Developing Monsters in the Woods: After the 1st Outline

After finishing the outline I wrote 30+ handwritten pages further exploring random scenes in the outline. Many of the scenes are very close to scenes that appeared in the final movie. It was during this process that I fell out of love with the “mad scientist” angle in favor of a biblical one. I was also on the verge of adding the found footage 1^st act. The narrative structure for it was already there. I believe at this point I was planning to intercut regular and found footage throughout.

Names of characters began to change and the character themselves became more developed.

BURT

1. Give him a better reason for going back. Ashley?Something sweet. “I always come for you.”
2. Set up animosity/jealously with Jayson. Fired? Quit.
3. CORE = Man’s man, but romantic at heart. Paradox. Honest, do the right thing kind of guy.

3^RD ACT POTENTIALS

Bravo and Ariel = Mythos connected.

MASSACRE

1. Guy killed
2. Ashely run off. Find Burt
3. Kill Monster Actor
4. Jayson maimed. Bravo kills him? Ashley witnesses and run.
5. Ariel shows up. Exposition.
6. Burt knows how to find cave?
7. Confront Bravo in cave – gas explosion/homemade napalm.
8. Get to the city

Foreshadow napalm. Cleaning supplies, gas generator ect..

Bravo expendable speech = sacrifice non-essentials for what really matters. Bravo’s interest in the occult/ too dead on?

Show Burt being badass without being too cheesy.

Motifs

Monster sound, spiders, webs, deceit, lies.

Contrast Maria and Bianca/Ashley

How is each character feeling in each scene./expand on.

After another 20 handwritten test pages, I moved on to my 2^nd outline. But that’s another story.