(Dracula Voice) He did the monster mash.
The zombies were having fun.
The party had just begun.
The guests included Wolfman.
Dracula and his son.
Okay, okay you know the rest…
In college, I had to take a Physical Education teaching elective. The goal was to design a P.E. class for a group of Elementary School students.
The only thing I remember from that class was trying to hula hoop to the Monster Mash song playing in the background.
Ah the good ol’ days…
Speaking of monsters, Kevin M. Glover, in his Genre Summit Masterclass, dissects everything that goes into creating, developing and executing a monster-based film.
Here’s a little preview of Kevin’s 60 minute session:
-Defining the monster (i.e. is it from this world; is it subject to the physical constraints of this world; and of course, the origin story, if that’s something you even want to reveal).
– Determining the monster’s strengths & weaknesses — for example, consider whether you want your monster to remain relatively consistent or evolve over the course of the film.
– The stages of the monster reveal (think the dorsal fin in Jaws, for example)
– Creating original creatures on the page — is the monster amorphous or does it have discernible characteristics that viewers discover throughout the movie?
If you want to make your monster film in a different mold, yet still have an original hook that reels in audiences, you won’t want to miss Kevin’s workshop.
The points of insight that Kevin discusses can apply to traditional monster films (zombies, vampires, werewolves) or to films wandering more afield (smoke monsters, paranormal forces, aliens, or anything in your head).
Or maybe your film is set in a non-Earth environment, it applies all the same.
To provide a little more background, I co-wrote a creature-feature with Kevin entitled Gym Ratz: A Tail of Terror, which is about a washed up, former Olympic boxing champ who becomes addicted to steroids, and while experimenting in his gym, he morphs into a giant, human-sized rat.
It’s kind of like The Fly meets Re-Animator. We’re currently adapting it into a Graphic Novel.
When it comes to the monster sub-genre of horror films, Kevin is “The Godfather” and will give you an easy blueprint to follow for your projects.
So, dust off that vampire project you put on hold and get ready to bring it back to life.
Will see ya at Genre Summit Soon! If you haven’t gotten your free ticket yet, make sure you click on the button below.
– Shant Yegparian