The RevEx Social Distancing "Small Table" Show, Episode 32: Wherein John Krasinski makes me cry, I show rarely-seen photos of a 1990 Professor Rex being super white and Professor Rex performs "Art School Graduation Manifesto Vol. 1" for the first time ever! Like WORLD PREMIER shit!
The RevEx Social Distancing "Small Table" Show, Episode 31: People say that too many of my songs have f*ck in the title, so I switched it up and chose another cussword, this song is called "Feces."
The RevEx Social Distancing "Small Table" Show, Episode 30: Wherein I reverse-perform the classic Professor Rex spoken word piece, "Disco!"
The RevEx Social Distancing "Small Table" Show, Episode 29: Wherein I perform the rare old school Professor Rex track "Izdashit," from like Tallahassee days!
The RevEx Social Distancing "Small Table" Show, Episode 28: The Nerdiest Show Ever, wherein I cast a magic spell upon you and make a lot of nerdy references before performing the old school version of "Alter Ego."
We're back! The RevEx Social Distancing "Small Table" Show, Episode 26: "The Lost Episode." This one is all against the 80s and all about the Hipster 90s: Evan Dando, Kathleen Hanna, Frank Black, Soul Asylum, Flea, Dinosoaur Jr., Pat Smear, Sonic Youth, Wilco, the Meat Puppets, Screaming Trees and many others! Features the song “Against the 80s.”
With every screenplay, I try to do something that I haven't done before. In addition to changing genres, I also try to do something different with the structure/characters/settings/plot devices. So my first screenplay had a big twist ending. And my last one was autobiographical. In between I did a superhero movie and a Blade Runner-style sci fi movie. And one about a serial killer couple that is stalked by yet another serial killer.
So I wanted to find something different for this script.
And I decided to employ an old idea from my ideas list. I originally used the short-hand "splattervision" to cement it in my head. Basically the concept is that the movie moves along like your typical modern horror movie, but when I get to a scene where there is a kill, I'm going to switch it to traditional 2D animation, but the animation will be grand and surreal, with the depiction of violence being transformed into something more artistic. After the kill is over, it'll cut back to the final shot of the victim, looking as much as they can after having gone through whatever happened in the animation. This not only gives the movie some kind of unique hook, it allows for more creativity and more commentary on violence and our depictions of it.
So that was the first big idea I had after the last journal.
Next thing to tackle is structure. There's a lot of debate about structure in film, but it's something that has to exist and you have to be intentional about it. Some people talk about there being a specific set of plot points that have to be done in an exact order to the point that certain things have to happen on specific pages. But any working screenwriter will tell you that such strict structure requirements are largely nonsense. You can use one of the various formulas that exist as a starting point, but a rigid adherence to ANY screenwriter's strict formula is a bad idea and while many successful movies have similar structures, they have to be unique to avoid being redundant.
For this script I'm starting with a structure called "Hero Goals Sequences," from the book of the same name by JMJ Williamson. I've used this basic structure before and I find that it has more flexibility than most of the other structures I've seen (just about any how to write screenplays book or website has its' own structure). But I'm also immediately scrapping part of it because it doesn't fit the structure that I already started with my previous notes. So take a structure that exists (even copy the structure of one of your favorite movies) and twist it into something new.
By "structure," we're talking about things like the three acts, inciting incident, plot reversal, rising action, character introductions and arcs, etc. When you look at one of these structure models, they basically take you through the order and common features of each of these things and others. So I go take the structure that I previously typed up from that book, copy it into my script document and start replacing the general terms ("inciting incident") with the existing notes on that topic. As I fill in the structure, I take all the notes I had previously and stuck them in the appropriate place in the story. This will likely change for some of them later, but I try to get them in the best order I can. And each time I write something down, it generates another idea or two.
I'm getting close to starting to write. I have a basic structure and some notes about the story. I still have to come up with characters and start to flesh out the plot, with a particular focus on the beginning and the end. But that's for next time.
RevEx's Recorded Live Social Distancing Small Table Show. Episode 27, wherein we do a world premiere listening party for the brand new single, not even two days old, "The Seven Deadly Republicans," which doesn't even come out until next week anyway!
RevEx's Recorded Live Social Distancing Small Table Show. Episode 25, wherein I perform my rap version of Bob Dylan and Tom Petty and the Traveling Wilburys "Tweeter and the Monkey Man." Available as a single on Soundcloud, Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, etc.
RevEx's Recorded Live Social Distancing Small Table Show. Episode 24, The One With the Spoken Word! Wherein I perform a spoken word piece, "The Tao of F*cking With People," available on the Professor Rex Bandcamp-exclusive spoken word album "Talking Loud and Saying Something."
Okay, so I've got a title, a genre, a very basic idea and a few notes. I'm clearly not ready to start writing yet. There's nothing to write so far. Lots more brainstorming to go before writing begins. I don't generally do a formal outline like you would in school. I do some kind of outlining, but that comes later in the process. Now we need more ideas.
Where do they come from?
In the last diary, I said that ideas can come at any time from anywhere. But that doesn't mean those ideas are relevant to the script I'm writing. So I need more ideas and I don't have time to wait on them. Not if I want to finish THIS screenplay. So my next step is to generate more ideas. And the way to get started on that process is to look over the notes I already have.
Looking over the notes I already have shows I have a few things already decided even though I haven't written it down yet. From those notes, I have:
-This is a horror movie in the style of Blumhouse. It's meant to be fun, violent, scary, creepy and emotional.
-The Dortches are a family that run a haunted house off the beaten track. At least two of the members are really large men.
-As the story starts, this is the fourth annual haunted house for the Dortches. Later in the story will include the fifth annual haunted house.
-The fourth annual haunted house was pretty bad, but the Dortches keep telling people to come back for the fifth anniversary, which will be big.
-The fifth annual haunted house is a lie. It's an actual haunted house where the Dortches will murder people.
-The locals are rude and dismissive to the Dortches.
-One of the characters is a girl who had a bad experience with a haunted house as a kid.
Okay, to start that's all I have. But most of these things immediately lead to other ideas. Let's look a little closer at each of those lines and the new ideas that come out of them.
It's also important to stress at this point that ALL notes are tentative. No idea is so good that it can't be eliminated later on if it serves the story. Everything in the script must serve the story or it doesn't belong. These ideas all seem relevant now, but some of them might not be. That is super important to keep in mind with screenwriting as once you sell a script, it no longer belongs to you. After you get that check, they can do anything they want to it. Knowing that in advance means that screenwriters can't be precious about ideas. No screenplay that was ever turned into a movie was shot solely on the first draft. And few movies have ever been made where other people didn't shoehorn their ideas into the product before it hits the screen. Hollywood has problems.
So, looking at these notes to generate more ideas, keeping in mind that no idea is permanent. Yet.
"This is a horror movie in the style of Blumhouse. It's meant to be fun, violent, scary, creepy and emotional."
This one provides a lot of information about the tone, length, budget and overall style of the film. It's trying to appeal to fans of that type of movie. This one doesn't give any detailed ideas, it's more about how to execute the writing of those ideas.
"The Dortches are a family that run a haunted house off the beaten track. At least two of the members are really large men."
This one is important for character and setting (with a hint at plot). The Dortches are established as the villains. They live away from other people. They run a haunted house.
This leads to a few questions that jump to new content ideas. If we have a haunted house, what's in it? What does it look like? For that, I'll actually do a little bit of research to find out about the state of the neighborhood haunted house and what types of scares they have. That will also lead to one of the key things in a horror movie, the kills. The design of the haunted house will lead to the kills and vice versa.
The Dortches live off the beaten path and they're murderers. A family of murderers. This suggests that I have to fill out the family with various members. Part of the key to working in Hollywood screenwriting is that producers want you to give them completely familiar things that have a new or original twist on them. They largely aren't looking for complete re-inventions of genre or film, they're interested in the evolution of those things, which is a slow process. There are a lot of horror movies about families that live off the beaten path and kill "normal" people. So I have to do something different with the family.
Most of my writing deals with diverse casts and subverting prior tropes with characters that are women, people of color and LGBTQ. This doesn't mean that all of these characters are or should be heroic or "good guys." They should, at a minimum, hint the diversity of people within that group. This leads me to the idea that I want to make the Dortches a matriarchal family. There is no father or grandfather at the head of the family. There's a mother figure. And all the positions of power will be held by women. Evil women. The two big males will serve as muscle, but they won't be smart or in charge.
This then leads to who are the Dortches going to be facing off against. I have some ideas for that, but they'll take some more development, so I'll come back to them.
"As the story starts, this is the fourth annual haunted house for the Dortches. Later in the story will include the fifth annual haunted house."
This cements the plot and locations. Most of the film will take place at the Dortches’ haunted house. They'll go once at the beginning of the story, where it's largely uneventful. They'll complain about how bad it is and the Dortches will tell them to come back next year and it'll be awesome. This is basically the "inciting incident." Going back to the Dortches house for the fifth anniversary is the protagonist's entry into the story of this screenplay.
"The fourth annual haunted house was pretty bad, but the Dortches keep telling people to come back for the fifth anniversary, which will be big."
The fourth annual haunted house is subpar and not scary. But maybe there's a door to the "scary path" that the characters can't take because it's closed. But it'll be open next year. The house isn't a big hit, but people are intrigued by the extra scary door and "wait till next year."
"The fifth annual haunted house is a lie. It's an actual haunted house where the Dortches will murder people."
Here's the story conflict. The Dortches are going to kill (or try to kill) the protagonist(s).
"The locals are rude and dismissive to the Dortches."
One of the big problems with weak horror movies is that the villains have no motivation or weak motivation. They just kill. That's not good enough. Good villains do things for reasons. For human reasons. And just "being evil" isn't a real human thing. Evil is don't in the name of something. Money. Power. Sex. Survival. That the locals hate the Dortches and mistreat them is a big motivator for them to kill (accepting that they are the type that would kill).
This has been done so often it's a cliche, though, so I want to take it further. One of the Dortches is a girl that goes to the same school as the kids who are the protagonists. The group of protagonists are high school juniors at the beginning of the story and go into their senior year in the second act. The Dortch daughter that goes to school will be picked on and made fun of by the protagonists, who will be a diverse set of popular kids. But I don't want to repeat Carrie and other films like it, so I want to make the Dortch girl mean and insulting without being over the top. The popular kids making fun of her should largely be doing so over legitimate things. The girl won't care, though, she'll tell her family about it and exact revenge upon them.
"One of the characters is a girl who had a bad experience with a haunted house as a kid."
This is an individual motivation of one of the protagonists. What bad experience could you have in one of those places as a kid? You could get lost, but that's been done before (even by Blumhouse). The second thing I thought of was that there could've been inappropriate touching of this kid by "actors" in the haunted house. It's a dangerous subject to address, and I will never write an explicit rape scene, so I'll have to find a way to present this that doesn't traumatize victims (beyond the trauma that ANY horror movie would provide) , but is still scary and disturbing. This will likely be one of the harder parts of the script to write well.
Even before this brainstorm, there were actually a few ideas set in stone. They have to be. You can't start writing until you know what you're writing about. So the basic premise of the family and the fake haunted house that turns real, those things have to be locked in now, because otherwise, I can't write the rest of the script. The rest of these ideas will be fleshed out and either expanded or eliminated.
So, that's the next part, figuring out what other ideas and things I need to figure out. Locations, characters, motivations, unique kills.
RevEx's Recorded Live Social Distancing Small Table Show, Episode 23, wherein I perform the ultimate break-up song, "Slam the Door."
RevEx's Recorded Live Social Distancing Small Table Show. Episode 22, wherein I perform the anti-Trump version of my song "Shut the Fuck Up (2018 Version)." Yes, from 2018, but story still applies. Available as a single on Soundcloud, Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, etc.
RevEx's Recorded Live Social Distancing Small Table Show. Episode 21, wherein I perform the national anthem for Trump America, "I Will Go Quietly," available as a single on Soundcloud, Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, etc.
Okay, where to start?
I think that's the first question with any writing project. How do you get started?
The question that most writers hate the most is "where do you get your ideas?" The reason the question is so hated is because there isn't any secret answer to it. Everybody gets ideas from the same place. Everywhere.
Anything can be an idea. Anything can be useful in the write writing context. What can be useful down the road might not even be on your mind yet. And that great idea that you had yesterday might not find a home for a decade. Or ever.
All writing comes from ideas. But keeping track of ideas until you need them is a challenge.
Luckily for me, I've had a simple system for idea generation and storage that I've used for a long time now. It's so easy anyone can do it:
1. Train your mind to think of new ideas. The easiest way to do this is to write. Any time you write something, it generates new ideas. You can also train yourself when you are watching (or more importantly, re-watching) movies, TV, etc. that you like. Ask yourself, how did they do that? How did they achieve that feeling in the viewer? And what is another way that kind of feeling could be developed? Idea generation begats idea generation.
2. Write all ideas down. All of them. Good ones and bad ones. When it comes to writing, quantity is the primary pathway to quality. You will not use everything you write down. You will also not use everything the way you originally conceived it. What was a brilliant idea when you thought of it may lose all value later and vice versa.
3. When you get stuck on an idea, scan through your old ideas list and see what pops out. See what you can combine. See what creates new ideas.
That's really it. I've been writing down these little ideas, whether it be a character, a plot point, a secret reveal, a title, an ending, a scene, whatever, for as long as I can remember. That leaves me with a book of ideas, some of which can generate new things, some of which can be added to other things and many of which are useless.
So what's the idea for this next screenplay?
Well, it started with a scanning of what producers are looking for. My primary method of pitching screenplays so far (which has led to at least three sales so far) is a website called VirtualPitchFest. Through this site, for a small fee (currently $20), you can buy a "pitch." This pitch gives you guaranteed access to a producer or agent. You send them an e-mail pitch of your story and they have to respond within a week. The responses are basically "yes, I like that pitch, send me the script" or some variation on "no." If you send them the script and they like it, then you move into the negotiation phase.
But before that, you have to figure out what to pitch. For this screenplay, I wanted to basically write in a genre that I haven't done before. By genre here, I'm going more targeted than just "horror" or "comedy." Everything I write has elements of both of those, so I'm think more a specific type of horror movie in this case. From looking at the VirtualPitchFest requests from all the various producers and agents, I found that one of the most in-demand types of screenplays are low-budget, high fun horror movies like those made by Blumhouse (one of the most popular and profitable studios of the last decade, so movies like Paranormal Activity, Sinister, Insidious, The Purge, Get Out, Happy Death Day, etc.). I like a lot of these movies, even if I don't love them, and the best of them are among the best movies made today (Get Out, Us).
I haven't written a low-budget horror film like this yet, but I've written quite a bit of horror. So this type of movie will be what I write. Something I like plus something that is easy to produce plus something that the market is good for.
Next step is to go into the idea book and I came up really quickly with an idea. The first step in this case was the title: "Beware the Dortches."
Crazy title, yes, but crazy titles get read more than boring ones.
Here's where this one came from... I drive I-95 from D.C. to Fla several times a year. Somewhere along that road, probably in the Carolina/lower Virginia area, in the median of the split highway is a sign that says "The Dortches." That caught my attention. Particularly since one of these times it was dark out and that sign sat in front of a really dark grove of trees and was spooky. My brain immediately did a creepy voice and said "Beware the Dortches."
So then I had to think of what in the world that phrase meant. I immediately thought of one of those community haunted houses. You know, the kind that are put together in someone's yard or in a neighborhood park or whatever? Not officially sanctioned by the city, not commercial, just a family and neighbors having fun for the holiday. so it became that the Dortches were the family that put on one of these haunted houses. And that immediately brought to mind several influences and prior texts that would inform this film. Obviously the other Blumhouse-style movies are an impact, but this also traces back to the "we've turn off the main road and have found the really scary people's house and they're going to kill us now" films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and it's infinite children.
So that's the basic premise, but that's far from a movie or a plot. I looked at the rest of the notes and really only had these notes:
-Beware the Dortches
-Dortches are a family
-Do a haunted house
-Live off the beaten track
-annual haunted house for four years
-locals being rude dismissive
-not that good a house
-come back next year for the anniversary
-fifth year, everybody comes back for the big surprise
-Two big giant male family members
-Fifth year, everybody dies because it's all real
-Girl who had bad experience in a haunted house as a kid
And that's it. That's all I have as of today. This is where it starts.
(That's it for this time. Next time will pick up with the next steps after the basic premise).
RevEx's Recorded Live Social Distancing Small Table Show. Episode 20, wherein I do an original song that combines corporate slogans and war into "American Dream," available as a single on Soundcloud, Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, etc. Video here on YouTube!? Really. That's pretty cool.
RevEx's Recorded Live Social Distancing Small Table Show. Episode 19, wherein I do an original song about the "I Gotta Feeling" kind of vibe, "Go" available as a single on Soundcloud, Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, etc.
RevEx's Recorded Live Social Distancing Small Table Show. Episode 18, wherein I do an original song about the 80 Bus "Truth," available as a single on Soundcloud, Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, etc.
Our next guest episode of the Social Distancing Small Table Show comes from our great friend Shawn Logue... I mean... Trent Trenton of Eyewitness Action News Team!
RevEx's Recorded Live Social Distancing Small Table Show. Episode 16, wherein Professor Rex covers Professor Rex covering Bright Eyes on two tracks, the Trump-themed "When the Resident Talks to Putin" and on a cover of the Bright Eyes song "When the President Talks to God," both available on Soundcloud, Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, etc.
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