Stormies! Oh, my God, big news. Okay, yes, our final deadline IS indeed 7/27. That’s SUNDAY at midnight. After that, we pull the plug on the website and will not allow any more submissions. (If you’re sending hard copy, it would need to be postmarked by Saturday 7/26.) BUT... No, we’re not announcing some tricky last-minute final extension. That would be really weak, especially since we promised we wouldn’t do that to y’all. Except… we sort of are. Let me explain.
See, this year we partnered with Without a Box. About a third of our submissions so far have come in through Without a Box (which is great for any of you who hate Paypal and wish to pay directly via credit card.) Thing is, Without a Box recently asked us to extend the contest an extra week exclusively for Without a Box entries. In fact this was a condition of our buying additional e-mail advertising blasts through them last week. So we agreed to ONE FINAL WEEK only for WAB submissions. The WAB-only extension runs from this Sunday through midnight the following Sunday (8/3/08).
So... as far as the Writers on the Storm and Coverage Ink sites are concerned, we still have to pull the plug on contest entries 7/27, and that’s it. However, if you’re a WAB member (or sign up this week,) you can still enter through 8/3. Now my apologies if that irritates any of y’all, ‘cause maybe you were scrambling to make the 7/27 deadline, and I understand. However please note that WAB is jacking up the price an additional ten bucks during the WAB extension week! In a nutshell: enter late through WAB, pay more dough.
Okay. That out of the way, It is, as always, my pleasure to announce the Writers on the Storm quarterfinalists to date! Now please everyone read this next sentence, because I’ve gotten a lot of e-mail about this. ***These quarterfinalists represent people who’ve entered Writers on the Storm via submitting their script to Coverage, Ink for coverage. *** They are the ONLY ones who find out before everyone else if they’ve made the quarterfinals or not, because the CI readers rate the scripts and forward the results to us. These represent everyone whose scripts got a ‘consider with reservations’ or better for script, or about the top 10% Jim tells me. If you entered Writers on the Storm via writerstorm.com or Without a Box, you will not find out if you’ve made the quarterfinals until we’ve had read and processed all the submissions, which is going to take a bit. Everyone clear on that?
Okay! Without further ado, here are our Writers on the Storm 2008 Quarterfinalists **so far**:
Heather Upton, Belfast Boys
CA Bennett, Death Valley Dig
Kelly Murry, La Matadora
A.C. Yacobian, Rasta Pasta
Aaron Marshall, The Last Adventure of Martin Finch
Alan Sproles, Lizanne Southgate, Eden Lost
Rich Sheehy, Sliding into Home
Paul Sargia, The Man Who Could Stop Time
Steven Zawacki, Orcadia
Suzanne Darling, Brush With Fame
Dennis Bailey, Pound for Pound
Chris Jopling, Blacklights
Andrew Zeoli & Christian Wagner, Blueballers
Attila Nagy, Gilbert Inboden, Garen Inboden, Enlighten Up
Russ Meyer, Organic Svengali
Vito LaBruno, Last American Guido
Adam Nur, Jetpack
Nisso Cohen, The Source
Mark Eaten & Stacy Dymalski, Center of Fortitude
Art Blum, Back from the Dead
Patrick Nicholas, Edgewater
Michael Coleman Jr., Clone
Dan Williams, Forest Fire!
Lisa Cordova, Remote Stryker
Alexander Valhouli, Louis
CV Herst, The Bardo Realm
Marnie Collins, Silver River
Jerry White, Link
Sam Neil Kesler, Fatal Ambition
Jason Kent, Colossus
Jarran Davis, Newton’s Cradle
Krista Zumbrink, Virgin Marie
James Schannep, A Poem for Silvertown
Odin Shafer, Bury Me in Fire
Whew, that’s 31! And there will be plenty more. I hear there are some awesome scripts in here. But who will win the ten grand? I have no idea! But I can tell you it’s going to be a crazy next couple of weeks. Oh, and one more thing. Most of the scripts listed above are not going to make the top ten. Pause for a moment to let that sink in. Yep, we all want to win. Of course. But as Connor MacLeod might say, there can only be one. So, yeh, there’s going to be a little bit of disappointment out there. There already is from some of the folks on the CI side who got a pass and did not advance (about 300!) The thing is, can you use the feedback we give you, so the NEXT time, you get that consider? Can you do everything you can to give yourself the tools you need to make your script bulletproof, to succeed in Hollywood? Whether it’s taking a class or working with a mentor or going to Screenwriters Network events or joining a writing group or doing the coverage thing? Remember, guys, it’s a journey! One spec sale blows our puny10 grand prize out of the water, and that’s what counts. So give us what you got, Stormies! Off to get a very large coffee and strap myself in for the ride ;)
Portia Jefferson
Writers on the Storm Contest Coordinator
writerstorm@gmail.com
(Uh, Portia... “puny”? –Jim ;)
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
Queries? Aye. For the Straight Guy (or Whomever)
I wanted to address this because so many people agonize over query letters. We get clients asking us to help them write theirs all the time. So here’s a quick & easy formula you should use. You’re welcome!
The main thing to remember is that query letters MUST BE BRIEF. Three paragraphs. That’s it. If it cannot fit on a single page fax, your have blown it. Three and only three paragraphs. Here’s what those paragraphs should contain:
A) WHO ARE YOU? WHO-OO? OO-OO? Paragraph 1, briefly describe yourself in the most fascinating way possible. What have you done in your life that’s cool, different, interesting? No one cares if you have took classes in screenwriting or some B-list celeb says he’s interested in your story. Talk about YOU. Maybe you took a walking tour of Bangla Desh and met the Dalai Lama. Maybe you shoveled horse shit at Yonkers Raceway for 4 years and still can’t get the stink out of your coveralls. Maybe you volunteer at a shelter and won a Parcheesi championship. The idea is to paint a picture of yourself that stands out and makes you seem like someone worth contacting.
Sure, you can mention some quarterfinalist contest showings or whatever, but the main thing here is to sell YOU as a cool person. If you can be self-effacing, even better. One client recently wrote, “I’m an NYPD cop who bought rental property in Connecticut 5 years ago thinking I’d make a fortune. I’ve been getting my ass kicked ever since.” I love that!
B) LOGLINE. In no more than 3 sentences, pitch your script. (See article HERE: http://coverageink.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_archive.html) Feel free to ice your logline with a movie comparison, such as: “It’s DIE-HARD meets HOME ALONE”-- but with paramecium.”
C) THANKS AND OUT. Simplest part. For extra credit, CALLBACK to your opening paragraph here.
Seriously, that’s all there is to it.
SAMPLE QUERY LETTER
Reynaldo Flemm
Flemm Films
flemmfilms@aoll.com
(date)
Hi Reynaldo,
My name’s Writey Writerson. I am an ER nurse at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles--yeah, it’s nuts. I once climbed halfway up Mt. Kilimanjaro but had to turn back when my rented mule fell to his death. Seriously.
I have a screenplay I was thinking might be right up your alley: BURPIN’ SLURPIN’ ROBOT GHERKINS. Logline: Due to a tragically poor intelligence, an alien invasion squad transforms themselves into cybernetic pickles in order to blend into Earth society. But 7-year-old DANA VASSILY, heir to the Vassily pickle fortune, discovers the four and captures them in a jar. Will the Gherkins be able to escape and finally lay waste to our pathetic planet? BSRG is “Shakespeare in Love” meets “Taxi Driver”, but with crunchy dills.
If you’d like a look, please let me know. Happy to send along either hard copy or PDF--(knock on door) Who the hell is that? Oh, Christ! It’s the damn sherpa! How did he track me down? Crap, guess I’m gonna have to pay for that damn mule!
Sincerely,
Writey Writerson
The main thing to remember is that query letters MUST BE BRIEF. Three paragraphs. That’s it. If it cannot fit on a single page fax, your have blown it. Three and only three paragraphs. Here’s what those paragraphs should contain:
A) WHO ARE YOU? WHO-OO? OO-OO? Paragraph 1, briefly describe yourself in the most fascinating way possible. What have you done in your life that’s cool, different, interesting? No one cares if you have took classes in screenwriting or some B-list celeb says he’s interested in your story. Talk about YOU. Maybe you took a walking tour of Bangla Desh and met the Dalai Lama. Maybe you shoveled horse shit at Yonkers Raceway for 4 years and still can’t get the stink out of your coveralls. Maybe you volunteer at a shelter and won a Parcheesi championship. The idea is to paint a picture of yourself that stands out and makes you seem like someone worth contacting.
Sure, you can mention some quarterfinalist contest showings or whatever, but the main thing here is to sell YOU as a cool person. If you can be self-effacing, even better. One client recently wrote, “I’m an NYPD cop who bought rental property in Connecticut 5 years ago thinking I’d make a fortune. I’ve been getting my ass kicked ever since.” I love that!
B) LOGLINE. In no more than 3 sentences, pitch your script. (See article HERE: http://coverageink.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_archive.html) Feel free to ice your logline with a movie comparison, such as: “It’s DIE-HARD meets HOME ALONE”-- but with paramecium.”
C) THANKS AND OUT. Simplest part. For extra credit, CALLBACK to your opening paragraph here.
Seriously, that’s all there is to it.
SAMPLE QUERY LETTER
Reynaldo Flemm
Flemm Films
flemmfilms@aoll.com
(date)
Hi Reynaldo,
My name’s Writey Writerson. I am an ER nurse at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles--yeah, it’s nuts. I once climbed halfway up Mt. Kilimanjaro but had to turn back when my rented mule fell to his death. Seriously.
I have a screenplay I was thinking might be right up your alley: BURPIN’ SLURPIN’ ROBOT GHERKINS. Logline: Due to a tragically poor intelligence, an alien invasion squad transforms themselves into cybernetic pickles in order to blend into Earth society. But 7-year-old DANA VASSILY, heir to the Vassily pickle fortune, discovers the four and captures them in a jar. Will the Gherkins be able to escape and finally lay waste to our pathetic planet? BSRG is “Shakespeare in Love” meets “Taxi Driver”, but with crunchy dills.
If you’d like a look, please let me know. Happy to send along either hard copy or PDF--(knock on door) Who the hell is that? Oh, Christ! It’s the damn sherpa! How did he track me down? Crap, guess I’m gonna have to pay for that damn mule!
Sincerely,
Writey Writerson
Friday, July 11, 2008
WOTS CONTEST DEADLINE UPDATE
(PLUS QUARTERFINALISTS THUS FAR!)
Hey Stormies!
Well, we’re into the home stretch. As usual, you guys all wait till the end and then hammer us with the submissions. I know, I know, I’m a writer, too. I do the same thing all the time. Yeah, a deadline gets me moving. If I know I have 2 months, it gets back-burnered until the red alert kicks in -- yikes, 48 hours, I better get a move on!
Now I know our deadlines are a bit confusing, so let me try to explain this all as clearly as I can. (Note that as of this writing we're still waiting on our webmaster to get all the new info updated on the CI and WOTS websites.)
Our REGULAR DEADLINE is midnight 7/11. That means any script submitted to Writers on the Storm (at www.writerstorm.com or www.withoutabox.com) before that time gets into the contest at the $40 rate.
Our FINAL (LATE) DEADLINE is midnight 7/27. For the period from 7/12 through 7/27, the price jumps to $50 for any script submitted at www.writerstorm.com or www.withoutabox.com (or $90 for two submissions of the same script.) That’s the honest and true FINAL deadline, y’all. No extensions. 7/28, we’re out.
However -- and this is where it gets just a mite tricky -- you can also enter the contest through Coverage, Ink (www.coverageink.com) if you want a full script analysis. If you do that, entry into the contest is automatic and free, right up till 7/27. And there is no price increase. In other words, there’s only one deadline on the CI side -- 7/27. Send in your script for coverage any time up till midnight 7/27 and you’re in. Get it? Are we cool? ;)
And now once again it’s my pleasure to present our current quarterfinalists. These are folks who entered the contest via submitting their scripts to Coverage Ink for screenplay coverage, and they represent approximately the top 10% of submissions to CI since the contest began.
Congrats to our Writers on the Storm 2008 quarterfinalists so far:
Heather Upton, Belfast Boys
CA Bennett, Death Valley Dig
Kelly Murry, La Matadora
AC Yacobian, Rasta Pasta
Aaron Marshall, The Last Adventure of Martin Finch
Alan Sproles & Lizanne Southgate, Eden Lost
Rich Sheehy, Sliding Into Home
Paul Sargia, The Man Who Could Stop Time
Steven Zawacki, Orcadia
Suzanne Darling, Brush With Fame
Dennis Bailey, Pound For Pound
Chris Jopling, Blacklights
Andrew Zeoli & Christian Wagner, Blue Ballers
Attila Nagy, Garen Inboden & Gilbert Inboden, Enlighten Up
Russ Meyer, Organic Svengali
Vito LaBruno, The Last American Guido
Adam Nur, Jetpack
Nisso Cohen, The Source
Mark Eaton & Stacy Dymalski, Center of Fortitude
Art Blum, Back from the Dead
Patrick Nicholas, Edgewater
Michael Coleman, Jr., Clone
Dan Williams, Forest Fire!
Lisa Cordova, Remote Stryker
Will one of these guys be the big winner and pocket 10 grand??? Too early to tell! But a lot of these guys are polishing their scripts based on the coverage and resubmitting (their quarterfinalist status locked in.) Does that mean they have a leg up on all of y’all who just enter the contest directly? Maybe, maybe not! Depends how well they execute and how well your own screenplay gets it done. There’s plenty more room up there!
Oh, one last thing -- this year we have far fewer scripts over 120 pages than ever before. That’s fantastic. As most of you know, that’s the very first thing you’re judged on by the industry. D-Girls and creative execs assume if you can’t tell your story in 120 or less that you don’t have the discipline or editing skills yet to be worthy of serious consideration. It’s just the way it is, stormies! If you all take nothing else away from this, remember that first impressions count. If an exec picks up your script and sighs at the prospect of a 124-page trudge, you’ve already lost points. So get out that McCullough Eager Beaver chainsaw and rev that baby up and don’t stop till you’re at 115. You’ll be glad you did.
Love y’all!
Portia Jefferson
Writers on the Storm Contest Coordinator
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
SCRIPPED - SO EASY AN 8 YEAR OLD CAN USE IT
By Jim Cirile
Back in May, we filled you in on Scripped.com, the revolutionary new FREE online screenwriting software. We did a little test run with the software and gave it thumbs up (if you missed it, it’s up on our blog HERE.) So if you’re still using MS Word to write screenplays, brother, do yourself and the world a favor and give Scripped.com a whirl.
So here’s an interesting bit of putting-your-money-where-your-mouth is. Long-time CI blog and newsletter readers know my 8 year old daughter is a very creative, imaginative type. I’ve written previously about my efforts to keep her from gravitating towards screenwriting and moviemaking, only because overprotective dad doesn’t want to see his little punkin go through years of punishing rejection and frustration (like all the rest of us.) But of course, this was a futile undertaking. As early as 7 years old, she was helping flag typos on scripts (comma before *and* after all direct addresses, sweetie) and asking fairly advanced questions about things like story and conflict. Just today she asked me if I knew that the Captain in WALL-E was going to stand (you gotta see it.) And I said, “Yeah, because it was logical that would be his arc.” And she said, “I thought so, too.”
So it was no surprise when a few weeks ago she asked for my help inputting a handful of pages, handwritten in crude screenplay format, into the computer. ‘Twas her first script – an epic kids/fantasy/adventure called MYSTERY DRAGONS. My first thought was, okay, I can teach her Final Draft. But then I thought about it some more, and I decided, you know what? There’s too many things she could get stuck on with FD. Plus my copy is out of installs, which means she’d have to have a copy of the disk in every time she used it… or I’d have to pay again for another license. Nothing against FD, by the way, which I use myself and find to be very good software (but for a few minor annoyances.) But I wanted something SIMPLE. And then the lightbulb went off.
My daughter is now the youngest enrolled user of Scripped.com.
The great thing is, because Scripped is not quite as full-featured as FD, it actually makes it easier to use. Within 20 minutes I had explained what the Character, Parenthetical, Action, Dialogue, General and Transition tabs were, and VROOM, off she went. But for a few general issues with things like spelling, (Scripped actually has a full-function spell check, yay) where to skip spaces and capitalize words, and what goes in the parentheses, she was off and running with no hiccups.
One of the founders of Scripped told me they’ve been getting calls from Final Draft and Movie Magic. It appears those guys are worried. They should be.
++++
And thus I am proud to announce Coverage, Ink’s new association with Scripped.com. Coverage, Ink will be providing preferred screenplay analysis and consultation services to Scripped members through Coverage by Scripped, powered by Coverage, Ink. We think that Scripped is the wave of the future. And based on the thousands of registered users in countries around the world, a lot of other people feel the same way. Scripped is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with.
So, all of you, you no longer have any excuse for poor formatting. You no longer need to be able to afford Final Draft or Movie Magic Screenwriter! Kick MS Word to the curb. Give Scripped a test spin and see what you think.
Yes, It's an Actual Store. For Writers.
Interview with Writers Store president Jesse Douma
By Jim Cirile
One of the first things I did upon moving to L.A. was to head over to The Writers Store at 2040 Westwood Blvd. This legendary shop represented so much to me. Here was an actual STORE for WRITERS. Even in NY, where I’m from, there’s no store writers can call their own. Simply walking in there and browsing the books and chatting with a helpful associate, it really made me feel like I had arrived in Hollywood. I’ve been back there many times since. In these days of brick and mortar businesses being crushed by the big e-tailers, it’s nice to know that The Writers Store is not only still around, but they’re ramping things up with new services, events and Storylink, an online writing community second to none. If you sometimes feel alone and adrift as a writer in L.A. look no further the helpful folks at The Writers Store.
I sat down to talk with Writers Store president & member Jesse Douma about all the things these guys are up to. And check out their online store at www.thewriterstore.com.
+++
Jim Cirile: Can you tell us a little about your background?
Jesse Douma: I’m originally from New York, but at this point I’ve lived on the west coast so long I can’t even really claim any New York roots. I moved out here to California to go to school, because it’s a lot cheaper if you’re a resident. While I was doing that, I started working for my dad and stepmom’s business, which at the time was The Writers Computer Store back in ’86. The store actually started in ’82. At the time, I was just doing odd jobs around the store to make some money while I was going to school. I found that I really enjoyed it, and I started moving through the different positions. I became a computer tech for a while, worked my way through every role and liked it so much that when I finished school, I decided to make it my profession. I eventually became a partner and then the president.
JC: Dad was cool with keeping it all in the family, right?
JD: Yeah. He had his vision and got the ball rolling, and over time we were able to add many new things. There was no internet back then to speak of, and we’ve grown a lot in that area. Now they relax up on the Oregon coast, and I keep bugging ‘em whenever I need to.
JC: Are you a writer yourself? Did you try to jump aboard the band wagon during the spec boom of the ‘90s?
JD: I’ve always thought of myself as the guy who’s selling picks and shovels during the Gold Rush. It never really occurred to me to try to throw my hat into the ring. I have gone through the process of writing, but I wasn’t bit by the writing bug until midstream at The Writers Store. It wasn’t exactly the crap-plus-one scenario of walking out of a movie and saying, “I can do better than that,” but I did become fascinated with the whole process and saw how enjoyable it was for those that were doing it… as they completed their projects, not necessarily in the middle. (laughs) I had a few ideas, and I went through the process. I wrote treatments and turned them into screenplays, which have still only been read by myself. But it was a great experience to see exactly what our clients encounter, and it’s something I hope to return back to, because I really found that I love writing, when I have the time for it.
JC: It’s really remarkable to me is that you guys actually have a physical store. Where else can you go and find a store that sells stuff for writers? That’s such a frickin’ cool thing, I can’t even tell you.
JD: I know what you mean. In a way, we’re almost a beacon for people coming into town. It’s great having the physical location, because we do serve people from around the world, and whenever they’re in Los Angeles -- either moving here or on vacation -- we’re a destination. I look at it as being a candy store for writers, between the fasteners and the books and all that stuff. When people come in, it’s not uncommon that they’ll be here for an hour or more just looking around.
Having a physical location also means we’re a meeting place for writers, especially if they’re on the west side. It’s pretty neat, and as much as we love the online arena, it’s really nice to have that in-person contact that a store gives you. Plus the physical location allows us to have free events every week, where you can come in and sit down with 15 other Writers Store clients and hear how to budget your first film or how to use Final Draft or any of the tools. We have a lot of free workshops. They’re a lot of fun and very rewarding.
JC: It must cost a buck to keep that store on Westwood Blvd. going, and yet Writers Store prices are as good or better than anywhere else. How do you do that?
JD: We’re the largest provider of these tools worldwide, so a lot of it is just volume, but it’s also something we factor in to the cost of doing business. We could probably have higher profits if we didn’t have this location, but at the same, it seems that it’s a service we should be providing. We get calls every day. It could be anything from how many fasteners to use to bind my screenplay or specific questions regarding character development. We’re able to field those over the phone, but it’s not the same as in person. I think we enjoy that contact as much as our clients do. It is very expensive to have such a large store in the high-rent area where we’re at, but it’s just a part of doing business, and we choose not to pass those costs along to our clients.
JC: So what exactly is Storylink?
JD: Storylink (http://www.storylink.com) is a division of The Writers Store. It came about for many reasons, one of which was that we found that our clients not only here in Los Angeles but around the world were looking for a place to meet up and communicate and get feedback from like-minded people. So we developed it as a community, but it’s developed into being much more than that.
JC: And is there any cost for people to join?
JD: No, Storylink is a free site. All the content, the groups, the events, everything on there is free. There are some premium services that do involve some expense. One of them is called Pitch Perfect, and it’s a video and text pitching system where storytellers from around the world log in, upload their video or text pitch into a secure area of Storylink that only approved industry users have access to. The idea is to remove some of those barriers that exist and allow fresh material to come into Hollywood. On the agents or producers’ side, it’s nice because it’s all filtered by genre, and on the storytellers’ side, it’s a safe, secure place that they can market their material, and they don’t even have to upload a complete screenplay. They can just put up a logline and synopsis and hopefully a video pitch, so the person watching can really get a sense of who’s behind the story.
So that’s one premium service, and then another is an area called Services at Storylink, which is a marketplace for preproduction services such as coverage, written notes, anything that has to do with the written page before it goes into production, you can find in our user area, and like an eBay system, there are user ratings, so you can get a sense of who you’re working with and what their past experience has been. But the most popular area of Storylink has to be the groups. There are hundreds of groups. It’s a great place to get together and meet other people who have a common interest.
JC: There’s always an impressive amount of free content up there, too, all written by industry pros, which I find pretty cool. Now with Pitch Perfect, how do you vet the producers and industry types who subscribe?
JD: They apply, and an application consists of them creating an account and listing their professional experience along with some references. We then check those references to make sure that the person is who they say they are. Once we’ve confirmed their information, we give them access. But at the same time, we log every access to every pitch, so we always know whichever agency has accessed this story on this particular date.
JC: As a veteran inkTip.com user, one thing I’ve noticed is that many of their industry subscribers are these below-the-radar companies who aren’t getting serviced by agencies. Now that’s not a slam, because oftentimes those guys maybe had a studio deal once or had some things made but are now hungry again, or they’re up-and-coming guys trying to make their bones who really hustle. I think a lot of opportunities and careers are made from dealing with people like that. Where are you guys at in terms of your industry subscribers?
JD: Well, we just launched, so I would say we’re pretty much where inkTip is at. I agree, there’s nothing wrong with the lesser-known execs that are out there. Everyone has to start somewhere, and generally (those guys) will work a lot harder for you because, you know, they need to (laughs.) But where we’re really trying to set ourselves apart, other than the video pitch and I think a more streamlined system, is that we provide our service for free to all Writers Guild members as well as all the top contest winners. And what that does is it gives us additional material into our system from established writers so that we’re able to attract some of the higher level execs. They know that in that pool of material, they’re not only going to have those hidden gems (from) the newbie writer but also Writers Guild members who maybe are no longer on a show, or for whatever reason their agents aren’t shopping their material the way they would like it to be shopped. So that is attracting a higher caliber of execs, plus we have a lot of those inkTip-type execs, too.
JC: Let’s say someone is considering buying Final Draft, for example. What’s an advantage for a writer to get it from you guys as opposed to amazon.com, for example?
JD: There’s a number of things. One is that we’re a place you can call. So if you’re not even sure that Final Draft is the right product for you—it does come down to the differences between some of the products out there, and that’s where we can really shine. You want someone who can really help determine the product that is going to be best for your specific needs, and that’s on the software level or even on the book level. Amazon will give you a description of a book, but it won’t tell you that in chapter two, there are these great three pages that cover character development that are worth the price of the book just for that. My staff reads nearly every book title that comes through here, and they can really guide someone to the product that best fits their needs. And then after the purchase, we’re still here. So we’re able to fill in the support gaps or answer general questions that don’t fall under manufacturer’s support, such as, “What should be on my title page?” My team has a lot of information that they’ll pass along at no charge because we want to help them succeed at their creative goals.
JC: Awesome, man. Thanks for taking the time. And I have to mention, I love that you can just walk over to your store on Westwood Blvd. and buy the *right freakin’ brads,* which you can’t buy at any other store, it seems. I mean, that may seem like a little thing, but having the right brads (Acco genuine brass #6) that won’t fall apart when you read the script, and having a place to get them, well, that’s a damn community service, bro.
JD: (laughs) It’s funny, though. Those brads -- not only do we sell them off the floor all day long like an ice cream shop, but we ship them all over the world. You can pick up fasteners in other locations, but they’re never the right ones. They’re either too cheap, too flimsy… I hate to say it, but the Hollywood system looks for any reason to not read a script, and it does sometimes come down to a wrong cover or wrong fasteners. You can’t give them any reason to kick it into the pile.
By Jim Cirile
One of the first things I did upon moving to L.A. was to head over to The Writers Store at 2040 Westwood Blvd. This legendary shop represented so much to me. Here was an actual STORE for WRITERS. Even in NY, where I’m from, there’s no store writers can call their own. Simply walking in there and browsing the books and chatting with a helpful associate, it really made me feel like I had arrived in Hollywood. I’ve been back there many times since. In these days of brick and mortar businesses being crushed by the big e-tailers, it’s nice to know that The Writers Store is not only still around, but they’re ramping things up with new services, events and Storylink, an online writing community second to none. If you sometimes feel alone and adrift as a writer in L.A. look no further the helpful folks at The Writers Store.
I sat down to talk with Writers Store president & member Jesse Douma about all the things these guys are up to. And check out their online store at www.thewriterstore.com.
+++
Jim Cirile: Can you tell us a little about your background?
Jesse Douma: I’m originally from New York, but at this point I’ve lived on the west coast so long I can’t even really claim any New York roots. I moved out here to California to go to school, because it’s a lot cheaper if you’re a resident. While I was doing that, I started working for my dad and stepmom’s business, which at the time was The Writers Computer Store back in ’86. The store actually started in ’82. At the time, I was just doing odd jobs around the store to make some money while I was going to school. I found that I really enjoyed it, and I started moving through the different positions. I became a computer tech for a while, worked my way through every role and liked it so much that when I finished school, I decided to make it my profession. I eventually became a partner and then the president.
JC: Dad was cool with keeping it all in the family, right?
JD: Yeah. He had his vision and got the ball rolling, and over time we were able to add many new things. There was no internet back then to speak of, and we’ve grown a lot in that area. Now they relax up on the Oregon coast, and I keep bugging ‘em whenever I need to.
JC: Are you a writer yourself? Did you try to jump aboard the band wagon during the spec boom of the ‘90s?
JD: I’ve always thought of myself as the guy who’s selling picks and shovels during the Gold Rush. It never really occurred to me to try to throw my hat into the ring. I have gone through the process of writing, but I wasn’t bit by the writing bug until midstream at The Writers Store. It wasn’t exactly the crap-plus-one scenario of walking out of a movie and saying, “I can do better than that,” but I did become fascinated with the whole process and saw how enjoyable it was for those that were doing it… as they completed their projects, not necessarily in the middle. (laughs) I had a few ideas, and I went through the process. I wrote treatments and turned them into screenplays, which have still only been read by myself. But it was a great experience to see exactly what our clients encounter, and it’s something I hope to return back to, because I really found that I love writing, when I have the time for it.
JC: It’s really remarkable to me is that you guys actually have a physical store. Where else can you go and find a store that sells stuff for writers? That’s such a frickin’ cool thing, I can’t even tell you.
JD: I know what you mean. In a way, we’re almost a beacon for people coming into town. It’s great having the physical location, because we do serve people from around the world, and whenever they’re in Los Angeles -- either moving here or on vacation -- we’re a destination. I look at it as being a candy store for writers, between the fasteners and the books and all that stuff. When people come in, it’s not uncommon that they’ll be here for an hour or more just looking around.
Having a physical location also means we’re a meeting place for writers, especially if they’re on the west side. It’s pretty neat, and as much as we love the online arena, it’s really nice to have that in-person contact that a store gives you. Plus the physical location allows us to have free events every week, where you can come in and sit down with 15 other Writers Store clients and hear how to budget your first film or how to use Final Draft or any of the tools. We have a lot of free workshops. They’re a lot of fun and very rewarding.
JC: It must cost a buck to keep that store on Westwood Blvd. going, and yet Writers Store prices are as good or better than anywhere else. How do you do that?
JD: We’re the largest provider of these tools worldwide, so a lot of it is just volume, but it’s also something we factor in to the cost of doing business. We could probably have higher profits if we didn’t have this location, but at the same, it seems that it’s a service we should be providing. We get calls every day. It could be anything from how many fasteners to use to bind my screenplay or specific questions regarding character development. We’re able to field those over the phone, but it’s not the same as in person. I think we enjoy that contact as much as our clients do. It is very expensive to have such a large store in the high-rent area where we’re at, but it’s just a part of doing business, and we choose not to pass those costs along to our clients.
JC: So what exactly is Storylink?
JD: Storylink (http://www.storylink.com) is a division of The Writers Store. It came about for many reasons, one of which was that we found that our clients not only here in Los Angeles but around the world were looking for a place to meet up and communicate and get feedback from like-minded people. So we developed it as a community, but it’s developed into being much more than that.
JC: And is there any cost for people to join?
JD: No, Storylink is a free site. All the content, the groups, the events, everything on there is free. There are some premium services that do involve some expense. One of them is called Pitch Perfect, and it’s a video and text pitching system where storytellers from around the world log in, upload their video or text pitch into a secure area of Storylink that only approved industry users have access to. The idea is to remove some of those barriers that exist and allow fresh material to come into Hollywood. On the agents or producers’ side, it’s nice because it’s all filtered by genre, and on the storytellers’ side, it’s a safe, secure place that they can market their material, and they don’t even have to upload a complete screenplay. They can just put up a logline and synopsis and hopefully a video pitch, so the person watching can really get a sense of who’s behind the story.
So that’s one premium service, and then another is an area called Services at Storylink, which is a marketplace for preproduction services such as coverage, written notes, anything that has to do with the written page before it goes into production, you can find in our user area, and like an eBay system, there are user ratings, so you can get a sense of who you’re working with and what their past experience has been. But the most popular area of Storylink has to be the groups. There are hundreds of groups. It’s a great place to get together and meet other people who have a common interest.
JC: There’s always an impressive amount of free content up there, too, all written by industry pros, which I find pretty cool. Now with Pitch Perfect, how do you vet the producers and industry types who subscribe?
JD: They apply, and an application consists of them creating an account and listing their professional experience along with some references. We then check those references to make sure that the person is who they say they are. Once we’ve confirmed their information, we give them access. But at the same time, we log every access to every pitch, so we always know whichever agency has accessed this story on this particular date.
JC: As a veteran inkTip.com user, one thing I’ve noticed is that many of their industry subscribers are these below-the-radar companies who aren’t getting serviced by agencies. Now that’s not a slam, because oftentimes those guys maybe had a studio deal once or had some things made but are now hungry again, or they’re up-and-coming guys trying to make their bones who really hustle. I think a lot of opportunities and careers are made from dealing with people like that. Where are you guys at in terms of your industry subscribers?
JD: Well, we just launched, so I would say we’re pretty much where inkTip is at. I agree, there’s nothing wrong with the lesser-known execs that are out there. Everyone has to start somewhere, and generally (those guys) will work a lot harder for you because, you know, they need to (laughs.) But where we’re really trying to set ourselves apart, other than the video pitch and I think a more streamlined system, is that we provide our service for free to all Writers Guild members as well as all the top contest winners. And what that does is it gives us additional material into our system from established writers so that we’re able to attract some of the higher level execs. They know that in that pool of material, they’re not only going to have those hidden gems (from) the newbie writer but also Writers Guild members who maybe are no longer on a show, or for whatever reason their agents aren’t shopping their material the way they would like it to be shopped. So that is attracting a higher caliber of execs, plus we have a lot of those inkTip-type execs, too.
JC: Let’s say someone is considering buying Final Draft, for example. What’s an advantage for a writer to get it from you guys as opposed to amazon.com, for example?
JD: There’s a number of things. One is that we’re a place you can call. So if you’re not even sure that Final Draft is the right product for you—it does come down to the differences between some of the products out there, and that’s where we can really shine. You want someone who can really help determine the product that is going to be best for your specific needs, and that’s on the software level or even on the book level. Amazon will give you a description of a book, but it won’t tell you that in chapter two, there are these great three pages that cover character development that are worth the price of the book just for that. My staff reads nearly every book title that comes through here, and they can really guide someone to the product that best fits their needs. And then after the purchase, we’re still here. So we’re able to fill in the support gaps or answer general questions that don’t fall under manufacturer’s support, such as, “What should be on my title page?” My team has a lot of information that they’ll pass along at no charge because we want to help them succeed at their creative goals.
JC: Awesome, man. Thanks for taking the time. And I have to mention, I love that you can just walk over to your store on Westwood Blvd. and buy the *right freakin’ brads,* which you can’t buy at any other store, it seems. I mean, that may seem like a little thing, but having the right brads (Acco genuine brass #6) that won’t fall apart when you read the script, and having a place to get them, well, that’s a damn community service, bro.
JD: (laughs) It’s funny, though. Those brads -- not only do we sell them off the floor all day long like an ice cream shop, but we ship them all over the world. You can pick up fasteners in other locations, but they’re never the right ones. They’re either too cheap, too flimsy… I hate to say it, but the Hollywood system looks for any reason to not read a script, and it does sometimes come down to a wrong cover or wrong fasteners. You can’t give them any reason to kick it into the pile.
Symbolism in Horror
Symbols - objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
Symbolizing Concepts: 13 Common Objects and Abstracts of Horror
By Sara C. Caldwell
Most films use patterns or specific objects as metaphors for a concept that the film is trying to convey. In horror movies, many such objects are used to intensify mood, identify character traits, emphasize themes and concepts (e.g. good and evil), and foreshadow events. Objects can be powerful symbols that add depth and meaning to a story.
Horror films try to capture our worst nightmares. As Carl G. Jung observed in his book Man and His Symbols (1979): "Commonplace objects or ideas can assume such powerful psychic significance in a dream that we may awake seriously disturbed, in spite of having dreamed of nothing worse than a locked room or a missed train" and “As a general rule, the unconscious aspect of any event is revealed to us in dreams, where it appears not as a rational thought but as a symbolic image."
Writers can use objects that appeal to our unconscious in this way for added, subtle dimension to reinforce themes. Some of the most common symbolic objects found in horror include:
1. Religious Symbols – Religion is very prevalent in horror, with themes of life and death, spirituality, man playing god, man fighting inner as well as outer demons, good versus evil, and so forth. Religious artifacts may be Christian, occult, satanic, voodoo, or about any other type of belief in something greater than humanity. In The Skeleton Key (2005), hospice worker Caroline Ellis is a skeptic and does not believe in the supernatural, even though hoodoo items and legends surround her in the swampy, primitive homestead where she cares for an elderly man, Ben. As Ben believes in the hoodoo magic, Caroline pieces together more and more about the lynching of a slave couple who performed hoodoo in the attic, and her belief system begins to shift. She learns about the jujus, spell-books and recorded conjurations she discovers in the attic and begins to perform rituals herself. In the end, her fear makes her a believer and this is her downfall, as it is what the slaves, who have lived on in the bodies of others, needed to take over her body. She let the symbolic objects overpower her reasoning.
2. Symbols of Death – Death is naturally pervasive in horror and there are countless representative objects, such as coffins, gravestones, skeletons, angels of death, and so forth. In Psycho (1960), the taxidermy birds are representative of the dead mother in the home and Bates’ schizophrenic attempts to keep her alive after death. In horror, there can be confusion between life and death, such as ghosts, zombies, and the supernatural, so objects can help symbolize who is on which side. Toward the beginning of Jacob’s Ladder (1990), Jacob gets trapped in an underground tunnel, which is symbolic of his being trapped between life and death. The rushing train which barely misses him on the track is filled with disfigured faces, lost souls like him. As he suffers more and more hallucinations and his life spins out of control, the only comfort he finds is with his chiropractor Louis, who he describes as an overgrown cherub. We later discover he is in fact an angel. Louis tells Jacob the truth about his situation, though Jacob can’t comprehend its real meaning at the time:
LOUIS
(continuing)
You know what he said? The only thing
that burns in Hell is the part of you
that won't let go of your life; your
memories, your attachments. They burn
'em all away. But they're not punish-
ing you, he said. They're freeing
your soul.
The fire that Jacob ignites at an Army headquarters (he blames the army for his hallucination from experiments they conducted on him) represents his need to burn away his attachments and memories of life. Fire symbolically recurs many times in the film and Jacob is literally consumed by it before being able to finally leave his hellish purgatory:
Subtle phospheresence begins to glow in the liquid beneath JACOB's feet. He steps away from it, but it follows his movement. Suddenly, as if by spontaneous combustion, it bursts into flames. JACOB screams and tries to run but the flames move with him, lapping at his legs. He cannot escape them. As far and as fast as he runs the fire is with him. He yells and cries and screams as the fire eats at his lower limbs. He falls and jumps back up again, his hands charred. His eyes grow wild.
JACOB
Oh, God, help me.
Instantly the flames roar and engulf him. It is total conflagration. Jacob's skin blisters and turns black. His flesh crackles. Writhing in pain,
he runs through the flames but can find no freedom from his suffering.
All at once, Jacob stops running. He throws his hands up into the burning air and stands motionless, in absolute agony. It is a gesture of total submission and surrender to forces beyond himself. His flesh bubbles and chars, but something is suddenly quiet inside him.
3. Colors – Many films use color to symbolize themes and the powers of good and evil. Red is often associated with evil, blood, lust, and violence, for example the Red Queen in Resident Evil (2002). Black is also naturally associated with evil, while light, neutral colors or earth tones are associated with good or the general populace. While screenwriters shouldn’t overdo wardrobe descriptions, describing the color and texture of objects or wardrobe can be useful if it is essential to the character. Consider this description of Bob Corso from The Ninth Gate (1999). A few descriptive sentences clearly help us visualize this man:
We now discover the speaker, BOB CORSO: a tall, lean, rather unkempt man in his 30's. Steel-rimmed glasses, crumpled old tweed jacket, worn cords, scuffed brown oxfords. He could almost be a shabby university teacher if it weren't for the street-wise glint in his eye.
4. Light – Light can symbolize many things, such as hope, transition, escape, and even death (e.g. Poltergeist’s “Don’t go into the light!”) Sunlight normally provides a sense of comfort so the incongruity of sunlight and horror can be especially unnerving, such as the graveyard scene in Night of the Living Dead (1968). Candles, lanterns, and flashlights are common sources of light in horror, as the light can only be cast so far while the surrounding darkness is rife with shadows. In this early scene from Hellraiser (1987) the dangling light bulbs in the torture room instantly sets the tone.
INT. TORTURE ROOM - NIGHT
The bare bulbs in the room we've entered swing violently, disorienting us. There are chains - dozens of them - disappearing with the darkness of the ceiling: all are swinging back and forth. Some end in hooks, with pieces of skin and sinew adhering; some are serrated, others simply drip blood.
In the claustrophobic British horror film The Descent (2005), a group of female friends on a caving expedition become hunted by inhuman creatures. The women are trapped in virtual darkness underground and light is their only friend as the creatures are blind. Light and dark are often used thematically to represent good and evil, hence the horror of the night and the hope of a new dawn if you’ve managed to survive.
5. Weapons – A majority of horror films involve the use of weapons, from machine guns to saws. Weapons have phallic symbolism that suggests masculine power and the woman that outsmarts the villain essentially castrates him. Leatherface's weapon in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) is the ultimate phallic symbol of raging power. The type of weapons a writer chooses for his or her villain – knife, gun, sword, club, saw –is most powerful when it reflects character; Leatherface lives on and on for this very reason.
6. Fabric – Fabric appears in many forms in horror, such as drapes, tapestries, and furniture dust coverings. Fabric can disguise horror and intensify it through movement or the suggested presence of something behind it. The protagonist can also hide behind fabric, but of course is not protected by it. In The Others (2001), the mother hears voices in the home and enters a room where all the stored items are covered with dust cloths. As the voices intensify, she begins pulling down the cloths to try to reveal the source. In this film, fabric is used as a metaphor for covering the dark truth the mother refuses to accept, that she murdered her own children. The curtains that are always closed in the home also emphasize this. Once the mother accepts the truth, there is no need for curtains and they can live in the light.
7. Keys/Locks – Keys and locks symbolize secrets, confinement, and hidden objects or places. In The Skeleton Key, Caroline is trying to solve her patient Ben’s paralyzed condition. Her skeleton key works in every room in the house except one in the attic. She manages to get inside the room and discovers a host of disturbing secrets that will lead to her own demise. In The Others, the mother must constantly lock and unlock doors to prevent light from reaching her children who have a rare condition and will die if exposed to sunlight. In this film, the keys and locks represent her confined thinking as well as her physical confinement in purgatory. Only when she accepts the truth can all the doors be left unlocked, like the curtains can come down.
8. Doors and Windows – Doors and windows (or any portal) have many symbolic meanings. Often, they help symbolize characterization. With windows, a person has a limited perspective and is like a spectator, not part of the outside world. The person looking through the window may be frightened of the world outside or physically unable to be part of it. In The Others, the mother is often by the window looking out, trapped in her home because of her children and a dense fog. At the end, she and her children stand by the window looking at a world they no longer belong to. On the other hand, a character can walk through a door and doors are symbolic of opportunity. In horror, however, doors and windows are typically a means of entrapment or freedom. They are also highly utilized for building suspense… is something behind the slightly open door or lurking outside the window in the dark? In Night of the Living Dead, doors and windows are dangerous openings that the zombies can infiltrate, despite efforts to block them up. Some of the most frightening scenes are when zombie hands reach in through spaces between the wooden boards. Windows can also personify a haunted house as eyes, such as the always glowing, quarter-round windows in Amityville Horror.
9. Labyrinths/Mazes – Mazes and labyrinths have often appeared in horror to heighten the protagonist’s lack of control. From the hedge maze in The Shining to the complex labyrinth of the underground Hive in Resident Evil, they offer many opportunities for sudden surprises around the corner, trap doors, circular action, and a sense of improbability for escape. In Resident Evil, the characters are aware of the labyrinth’s dangers:
INT. CONNECTING CORRIDOR
MATT and ALICE advance through the gloom. Every shadow hides a potential horror.
ALICE
I swear we’ve been here before.
They stop at a four-way junction.
ALICE
This place is a labyrinth.
MATT
I hope not. Every good labyrinth
has a monster at its heart.
Alice stares at him.
MATT
Didn’t they teach you about the
Minotaur at school?
10. Dolls – Dolls have appeared often in horror storytelling. The incongruity of a child’s toy and danger can make it unnerving, as dolls normally represent happiness, innocence, and nurturing. Yet their distorted human qualities, such as oversized heads, unblinking eyes or exaggerated features, can make them especially eerie. Doll appearances can be subtle, such as the marionette in The Others. The doll on a sting represents a figure that is not in control of its movements or destiny, much like the mother despite her efforts. It is also a moment when she shockingly connects to ‘the other side’ and her lifelong definitions of human reality are completely rattled. Dolls can also take a leading role, such as in the evil Chucky series. The same unnerving effect has been used with clowns, though they have been so overused as to have lost much of their effect. Dolls, on the other hand, come in so many forms, from voodoo to Barbie dolls and battered antique to contemporary ones, that they offer vast opportunities for symbolic use. A doll’s symbolism, which may be expressed through children’s play or other means, might include sexuality, lack of control, death, desire, regret, families, aging, and much more.
11. Masks – from the Phantom of the Opera to slasher classics, masks are most often used to disguise evil. Masks are devoid of movement, except for the eyes, which makes them unnerving, like doll faces. In The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Leatherface wears three different masks (made from human skin) that reflect his mood or victim. And who will ever forget hockey-masked Jason or white-faced Michael Myers? On occasion, the villain behind the mask may be a woman. The Japanese film, Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman (2007), is based on an urban legend that claims a suburban town was terrorized by the spirit of a woman whose beautiful face had been horribly disfigured. She would roam the streets wearing a long coat and surgical mask. She would approach her young victims and, while removing the mask, ask them if she was pretty. Their response would inevitably lead to their violent demise. Masks have been over-utilized in horror films so writers should be cautious and inventive in how they disguise their villains if it is important to the story to do so.
12. Mirrors – Mirrors, or a mirror effect such as reflections in glass or water, can have many symbolic meanings though typically represent the multiple dualities of characters. Broken mirrors have obvious connotations of shattered lives and personalities. Mirrors can also represent voyeuristic, vanity, and sexual themes – we display our bodies and beautify ours faces in front of them in private. Mirrors can also reflect dangers. The following scene from Halloween: H20 (1998) is a good example of how effective this can be as a sudden scare tactic:
Linda swipes her palm across the fogged-up mirror, wiping away the steam...
ON the MIRROR. In its reflection we see Molly and Linda... then --
THE SHAPE
appears from the cloud of steam behind them!
The mirror has been the subject of many films, including Alexandre Aja’s 2008 film Mirrors, which is based on the 2003 Korean film Into the Mirror. In these films the mirror is a gateway between good and evil, its symbolism similar to doors, gates, and windows.
13. Rope – Rope has many symbolic meanings, from bondage, flogging, and death (the noose) to a means of escape or survival. In horror, ropes are most often used as a form of bondage. This symbolism has been used since the dawn of horror cinema and has symbolic importance today. In the opening of James Whale's Frankenstein (1931), one of the first shots is a pair of hands pulling on a rope; hands lowering a coffin before grave robbers Dr. Frankenstein and his assistant pull it back up in front of a statue of the Grim Reaper. Later in the opening sequence, they cut a condemned man down from the rope of a gallows but are disappointed that they’ll need a different brain as his neck was severed.
Symbolism can be very powerful and is an important tool that writers can use to enhance theme and character. When working on your next screenplay, consider how everyday objects can be used to effectively alter mood. Even a paper doll can be salaciously scary if in the right hands!
This article is excerpted from a series for ConstructingHorror.com, a site dedicated to horror storytelling. In addition to her participation on this site, Sara Caldwell is the author of three books, including Splatter Flicks: How to Make Low Budget Horror Films. Splatter Flicks is a comprehensive guide that shows aspiring filmmakers exactly how today’s most successful creators of horror finance, produce, and market their films. Check it out HERE.
Symbolizing Concepts: 13 Common Objects and Abstracts of Horror
By Sara C. Caldwell
Most films use patterns or specific objects as metaphors for a concept that the film is trying to convey. In horror movies, many such objects are used to intensify mood, identify character traits, emphasize themes and concepts (e.g. good and evil), and foreshadow events. Objects can be powerful symbols that add depth and meaning to a story.
Horror films try to capture our worst nightmares. As Carl G. Jung observed in his book Man and His Symbols (1979): "Commonplace objects or ideas can assume such powerful psychic significance in a dream that we may awake seriously disturbed, in spite of having dreamed of nothing worse than a locked room or a missed train" and “As a general rule, the unconscious aspect of any event is revealed to us in dreams, where it appears not as a rational thought but as a symbolic image."
Writers can use objects that appeal to our unconscious in this way for added, subtle dimension to reinforce themes. Some of the most common symbolic objects found in horror include:
1. Religious Symbols – Religion is very prevalent in horror, with themes of life and death, spirituality, man playing god, man fighting inner as well as outer demons, good versus evil, and so forth. Religious artifacts may be Christian, occult, satanic, voodoo, or about any other type of belief in something greater than humanity. In The Skeleton Key (2005), hospice worker Caroline Ellis is a skeptic and does not believe in the supernatural, even though hoodoo items and legends surround her in the swampy, primitive homestead where she cares for an elderly man, Ben. As Ben believes in the hoodoo magic, Caroline pieces together more and more about the lynching of a slave couple who performed hoodoo in the attic, and her belief system begins to shift. She learns about the jujus, spell-books and recorded conjurations she discovers in the attic and begins to perform rituals herself. In the end, her fear makes her a believer and this is her downfall, as it is what the slaves, who have lived on in the bodies of others, needed to take over her body. She let the symbolic objects overpower her reasoning.
2. Symbols of Death – Death is naturally pervasive in horror and there are countless representative objects, such as coffins, gravestones, skeletons, angels of death, and so forth. In Psycho (1960), the taxidermy birds are representative of the dead mother in the home and Bates’ schizophrenic attempts to keep her alive after death. In horror, there can be confusion between life and death, such as ghosts, zombies, and the supernatural, so objects can help symbolize who is on which side. Toward the beginning of Jacob’s Ladder (1990), Jacob gets trapped in an underground tunnel, which is symbolic of his being trapped between life and death. The rushing train which barely misses him on the track is filled with disfigured faces, lost souls like him. As he suffers more and more hallucinations and his life spins out of control, the only comfort he finds is with his chiropractor Louis, who he describes as an overgrown cherub. We later discover he is in fact an angel. Louis tells Jacob the truth about his situation, though Jacob can’t comprehend its real meaning at the time:
LOUIS
(continuing)
You know what he said? The only thing
that burns in Hell is the part of you
that won't let go of your life; your
memories, your attachments. They burn
'em all away. But they're not punish-
ing you, he said. They're freeing
your soul.
The fire that Jacob ignites at an Army headquarters (he blames the army for his hallucination from experiments they conducted on him) represents his need to burn away his attachments and memories of life. Fire symbolically recurs many times in the film and Jacob is literally consumed by it before being able to finally leave his hellish purgatory:
Subtle phospheresence begins to glow in the liquid beneath JACOB's feet. He steps away from it, but it follows his movement. Suddenly, as if by spontaneous combustion, it bursts into flames. JACOB screams and tries to run but the flames move with him, lapping at his legs. He cannot escape them. As far and as fast as he runs the fire is with him. He yells and cries and screams as the fire eats at his lower limbs. He falls and jumps back up again, his hands charred. His eyes grow wild.
JACOB
Oh, God, help me.
Instantly the flames roar and engulf him. It is total conflagration. Jacob's skin blisters and turns black. His flesh crackles. Writhing in pain,
he runs through the flames but can find no freedom from his suffering.
All at once, Jacob stops running. He throws his hands up into the burning air and stands motionless, in absolute agony. It is a gesture of total submission and surrender to forces beyond himself. His flesh bubbles and chars, but something is suddenly quiet inside him.
3. Colors – Many films use color to symbolize themes and the powers of good and evil. Red is often associated with evil, blood, lust, and violence, for example the Red Queen in Resident Evil (2002). Black is also naturally associated with evil, while light, neutral colors or earth tones are associated with good or the general populace. While screenwriters shouldn’t overdo wardrobe descriptions, describing the color and texture of objects or wardrobe can be useful if it is essential to the character. Consider this description of Bob Corso from The Ninth Gate (1999). A few descriptive sentences clearly help us visualize this man:
We now discover the speaker, BOB CORSO: a tall, lean, rather unkempt man in his 30's. Steel-rimmed glasses, crumpled old tweed jacket, worn cords, scuffed brown oxfords. He could almost be a shabby university teacher if it weren't for the street-wise glint in his eye.
4. Light – Light can symbolize many things, such as hope, transition, escape, and even death (e.g. Poltergeist’s “Don’t go into the light!”) Sunlight normally provides a sense of comfort so the incongruity of sunlight and horror can be especially unnerving, such as the graveyard scene in Night of the Living Dead (1968). Candles, lanterns, and flashlights are common sources of light in horror, as the light can only be cast so far while the surrounding darkness is rife with shadows. In this early scene from Hellraiser (1987) the dangling light bulbs in the torture room instantly sets the tone.
INT. TORTURE ROOM - NIGHT
The bare bulbs in the room we've entered swing violently, disorienting us. There are chains - dozens of them - disappearing with the darkness of the ceiling: all are swinging back and forth. Some end in hooks, with pieces of skin and sinew adhering; some are serrated, others simply drip blood.
In the claustrophobic British horror film The Descent (2005), a group of female friends on a caving expedition become hunted by inhuman creatures. The women are trapped in virtual darkness underground and light is their only friend as the creatures are blind. Light and dark are often used thematically to represent good and evil, hence the horror of the night and the hope of a new dawn if you’ve managed to survive.
5. Weapons – A majority of horror films involve the use of weapons, from machine guns to saws. Weapons have phallic symbolism that suggests masculine power and the woman that outsmarts the villain essentially castrates him. Leatherface's weapon in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) is the ultimate phallic symbol of raging power. The type of weapons a writer chooses for his or her villain – knife, gun, sword, club, saw –is most powerful when it reflects character; Leatherface lives on and on for this very reason.
6. Fabric – Fabric appears in many forms in horror, such as drapes, tapestries, and furniture dust coverings. Fabric can disguise horror and intensify it through movement or the suggested presence of something behind it. The protagonist can also hide behind fabric, but of course is not protected by it. In The Others (2001), the mother hears voices in the home and enters a room where all the stored items are covered with dust cloths. As the voices intensify, she begins pulling down the cloths to try to reveal the source. In this film, fabric is used as a metaphor for covering the dark truth the mother refuses to accept, that she murdered her own children. The curtains that are always closed in the home also emphasize this. Once the mother accepts the truth, there is no need for curtains and they can live in the light.
7. Keys/Locks – Keys and locks symbolize secrets, confinement, and hidden objects or places. In The Skeleton Key, Caroline is trying to solve her patient Ben’s paralyzed condition. Her skeleton key works in every room in the house except one in the attic. She manages to get inside the room and discovers a host of disturbing secrets that will lead to her own demise. In The Others, the mother must constantly lock and unlock doors to prevent light from reaching her children who have a rare condition and will die if exposed to sunlight. In this film, the keys and locks represent her confined thinking as well as her physical confinement in purgatory. Only when she accepts the truth can all the doors be left unlocked, like the curtains can come down.
8. Doors and Windows – Doors and windows (or any portal) have many symbolic meanings. Often, they help symbolize characterization. With windows, a person has a limited perspective and is like a spectator, not part of the outside world. The person looking through the window may be frightened of the world outside or physically unable to be part of it. In The Others, the mother is often by the window looking out, trapped in her home because of her children and a dense fog. At the end, she and her children stand by the window looking at a world they no longer belong to. On the other hand, a character can walk through a door and doors are symbolic of opportunity. In horror, however, doors and windows are typically a means of entrapment or freedom. They are also highly utilized for building suspense… is something behind the slightly open door or lurking outside the window in the dark? In Night of the Living Dead, doors and windows are dangerous openings that the zombies can infiltrate, despite efforts to block them up. Some of the most frightening scenes are when zombie hands reach in through spaces between the wooden boards. Windows can also personify a haunted house as eyes, such as the always glowing, quarter-round windows in Amityville Horror.
9. Labyrinths/Mazes – Mazes and labyrinths have often appeared in horror to heighten the protagonist’s lack of control. From the hedge maze in The Shining to the complex labyrinth of the underground Hive in Resident Evil, they offer many opportunities for sudden surprises around the corner, trap doors, circular action, and a sense of improbability for escape. In Resident Evil, the characters are aware of the labyrinth’s dangers:
INT. CONNECTING CORRIDOR
MATT and ALICE advance through the gloom. Every shadow hides a potential horror.
ALICE
I swear we’ve been here before.
They stop at a four-way junction.
ALICE
This place is a labyrinth.
MATT
I hope not. Every good labyrinth
has a monster at its heart.
Alice stares at him.
MATT
Didn’t they teach you about the
Minotaur at school?
10. Dolls – Dolls have appeared often in horror storytelling. The incongruity of a child’s toy and danger can make it unnerving, as dolls normally represent happiness, innocence, and nurturing. Yet their distorted human qualities, such as oversized heads, unblinking eyes or exaggerated features, can make them especially eerie. Doll appearances can be subtle, such as the marionette in The Others. The doll on a sting represents a figure that is not in control of its movements or destiny, much like the mother despite her efforts. It is also a moment when she shockingly connects to ‘the other side’ and her lifelong definitions of human reality are completely rattled. Dolls can also take a leading role, such as in the evil Chucky series. The same unnerving effect has been used with clowns, though they have been so overused as to have lost much of their effect. Dolls, on the other hand, come in so many forms, from voodoo to Barbie dolls and battered antique to contemporary ones, that they offer vast opportunities for symbolic use. A doll’s symbolism, which may be expressed through children’s play or other means, might include sexuality, lack of control, death, desire, regret, families, aging, and much more.
11. Masks – from the Phantom of the Opera to slasher classics, masks are most often used to disguise evil. Masks are devoid of movement, except for the eyes, which makes them unnerving, like doll faces. In The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Leatherface wears three different masks (made from human skin) that reflect his mood or victim. And who will ever forget hockey-masked Jason or white-faced Michael Myers? On occasion, the villain behind the mask may be a woman. The Japanese film, Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman (2007), is based on an urban legend that claims a suburban town was terrorized by the spirit of a woman whose beautiful face had been horribly disfigured. She would roam the streets wearing a long coat and surgical mask. She would approach her young victims and, while removing the mask, ask them if she was pretty. Their response would inevitably lead to their violent demise. Masks have been over-utilized in horror films so writers should be cautious and inventive in how they disguise their villains if it is important to the story to do so.
12. Mirrors – Mirrors, or a mirror effect such as reflections in glass or water, can have many symbolic meanings though typically represent the multiple dualities of characters. Broken mirrors have obvious connotations of shattered lives and personalities. Mirrors can also represent voyeuristic, vanity, and sexual themes – we display our bodies and beautify ours faces in front of them in private. Mirrors can also reflect dangers. The following scene from Halloween: H20 (1998) is a good example of how effective this can be as a sudden scare tactic:
Linda swipes her palm across the fogged-up mirror, wiping away the steam...
ON the MIRROR. In its reflection we see Molly and Linda... then --
THE SHAPE
appears from the cloud of steam behind them!
The mirror has been the subject of many films, including Alexandre Aja’s 2008 film Mirrors, which is based on the 2003 Korean film Into the Mirror. In these films the mirror is a gateway between good and evil, its symbolism similar to doors, gates, and windows.
13. Rope – Rope has many symbolic meanings, from bondage, flogging, and death (the noose) to a means of escape or survival. In horror, ropes are most often used as a form of bondage. This symbolism has been used since the dawn of horror cinema and has symbolic importance today. In the opening of James Whale's Frankenstein (1931), one of the first shots is a pair of hands pulling on a rope; hands lowering a coffin before grave robbers Dr. Frankenstein and his assistant pull it back up in front of a statue of the Grim Reaper. Later in the opening sequence, they cut a condemned man down from the rope of a gallows but are disappointed that they’ll need a different brain as his neck was severed.
Symbolism can be very powerful and is an important tool that writers can use to enhance theme and character. When working on your next screenplay, consider how everyday objects can be used to effectively alter mood. Even a paper doll can be salaciously scary if in the right hands!
This article is excerpted from a series for ConstructingHorror.com, a site dedicated to horror storytelling. In addition to her participation on this site, Sara Caldwell is the author of three books, including Splatter Flicks: How to Make Low Budget Horror Films. Splatter Flicks is a comprehensive guide that shows aspiring filmmakers exactly how today’s most successful creators of horror finance, produce, and market their films. Check it out HERE.
Monday, July 07, 2008
Writers on the Storm Deadlines + more Quarterfinalists!
Hey Stormies!
Well, we’re into the home stretch. As usual, you guys all wait till the end and then hammer us with the submissions. I know, I know, I’m a writer, too. I do the same thing all the time. Yeah, a deadline gets me moving. If I know I have 2 months, it gets back-burnered until the red alert kicks in -- yikes, 48 hours, I better get a move on!
Now I know our deadlines are a bit confusing, so let me try to explain this all as clearly as I can.
Our REGULAR DEADLINE is midnight 7/11. That means any script submitted to Writers on the Storm (at www.writerstorm.com or www.withoutabox.com) before that time gets into the contest at the $40 rate.
Our FINAL DEADLINE is midnight 7/27. For the period from 7/12 through 7/27, the price jumps to $50 for any script submitted at www.writerstorm.com or www.withoutabox.com. That’s the honest and true FINAL deadline, y’all. No extensions. 7/28, we’re out.
However -- and this is where it gets just a mite tricky -- you can also enter the contest through Coverage, Ink (www.coverageink.com) if you want a full script analysis. If you do that, entry into the contest is automatic and free, right up till 7/27. And there is no price increase. In other words, there’s only one deadline on the CI side -- 7/27. Send in your script for coverage any time up till midnight 7/27 and you’re in. Get it? Are we cool? ;)
And once again, here's an update on our current quarterfinalists. These are folks who entered the contest via submitting their scripts to Coverage Ink for screenplay coverage, and they represent approximately the top 10% of submissions to CI since the contest began.
Congrats to our Writers on the Storm 2008 quarterfinalists so far:
Heather Upton, Belfast Boys
CA Bennett, Death Valley Dig
Kelly Murry, La Matadora
AC Yacobian, Rasta Pasta
Aaron Marshall, The Last Adventure of Martin Finch
Alan Sproles & Lizanne Southgate, Eden Lost
Rich Sheehy, Sliding Into Home
Paul Sargia, The Man Who Could Stop Time
Steven Zawacki, Orcadia
Suzanne Darling, Brush With Fame
Dennis Bailey, Pound For Pound
Chris Jopling, Blacklights
Andrew Zeoli & Christian Wagner, Blue Ballers
Attila Nagy, Garen Inboden & Gilbert Inboden, Enlighten Up
Russ Meyer, Organic Svengali
Vito LaBruno, The Last American Guido
Adam Nur, Jetpack
Nisso Cohen, The Source
Mark Eaton & Stacy Dymalski, Center of Fortitude
Art Blum, Back from the Dead
Patrick Nicholas, Edgewater
Michael Coleman, Jr., Clone
Will one of these guys be the big winner and pocket 10 grand??? Too early to tell! But a lot of 'em are polishing their scripts based on the coverage and resubmitting (their quarterfinalist status locked in.) Does that mean they have a leg up on all of y’all who just enter the contest directly? Maybe, maybe not! Depends how well they execute and how well your own screenplay gets it done. There’s plenty more room up there!
Oh, one last thing -- this year we have far fewer scripts over 120 pages than ever before. That’s fantastic. As most of you know, that’s the very first thing you’re judged on by the industry. D-Girls and creative execs assume if you can’t tell your story in 120 or less that you don’t have the discipline or editing skills yet to be worthy of serious consideration. It’s just the way it is, stormies! If you all take nothing else away from this, remember that first impressions count. If an exec picks up your script and sighs at the prospect of a 124-page trudge, you’ve already lost points. So get out that McCullough Eager Beaver chainsaw and rev that baby up and don’t stop till you’re at 115. You’ll be glad you did.
Love y’all!
Portia Jefferson
Writers on the Storm Contest Coordinator
REFLECTING POOL opens in NYC
Earlier this year I wrote that this film “may just be the ‘All the President’s Men’ of our time.” THE REFLECTING POOL is a stunning narrative work that dares to (convincingly) challenge the official 9-11 story. With any serious discussion of 9-11 blacked out of our national media, it’s up to independent media and filmmakers like Jarek Kupsc to bring it to the people. As New York City prepares to vote on the historic 9-11 Ballot Initiative (www.nyc911initiative.org), which will launch the first-ever independent investigation the events of September 11th, Kupsc’s film also represents the first theatrical run of any film questioning 9-11 in the US.
This from Kupsc: “We are proud to announce the much-anticipated World Theatrical Premiere of the groundbreaking investigative drama THE REFLECTING POOL at the Pioneer Theater in New York City on July 11, 2008. This is a historic event. Please join us for these landmark shows from 7/11-7/18 and pass this message to all your New York friends. We will be doing Q&A after every show.
Read about the New York 9/11 Ballot Initiative in The Village Voice. THE REFLECTING POOL supports this important action to establish a new independent investigation of the most controversial tragedy of our time.”
Visit "The Reflecting Pool" web site HERE.
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