The last post below reads Friday September 6, 2013.
Today is April 4, 2014.
I'd say about 9 drafts later including a total page 1 rewrite...
NARCOSIS is out on the town.
I can't even believe it myself. This whole process is so surreal. I've been pushing against this wall for 4 years and even though I've been on the outskirts working at NR these past few years...
A SCRIPT I WROTE IS BEING CIRCULATED... WHAT!!??
I'll follow up this post with more details once this whole process is over. Hopefully someone will like it enough to think they can make it into a movie, I'll get a paycheck for my efforts, and can move onto the next one. I just wanted to throw this out into the world on this lonely little blog of mine. I promise if I become an official screenwriter soon, this will be a weekly affair.
If you want to read Narcosis-- contact my manager Adam Marshall @Caliber Media!
NARCOSIS: After their boat is pulled to the bottom of the
ocean by a vengeful entity, a Father, his terminal son and a deranged dive
captain must find their way back to the surface while suffering from nitrogen
narcosis and a boat that is steadily filling with water. “The Descent” meets
“Jacob’s Ladder” on the ocean floor. And if you belong to the Blacklist: https://blcklst.com/members/scripts/view/10945 I'm not really too keen on the blacklist so far, I haven't received my rating yet from a reader but, it's been up for a week and got zero views. I think my logline is strong. Script is strong. But there's just simply not enough people actively trolling the site to make it worth any $$. After I get my rating, odds are I will pull it. But who knows. Onto the next script! -Cjevy
So yeah, I have a blog? Been almost a year since I transgressed into this dear lost but not forgotten tundra that is Trying to Write Some Horror. But I've been very busy. Working at a movie studio, writing my own stories and home life have me securely tied down, but not today. Today I want to try and reach out to as many of my fellow writers as possible with a few helpful hints regarding querying reps and production companies.
Now in full disclosure I have yet to sign a rep, whether that be an agent or manager or guardian angel. But I've got open doors at several of prominent managers and all five major talent agencies, so hopefully it's only a matter of time before I can cross over to the other side.
The Query. A blind email to a person you do not know asking them to give you an hour or more of their personal time to sit down and give you a chance. Why should they say yes? Time is money. Time is limited. Time is precious. You are writing me out of the blue asking for my time?
Now as someone who both receives queries and sends them I want to pass on a few tips on how to get to yes. Because not only does YES give you a glimmer of hope for the hours and days you have put into essentially 100 pieces of worthless paper, YES gives those pieces of paper validity. Validity for your ideas and validity for your work.
THE LETTER:
Intro paragraph: Dear _____, (actual name)- not "production executive", or "agent" or to "whom this may concern", take the time to specify each letter to each specific person. You want my time? You need to show you took the time to know who the fuck I am. Followed by a brief, introduction and what you are submitting to me. Enter, Enter, then--
The Logline: Title in bold, one to two sentences on what the story is, the concept, the characters and essentially why should I glance at page one. The logline is your lifeline. Give it to as many people as possible and see if they give you the slightest inkling that they would watch that movie. Pay someone to write your logline for you if you have to. But keep it brief and to the point. I normally skip everything your have written up to the logline. If I cannot find your logline; DELETE. If your logline does not sound original? DELETE. If your logline has spelling or grammatical errors? DELETE.
The point is to keep them reading and interested.
Next a brief summation as to who you are and why should I respond to this query. Interesting occupation? Film School? Screenwriting Awards? Something to validate your awesome logline. To get to a yes.
And that's it folks, nothing more nothing less.
COMMON MISTAKES THAT BOTHER ME:
- Spelling, Grammar, obvious copy and paste sections that are of a different font or size. I realize that if you do not speak English or if English is not your first language this may be hard, but its also an immediate delete. Pay someone to do this for you. Because if the two paragraphs you are writing do not make sense the hundred pages you send me most definitely wont.
- Writing too much. I get 300+ emails a day, give or take. You have a brief window to woo me into a yes. When the email pops up in the bottom right hand corner, if I can spot a mistake already, auto-delete. If I open the email and see that you have sent me a four page memo, it doesn't matter I'm probably not going to divinci code the thing to find your logline.
- Subject Line. This one is tricky. Just putting "Query" in there certainly does let me know what it is, but if I open an email and see an interesting title, you get my attention immediately. When I'm sending out queries to put the title here. You're looking for attention right? Start off by getting some.
- Asking if I accept submissions or queries. The answer is no. If you're writing me an email asking if I will accept your submission the answer is always no. Why waste your time sending out these emails? And secondly, why would I respond? My company has a very strict no unsolicited submissions policy. And so does every agency, studio, production co, etc. Yet, somehow these scripts get through the cracks every once in a while... I wonder if a good letter/logline has to do with that?
- Submitting a query to a production company/studio and asking for representation. Either you don't know enough about the business or you are too lazy to change your query for me. DELETE.
- Do not use constantcontact or another subscription based blast email websites. Those go directly into my spam account, I see a bunch of queries in there every morning when I check my email and those are immediately dumped.
- Last tip... Time of Day. Think about this one... You want to get someone when they are at their computer, so they can see an email pop up and click on it. Unless you are querying someone in NYC think about PST times. I've found the best times to send out queries is between 11AM-1230PM, and 3-5PM. People need time to settle down into their offices. Drink a cup of coffee. Go to a meeting. Then you've got them at their computers. Probably looking for an excuse to surf the web instead of do work.
I'm sure there are many more tips and tricks you can use, but my lunch hour is over and I wanted to get these tips out of my head for anyone out there wanting to check them out. Feel free to hit me up on twitter if you have any questions or concerns
It's Halloween, so I must post something, this is a horror blog isn't it? So I sat down and came up with MY personal top ten favorite scenes from horror movies. Again, these are my ten favorite scenes... Not some Bravo list or some douche on yahoo writing an article just to write one. You may disagree or agree, it's your opinion... And hey why not click on an ad when you get to the bottom, google will pay me a dollar for literally 2 seconds of your time... And in descending order and hopefully matching videos...
#10. Wax Fight!!
Of course the first scene I try to insert, I can only find the trailer for... So I love the movie Waxwork, it's imaginative with multiple storylines but best of all chock-full of 80's cheese. The finale is a huge melee between the best of your Universal era of monsters and a small town. Anyway you need to check this one out on Netflix when you get a chance...
#9. Blowing Bubbles
The best scene in the original Nightmare, just barely beating out the opening with Tina and the weird lambs running around... This is the first scene in the movie that really grabs the audience saying that you are not safe, no matter where you fall asleep. Freddy is waiting...
#8. Freebird
I love this movie. Most people probably do not. There is nothing particularly scary or overly gross about it... but there is just something about taking your sick twisted antagonists and switching them around and making them seem like the good guys after the midpoint, then swinging your hero into a bloody-thirsty maniac that gets my movie induced brain flowing. And I heart Skynyrd.
#7. Why I screen my calls
The first movie I really became obsessed with as a kid was Scream. I knew every word. Still do. Plan on watching it tonight as a matter of fact. To be able to divulge into the world of satire and still make a movie actually thrilling and moderately scary, Bravo Kevin Williamson/Wes Craven. Bravo. I still believe that the actual character of Ghostface is not what made scream scary, just the implication that someone is watching you, watch a movie is really what I find disturbing.
#6. I wonder what could be behind this giant door? Well I'll just slowly walk up to i---
Intro, Leatherface. Not my favorite horror icon, but I love this scene. You get the feeling,"hey this house is pretty creepy, if I were him I probably wouldn't be walking around in there." Then whooosh, a giant steel door flies open and there's Leatherface. Whack! drops him with a muted thud of a mauling meat tenderising Hammer. One of the better horror intro's if I must say so myself.
#5. Pazuzu
I could not find my actual favorite clip where the demon appears behind her for a split second, but the infamous headspin will do. I've actually done a good amount of research into this backstory and found it quite amazing. The real story was about a boy in western Maryland and William Peter Blatty transcribed the Priest's journal into a novel, then adapted his novel or the film. There were only rumored to be 2 copies of the journal, and Blatty only had his on loan for a few hours. He does not say how he came across the book, only that he could not copy directly what he read. Maybe he sold something precious of his to obtain this book, and the success that followed...
#4. The Box
Couldn't find the exact clip I wanted, but the scene where Kirsty is in the hospital and unlocks the box for the first time is just amazing. We already know what happens when you open it, but she doesn't. This gives the audience that little bit of an advantage but that is what makes this such a great scene. The television turns on to the image of a flower blooming. Subtle imagery? The walls split and they appear. Our first interaction with the Cenobites since the opening sequence. It really raises the bar for the film and makes us want to see more of them, especially since they willingly let her go... hoe often does that happen in horror films?
#3. Trapped in the Closet... (not R.Kelly's masterpiece)
The ending to the classic Halloween. I like to try and think if that was myself would I do the exact same thing as JLC in this scene. I would probably jump off the balcony. Maybe... But shit, if your trapped in the closet and you can make an eyeball shiv out of a fallen hanger, that's just good thinking on your feet. And writing on John Carpenter's side as well. Great scene.
#2. LIGHT OF MY LIFE!!!
OOOhhhh the frustrations of being a writer. I sympathize with you Jack Torrance... to an extent. This scene in Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece ranks second on my list mainly because of the acting here. Wow, just wow. I read somewhere that this scene took 140+ takes to get into the can. Probably why Shelly Long looks so tired, but Jack keeps the foot on the gas the whole time. There's a great making of the Shining floating around the internet as well worth checking out, pretty much documenting Kubrick writing pages and making the whole thing up as he goes, calling Stephen King in the middle of the night and asking him questions.
#1. The speech of all speeches...
This is why I am in this business. Whether or not you see Jaws as a horror film, that's your opinion. I do. This is my favorite scene of all time. Period. Jaws is always in my 5 disc DVD player and when I need some inspiration, I will jut put this scene on by itself. Little movie background, they actually spent 2 days shooting this scene... The first day Robert Shaw wanted to do it drunk. Spielberg said yes. It didn't work. Day 2, this happened. The set-up, delivery, the words themselves all perfect. One thing I can take away from this to improve my own writing is that I love when characters can tell stories within stories about themselves. And they deliver a purpose, is when it really counts. What do you take from Quint in this scene?? He has dedicated his life to hunting sharks after that traumatic experience. What does that say about his character? He will never stop. Bigger boat? Fuck you Chief. This is my boat. His ass is mine. And this stubbornness is what will be his ultimate demise. All of that can be deduced from this story. His past, present, and future.
I hope you enjoyed MY list of favorite horror scenes... what are some of yours??
- Cjevy
Follow me on twitter @cjevy, and click on an ad for me!!
So yeah, it is a new goal for the second half of this year and going forward to post something, anything on this blog at least once a week. Horror related. Movie related. Writing related... ANYTHING. As far as myself I have moved up the chain somehwat in my dayjob to at least a somebody but with that my free time has suffered along with my writing time.
This needs to change.
I am currently writing a treatment for an up and coming producer for an idea he pitched me. We met with an interested director but honestly if this story turns out the way I want it to, well shit, I want to direct it.... maybe. Just thinking that is pretty scary in itself.
Anyway, it is just about that time of the year. You know what I'm talking about... When the blu-rays go on sale and finally... sweet jeebus, finally we get some decent horror flowing into our lives. So far this year V/H/S and Sinister seem to be the winners. A review of VHS will be coming soon on here, once I get the time and the opportunity to watch it as it is currently on demand.
We all know what a B-story is even if we never really pay any attention to them. It's usually a love arc that develops between the main character and his attractor around the 25-30 minute mark of the movie and keeps them driving toward their goal in the third act when the A and B plot lines will converge. For example Billy Madison meets Veronica when he hits the 3rd grade mark around a half hour in... blah blah... and they break up... and they are back together when he wins the big competition. Boom. B-story.
While watching Man on Fire last night for the first time I couldn't help but thinking where is the b-story? Is he going to hook up with the Mom eventually? Is there another plotline that I am not following here? Nope. No B-story. Why is this?
One of the benefits of working at a production company is that I get to meet and converse with some of the industries best writers while they wait for their meetings. They have no idea who I am or that I am an aspiring writer, but the majority of writers are genuinely happy to be recognized for their work. Writers never get any love from regular people not in the business or trying to write. Anyway, I was fortunate enough to have a 15 minute long conversation with Robert Mark Kamen (Taken, Karate Kid) about his film Taken. Which was fucking amazing because he was such a nice guy and wanted to hear all about my journey to Hollywood as well. But one thing really stuck out to me during our conversation... and I quote... "What made Taken special is that there is truly no B-story, and we did that on purpose". I even fired back with, "what about that former operative he was friends with and came to find out he was working with the kidnappers?". Shut down. He explained there is not enough for a b-story. That is merely two scenes, when they meet and when Liam punishes him for what he has done. Mr. Kamen said that he wanted Taken to be squarely a revenge film. A father seeking his daughter and his journey to find her. That's it. No more no less.
Now take that theory and apply it to other revenge films you have seen. Kill Bill for example, She wants to kill Bill and the other Deadly Vipers that beat her to the point of losing her baby. There is the possibility of a b-story when she finds out BB is still alive, but since this does not happen until the third act reveal it is getting filed under "twist". How about Last House on the Left? A father sees his child near death floating in the lake by his home. She manages to point out who did this, and just like that it is on...
I think my theory falls into the pretenses that these Revenge films do not NEED a B-story because the goal of the protagonist is that important the audience would be distracted and/or upset if our protagonist did anything else BUT strive for revenge. If Liam Neeson met a beautiful stranger while hunting the bad french guys, wouldn't you be upset? Liam what the fuck are you doing with this lady, your daughter is about to get sold to some fat muslim tycoon? Know what I mean?
Anyway I just thought I would like to point out this little tidbit I noticed and the fact that it came straight from an A-list writer as well. If you can prove me wrong, please do.
-Cjevy
Oh yeah and click that little ad underneath this post. I get a freaking dollar every time someone clicks it!!
So in the midst of working 9-12 hour days, I have managed to finish up 3 projects so far this year. I stated that 2012 was going to be my year and I am trying my damned hardest. So far I've adapted "Beat the Reaper" for an hour long pilot (which NR owns the rights to), written a full length horror original, "The Faithful" and just threw down a sitcom pilot, "The DMV". I can not honestly say that these are 100% done or that I am totally happy with them at this point but thats alot of words down on pages. I've thrown DMV and Faithful into a few contests and am waiting to see how they do before I go back and start from scratch. I think they can both definitely work, and I'm not tooting my own horn or giving away my story on here but I'm hoping I can get them into the hands of people who can do something with them. But anyways I just figured I would dust off this blog a little and post an update into the process. I really need to get back to writing useful posts not just blah blah ME, blah I'm doing ____ now... but when I have time , I'll look into it
