[Howard Bushart]

Howard Bushart’s Alligator Gar

Probably the key thing I learned doing this assignment is that I didn’t really spend enough time thinking about it initially. This is an idea I had about ten years ago and never fleshed out. It is going to take some work.

1. Tell us what or who your monster is.

The monster started as an innocent fish in a Texas river. Exposed to illegally dumped chemicals from an illicit drug enterprise, it grows to enormous size and becomes much more aggressive than normal.

2. Give us a few sentences for each of the following for your monster:

<div>
Their Terror: It is huge. It is aggressive. It is
relentless. </div><div>

Their Mystery: No one knows initially what it is or why
it is.

Their Fear Provoking Appearance: Huge, large jaws, rows
of stabbing teeth, armor scales protecting it. Ambush killer.

Their Rules: Anything in or on the river, the bank, or
the island, is possible prey and consequently at risk.

Their Mythology: Alligator gar have been and are feared
for their appearance. They have been rumored to attack humans but there is
really no evidence of it. This one is an aberration due to the circumstances
of its environmental toxin origin.

</div>

3. Answer the question “What I learned doing this assignment is…?” and put it at the top of your work.

4. Post your assignment in the forums at https://www.screenwritingclasses.com/forums/

Subject line: (Your Name’s) Terrifying Monster (place in first line)

Deadline: 48 hours

[Howard Bushart]

Hello, everyone. I’m Howard Bushart. I am a teacher and have written and published non-fiction and short-fiction and poetry. I have also written short films and documentary projects as well as classes for my addiction counseling classes at Lee College, where I teach. I have completed two feature length scripts, one thriller, one horror.

I hope to become better at screen writing in general, horror in particular.

I’m probably pretty strange but I hardly notice that.

Best of luck to all.

[Howard Bushart]

I, Howard L. Bushart, agree to the terms of this release form. If you agree to the terms of the release form, then you can post your assignments into the group and your cohort can give feedback on them.

Also, if you don’t agree to this group confidentiality agreement, you’ll still need to sign an agreement that says you will keep the strategies, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class confidential.

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.

This completes the Group Release Form for the class.

[Howard Bushart]

Assignment #1

What I learned doing this assignment is that one has to consider the beginning, middle and end throughout the creative process and it will require patience and discipline of thought to navigate plot and characters successfully.

1) Title: Dawn of the Dead (2004)

2) Title pretty much announces the plot and the concept of the film. This classic zombie movie in a marvelous opening sequence reveals the/a monster at precisely 6:37 a.m. according to a bedside clock, and by 13 minutes in, characters are in an upended world where terror is everywhere.

· Certainly, the characters are terrorized. And the opening of the horror story introduces the main character, Ana, establishes relationships between Ana and co-workers and more importantly between Ana and two people who with whom she has loving relationships, Luis and Vivian who become victims/victimizers in a very well-done opening sequence that sets the stage for the rest of the film.

· Characters encounter one another and there is tension between groups and individuals who are isolated for most of the film in a mall surrounded by a sea of undead cannibals.

· Death: and undeath, too, after ominous foreshadowing begins around five minutes into film and pretty much continues throughout.

· Monster/Villian: revealed just under six minutes into film. A little early according to the conventions but it works.

· High tension: Monsters become monsters through no fault of their own. Isolation breeds fear and the desire to escape. But escape to where?

· Departure from reality: Absolutely. The recently dead reanimated. In this version, the recently-bitten, recently dead. They have to be put down by destroying the brain, a relatively common death in films of this sort along the line of werewolves destroyed by silver bullets or vampires by a stake to the heart.

· Moral statement: Plenty of moral statements. Bad things happen to good people. Very existential, make the most of now—which is really all we have—and make the most of one another. Shit happens. Good and evil lose distinction in the apocalyptic world.

3. What makes this film a great horror movie? The horror, as characters change through adversity, terror, and the desire to escape is fairly relentless. Even when there is respite from the action, tension is maintained by foreshadowing of events.

4. Conventions for my story: Alligator Gar

· Concept: Something is in the river and people in the river and along the river are dying in violent ways.

· Terrorize the Characters: Certainly. Main characters and body count characters alike exposed to the depredations of the monster are in a state of tension and terror.

· Isolation, yep. Some characters trapped on a small island and unable to escape because of the monster in the river.

· Death: humans mangled and devoured by river monster.

· Monster/villain: Giant Alligator Gar

· High tension: Where did it come from? How do we kill it? Will we survive?

· Departure from reality? Absolutely. Drug lab upstream polluting the river with chemicals that serve to increase size—and aggression—in animals in the water and along the bank.

Moral statement: the monster is a predator.
Killing and eating is its natural way of being and surviving in the world. It
cannot be anything other than it is and it is dangerous.