HDC Idol 2008-09

[roshiq]

Originally Posted by _____V_____

ELIMINATION ROUND #1
- Roshiq and Cactus - You are a fresh indie movie director who dreams of making it big. Do you have what it takes to be the next big thing in horror?

"...next big thing in horror"!?! I hope I can come up with something in last minutes:confused:

[bwind22]

Bwind22 and The Flayed One - As a mainstream commercial director, put forth your visualisation of a theme for a possible horror flick on the whole OK Corral Gunfight incident.

Should we cast this film as well? Or just give the story?

[_____V_____]

Put yourself in a mainstream director's shoes, and think of a moment where you hit upon a goldmine of an idea. Visualise the concept, how you might develop it with script and screenplay writers, casting directors, cinematography etc.

In short, put your mind's visuals of the theme on paper before the Judges.

[bwind22]

Well, I'm not scared to go first or post publically, so here goes. If Flayed can top me, cheers to him.

As a mainstream commercial director, put forth your visualization of a theme for a possible horror flick on the whole OK Corral Gunfight incident.

-------------------------------

TITLE:

AT SUNDOWN

PLOT SYNOPSIS:

Arizona Territory - 1881

A gang of cattle rustlers known as 'Cowboys' were wreaking havoc in the Arizona territory. They were dubbed 'Cowboys' because of their affection for drinking the blood from the cattle they rustled, leaving only dried and withered corpses behind. Eventually, cow blood was not enough to quench their thirst and they began to prey on the local townsfolk, effectively becoming the first vampires in recorded history. (Although it did exist, the term 'vampire' was not yet commonplace because Bram Stoker had yet to pen Dracula and bring the term to pop culture.)

The 'Cowboys' were led by Curly Bill Brocious, but the most ruthless among them was Johnny Ringo, who was known to kill for sport when he wasn't even thirsty.

Eventually, the 'Cowboys' arrived in Tombstone, Arizona Territory and began to prey on the townsfolk, mainly orphans and whores and others who would not be missed until one night when the town Sheriff confronted them and asked them to move on. Wanting to set an example, Curly Bill savagely killed Sheriff Fred White in front of a half dozen witnesses.

With no law in town, the 'Cowboys' ran amok, slaying and feasting on whomever they desired. One townsman with a sense of nobility, Virgil Earp, assumed the role of deputy and tried to pick up where Sheriff White had left off in casting the Cowboys out of Tombstone. The Cowboys did not take kindly to this and several verbal altercations took place. With tensions escalating, Virgil enlisted the help of two of his brothers, Morgan and Wyatt, as well as Wyatt's good friend Doc Holliday. Together, the four of them attempted to rid the town of the Cowboys to little avail.

At sundown on August 26, 1881, the Earp clan came across five Cowboys feasting on the corpse of a local prostitute behind Harwood's Lumber Store near the OK Corral. Weapons were drawn, shots were fired, thirty shots in less than thirty seconds to be exact, and when the dust settled three Cowboys were dead and the other two had disappeared in to the night. Morgan and Virgil Earp both suffered nonfatal bullet wounds, Doc Holliday was grazed in the hip and Wyatt came away unscathed.

The Cowboys realized the Earp's meant business and the town quieted down for a couple months, but in March 1882 the Cowboys took their revenge and Morgan Earp was killed outside a billiard hall and sucked dry of his blood. This led to Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday forming a posse and setting out to vanquish the Cowboys once and for all. Due to wounds suffered at the OK Corral shootout, Virgil Earp was unable to assist in this and was relegated to protecting the families in Contention City. Wyatt, Holliday and a small posse trailed and killed more than a dozen Cowboys, including both Curly Bill Brocius and Johnny Ringo, while the rest were forced to flee Arizona Territory and the wrath of Wyatt Earp.



CREW:

Director: Brian Wind
Writer: David Webb Peoples & Brian Nelson
Casting: Lora Kennedy
Set Design: Ernie Bishop
Cinematography: Anthony Dod Mantle

CAST:

Wyatt Earp: Christian Bale
Doc Holliday: Peter Krause
Morgan Earp: Kevin Dillon
Virgil Earp: Richard Dean Anderson
Curly Bill: Ian McShane
Johnny Ringo: Christian Slater
Ike Clanton: Ray Liotta
Billy Clanton: Giovanni Ribisi
Billy Claiborne: Stephen Baldwin
Tom McLaury: Kevin McKidd
Frank McLaury: Dean Winters
Sheriff Fred White: Robert Forrester
__________________________

Clearly, I took some liberties here with both historical fact and vampire mythology. I'd like to point those out so no one thinks I am misinformed or ignorant.

The OK Corral shootout took place at 3pm, not sundown. Morgan Earp was killed inside the billiard hall by a shot from outside; he wasn't killed outside of it. These vampires do not turn in to bats, burn in the sunlight, have fangs, respond negatively to religious items or require a stake through the heart in order to die. They are basically humans that kill mercilessly and drink the blood of their victims.

[neverending]

This is an interesting scenario. A very unique combination of Western & horror. I'm impressed. But- I'm not sure about trusting such a project to first time feature director, you.

[hammerfan]

I like it!

[ferretchucker]

Hmm, I don't know a whole lot about werewolves, but I'll give this my best shot.

Like Anne


The word werewolf conjures up, in most people's brains, a wolf man howling in the light of the full moon. I want to keep that traditional aspect but go with a new direction that gets the reader's attention. There have been different ways of a person getting lycanthropy. It could be that their ancestors had sex with demon, as is the case in The Demonata series, or simply bitten by another werewolf. Or a case of a genetic experiment gone wrong.

For mine I think I'll go with something different, but yet slightly similar. Here's a basic synopsis of my story.

My story begins in the year 1326 when a nameless explorer has traveled out into the arctic along. He's nearly dead and so sets his dogs free. In the distance, he can see something fall down to Earth. The dogs run in it's direction. Several hours later, the dogs return and begin eating the nearly dead man. They drag him out from the cave he's in, into the moonlight and then suddenly they all drop down dead. Bleeding to death, in a last effort of comfort, he pulls the dead dogs closer to him and dies.

Seven hundred years later, Edgar Lee is with his team of researchers doing studies on the affects of global warming on the arctic. Edgar and one of his Asian colleagues go out to gather some specimens. Whilst digging Edgar falls through the ice into a cavern. It's full of dead carcasses. Suddenly, the Asian above starts screaming "Like Anne! Like Anne!". His dead body falls through as well. Something jumps down the hole and rushes at Edgar. Whilst it's biting his neck he has time to pull out his gun and shoot the creature.

He wakes up in a hospital bed, having been rescued by others in the team who heard the shot. They found no sign of the creature. Eventually he gets better and three years later, he's living his life as normal, with a baby on the way, but lately he's been having nightmares of the creature that attacked him, the words "Like Anne" ringing around in his head.

One day he loses his temper in a bank with someone. He's kicked out of the bank, but somehow, hours later, he follows a smell which leads him to the man he was angered by. He nearly gets into a fight with him, but resists at the last moment.

He's contacted by a "Mr. Howl", and told to go to the travel agents in town. He goes there and is faced with the man he was angered by. The doors lock behind him and he is told to go down the hatch in the floor. He's about to resist when the man's eyes glow yellow, like a dog's, and he says;

"Do you not want to know why you have nightmares, Edgar?"

Lee reluctantly goes down the hatch, finding himself in an old sewer system that has somehow been made up to look something like an abandoned hotel, yet it still drips and the smell lingers.

In a conversation, he learns he was bitten by something only known as "Neun". He was a German explorer who's eight dogs were "chosen" by the heavenly one. Under the light of the full moon, they died together and became one. This formed Neun. Over the years, forty seven people have been attacked by Neun, of those forty three remain. They live unnaturally long lives and have developed connections over the years which prevent them and Neun from being disturbed.

Edgar doesn't believe it and tries to leave, but is quickly stopped. He is shown "The Lunar Tunnel", where the light of the moon is replicated and the people become Werewolves, or Lycans. Now a believer, he still wants to leave to be with his girlfriend and unborn child. The Lycan People imprison him for three months in solitude, with constant videos of viscous dogs playing. When he comes out of the room, he is in the mindset of the others.

Now they trust him, he is set free to do whatever he wants. He roams around the city, killing people. He is about to kill a woman but stops when he hears her voice. It's his girlfriend. When she sees him, the shock sends her into labor. That's when the other werewolves arrive to claim the child, the only one ever conceived by a lycan.

He fights the other lycans off, eventually winning, nearly dead. That's when he turns around and sees that his girlfriend has given birth, but to a monstrous creature that looks more like a cross between a crab and a slug than a werewolf. The creature has already killed his girlfriend, and weak as he is, it slaughters him too.

The closing paragraphs explain that the Lee's baby was in no way truly his, or his girlfriend's. It was the heavenly one's true form. The dogs of Neun had found and devoured it. It's blood drove them insane. They dragged the german man out of the cave into the moonlight, for it gives the heavenly one strength, however their bodies could not cope with the stress and they died. Over time, due to the blood running through all of them, the moon combined the creatures to make Neun.

In biting the people who survived, Neun passed on his wolfen genes which slowly mutated the humans, but what they didn't know was that they were also host to the heavenly one's DNA, which corrupted some of their cells. It used the womb of Lee's girlfriend to grow once again.



Just a side note, the werewolves would walk mainly on all fours, have bones painfully jutting out in places, they would have sharp fangs and large ears, but not snouts. Their face would be relatively the same except hairier and tougher. They would also have tails. The change wouldn't be very painful, and would feel almost dreamlike for the lycan.

[bwind22]

Originally Posted by neverending

This is an interesting scenario. A very unique combination of Western & horror. I'm impressed. But- I'm not sure about trusting such a project to first time feature director, you.

The challenge specifically states that I am the director. (And technically, I've done 2 shorts so it'd be my first feature, but not my first time directing.)

[hammerfan]

Very good, FC - I like it.

[Doc Faustus]

Originally Posted by ferretchucker

Hmm, I don't know a whole lot about werewolves, but I'll give this my best shot.

Like Anne


The word werewolf conjures up, in most people's brains, a wolf man howling in the light of the full moon. I want to keep that traditional aspect but go with a new direction that gets the reader's attention. There have been different ways of a person getting lycanthropy. It could be that their ancestors had sex with demon, as is the case in The Demonata series, or simply bitten by another werewolf. Or a case of a genetic experiment gone wrong.

For mine I think I'll go with something different, but yet slightly similar. Here's a basic synopsis of my story.

My story begins in the year 1326 when a nameless explorer has traveled out into the arctic along. He's nearly dead and so sets his dogs free. In the distance, he can see something fall down to Earth. The dogs run in it's direction. Several hours later, the dogs return and begin eating the nearly dead man. They drag him out from the cave he's in, into the moonlight and then suddenly they all drop down dead. Bleeding to death, in a last effort of comfort, he pulls the dead dogs closer to him and dies.

Seven hundred years later, Edgar Lee is with his team of researchers doing studies on the affects of global warming on the arctic. Edgar and one of his Asian colleagues go out to gather some specimens. Whilst digging Edgar falls through the ice into a cavern. It's full of dead carcasses. Suddenly, the Asian above starts screaming "Like Anne! Like Anne!". His dead body falls through as well. Something jumps down the hole and rushes at Edgar. Whilst it's biting his neck he has time to pull out his gun and shoot the creature.

He wakes up in a hospital bed, having been rescued by others in the team who heard the shot. They found no sign of the creature. Eventually he gets better and three years later, he's living his life as normal, with a baby on the way, but lately he's been having nightmares of the creature that attacked him, the words "Like Anne" ringing around in his head.

One day he loses his temper in a bank with someone. He's kicked out of the bank, but somehow, hours later, he follows a smell which leads him to the man he was angered by. He nearly gets into a fight with him, but resists at the last moment.

He's contacted by a "Mr. Howl", and told to go to the travel agents in town. He goes there and is faced with the man he was angered by. The doors lock behind him and he is told to go down the hatch in the floor. He's about to resist when the man's eyes glow yellow, like a dog's, and he says;

"Do you not want to know why you have nightmares, Edgar?"

Lee reluctantly goes down the hatch, finding himself in an old sewer system that has somehow been made up to look something like an abandoned hotel, yet it still drips and the smell lingers.

In a conversation, he learns he was bitten by something only known as "Neun". He was a German explorer who's eight dogs were "chosen" by the heavenly one. Under the light of the full moon, they died together and became one. This formed Neun. Over the years, forty seven people have been attacked by Neun, of those forty three remain. They live unnaturally long lives and have developed connections over the years which prevent them and Neun from being disturbed.

Edgar doesn't believe it and tries to leave, but is quickly stopped. He is shown "The Lunar Tunnel", where the light of the moon is replicated and the people become Werewolves, or Lycans. Now a believer, he still wants to leave to be with his girlfriend and unborn child. The Lycan People imprison him for three months in solitude, with constant videos of viscous dogs playing. When he comes out of the room, he is in the mindset of the others.

Now they trust him, he is set free to do whatever he wants. He roams around the city, killing people. He is about to kill a woman but stops when he hears her voice. It's his girlfriend. When she sees him, the shock sends her into labor. That's when the other werewolves arrive to claim the child, the only one ever conceived by a lycan.

He fights the other lycans off, eventually winning, nearly dead. That's when he turns around and sees that his girlfriend has given birth, but to a monstrous creature that looks more like a cross between a crab and a slug than a werewolf. The creature has already killed his girlfriend, and weak as he is, it slaughters him too.

The closing paragraphs explain that the Lee's baby was in no way truly his, or his girlfriend's. It was the heavenly one's true form. The dogs of Neun had found and devoured it. It's blood drove them insane. They dragged the german man out of the cave into the moonlight, for it gives the heavenly one strength, however their bodies could not cope with the stress and they died. Over time, due to the blood running through all of them, the moon combined the creatures to make Neun.

In biting the people who survived, Neun passed on his wolfen genes which slowly mutated the humans, but what they didn't know was that they were also host to the heavenly one's DNA, which corrupted some of their cells. It used the womb of Lee's girlfriend to grow once again.



Just a side note, the werewolves would walk mainly on all fours, have bones painfully jutting out in places, they would have sharp fangs and large ears, but not snouts. Their face would be relatively the same except hairier and tougher. They would also have tails. The change wouldn't be very painful, and would feel almost dreamlike for the lycan.

The term lycan is a diminutive for lycanthrope that the creators of Underworld pulled out of their asses. If you do story submissions involving werewolves to magazines at any time (which I hope eventually you do, as you do have potential as a writer) keep this in mind. Folkloric terms for werewolves are plentiful. Iron out the plot (the 14th century Arctic exploration doesn't add much and wouldn't be occurring), play up the Lovecraftian angle and you might have something good. I would like to caution you about the use of genre tropes. Always think about the meaning of an archetype before pursuing it. Know why werewolves are scary or interesting, know something about the myth behind them and stretch the trope as far as its nature allows. Cat People is a werewolf story, Jekyll and Hyde is a werewolf story, Fight Club is to a certain extent a werewolf story. Keep these things in mind in your writing and you'll find ways to engage an audience.