Writing Horror to Scare Up the Big Bucks
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Webinar hosted by: Scott Stoops
Manager at Good Fear Film + Management
Scott Stoops started in the industry working at Paradigm, where he was an Agent Trainee in the Feature Literary department. Making the transition to Benderspink in 2014, Scott was instrumental in signing the comic book publisher Aspen Comics. Scott represents a variety of emerging writers and filmmakers whose films have played in festival across the world and has sold projects in both television and features. Passionate about all things elevated and genre, his favorite films of the last few years have been Wild Tales and Coherence, he loves BBC’s Black Mirror and the UK’s Utopia, and is an avid consumer of horror, science fiction, comic books and comedy Full Bio »
Webinar Summary
Learn directly from Scott Stoops, a manager at Benderspink who recently sold a pilot to CBS. Benderspink sold more spec scripts last year than any other management company and are best known for producing The Hangover franchise, The Ring franchise, We’re The Millers, Horrible Bosses 2, among many others!
With the recent success of films such as It Follows, Insidious Chapter 3, Poltergeist and The Visit, it is evident that horror is becoming one of the most profitable and exciting genres in the industry. This is because horror films can be made on the cheap and still yield spectacular returns at the box office. Horror doesn’t rely on big IP, superheroes, or movie stars – all horror needs to deliver is a compelling story, told well, packed with plenty of chills and thrills. However, delivering on this is far easier said than done, and many writers miss important story elements that keep their horror scripts dead in the water.
In this exclusive Stage 32 Next Level Webinar, Scott Stoops, a manager at Benderspink who is passionate about genre films, will teach you what makes a horror film successful, from developing a marketable and commercial plot, to unique and scary set pieces, to properly structuring and formatting your script to tell the best story possible. You will learn high-level story concepts, tips and tricks to help make your horror script scary and effective, and get an insider perspective on what concepts and types of horror films are currently selling in the marketplace.
You will leave this webinar with an understanding of not only how to make your existing scripts stronger, but how to develop and come up with the next big horror hit film!
PRAISE FOR SCOTT'S TEACHINGS:
“This was one of the best presentations at Stage 32 that I have attended. Thank you!” – CC L.
“Scott is so much fun to watch... his energy and passion are undeniable. Love it.” – Sylvia L.
“Scott has a lot of energy that keeps me rapt and writing notes…he has initiative. I am skimming my writing mentally when he's speaking and afterwards to see how I've applied his teaching.” – Betty S.
What You'll Learn
- Success in Horror: What Makes A Horror Film/Script Successful.
- A look at what makes horror films effective, both in terms of storytelling and in the marketplace.
- The Cyclical Nature of Horror.
- What is “working” and what is “selling”.
- Case studies of successful past films, current films, and predictions for successful future films.
- What Makes A Horror Script Marketable/Sellable?
- What the market is currently looking for.
- How you can use that knowledge to build a strong script.
- Making Horror Grounded.
- Effective horror is generally grounded and relatable.
- Tips and tricks to make your story more grounded and relatable to a wide audience, even when your story is “out there”.
- Shades of Horror – The Different Types of Horror and How to Execute.
- Thrillers, mysteries, supernatural, serial killers, slashers and more.
- Sub-genres in the horror space.
- What beats a writer needs to hit to deliver.
- Delivering on Scares.
- The most important part of a horror film is making it scary – we’ll talk through how to make your script as scary as possible.
- Introducing the reader to a dark and mysterious world.
- Setting up the first act to propel us into the second is of key importance.
- How to set up the scares to come.
- How to Structure your Horror Movie.
- The classic horror ‘formula’.
- How to employ it to make your script as streamlined and effective as possible.
- Developing your characters.
- Although scares are the most important aspect of the script, if the reader doesn’t care about the characters, the script will be far less scary.
- Recorded, in-depth Q&A with Scott
About Your Instructor
Scott Stoops
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Testimonials
“This was one of the best presentations at Stage 32 that I have attended. Thank you!” – CC L.
“Scott is so much fun to watch... his energy and passion are undeniable. Love it.” – Sylvia L.
“Scott has a lot of energy that keeps me rapt and writing notes…he has initiative. I am skimming my writing mentally when he's speaking and afterwards to see how I've applied his teaching.” – Betty S.
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Reviews Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5
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Pat Semler It's been a while, but I really enjoyed the talk. The information was helpful and encouraging. I'm hoping to find a few hours to replay it and refresh my memory. -
Julie Merrick Maybe a little disorganized at the start, but still it was very informative. I especially liked to focus on what's marketable. -
Mike Briock Nothing overly new here. Basically examples of scary films, especially The Ring (How old is The Ring?). Put your characters in peril, and infuse really scary scenes and situations. At times Scott did not seem very prepared, especially when trying to think of examples. Lots of "I'm thinking of a film, but can't remember the title". "That scary scene in that movie, skips my mind, but I'll remember later" type stuff, etc. Slow unorganized start to presentation. E-mail interruptions throughout were annoying and took things off-track. Scott seemed to lose his train of thought several times. Lots of time wasted on commenting on basically useless questions, especially the time spent on which horror film fit into which horror film genre. Scott also has a habit of using the term "ummm" quite often... like an insane amount of times. Should have had very detailed notes and pinpoint helpful examples, given his presentation, and held off any and all questions until he was done with his presentation.This webinar was worth at most $25, certainly not $59. -
Jela Oba Okpara He basically gloated about his favorite films. It's ok for newcomers and outsiders but hardly useful to advanced writers and hardcore fans of the genre. No inside track info whatsoever.
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