tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24189923976164106272024-02-08T02:57:55.261-08:00Horror Film Script (in Progress)My first attempt at writing a screenplay for a horror film. This blog charts the evolution of the script.Rufushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17762279210783841414noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2418992397616410627.post-47030061309873005452011-05-27T07:27:00.000-07:002011-05-27T09:14:56.805-07:00I find myself working on this thing again. I'll try to post some stuff here when I get a chance. The big project now is working on a character tree of some sort because I've got about 20 or so characters to keep straight. Maybe an outline of the script. Anyway, I'm done with about 22 pages, of a predicted 100.<br /><br />Also, holy Moses! I had no idea it had been four years since I worked on this thing. That's my process, baby! Nice and slow.Rufushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17762279210783841414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2418992397616410627.post-38466273110393504442007-03-31T17:23:00.000-07:002007-03-31T17:27:08.262-07:00It's been a while since I've added to this blog. A few thoughts that I've had recently:<br />1. I'd like to write a scene with a burning <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">school bus</span>. Not sure why exactly, but it's a good visual.<br />2. I'm sort of interested in showing the terrorized town reverting to medieval superstition.<br />3. The main characters are somewhat isolated socially by their professions. I think that should be more implied than overt. Movies are about showing, not telling.Rufushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17762279210783841414noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2418992397616410627.post-88456344302950449662007-03-04T11:52:00.000-08:002007-03-04T12:00:19.597-08:00Early Scene<span style="color:#ff0000;">(Here's the scene that hints at what is going on. I might well edit it down a bit because it gives away a bit too much a bit too early. But, this is the rough draft.)</span><br /><br />INT. CAFFETERIA- Afternoon.<br />JAMES is sitting and eating in the hospital cafeteria, reading a book. An older man, DR. BUCK ORMSBY walks up to the table. ORMSBY is disheveled and tweedy, in the style of older academics everywhere. In fact, he is a researcher at the university in the area of Public Health.<br /><br />DR. ORMSBY<br />Hello there, James. Do you mind eating with an old timer this afternoon?<br /><br />JAMES<br />No, no, that’s fine. Sit down. How are you, Dr. Ormsby?<br /><br />DR. ORMSBY<br />Well, as good as can be expected in this bedlam. And you?<br /><br />JAMES<br />Pretty much the same I’d say.<br /><br />DR. ORMSBY<br />Say, would you like a cookie? I made them yesterday.<br /><br />JAMES<br />I suppose so.<br /><br />(DR. ORMSBY opens up a Tupperware container and JAMES takes a cookie and eats it. James makes a disgusted face.)<br /><br />DR. ORMSBY<br />It’s not good?<br /><br />JAMES<br />Did you use one of your test samples to make this?<br /><br />DR. ORMSBY<br />No, it’s a mix I bought at the supermarket.<br /><br />JAMES<br /> No offense, Dr. Ormsby. Maybe you should stick to medicine.<br /><br />DR. ORMSBY<br />Alright, wise guy. (beat) So, word has it that you’ve been fighting the good fight against middle management.<br /><br />JAMES<br />Oh, Jesus- it’s ridiculous! The social services idiots want to cut funding to any program that isn’t turning a profit. So, if you want to listen to bored housewives talk about finding themselves once a week for $100 a pop, you’re fine. But, apparently, working people don’t have problems that are worth treating.<br /><br />DR. ORMSBY<br />Well, we have the same problems in our little dungeon. It’s nearly impossible to get the government, the universities, or the hospital to fund our vaccination program. They don’t need these people to stay healthy- you can always replace unskilled labor.<br /><br />JAMES<br />It’s fucking inhumane is what it is. But, if they think that we’re not going to fight every cut tooth and nail, they’re insane!<br /><br />DR. ORMSBY<br /> Ah, they’re not insane, James. They’re as sane as you and me. They just see something that you don’t see yet.<br /><br />JAMES<br />Oh? And what would that be?<br /><br />DR. ORMSBY<br />The working classes have been bred for centuries now to be a different branch of our species.<br /><br />JAMES<br />That sounds a bit eugenic Doctor.<br /><br />DR. ORMSBY<br />Think about it, James. You came from Amherst, Massachusetts. Your family bred you to work as an MD, live a respectable life, have a few top-drawer children, right?<br /><br />JAMES<br />Alright, so I’m Gloria Vanderbilt now.<br /><br />DR. ORMSBY<br />The point is that these people were bred to work in that steel mill, not to graduate from the Harvard Medical School. (Referring to the Harvard sweatshirt that James is weraring) At best, they can hope to become the manager of a Tim Hortons. But they were bred to be workhorses, and they know it.<br /><br />JAMES<br />Okay, point taken, Marx &. Engels. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t have psychological issues.<br /><br />DR. ORMSBY<br />No, but they don’t have the same psychological issues as your bored housewives. That’s the point! They don’t have the same neurophysiology as you or I.<br /><br />JAMES<br />What?<br /><br />DR. ORMSBY<br />James, every experience in your life leaves a mark on you- it carves out new neural pathways- it alters your central nervous system in some way. Some of these people are the third generation to live their lives operating those machines. That’s what they’ve been raised and bred for. Their schools teach them to follow instructions and otherwise ignore them! Their televisions teach them to hate each other for having a larger collection of petty shit! Their political system takes their money, orders their lives, and then raises mass hysterias every few years to justify its existence in fighting them.<br /><br />JAMES<br />That’s a bit bleak, don’t you think?<br /><br />DR. ORMSBY<br />Bleak? Science teaches us to look realistically at the problems. Without emotion.<br /><br />JAMES<br />And this is realistic? The lower class as a different species?<br /><br />DR. ORMSBY<br />James, these people can’t afford to eat the same foods that they eat in Boston. So their nutrition is different. They work repetitive manual labor, shaping their bodies and nervous systems. So their physiology is different. They’re fed a diet of anti-intellectual slop. So their thoughts are different. Surely, you can’t expect that this won’t alter them. After two centuries, being working class is as much a biological designation as it is a social label.<br /><br />JAMES<br />So the revolutionary proletariat will be biologists?<br /><br />DR. ORMSBY<br />Researchers, yes. (beat) Maybe. Look around you next time you walk these streets, James. Some of the people in this town aren’t even people any more…<br /><br />(The atmosphere chills noticeably between them.)<br /><br />JAMES<br />Are you serious?<br /><br />DR. ORMSBY<br />(Beat) No, I'm not serious. (beat) It's a poetic metaphor, James. But we’re going to need some new metaphors in the coming days.Rufushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17762279210783841414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2418992397616410627.post-70984630024681498222007-03-04T11:36:00.000-08:002007-03-04T11:50:34.759-08:00The Main IdeaI've finished about seven pages of the script. The problem is that they're three separate scenes that only connect in my mind at this time. That's okay. I have a sense of where things are going. I recently rented the horror film <em>Shallow Ground</em>; one thing I liked in that film was the fact that you didn't really know what was going on until almost an hour in. All of the horror scenes worked better because there was a bit of a mystery to it that just isn't there in the average genre picture. It kept the audience off-balance. Actually <em>Rosemary's Baby</em> is the same way- you have an idea of what's going on, but not really who's involved or why.<br /><br />So, I think that I'm going to try to keep the central conceit a mystery for at least the first half of the script. The next scene that I'm posting hints at it, but I want the story to be confusing as all hell breaks loose.Rufushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17762279210783841414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2418992397616410627.post-72187567205190637502007-02-25T20:04:00.000-08:002007-02-25T20:09:58.777-08:00Where to begin?I'm trying to figure out how the script should begin. In many ways, I think it would be better to begin by introducing the setting and the characters, and then gradually bringing in the horror elements. However, the old slasher movie convention of opening with a shocking scene might serve as a way of buying time. The original <em>Texas Chainsaw Massacre</em>, for example, begins with such a creepy intro that it makes the rest of the first act seem a lot more tense and unnerving than it really is.<br /><br />On the other hand, it might be better to start out the script relatively calmly and slowly draw the horror out of the context. Most of my ideas for an opening set piece are somewhat unrelated to the story. What I think I will do is write a shocking opening scene and see how it works when the whole thing is completed. I have some ideas for that.Rufushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17762279210783841414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2418992397616410627.post-66686801973988298302007-02-24T22:12:00.000-08:002007-02-24T22:18:35.631-08:00First Attempt at Writing a Scene<span style="color:#ff0000;">(Ideally, this scene would come about 20 minutes into the movie. I know that the film takes place in a small working-class town, which is seemingly under siege. I want the script to be about the experience of public hysteria to a certain extent.)</span><br /><br /><strong>EXT. Street Dusk.<br /></strong><em>James is standing on the end of the sidewalk smoking a cigarette nervously. This is an average suburban street, however the effect is eerie because all of the houses are dark and there are no cars on the street. Marie is also out and she walks up to him.<br /></em><br /><strong>MARIE</strong><br />Hey there. What are you doing out on a night like this?<br /><br /><strong>JAMES<br /></strong>Adjusting to this strange new world I guess.<br /><br /><strong>MARIE</strong><br />It’s a bit like London during the blitz, isn’t it?<br /><br /><strong>JAMES</strong><br />They all have their lights off. Like we’re under invasion.<br /><br /><strong>MARIE</strong><br />Well, aren’t we?<br /><br /><strong>JAMES<br /></strong>But by what? And what good is hiding in the dark supposed to do?<br /><br /><strong>MARIE<br /></strong>It’s a coping mechanism. You’re the therapist, aren’t you?<br /><br /><strong>JAMES<br /></strong>I’d never encourage my patients to live like this. How long can they do this?<br /><br /><strong>MARIE<br /></strong>I guess for the rest of their lives, if necessary. You’d be surprised at how quickly huddling in the dark starts to seem normal.<br /><br /><strong>EXT. TOWN. NIGHT</strong><br /><em>Various shots: an empty strip mall parking lot, mannequins in darkened shop windows, a pub with a sign on the door reading “Closed until further notice”, trash blowing across an empty street, the factory smokestack still burning brightly, a stray cat running through an alleyway.</em>Rufushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17762279210783841414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2418992397616410627.post-14302921090752237342007-02-24T21:51:00.000-08:002007-02-24T21:56:24.136-08:00WelcomeThis is where I hope to chart my progress writing a film script for a horror movie.Rufushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17762279210783841414noreply@blogger.com0