I was asked in an email to discuss my thoughts. on "One Off" Movies and Movie "Franchises" this is something that I feel every filmmaker, writer, director and even actor faces in their career at least once.
When I started writing screenplays as a hobby to keep my mind working at a high level the thought of creating a "franchise" never crossed my mind, when I wrote Wicked Carnival I knew it would be a "One Off" and wouldn't do a sequel, honestly the idea of a "franchise" came to me by accident when I was writing Sins of Man and I was about mid way through the script I started thinking how to continue the story in a second film and then in turn about a quarter of the way through writing Sins of Man II I started thinking about turning it into a trilogy because I'm a huge fan of trilogies and horror doesn't have a ton of them, Scream and Hatchet are the ones that come to mind.
I wrote the Sins of Man trilogy in less then 30 days and I was amazed at how it all came to me in such a short amount of time. Now I find that my writing of the current projects I'm working on (three scripts) they are all being written as "One Offs" with no intentions to make sequels right away. I think of a one off film and when you watch it they either leave it open to a sequel and depending on profits decided weather of not to make a sequel) or they end the movie in a way where a sequel isn't possible i.e. kill the vilian (In the horror genre)
Franchises like Friday The 13th, ANOES, Childs Play, TCM etc. are money makers simply made to create revenue for the studios because they know that the loyal horror audience will pay to see they latest installment of their favorite slasher franchise.
Halloween wasn't on that list because I think Halloween with the exceptions of Season of the Witch and Resurrection were two trilogies Halloween, Halloween II and H20 are a trilogy as well as Halloween 4, 5 and 6 being another trilogy, I suppose you could add Resurrection to the tail end of H20 if you wanted the complete story of Michael and Laurie but I look at the ending of H20 as the end of their story arc. (my personal feelings)
I think is some ways making a one off film is harder to write and pull off then a franchise you have to tell a complete story in 90 - 110 minutes and in the Horror genre I think with the things that we lack in most films personally I think the biggest flaw in horror is a lack of character development and with that said it's hard to have characters grow in the genre because one is killed every 7 - 10 minutes, you can show growth in like 3 characters the killer(s) the Final Girl and the love interest (who usually dies last)
Now a Franchise shouldn't be confused with a trilogy, Sins of Man was easy for me to write because I knew where I was going from the open of Sins of Man All the way through to the end of Sins of Man III, much like Star Wars Episodes IV - VI, and Lord of The Rings they had a clear plan for their trilogies.
I think one off films are alot of fun to do because there is no pressure to make a sequel but if one is called for you can do it with cleaver writing. Franchises there is always pressure not only from with in a studio but from the growing fans base of the films to make the movies bigger, bloodier, more gory, more violent.
With Sins of Man : Rise of Mortis, I took a less is more approach and made a good film driven by story and characters and not so much of the blood and violence. now with Sins of Man II : Vengeance you will see a 180 degree turn in terms of those things because as the tagline states It's about to get real !
In closing I can't really say what I like doing more because I have only made one movie which is part of a panned trilogy but what I can tell you is that I have a few one off movies in the pipeline and I think fans will like them based on story and characters as well the gore whores who will get their fill with the things I play to bring to life on screen.
Weather it's a one off or a franchise you will always get the best work I can put out there from Wicked Carnival Productions.
Stay Tuned & Stay Wicked !!
When I started writing screenplays as a hobby to keep my mind working at a high level the thought of creating a "franchise" never crossed my mind, when I wrote Wicked Carnival I knew it would be a "One Off" and wouldn't do a sequel, honestly the idea of a "franchise" came to me by accident when I was writing Sins of Man and I was about mid way through the script I started thinking how to continue the story in a second film and then in turn about a quarter of the way through writing Sins of Man II I started thinking about turning it into a trilogy because I'm a huge fan of trilogies and horror doesn't have a ton of them, Scream and Hatchet are the ones that come to mind.
I wrote the Sins of Man trilogy in less then 30 days and I was amazed at how it all came to me in such a short amount of time. Now I find that my writing of the current projects I'm working on (three scripts) they are all being written as "One Offs" with no intentions to make sequels right away. I think of a one off film and when you watch it they either leave it open to a sequel and depending on profits decided weather of not to make a sequel) or they end the movie in a way where a sequel isn't possible i.e. kill the vilian (In the horror genre)
Franchises like Friday The 13th, ANOES, Childs Play, TCM etc. are money makers simply made to create revenue for the studios because they know that the loyal horror audience will pay to see they latest installment of their favorite slasher franchise.
Halloween wasn't on that list because I think Halloween with the exceptions of Season of the Witch and Resurrection were two trilogies Halloween, Halloween II and H20 are a trilogy as well as Halloween 4, 5 and 6 being another trilogy, I suppose you could add Resurrection to the tail end of H20 if you wanted the complete story of Michael and Laurie but I look at the ending of H20 as the end of their story arc. (my personal feelings)
I think is some ways making a one off film is harder to write and pull off then a franchise you have to tell a complete story in 90 - 110 minutes and in the Horror genre I think with the things that we lack in most films personally I think the biggest flaw in horror is a lack of character development and with that said it's hard to have characters grow in the genre because one is killed every 7 - 10 minutes, you can show growth in like 3 characters the killer(s) the Final Girl and the love interest (who usually dies last)
Now a Franchise shouldn't be confused with a trilogy, Sins of Man was easy for me to write because I knew where I was going from the open of Sins of Man All the way through to the end of Sins of Man III, much like Star Wars Episodes IV - VI, and Lord of The Rings they had a clear plan for their trilogies.
I think one off films are alot of fun to do because there is no pressure to make a sequel but if one is called for you can do it with cleaver writing. Franchises there is always pressure not only from with in a studio but from the growing fans base of the films to make the movies bigger, bloodier, more gory, more violent.
With Sins of Man : Rise of Mortis, I took a less is more approach and made a good film driven by story and characters and not so much of the blood and violence. now with Sins of Man II : Vengeance you will see a 180 degree turn in terms of those things because as the tagline states It's about to get real !
In closing I can't really say what I like doing more because I have only made one movie which is part of a panned trilogy but what I can tell you is that I have a few one off movies in the pipeline and I think fans will like them based on story and characters as well the gore whores who will get their fill with the things I play to bring to life on screen.
Weather it's a one off or a franchise you will always get the best work I can put out there from Wicked Carnival Productions.
Stay Tuned & Stay Wicked !!
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