How to pick a topic for your low budget movie!

All right movie fans, the stars have aligned and you have made that fateful first step to go down in the basement, and screw the radio guy telling you a killer is on the loose, and was last spotted on your street-

The lights are out and you need to investigate that noise . . .

Cue music.

And a scream.

Come on, horror fans, you know what you like. There are dozens of sub-genre's in the category and you must first decide what type of movie you want to make.

I'm partial to zombies myself, and vampires, and the good, old fashioned grindhouse slasher pic.

So first, what story do you want to tell?

The rules of storytelling apply here: So be interesting. Rule number one.

Think in terms of plot and trouble, and what you have access to and build your story around it.

If you can shoot your low budget movie in grandma's attic, then you better set your story in grandma's attic. What's scary about it? What's spooky and creepy, and how can you turn the genre on it's ear?

SAW is a great example. Two guys wake up in a room trapped with a dead body.

It's called a premise, or a HOOK. What makes you stand out and makes people want to see it?

If all you have are actors, put them in your car, and have it break down on the side of the road somewhere. Then killers chase them. Why would someone want to watch your movie?

What I do is start with a list. What do you have? Then just answer what I call the journalistic questions: Who is doing it? What are they doing? Why are they doing it? Where are they doing it? And the movie is how they do it.

Simple. Formulaic? Sure. But most horror films are, and you're not making art, yet.

Want to turn the genre on it's ear?

Make something slapstick. One of my favorite zombie movies, SEAN of the DEAD. It's a romantic comedy with slapstick about zombies. Shot in a pub and living room with a few exterior locations. Are you kidding me? Great low budget potential!

Do you have a living room? What lurks outside the door?

How about SHALLOW GRAVE? An apartment (cool one with lots of room) a mysterious new roommate dies with a bag full of money. Friends get greedy to keep it, turn on each other, then people show up to take it away from them. Cheap. Fun. Easy.

When you are in the conceptual stage, don't worry about budget, or other things that might constrain you. One of the fun things about making a no budget film is coming up with the idea, then making it happen.

On the set of my movie, BIGFOOT HUNT, we had a scene where the monster attacked a park ranger's pick up truck and rolled it down the hill. We weren't sure how we were going to do it, and almost wrote the scene out. But then I called a junk yard and asked if we could borrow a truck, one that had been rear ended, or was otherwise damaged.

Everybody wants to be involved in making movies, and I told the guy what we wanted to do with the truck. He not only got us a pick up, but took the engine out and hauled it out to our location in the woods.

Then he watched us set the camera on the hood and shoot the ranger while he was attacked. He even helped rock the truck back and forth, banged on the bed for sound fx, and helped tip it over the side of a ravine so we could film the crash.

After it was over, he winched it back up and hauled it back to the junk yard.

We didn't have to pay a dime, and he had a blast. We did buy him a cheeseburger and some beers, but what's $10 for a stunt that would have cost a Hollywood production $100K.

Think outside of the box, think around the circle and come up with something different every chance you get.

So pick your setting, plan what you have and start writing. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. Aristotle came up with the best formula for story writing ever, and almost all movies use it.

Give your story three parts. A beginning. A middle and an end.

Give the three parts a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Watch a movie you want to be like, and follow that formula. Make cheeky references. Make your characters smart. Give them good lines.

Put your hero in trouble. Make it worse. Have him (or her) pull it out in the end. (does that sound dirty?)

You should have the dirty too. The thing about horror movies is they have gratuitous violence, nudity and sex. Don't make it pornographic. Do use it to your advantage.

Everybody feels vulnerable in a shower. Everybody has gone skinny dipping. Everybody would feel helpless if they woke up naked in a field and couldn't remember how they got there. (don't get arrested)

Twist everything. If your killer is a man, make it a woman. Tweak it. Make it a kid. An alien from outer space trying to communicate who infects everyone with rage every time he talks. Make it different.

Take a famous movie and mash it with another to make your own story. If Sheep went crazy like in ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOS, we could call it BLACK SHEEP.

Make it unexpected, and zany. After all, it's just a killer rabbit. Run away! Run away!

Old houses look creepy. Ghosts are spooky. Crazy people are typecast!

AMERICAN PSYCHO gave us musical commentary while bashing in the head of a friend of his.

The killer in FRIDAY THE 13TH was a dead kid's mom!

Come on, the examples are out there. When was the last time you got spooked?

For me, it was this morning. Want to know what movie I'm writing next?

When I woke up this morning, my front door was wide open.

Why?

Nothing was missing. No one came in (or did they?) So why was my door open?

That's how stories start.

Find something, and ask why?

A group of kids go to investigate WHY a ghost light appears at a curve in the road. WHAT happens?