Hi Everyone in Stage 32 Land,
I've been a member of the Stage 32 community since September 2015. It seems a long time ago and probably goes back to when RB was writing his screenplays with a quill pen!
Lesson to learn here - It takes a village to raise a writer!
I'm an optioned writer and I've recently been working with a designer to help develop the branding for a new project, before it goes onto a website for Execs in the Film and TV industries. I think it will help promote the project, because sometimes words about words just feel a little too dry.
Anyway, the designer wants to go beyond this and work on the 'branding of Geoff', and yes I've listened to the recent Scriptnotes podcast where Craig Mazin gave a thumbs down to the branding of people. But you know what, I disagree. Yes I know he's just won an Emmy. I think if you're new to this business, people need all the help you can give them, to attract their attention. And, you know what, it's been great to work with someone who actually gets what you're trying to do. There is just so much creative juice flowing and it's great to move along with it.
I have a friend, yes another friend, with whom I share all my scripts, followed usually by intense discussion. He said to me once that 'you seem to find the gory scenes really easy to write!' He's right, I do and as we've discussed the style and focus of the stories we tried to come up with a word, yes just one, for the proverbial nutshell. He said to me that it's not quite horror, but creepy, which for him summed me up as well, due to my aforementioned ease with gore! But that's not exactly a word full of hard-edged insight, is it? As a descriptor it's a bit 'soft'. How about this one to end with, that sums up both me and the current script up? CREEP. What would Blumhouse make of that?
Now here's an aside, just like Shakespeare used to write. In 1980's Chicago, a style of music was born called 'House'. As with all contemporaneous cultural phenomena things moved quickly and a little while later DEEP HOUSE was born, which in true creative manner took the existing form and added something to it, what some have called a deep muted bassline. It's the bassline reference that attracted my attention. Higher tones in music are uni-directional, basslines are omni-directional, they spread across a room and get to you wherever you're sat. At the right frequency they can disturb the listener (e.g. black noise). And so with this aside comes a revelation, that I'm going to call what I'm writing, wait for it...DEEP CREEP.
My writing always has a bassline, an element of disturbia. I achieve this by taking a genre, like horror and stretching it beyond the trope, or concept of say the lonely haunted (Blum)house and situate it in a wider social, political or cultural setting: terrorism, trafficking or political conspiracy. I'm not one that gravitates towards the generic. If it's already been done, I don't want to do it. I want to leave my mark with my own footprints and not by borrowing someone else's shoes. I like my stories to go beyond a given genre with its predictable forms and I believe by doing this we can create surprising, shocking and yes even gory twists and turns.
Thanks for reading. If you're here for the first time, WELCOME. When we've finished with the design stage for this project, you'll find some artwork along with the Loglines on my Stage 32 Profile. Welcome to my world of DEEP CREEP! Have a great weekend.
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Thanks for a nice introduction Geoff. I like off-beat and original. Have a wonderful day.
Thank you Juin! Thank goodness the spirit of Stage 32 is still alive and well in people like you. Have a great day.
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Scott, yes, vitriol and venom. I did try and temper that with humour, but that just seems to have made things worse.
I have to say that this is the first time this has happened to me. (Other than the...
Expand commentScott, yes, vitriol and venom. I did try and temper that with humour, but that just seems to have made things worse.
I have to say that this is the first time this has happened to me. (Other than the guy who was banned from the site because of his desire to threaten people with guns!) RB’s ethos Richard "RB" Botto seems to win through and he wants us to pay it forward. If you’re successful, then help others. But today, it was just about ‘I’m successful’ and you’re an idiot kinda scenario. So thank you for your help today.