Earlier this summer, as I was wrapping up the final edit of FRACTALS, I decided that the next project I wanted to focus my attention on should be a monster movie. I have never made a monster movie before, and honestly, I feel I'm up to the challenge.Although not an avid fan of the monster and horror genres, in my early YouTube days, I often experimented with horror concepts as a matter of practice... or exercise.
I didn't know it then, but I was absolutely getting in the 10,000 hours needed for me to actually understand my voice as a creator. That's not to say I was instinctively great at it. I wasn't. Though it brought out a level of camp that, to this day, I weirdly admire.And although short films like Spuyten Duyvil, racked up 10k views in its first couple days (that was considered a success back then), I never truly felt fulfilled by the genre or the work that I was turning out. I think the closest to fulfillment I ever had was with the creation of Lancaster Square... a six-minute mind twist of a film.
So, when I decided that I was going to make a monster movie, I began writing straight-away, without a plan. I find that the projects that resonate the most with me, are the ones seeded in the fire of... anything could happen, because I have no direction.... and I ended up writing what I think is a fabulous first work-up As I tinker away at the second draft, sifting through all of my scene outlines, notes, dialog... everything from my initial write-up, and conform it into a fully formed, producible screenplay, I realize I am aiming for something I've never done before.... something that has always eluded me as a creator working in the film and a video medium, and that's that the inner-gunk of my mind, piled on by the piss and shit that society has wrought upon me, is started to manifest into something truly horrific... something haunting... something stalking... and its going to make the project most interesting.I've already been engaging in light research, going into art supply stores around New York City, and occasionally boutique toy stores - because sometimes they have interesting or inspired ideas.I have begun researching monster movies, giving myself opportunities to open up to films I've never bothered to learn about before, but which have a following by people who naturally gravitate towards the monster movie genre.
I even gave myself permission to act on impulse whenever I found something that could be useful to my research.
I am wasting no time, taking ever free moment I have to digest whatever monster-movie related material I can.The writing will continue into autumn, and once I feel I have a solid , well-rounded script, another pass will be completed as it is simultaneously broken down for production.
Thank you for staying with me on this first installment of my Making a Monster Movie series and I'll see you on the next one.
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