[Alex Chew]

What I learned doing this assignment is that even though I already had an idea of when and how each character death occurs, thinking more about why helped me improve and deepen those decisions.

Also now the outline’s over 20 pages, and I’m excited to get writing!

[Alex Chew]

What I learned from this assignment is this new way of building outlines that I think will help prevent me from redoing the same outline over and over, but instead adding & editing specific layers. I also think getting into screenplay format will be much easier after building so much depth in this stage.

I’ll spare copy/pasting my actual outline from this point b/c I added a lot of details and it’s over the 15 pg mark now. Great for writing draft one. Not great for posting.

But this has been a great exercise!

[Alex Chew]

Alex’s Horror Plot

What I learned doing this assignment is a new way to think of plot sequences (or tracks) that are specific to the horror genre.

ACT 1

Atmosphere of Evil: We see the last victim in 1972 (Carol). Cut to present day where teens are just as cruel to each other but without the blood and magic.

Connect with Characters: Homecoming week festivities show us who each character is, their status, relationships, wants & fears.

The characters are warned not to do it: Kids are warned not to mess with history in a variety of ways but can’t resist looking cool.

Denial of Horror: Even after finding their principal’s body they don’t assume it’s a paranormal myth–they accuse each other.

Safety taken away: They can’t find the principal’s keys or the phones he confiscated. After three failed attempts to disarm the security system, an advanced lockdown is triggered.

Monster/Nature of the Beast: They split up looking for a way out and mean girl Amanda meets the monster face to face for the first–and last–time.

ACT 2

Isolated/Trapped/Abducted: Split up they’re even easier to isolate and trap. Meanwhile Sam starts a fire to trigger smoke alarms and rescue.

One of Us Killed: While they don’t know Amanda’s fate, Homecoming Queen Megan blames firestarter loser Sam and ultimately get her killed.

MIDPOINT – The Monster is worse than we thought: The Monster revealed to all. They realize he’s taken human form, but possesses superhuman strength and bloodthirst.

Full pursuit by the killer: Kids chased from one end to end of school in pursuit of the library.

Terrorized: They barricade in the school library while monster looks for a way in. Eventually they have to fight him off and escape through the vents, while Megan sacrifices herself.

ACT 3

Fight to the death: Through reading more of their town’s history, the kids discover a way to kill the monster with the help of Jim the Janitor. Then they watch him mutilated but use Jim’s last words to decode security and sprint across campus toward the homecoming dance where Ms Hill will help them uncover the missing relic.

Hysteria: Chased across campus, they run into the bodies of their fallen friends, lose a critical history book along the way, and Ty is axed.

The thrilling escape from death: They’ve almost made it to the big dance when… Ms. Hill appears. Just in time to save the day–or knock them out.

Death returns to take one or more: The kids must take down Ms. Hill and end the curse using her own history lesson, narrowly escaping The Monster.

Resolution: Our final three make it to the dance expecting a gym full of carnage to discover everyone else oblivious. Piercing screams echo and everyone races out to see Ms Hill’s Body tied to the flag pole… But our survivors stay behind for one last dance.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by  Alex Chew.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by  Alex Chew.

[Alex Chew]

Alex’s Characters for Horror

What I Learned: 3 specific dying patterns.

Concept: A group of misbehaving teens at a homecoming dance are locked inside their school’s main building alongside a centuries old killer–The Pioneer.

Social Group: High School Classmates & A Few Adult Chaperones

Dying Pattern: Larger group killed off one by one but 3 survive.

Addie Mae: Starts as an obnoxious dork but becomes a moral leader because of her intellect.

Megan: Starts as the leader but becomes the obnoxious complainer & monster bait.

Roh: A near-mute country boy who is the innocent introvert and love interest.

Cody: An international athlete from Germany who secretly wants to be an actor and uses those skills to lure The Pioneer. He’s one of the kids who willingly sacrifices himself but survives.

Sam: The rebel who hates everything and everyone until she bonds with these kids trying to survive their night in hell. She’s first to willingly and successfully sacrifice herself.

Ty: A toxic red herring jock who becomes a sensitive love interest.

Amanda: A mean girl sociopath and out of control red herring.

Mr. Wells: The principal who catches our main characters mid-prank at the homecoming dance. Out of control, he doesn’t distinguish between the perps and victims of the twisted prank, and he’s sick of playing nice with these PC participation trophy tweens. He’s the main reason they’re locked inside all night long and first to die.

Ms. Hill: The history teacher/dance chaperone seems like a rescuer–but ultimately turns out to be the one who conjured The Pioneer in order to sacrifice one of the bad kids and restore order and goodness to their small town.

Jim the Janitor: The real moral one & rescuer.

[Alex Chew]

<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Terrifying Monster for Homecoming Night.

<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>What I learned doing this assignment is that my original monster villain was not unique enough, and these prompts helped me get more specific.

My monster is “The Pioneer”. To many at Pinesville High School he’s just an impossibly big-chested high school mascot who wears mid-19th century garb, a creepy mask, and a hatchet in his sheath. Few kids realize their cheerleader is based on real life frontiersman John Hynes who massacred an entire village of indigenous Karankawas in 1852.

Their Terror: The Pioneer terrorizes victims with a hatchet made of stone, an elk bone bowie knife that skins people alive; a savage wooden mallet; rope; paranormal strength & abilities. He cannot physically stopped, only slowed down. The kids must fight both to escape their maximum security high school building and a supernatural killer.

Their Mystery: No one knows who is doing the killing at first–it could be anyone of the high school students and teachers trapped inside the building on homecoming night. But the mystery builds around why the legendary pioneer has returned to Pinesville.

Their Fear Provoking Appearance: The Pioneer wears an eerie antique mask chiseled out of wood, but when it’s taken off his face he is even more ancient, deformed, and rotting.

Their Rules: The Pioneer can be conjured and erased with the power of The Pioneer’s elk bone. They don’t stop killing until sent back to hell by someone in possession of said bone… But, like history itself, it’s never really dead.

Their Mythology: The Hynes Bay Massacre of 1852 was led by John Hynes. Only five members of the Karankawa tribe survived and promptly fled Texas forever. Some think the Native Americans cursed the pioneers as disease did eventually destroy the lives and livelihoods of Hynes’ settlement. To survive, Hynes made a deal with the devil to sacrifice children, slaves, women, and anyone deemed expendable. According to the legend, it worked. Enriching the soil with blood allowed crops to flourish and the town to prosper. In hard times, the town would target someone to sacrifice and The Pioneer would emerge from his grave to claim a victim… Then in 1962 it all stopped. The locals forgot. Fact turned to opinion. Opinion to legend. But tonight they’ll learn their history.

[Alex Chew]

What I learned doing this assignment is a new format for recording film notes.

Title / Concept: SCREAM. A masked prank caller torments the daughter of a slain woman and her high school friends.

Terrorize The Characters: Every single character is terrorized in their own way, though not every scene includes outright fear. Because of the one-year anniversary of a murder in their small town and the recent murder of a high school teen girl, everyone is in danger. Everyone is a suspect. When the killer isn’t lurking around a corner, the protagonist is still terrorized by the anguish of reliving her mother’s murder and facing her true killer, not to mention the guilt of possibly having put the wrong man on death row.

Isolation: A small town. A house with nowhere to go but upstairs.

Death (spoilers): Sidney’s mother 1 year prior; Casey (Drew Barrymore, the star of the film in a twist no one saw coming back in the day); The school principal (aka The Fonz); The protagonist’s BFF Tatum; The Poor Camera Guy; Multiple close calls for Sidney, Randy, Dewey, and Gayle; The killers.

Monster/Villain (spoiler): The big twist is that it’s TWO teen killers in silly masks, not just one. Stu is a comic relief psychopath (“My mom’s gonna be so mad at me!”) while Billy is out for revenge against his own girlfriend because he blames her mother for breaking up his parents.

High Tension: The characters KNOW the rules of horror movies, yet find themselves struggling to avoid the cliches and survive. The knife, the mask, and the inevitability of slasher movie conventions and body counts means the audience anticipates terror in almost every scene.

Departure from Reality: The dialogue and meta humor suggest these characters know they’re in a horror movie to some extent. Some of the close calls, the impossibly suspenseful timing, and “coming back to life” moments are over the top on purpose.

Moral Statement: It doesn’t matter whether you watch scary movies like Stu–there are psychos amongst us regardless. Watching horror films might just help you survive. Also, badass women might have to make up NEW rules to survive.

Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great horror film? I’ve watched Scream over 100 times, and it never fails to engage me on an emotional, comical, and intellectual level every single time.

My Concept: SCHOOL DANCE

Concept: While decorating for a homecoming dance, a group of mismatched high schoolers are trapped inside their haunted high school. Think Breakfast Club meets Scream.

Terrorize The Characters: First the teens terrorize each other. Then they think it’s the urban legend of a ghost girl who died there in the 1960s. Then they realize… It may be one of them who is the killer. And the ghost is key to saving them. (maybe)

Isolation: A broken security system traps them all inside school on a Friday night.

Death: All but two teens will die. Their ghosts will remain behind at the end.

Monster/Villain: The Mascot… I’m still trying to decide who the killer actually is, but they wear the outdated creepy mascot uniform of a wolfman with a hatchet. (maybe)

High Tension: Trying to escape the building carries its own physical risks. Then there are the supernatural elements that spook them. Then there’s The Mascot with a bloody hatchet.

Departure from Reality: The urban legend ghost story and unlikely serial killer Mascot.

Moral Statement: Surviving high school requires a lot of growing up, empathy, and teamwork. And even then we’re lucky to make it out alive.

[Alex Chew]

Alex Chew

I agree to the terms of this release form.

GROUP RELEASE FORM

As a member of this group, I agree to the following:

1. That I will keep the processes, strategies, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class confidential, and that I will NOT share any of this program either privately, with a group, posting online, writing articles, through video or computer programming, or in any other way that would make those processes, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class available to anyone who is not a member of this class.

2. That each writer’s work here is copyrighted and that writer is the sole owner of that work. That includes this program which is copyrighted by Hal Croasmun. I acknowledge that submission of an idea to this group constitutes a claim of and the recognition of ownership of that idea.

I will keep the other writer’s ideas and writing confidential and will not share this information with anyone without the express written permission of the writer/owner. I will not market or even discuss this information with anyone outside this group.

3. I also understand that many stories and ideas are similar and/or have common themes and from time to time, two or more people can independently and simultaneously generate the same concept or movie idea.

4. If I have an idea that is the same as or very similar to another group member’s idea, I’ll immediately contact Hal and present proof that I had this idea prior to the beginning of the class. If Hal deems them to be the same idea or close enough to cause harm to either party, he’ll request both parties to present another concept for the class.

5. If you don’t present proof to Hal that you have the same idea as another person, you agree that all ideas presented to this group are the sole ownership of the person who presented them and you will not write or market another group member’s ideas.

6. Finally, I agree not to bring suit against anyone in this group for any reason, unless they use a substantial portion of my copyrighted work in a manner that is public and/or that prevents me from marketing my script by shopping it to production companies, agents, managers, actors, networks, studios or any other entertainment industry organizations or people.

[Alex Chew]

Hi, I’m Alex!

I’ve written over a dozen scripts, but this is going to be my first slasher.

I’m hoping the class will help me craft a horror feature that is truly scary, yet meaningful, and marketable.

I taught middle and high school film for a decade until 2021, so this is technically my first year not going into a classroom every day since I was…five. Unsurprisingly, my slasher concept takes place trapped inside a high school.