Horror Feature Writing 2
Online May 6, May 27, Jun 3, Jun 10, Jun 17 (5 Tuesday Afternoons)5:30pm - 8:30pm Pacific$525Limited Spots
9 Spots Left
You have a scare-filled beat sheet for your breakout freaky feature. But how do you build fear in your reader, enveloping them in an inescapable, ever-tightening sense of foreboding and dread that unfolds with increasing urgency, line by line, scene by scene, page by page?
In this five-week Horror Feature 2 class, former Padder and scream scribe, Cheryl Meyer (6 films, 9 TV Shows), whose movie CARVED reached #1 on Hulu in October, will take you in a deep dive into this terrifying form, its tropes and structure. You’ll expand your story blueprint to an outline before moving into the structural aspects of scene work. From there, you’ll apply these concepts as you build tableau tailored to your film’s genre and themes. You’ll also learn how to seamlessly drive story through character by making the most of dialogue and action. By the end of the class, you’ll have written big chunks of the script & be well on your way to a draft. Demonic possession not included.
Cheryl Meyer
6 Movies Sold, 9 TV Shows
Cheryl Meyer is a film and television writer, crafting bold, genre-driven stories that captivate audiences. Over the past four years, she has had three feature films produced, sold another and was commissioned to adapt a children's horror book series, The Popchuck Chronicles, into 2 screenplays for a production company. As the co-writer of the Hulu Original CARVED—which soared to #1 internationally on the Hulu/Disney+ platform following its October 2024 release—Cheryl has solidified her place in the world of horror storytelling. CARVED took home top honors at Nightmares Film Festival and was an Official Selection at Screamfest and the VHS Vancouver Horror Show. Notably, she had two feature films screening at VHS simultaneously, with her dystopian horror ALL THE LOST ONES winning Best Narrative Feature Film and Best Writing. Her debut feature, THE LAST MARK, was a TIFF Industry Select in 2021, while her horror screenplay INVALID—currently in development—was featured on the Wscripted Cannes Screenplay List (2022). She is an alum of prestigious labs including TIFF Talent Lab, Athena Film Festival, SeriesFest Pitch-a-Thon, Stowe Story Lab, and Diversity Showrunner Bootcamp. In 2024, she was named one of Playback’s 10 to Watch. She's written on nine TV shows for Amazon, CBBC, and animated shows for Nickelodeon, Disney and Canadian networks. Cheryl was executive story editor for MY PERFECT LANDING, THE PARKER ANDERSONS/AMELIA PARKER and Co-Producer for Amazon's BEYOND BLACK BEAUTY. MORE