys, but it was fair and he did not ask you to believe more than one thing. We were just fooled by what the story really was about.

    The movie that broke this rule and completely lost me and many of those who had high hopes for it is the movie Grave Encounters. Great premise. Solid Act I and part of Act II. This movie promises an experience like the Shining and out of no where jumps to Rose Red and a second rate episode of the Outer Limits. Spoiler Alert!  For those of you who have seen the movie the ghost hunting team arrives at the building and get locked inside. At this point we have a time limit given to us where around 6 AM the doors will be opened. Survive until then and all is well. Then the building starts changing shapes. Really? Then time does not run the way that it does in the rest of the known universe. Really?

Too much to believe. I think the movie falls apart when these things are introduced and never recovers. I will offer a slight defense and maybe a reason why this happened. The script was written by a writing team.  That could explain the introduction of these unnecessary elements.

    Find a horror film that disappointed you and ask yourself if it asked you to believe in more than one thing. I would bet that almost all of them did.

    There are a few more rules, but at the end of the day these rules are the most important. If you break any of them then you are probably writing a bad horror movie.

    How to write a really good horror film is going to be another post and I will try to be as helpful in this area as possible, but no one has perfected a formula for this yet. The greatest screen writers of all time are hit and miss.

    Okay that is it for today. I have added social marking tabs on the post so could you please share this and any other post you like and tell a friend about this site.

    Last note, I am working on doing an Anthology contest this year. Unlike most of the recent anthologies that have been released this one must have a common theme and the theme is still being discussed. It will be suspense/horror and it will need something to tie it together. Watch Trilogy of Terror (find it on Youtube) as an example of what we will be aiming for.