Screenwriting: Crafting Your Horror Feature
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About this Live Online Course
"Taking this course gave me the confidence I needed to dive into writing horror screenplays."
—Selena B., Blacklick, OH, USA
Sundance Collab offers a robust collection of online courses in the Sundance spirit of amplifying your independent voice as a storyteller. Join our global community to hone your craft, network with other creators, and develop career strategies to help you navigate the industry.
Learn how to give shape and form to the outline of your horror screenplay with experienced screenwriters as your guides. In this live, online course, you move from idea to outline through a review of the foundations of compelling storytelling, and lessons on character, conflict, dialogue, and the components of the horror genres.
In class sessions, you will analyze clips from horror films, complete interactive exercises, and discuss concepts with course advisors. Designated homework designed to move your concept to a completed outline is reviewed by your advisor. The course concludes with a one-on-one mentoring session with your advisor focused on your project.
By the end of the course, you will:
- gain an overview of the genre.
- learn the difference between a beat sheet and an outline.
- review the foundations of screenwriting, including three-act structure.
- sharpen your main and secondary characters.
- create mood and finesse the tone of your story.
- build your story world.
- identify your character arcs.
- set up character conflicts.
- learn how to process notes from your peers, collaborators, and studio execs.
This course is ideal for:
- first-time writers who would like to understand the core concepts of horror screenwriting and how to move their project forward.
- experienced writers who want a more formal setting and/or the guidance of an expert in horror screenwriting.
Course enrollment is approximately 50 participants per session, with a participant-to-advisor ratio of 12-to-1. To apply, you must have an idea for a horror screenplay.
Sundance Collab provides accommodations and support services to participants with disabilities. Accommodations and services are designed to meet the needs of each participant. Please email us at accessibility@sundance.org to arrange for services.
Live Online CourseScholarships
Sundance Collab offers a limited number of full and partial need-based scholarships for individuals who need assistance.
Due to limited scholarship funds available, we prioritize one course scholarship per participant in a 12-month period. Scholarship applications are available up to one week before the registration deadline and do not stack with discounts or promotions, including early registration.
Outline
Topics covered include:
- Introductions to Screenwriters
- Horror genre overview
- Discovering the core idea for your screenplay
- Translating our fears into horror
Topics covered include:
- Types of monsters
- Three-Act structure architecture
- Writing a logline and a one-pager
Topics covered include:
- Man as monster
- Horror and social justice
- Crafting the perfect ending
- Developing your characters and creating multiple arcs
- Film plotting
Topics covered include:
- Mind/mystery as monster
- Subjective POV and horror
- Building a horror world/set/atmosphere
- Location as character
- Writing a beat sheet
Topics covered include:
- Conspiracy/truth as monster
- Family as hero
- Knowing the rules to break the rules
- Pushing boundaries: how far is too far?
- Crafting Terrors: what you show and what you don’t
- Moving from beat sheet to outline
Topics covered include:
- Reality as monster
- Distinctions between supernatural horror and psychological horror
- Screen horror highlighting real world horror
- The story without the horror
- Moving from outline to script
Topics covered include:
- Subverting the genre
- Finishing, revising and sending the script
- Building a career: indie, studio and TV
- Next steps
The course concludes with a one-on-one mentoring session with your advisor
Team
April M. Sánchez
Advisor
Screenwriter April M. Sánchez was born and raised on the US/Mexico border in El Paso, TX. Growing up in a bicultural city has inspired her stories, which often reflect the beauty, wonder, and traditional elements of border town culture. April was recently in development with a company who has an overall deal at Netflix on a whimsical TV series inspired by her childhood as an American born Latina growing up on the border.
April holds a bachelor's degree in Screenwriting and a Latino Media Studies certification from UT Austin. Her scripts have made their way to the finalist round in the Sundance Screenwriters and Episodic Labs and as a Semi-Finalist in The Academy Nicholl Fellowship and the Universal Writers Lab, amongst others. She was a 2021 fellow for the NHMC TV Series Writers Lab. April currently has a feature film in development through Stowe Story Launch.
Jake Yuzna
Advisor
Hailing from a family of horror filmmakers, Jake Yuzna is writer, director, and curator focusing on genre filmmaking. Their films have screened at the Cannes Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, London Film Festival, New Museum of Contemporary Art, and the British Film Institute, as well as been acquired by Netflix, PBS, and Arté Television. Yuzna’s debut was the first American feature to win the Teddy Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival. In addition, they have received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Guggenheim Foundation, Creative Capital Foundation, Frameline Foundation, IFP, as well as a Richard P. Rogers Spirit of Excellence Award from the American Film Institute and a special jury award in Artistic Risktaking from IFP. Yuzna founded the cinema program at the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC where they curated the first American retrospectives on Italian Zombie Films, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Dario Argento, Sion Sono, and the medium of VHS. In addition, Yuzna has curated retrospectives on Andrei Tarkovsky, Crispin Glover, H.R. Giger, and Science Fiction cinema of the 1990s. Their curatorial work on horror and genre filmmaking has been collected by the libraries at Yale University and NYU.
Kimberly Barrante
Advisor
Kimberly Barrante is the geeky offspring of a chemist and a librarian. She began her career as a playwright in New York City, after receiving a BA from Emerson College. She received her MFA in Dramatic Writing at Tisch NYU before moving to Los Angeles. Her award-winning screenplay CELERITAS was on the Annual Black List in 2014. It was later performed on The Black List Table Reads Podcast in 2015. Kim completed a feature-writing fellowship at Lionsgate Studios in 2016. She has gone on to work in both features and television. Her pilot, SEDNA, was recently optioned to Universal Content Productions. Composition 8 is attached to produce.
FAQ
In Sundance Collab’s Live Online courses, participants attend live, virtual class sessions on the same day and time for a specified period. These sessions are led by an instructor and in some cases, supported by a team of advisors. In some courses, you are given assignments with submission deadlines to help you take the next step with your work.
- Each week you will be able to attend live lectures via Zoom video and ask questions of your instructor.
- In some courses, you will receive individualized feedback from your course advisor on elements of your work.
- In some courses, you will have the opportunity to have a 1-on-1 session with your advisor. Depending on the course, this session may be included or may be purchased separately for an additional cost. Check the course description for specifics.
All members of the Sundance Collab community are welcome to register for Sundance Collab courses. Please review the course description and any eligibility requirements to ensure the course is a good fit. If you have any questions about a course, please email collab_courses@sundance.org.
Note that space is limited. If the registration window is open, you will see a “Register” button on the course page. If there is an application, applications are considered as they are received and applicants are accepted on a rolling basis until the course is full or the deadline has passed, whichever comes first.
We do not allow creative partners to do our live online courses as a team. However, both creators can individually register for the course.
Part of Sundance Collab's unique educational approach is to create a teaching team for every course. Each class is led by an instructor who may be accompanied by additional course advisors. This allows us to keep an intimate ratio of participants to advisors and to provide a diversity of voices and approaches to the course content.
We often offer a limited number of need-based, full or partial scholarships. Check the course description to see if that course currently has scholarships available. Scholarships are prioritized for one per person per year (from the date of issue). Scholarship applications are available up to one week before the registration deadline. To apply for a scholarship,complete the registration form by clicking the REGISTER button and selecting the option to apply for a scholarship, if available.
Applicants will be notified about their scholarship decision prior to the first day of the course. Due to the volume of applicants, we are not always able to provide a scholarship, but we may still offer a spot in the course. In this case, depending on the course, payment plans may be available and can be selected at checkout.
Yes, we offer two or three-part payment plans for Live Online courses, depending on the length of the course. In all cases, the first payment is due at the point of registration. The remaining payment(s) are spread out throughout the course term. For specific payment plan dates for a course, please reach out to our team at: collab_courses@sundance.org.
Yes, you are welcome to take a live, online course even if you can’t make the live sessions. Recordings of each class session are available online by the following day so you can keep up with the course lectures. For courses that include a 1-on-1 session with an advisor or instructor, the meeting is scheduled according to your (and their) availability.
All sessions are recorded and usually made available within one business day. The videos will also contain the chat and transcript from the class session, viewable in the video playbar.
Participants will have access to the recordings for one year following the last class session.
All participants will receive a Certificate of Completion. The certificate will include the name associated with your Sundance Collab account.
You can find any courses that you are enrolled in or have already completed in the profile section of your Sundance Collab account under “Courses.”
You can join a course via a computer or mobile device. All of our live, online courses are conducted via Zoom.
Download and set up the Zoom software (https://zoom.us/download) and make sure you have the latest update. Here are some great resources from Zoom’s Knowledge Base to take a deeper dive into using Zoom:
- Watch Zoom's Video Tutorials or review training materials on the Getting Started page
- Join a Live Training from Zoom
If you have any further questions, please email collab_courses@sundance.org.
Sundance Collab provides accommodations and support services to participants with disabilities. Please contact us at (435) 776-7790 or email us at accessibility@sundance.org to ask any questions or to discuss your specific needs after you have been accepted into the course.
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