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House of Flies by Shane Allen Yount - Horror - A troubled young woman plagued by nightmares joins a local sorority. As she delves deeper into the secrets of the house, she comes to the grim realization that her fellow sisters are a coven of witches hell-bent on using her in a bizarre satanic ritual. 97 pages - pdf, format
INT. (MONTAGE) Beetoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” PLAYS AGAINST MONDO FOOTAGE of a group of COLLEGE STUDENTS tripping on LSD in a room. The following shots are CLOSE and TEASING:
That is not a good way to start off a script. INT or EXT is followed by a PLACE and a general TIME like INT. PLACE - NIGHT. Then under it can be MONTAGE or SERIES OF SHOTS if you like. Drop the last line, that's directing and redundant. While Beethoven's works may be public domain enough where it may be okay to have it play in a background of a scene, to have it over the montage is also telling the director what specifically should be played.
The series of shots montage is incorrectly formatted. Treat them like action line and not like dialog blocks. In fact, let's take a look at that.
Quoted Text
-- A BRUNETTE convulses on the floor, vomiting all over herself. -- TWO NAKED GIRLS make out nearby, violent and passionate. -- A BLONDE rips off her blouse with a pair of scissors, LAUGHING MANIACALLY as she STABS her NAKED BOYFRIEND in the face with a pair of scissors. -- MORE ANGLES on the bloody aftermath as the blonde continues stabbing her dead boyfriend. Nearby, a REDHEAD LAUGHS and SCRATCHES the skin off her own face. -- WOMAN’S HAND slides into a LONG WHITE GLOVE with NUMEROUS SWORDS imbedded into it. -- A PROFESSOR records all of this footage on site as it happens with a handheld. Her lens gets SPLATTERED with blood. She smiles
Now, repeat after me. ABRACADABRA
Quoted Text
A BRUNETTE convulses on the floor. vomits.
TWO NAKED GIRLS make out nearby.
A BLONDE rips off her blouse with a pair of scissors, LAUGHING MANIACALLY as Laughs like a maniac. STABS her NAKED BOYFRIEND in the face with a pair of scissors.
-- MORE ANGLES on the bloody aftermath as the blonde continues stabbing her dead boyfriend.
REDHEAD LAUGHS . SCRATCHES the skin off her own face.
WOMAN’S HAND slides into a LONG WHITE GLOVE with NUMEROUS SWORDS imbedded into it a sword pattern.
A PROFESSOR records all of this footage on site as it happens with a handheld. Her lens gets SPLATTERED splatters with blood. She smiles.
Getting rid of the passives. Getting rid of the redundance. Getting rid of the camera angles. Getting rid of the montage altogether. As far as I know when I read the passages at first, it is as if the teens and the Professor are all in the same room and there is no passage of time ("Nearby"..."records as it happens") So that shows me that this is not a montage. It should be written as action/narrative.
And while that's a quick example, we could get tighter still. And more direct in gender. "Blonde" alone doesn't do it. "Redhead" alone doesn't work. And since there's a Brunette. what hair colors were the other two girls? If that doesn't matter, why should the rest of it?
Quoted Text
TITLE CARD: HOUSE OF FLIES THE MAIN THEME PLAYS AS CREDIT ROLLS OVER A COLLAGE OF GRAINY BLACK-AND-WHITE MONDO FOOTAGE--SEXUAL DEVIANCE AND VISCERAL CARNAGE--MERCIFULLY BRIEF SHOTS OF FIRE, RITUALS, NAKED WOMEN, FARM ANIMALS, AND BIZARRE RITUALS THAT LEAVE MUCH TO THE IMAGINATION.
Here's where the MONTAGE or SERIES OF SHOTS should be. (Highlighted for this post,)
SERIES OF SHOTS A collage of grainy home - snuff movies and still photographs: rituals, animal sacrifice, pentagrams, sex, violence etc.
Don't worry about where the title goes. Don't worry about camera angles. DON'T PUT EVERYTHING IN CAPS IT ISN'T A WANTED POSTER IT'S A SPEC SCRIPT.
Camera angles up the wazoo. Dialog is alright, but ciould be better. I stop reading at page 20 (you're a page off, so the PDF says 21) why? Here's why.
Quoted Text
Jefferon Airplane’s “White Rabbit” plays on a record player against the backdrop of a shower.
And if you go chasing rabbits and you think you're going to fall better get the name of the band spelled right as if you're supposed to name the song at all Go ask Alice When She's Ten Feet Tall