Tag: Writing

The Isolation Scripts: Script 4 (Three Kings)

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So lately I’ve been working mainly on the Nightmare script, so haven’t really done any shorts. So again, I’m dipping into the vault. This one was knocked up over a weekend a few years ago, I can’t really remember why, though. I assume I had a reason for it, but I can’t recall. I think it did kind of change the way I write though, it’s probably the first script I’ve done where the actions outweighed the dialogue. It’s also one where I went kind of cliche. The “twist” is obvious, plus it doesn’t really have an ending. It has a reveal, but that’s not the same thing. Anyway, here goes Three Kings. Enjoy

Three Kings

Let’s See You Do Better: Update 2

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Note: if you’re unsure what this is about, visit here

So it’s been a while since I’ve updated this, been busy on other projects. I thought I’d offer a quick update as to how the story is going. I have an idea of where it’s going and should probably do an outline to establish it. I’ve been reading some of the Nightmare On Elm Street comics too, they’re mostly terrible but there are a few really disturbing parts in them. The trouble with doing a script like this is that theoretically anything is possible, and when you’ve got no limits then it can be boring to do standard things. Like I was going to have a scene where someone dies by having their face held against a hotplate until the skin melts. Very gruesome and could be horrific if done right, but it’s also possible, so would be best used for another film (could work in a Halloween film I think). I’m posting my progress now because after this is when the actual horror starts. I’ve put some creepy moments in there but all of it is setting up the rest of the film. So, here’s the opening:

nightmare

I’m quite proud of what I’ve got here, but I know some of it will HAVE to change. I have to set up his PTSD nightmares more (I’ve got a great idea but at the moment it’s a bit too similar to a scene from Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark), so I’m going to need to think of a better way of doing it before putting it on paper. I need to set up the background characters more, specifically the ones in his class. This should be easily done, it’s a classroom so lots of chance for debate which I could use to showcase character traits. Overall I think I’ll have a better idea of how I want the beginning to go when I get to the end as I know what I’ll have to set up. I’m very wary of timing, I’ve seen A LOT of horror films which seem to take two-thirds of the script before the actual story starts. I hate when it happens and I don’t want to do it. At the moment it’s about 20 minutes, which I think gives me a good basis to start, especially since it is still relatively scare-heavy. I think if I keep that level of intensity up I could extend the beginning by about another ten minutes and keep the momentum going.

The Isolation Scripts: Script 3 (and 3.5)

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I wasn’t sure what to do for this one, so I went into my folder of script ideas and tried to find one I could do. I found one:

Screenshot 2020-04-18 at 11.37.53

That was it, that was all I had. It was an idea discussed YEARS ago, just that one sentence and nothing else. We had that idea then quickly moved onto something else. So I did that, twice. The first one, I’ll admit the idea slightly ran away from me and I definitely went on too long. So I did a second one which was completely dialogue-free. I’m not sure which I prefer, or which one works better so I thought I’d show both.

Live

Live short

So, would I make these? I think I would. They’d need heavily adjusting, I think the general concept needs to come through more in the long one, I feel like the “gimmick” is sort of in the background a bit too much. I focused too much on the story being told and not how I was telling it. Plus it’s tonally inconsistent at times, and some of the background characters need to be fleshed out more. On the plus side, I feel it’s more mature than I usually do, in the end, the guy doesn’t get the girl as he fucked up too badly. There are some things that “I’m sorry” just doesn’t fix, some things are hard to get past. The short one is a little trickier to fix, especially since it was mainly made just by cutting out everything from the longer one that I didn’t need, so there are probably things that don’t make sense in it.

I feel these ideas may be improved if I worked on it with people. This idea was made for discussing over drinks with someone, bouncing ideas off each other and come up with it there.

The Isolation Scripts: Bonus Script

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Still continuing with this. I haven’t posted anything for a while and there’s a good reason for that; this exercise is based on just writing as I go, making up the plot on the fly. I attempted to write a spy film, and let me tell you now, that’s a TERRIBLE way to write a film of that genre. Those films need to be INCREDIBLY tightly plotted, and making it up as you go means you end up backing yourself into many corners. You need to plan these things out in great detail otherwise they just don’t work. It’s a shame as I had a motivation I was quite proud of, and some good dialogue, but that wasn’t going to be enough. I realised as I approached what should be the end that I had no way to get from where I was at the moment to where I needed to be. Not just narratively, in terms of geography too. The “bad guy” sent the protagonist far away from him so he could do something, so they were a fair distance away from each other, and I needed them to be close to each other within a few hours, the rest of the story took place almost in real-time, so doing a time-jump that late in the script would have been jarring. So yeah I didn’t finish it, decided to scrap it. To make up for it I decided to publish this script I wrote a few years ago for a scriptwriting competition. I’m quite proud of it as it’s a fantasy script, and it’s not a genre I would usually write, but I think I did quite well, especially since it was done in about 48 hours. So, enjoy:

The Journey

The Isolation Scripts: Script Two

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For more details on this read this.

So here’s the second one. I hesitate to call this “enjoyable” but hope you appreciate it

The Night

I had multiple issues with tone on this, going from too comedic to gross with no filter between them. Yeah, I had no idea what I was doing with this, I was mostly freestyling it to get to the moment of the neighbour not letting her in due to social distancing rules. But looking back at it that’s the section I’d cut. That entire section at that house doesn’t really add much, not once I got to the end. Now the end of this completely changed my enthusiasm for this. Before that, I thought “okay I’m not dealing with this script, but some of the deaths I could use in a slasher”, but as soon as I hit upon that final few pages (after she leaves the second house) I got excited. The idea of a film where a group of people (lets face it, it would be a group of guys) dress up as their favourite horror movie characters and go around killing people. There’s the traditional aspect could be fun, but crucially I could add in A LOT of detail about how we consume horror movies, about how horror focuses more on the killers than the victims, so it’s natural that people will end up idolizing them. Not only that but a lot of horror movie villains are shot like heroes, the angles are the same that were given to heroes in old Westerns. Suddenly I got very excited about this as an idea, and importantly; an idea I think I could write. In that context the tonal changes might not be as jarring as the villains will be movie-obsessed people, so will give me a lot of chances for comedic moments. Plus, just think of the number of references I could put in. The “Freddy” could mix and match costume aspects from the different iterations of the character.

In summary; I’m not that proud of this script as it is, it’s just a collection of scenes and spots more than a coherent narrative, but I can definitely change it into something very exciting if I put the effort in.

Let’s See You Do Better (Update #1)

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So, last month I posted this. So since writing the opening scene, what have I done? To be honest, nowhere near as much as I feel I should have done. Still kind of finding the rhythm of what this story is. The main thing is I still need to plan out who the main characters are. I’ve got ideas for set pieces and general plot etc, but the characters will be what makes it work. So far I’ve got some ideas. One is Bruce and Carol. Carol is a middle-aged single mother who starred in some low budget horror movies in her youth. Bruce is her teenage son. This is what that leads to:

Nightmare Carol

I’m going to set up the abuse throughout the film. Decided on this because it’s not really something that’s seen that much in horror films, not in that way anyway. When we do see a parent sexually abusing a child it’s a father abusing his daughter, I wanted to showcase the horror of when the genders are flipped. I’m considering making Bruce one of the main characters, have him kind of bring Freddy back by striking a deal; he’ll scare his friends by telling them the stories of Freddy, leaving them more open to Freddy’s influence and danger. In return, Freddy will stop Bruce’s recurring nightmares. Essentially like a mafia protection racket. That scene, in particular, will be used to kick off the third act. Bruce being in a coma will also allow me to have an absolute mindfuck of a final act.

Now onto the second scene that I’ve done. This will be about halfway through. My plan is to set up two stories; a group of children being abducted and killed by Freddy when he was alive in the past (so essentially a slasher movie mixed with IT), and the same kids when they’re older being haunted by Freddy in their dreams. The two stories will run alongside each other, leading to this:

The Death Of Freddy

So yeah, I lie. It’s not actually them, it’s someone elses memory. I’m not going to lie, this is mainly because I was fed up with the number of horror films that have flashbacks of the main characters near death, I hate them as you know the characters are not going to die so the scenes have no tension. I’m going to set up the truth subtly, so characters we establish as having no siblings in the present, will have a brother/sister in the past, and characters who are allergic to certain things will be seen eating them in the past. The main focus of this section though; the death of human Freddy. My plan for this was to have it go from “yeah, get that bastard” to “this is kind of uncomfortable”. I think I can go slightly further with what happens to him, but not certain.