Transcripts
1. Writinh Horror Intro: Hey, I'm Jordan Mola, an award winning screenwriter
with many produced movies, TV shows, and a lot more. At this point in my career, I've written over 40
feature screenplays, 20 TV scripts, and many more scripts that
I can't even remember. I've sold and optioned
many screenplays. I'm also the creator and head
writer of monster therapy, a series about movie monsters
and marriage therapy. All I ever hear is chi
I don't hear that. I'm not Michael
Halloweeni Myers. I'm Freddie Freaking Kroger. Yes, we are adults of the corn. I've written a lot of horror, especially when
it's spooky season. And I've taught several
of my clients and students how to write
their own horror movies. And in this online course, I'll break down the structure needed to write an
epic horror film, and I'll be using examples
from a quiet place, scream child's play,
insidious and much more. Now, let's dive in and
start screenwriting.
2. Write a Christmas Film in 7 Weeks info Trailer: The holidays are almost here, and if you've ever wanted
to write a Christmas film, there's no better time than
during the holiday season. Starting November
5, I'll be teaching a fun screenwriting course on how to write a
Christmas movie. Teaching you
everything you need to know to write a
Christmas screenplay. You can enroll on my website
at www.jordanmola.com. This will be a small
group course on Zoom. We will meet every Tuesday for 90 minutes for seven weeks. And before Christmas, you will have a finished
Christmas screenplay. Your deadline for pages
will be every Monday night, and I will read your pages and give you notes every Tuesday. Christmas movies are evergreen, meaning they make
money every year. And I know this from the success of my Christmas movie that I wrote and directed in
2020, Christmas Sycation. I've also written
other Christmas movies that several production
companies have optioned. And 2019-2021, I also worked
for Marvista Entertainment, which has produced dozens of Christmas movies for
Lifetime and Hallmark. Christmas movies
are always being made and are in high
demand all the time. Some of the movies we'll study include a Christmas story, Elf, National lampoons
Christmas vacation, home alone one and
two, and more. If you want to write a Christmas
movie before Christmas, enroll now on my website at www.jordanmola.com before
this course fills up. That's JORDAN imolla.com. Happy holidays and right on.
3. Horror Writing Terminology: Kick off this horror course, let's cover some screen noting terminology that
you should know. Protagonist. The protagonist
is the hero of your story. It's your main character and the person who
we're rooting for. The antagonist is the villain, the entity that's
fighting against your hero and causing
them a lot of problems. I want to cover a few more writing terms that
I think will help break it down even more and make it easier
for you to write. Beat. A beat is a moment
or action by a character. Actors, when they read a script, beats help them determine how
to act in a given moment. A group of beats
is called a scene, and usually a scene takes
place in one location. When your character moves
to a different location, it becomes a different scene. Your very first scene should
set the tone for the rest of the story and piu the
interest of your audience. The next part of this
course will cover three act structure
correlating to horror movies. As I cover three act structure, feel free to brainstorm
ideas for your horror movie.
4. Writing Horror Act 1: The first step is to set the tone from the
start of your story. In child's play,
the serial killer is being chased by a policeman. The Chase gets you into
the movie right away, and the serial killer
will become Chucky. In scream, the first 12 minutes is the face killer
with Drew Berry. Until he kills her boyfriend and then eventually kills her. Then her parents find her dead. The opening scene is
over 10 minutes long, but it sets the tone
from the start. In a quiet place, we don't hear a sound for the first
7 minutes of the film. It's incredibly quiet as the family is being
introduced in a drug store, trying to get a prescription before they walk
back home together. In your opening scene, you want to introduce the
protagonist or the antagonist. The first scene of Jaws is
the first shark attack. Even though we don't
see the shark, we are being introduced to
the antagonist right away. After you have an exciting scene from the start that
sets the tone. That it's time to introduce
your main characters and get to know them.
This is step two. For your audience
to stay on board, answer these questions in
the beginning of your story. Who, what, why, where, and when? Who? Who is this story about? Who's the protagonist? Who's the antagonist? Who else are the
main characters? What is this story about? And what is the goal of
your main characters? Why? Why is your audience
interested in this story? And why are the characters
involved in their goal? Where? Where does it take place? Paint the world and
setting of the story. Lastly, when does this
story take place? Is it modern times, or is it 100 years ago? Or is it 100 years
into the future? Let us know if it's past,
present, or future. You want to give each character a strong introduction and make them distinct
and interesting. Make sure your characters have a specific attitude and
no one sounds the same. If they do sound similar right
now for your first draft, it's okay because this is something you can
fix in later drafts. Don't make it too
hard on yourself. The most important
thing right now is to keep moving
forward with your story. To help you develop your
characters and set them up, I've added a character
questionnaire that will help you discover
your characters even more. After you set up your story, your main character will
experience an inciting incident. This is the thing
that will forever change their lives and
push her story forward. In child's play, Andy's
mom buys Chuckie from a peddler for cheap because she can't
afford a good guy doll. In insidious, Dalton falls off the ladder in the
attic and hits his head. Not right away,
but the next day, he won't wake up in bed, and they take him
to the hospital where they think he's in a coma. He spends three more
months in that coma. Your main character doesn't
necessarily know that the inciting incident will rock the world and push them
in a new direction.
5. Writing Horror Act 2: Act two starts.
When you hear let's go of their old ways
and their old world. Antagonist will probably start killing or haunting characters. In child's play, Chucky
strikes his first victim, the babysitter, known
as Aunt Maggie. In scream, Ghostface
taunt Sidney, and the teenagers
at her high school don't take anything seriously. Eventually, the
principal of the school played by Henry Inkler
gets killed off. In child's play, after
Chucky kills the babysitter, he convinces Andy to
go on the subway into an unsafe neighborhood so
Chucky can kill someone else. Chucky only talks to
Andy, and of course, none of the adults believe
that a Doll can talk. Think about all the ways you
can entertain your audience. In warm bodies, the
promise of the premise makes the story different than
every other zombie story. And the premise is a love story between
a zombie and a human. This is the section where we see our the Zombie start to fall in love with
Julie the human. For the first half of c two, brainstorm several entertaining
moments and have fun. After delivering
on the promise of the premise about halfway
through your story, your hero will hit the midpoint, and this is a major
turning point. Think about what's
the major thing that happens halfway through your story that could shock your main characters
and elevate the story? In Psycho, the midpoint is
the famous shower scene. And when Norman Bates kills the hero that
we were following, the movie takes a complete turn after our first
protagonist is dead. Spend time on figuring out
what your midpoint is. If you're having trouble, think, what is the biggest thing
that can happen here? What is the one thing that
creates the most conflict? Child's play, Karen
loses her son. After the police find
him at a crime scene, after Chuckie kills
his second victim. And he is then taken away
to he psychiatric center. Karen, Andy's mom, takes Chuckie home and tries to make
him talk, but he doesn't. A moment later, she
finds the good guy box, finds the good guy box
that Chuckie came from, and finds out that the batteries haven't been placed in Chuckie. A quiet place, Evelyn, Emily Blunt's character
goes into labor. And when she tries to get safe, she accidentally steps in a nail that makes her scream and breaks the things she's holding. This makes the creatures
come into the house. In Jaws, the townspeople think Jaws is dead as they kill
the shark in act two A. But Sheriff Brodie and Matt
don't think it was Jaws. The midpoint is Jaws comes
back with a vengeance and kill someone in the
beach when the beach is more full of people
than ever before. And Sheriff Brodie almost
loses his son to the shark. Something has to be done about the shark situation right now. Make sure to increase
the conflict and the tension at the midpoint. After your midpoint, amp up the stakes in conflict
against your main characters, until your hero
reaches a new low. In Psycho, Norman
Bates is winning. As his lies, let him
get away with murder. In alien, the alien keeps
growing more and more. It kills crew
members one by one, including the
captain of the ship. The more people the alien kills, the bigger the alien gets. The crew tries to go after
the alien, but nothing works. The alien is getting
more and more powerful. Keep thinking about how
the antagonists can win. Until your hero has reached
their lowest point possible. This is called the
All's lost moment. All is lost. In a quiet place, John rzinski, the father
of the family dies. He sacrifices himself
to save his children. In scream, the teenagers
are throwing a party, and they think they'll be safe from the killer if
they stick together. But of course, the
killer is among them. And ghost face kills
Sydney's best friend. In alien, it's when Ellen Ripley has no
one else to help her. She's all alone in the ship, just her and the alien. Towards the end of a two,
relationships may be ending, and family and friends
may be killed off. All the plans your hero has
made may fail epically. These are often the
hardest pages to write. So if you're having
trouble writing them, know that most writers do. Many times, after I
write my first draft, I spend much of my time
on my second draft rewriting and adding
conflict to these pages. In these pages, think about how to make your
protagonist lose. At the end of Act two, your hero should be worse off than
when the story started.
6. SkillShare Superpeer Coaching Promo: Hey, if you're interested in one on one coaching sessions, I'd love to help you during
your creative process to make sure your
project gets finished. You're interested, you
can book a session on Skill Share using their
new super Peer feature. To book a coaching session, just click on my Skillshare
profile and click Book now. These coaching sessions can be weekly or bi weekly,
whichever you prefer. I offer coaching sessions on
writing movies, TV shows, web series, producing
your own film or series, and much more. I can coach you once a week or every two weeks to
make sure you stay on track and create the
accountability you need to finish your
story and project. Contact me to book your
first session now. Thank you, and now back to your regularly
scheduled course. Okay.
7. Writing Horror Act 3: After the All's lost moment, your hero has been beaten down, but they are still alive, and where there's a
will, there's a way. It often helps to think about these pages as the comeback. Give your character hope
and prepare for the finale. Your team will assemble
and work together here. In a quiet place. Reagan,
the oldest of the children, goes into the basement
for the first time and starts to finish
her father's work. She discovers the hearing
aids he was working on can be used as a weapon to
take down the monsters. In alien, Ripley decides to
self destruct the spaceship. There's no way she's letting
the alien get to Earth. She'll fly out on an
escape pod and let the alien blow up in the
spaceship behind her. Sometimes, your hero
would join forces with someone else they didn't
get along with before, so they can take
down a common enemy. In warm bodies, the zombies and the humans join forces
to take down the bonies. The middle of Act three is
where you have your big event. This is the section where
you pin your protagonist and antagonist against each
other for the final fight. Focus on the big event or mission that your
heroes must win. In Child's play, Chucky goes to the Psychiatric Center
to do a voodoo spell, so we can take over Andy's body and he's not stuck in the
good guy body forever. He then goes back home
and Chucky goes there. In insidious, Dalton's father has to go to the further
to save his son. Then he literally has
to fight off demons and ghosts that want to take
over his son's body. In scream, all the
characters who are still alive have an
epic fight in the house, and the main character, Sydney finds out who the killers are, and they reveal why
they killed everyone. Sydney fights back and eventually kills her
boyfriend, Billy. Alien, Ripley thought she
was safe in the escape pod. But she finds out the
alien is there too. Blowing up the spaceship
didn't accomplish anything. Now she has to get the alien
out of the escape pod. Write and brainstorm,
your big event, and think about some
twists and turns that could occur
during your big event. After your big event and
the big bad is destroyed, it's time to wrap up
all your story lines. Once the monster is defeated, we see who lives
to tell the tale. In Psycho, Norman Bates is finally found
out for who he is. It's also common to
have one last scare. In insidious, Josh kills
Elis, the psychic lady. After she takes a
picture of Josh. We find out Josh's body has been possessed by the parasite
woman from the further. Usually, in the end, the
monster always comes back, even for a second. In a quiet place,
as soon as they find the weakness and
kill the monster, more monsters start
to come after them. It often helps if you're ending, can circle back to your opening. After you write and wrap
up your story lines, it's time to rewrite and then
get your story out there.
8. Thank You: Thank you so much for watching this course. I really
appreciate it. If you enjoy this course, you can find more
student resources on my website at
www.jordanmola.com. I also offer one on one weekly coaching sessions there if you would like
more accountability, instructions, and
guidance on how to move your script forward and what
to do once you finish it. You can find that at
www.jordanmola.com slash CACE or
www.jordanmola.com SASHDS oh, my website
offers services like script coverage and links to my podcast and other courses. Thank you again and right on.
9. Ensure Success: Want to make sure your script
is always moving forward and you want to know all the ins and outs
of screenwriting, check out my coaching sessions. I'd love to help you during your creative process to make sure your project gets finished. I have clients who had an idea
for a film or TV show for years but need accountability and structure to
complete the script. And I can guide you on how to do that and ensure you finish it. You can find more information on my website at
www.jordanmola.com. Contact me to book your
first session now. I offer coaching sessions on
writing movies, TV shows, web series, producing
your own film or series, and much more. I can coach you over Zoom. To book coaching sessions,
visit my website.
Jordan Imiola, Screenwriter
