This is a transcript of SYS 470 – Writing A Horror Movie Based On A True Story With Anubys Lopez .
Welcome to Episode 470 of the Selling Your Screenplay Podcast. I’m Ashley Scott Meyers, screenwriter and blogger with sellingyourscreenplay.com. Today I am interviewing Anubys Lopez, he is a Texas filmmaker who just did a cool horror film called Those Who Call, he got his start with YouTube making horror shorts for the YouTube platform, so we talked a little bit about that as well. And then we go into depth on this new horror film, so stay tuned for that interview.
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Ashley
Welcome Anubys to the Selling Your Screenplay Podcast. I really appreciate you coming on the show with me today.
Anubys Lopez
Yeah, man, thank you for having me.
Ashley
So, to start out, maybe you can tell us a little bit about your background where you grew up? And how did you get interested in the entertainment business?
Anubys Lopez
So, I’m originally from Cuba, I was born in a very small town, I didn’t have a lot of access to movies or anything like that. But um, I remember watching a couple of movies, those horror movies when I was little. And I got intrigued by them. And it was kind of something new, I guess for me. And yeah, I just pretty much started liking them from that moment on. Then when I moved to the US I kind of started getting more into it. And watching more horror movies and like all of that. And that’s pretty much what got my attention.
Ashley
Gotcha. Where did you end up in the United States when you came over from Cuba? What part of this country were you in?
Anubys Lopez
I came to Houston. Yeah. So that’s kind of where I resigned as well.
Ashley
Okay, perfect. Yeah. So then talk about that. So now you’re in Houston, you’re a film fan. What were some of the steps to actually turn this into a career? Did you go to film school? Did you work on some friends shorts, just take us through some of those early stages of actually going from just basically a fan who likes horror films to someone that’s actually in the business?
Anubys Lopez
Yeah, so I pretty much started on YouTube. Way back in the day, I was one of the first, I started YouTube in 2008. So that was a long time ago, one of the first YouTube channels pretty much, I did YouTube for 10 years. And I was one of the first very lucky people that was accepted into the YouTube partnership program. So, I would make a lot of like little horror shorts and all that type of stuff and work with my friends and like all of that, nothing too big, honestly, was just, you know, for fun. And then it kind of like went on from there. And it became my full-time job. And I did it for a while till 2017. And then from there, we kind of like started. Me and my wife, we started an events company. And when COVID hit, we were pretty much out of work. So, we were like, hey, what can we do to, you know, kind of get out there again. And I was like, well, let’s go back to making horror films, you know. And this time, we had a little bit of a bigger budget to make something that wasn’t just a short film. So that’s pretty much everything.
Ashley
Yeah, no, that’s a great story. That’s fascinating. So, is your YouTube channel still available? How can people go and check out some of those shorts?
Anubys Lopez
So no, I actually sold my YouTube channel in 2017. So, I no longer have any accident. Yeah, so, and they actually ended up deleting the videos for some reason. So, they just decided to do their own thing. My YouTube channel was something called an MCN, which would bring like other channels into YouTube. And you were able to like monetize them without them having to get approved through the partnership program. So, they wanted to use it more as a platform to monetize other channels. And they, I guess, didn’t want to really keep my stuff on there. So yeah, so it’s no longer, you can’t find that anywhere, unfortunately.
Ashley
Gotcha. Gotcha. So well, then let’s dig into your latest film Those Who Call, maybe to start out you can just give us a pitch or logline, what is this new film all about?
Anubys Lopez
So, the story is pretty much about two sisters that are trying to reconnect and get together after a lot of years of them not seeing each other. Their father dies, so they’re trying to pretty much get over that that loss and go on a trip together. And yeah, it goes from there. It’s a situation of them being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And a lot of bad things happen to them.
Ashley
So, what’s the genesis of this story? Where did this idea come from?
Anubys Lopez
So funny, funny story. This is actually, in a way a true story. What happened was me and my wife, we were going into Colorado, for just a little trip to you know, clear our heads and just enjoy the little vacation together. On the second day that we were driving there. Obviously, me being a little stubborn. I didn’t want to, you know, rest and sleep. So, I just kept driving, and she was asleep in the passenger seat. And all I remember, I don’t know how it happened. All I remember is me waking up. And we were in the middle of the woods. And we were driving, just hitting random branches everywhere. And it was the creepiest thing that has ever happened to me. I just kind of woke up and I’m like, whoa, what happened? And she woke up and they’re like; Hey, where are we, we actually lost? Like, I don’t know where we are. And we didn’t have signal or anything. So, instantly when it happened, I was like this will make a pretty good horror movie. And yeah, we managed to get out of there and find the road and all of that. But I just pretty much told them like, how cool would it be if we actually make this into a film? What if we wouldn’t have actually found out? How to get out of there, you know, and the main road? So? Yeah, so that’s what happened.
Ashley
Gotcha. So, there’s sort of a tried and true formula sort of the fish out of water, you know, the city folk going to this country folk area? How do you take a story like this? And you know, make it your own? Give it some originality, there’s obviously other stories that are similar. But what did you do? What was sort of your template? Or what was sort of your strategy for making this feel more original or different from some of the other films that have similar premises?
Anubys Lopez
Yeah, so I feel like, well, in my case, personally, I included a lot of little folklore that I knew from back home, like little hints here and there, like the coconuts are hanging on the on the trees, those are used in Bulgaria, which is like sort of witchcraft that they do back in Cuba. And I kind of included that in there to make it seem like the story was mainly about that. And that was the call was about, about witchcraft. I just feel like maybe you just need a look within yourself. And kind of like, what your background is, the things that you know about maybe where you’re coming from little things like that, that you can include in there to kind of make your own. Yeah, that’s the best way to …
Ashley
Yeah. No sound advice for sure. So, let’s just talk about your writing process for a little bit. What is your writing process look like? Do you write in the morning, do you write at night? Do you have a home office? It looks like you have a home office here. But do you need to go to Starbucks and have that ambient noise. Just talk about your actual writing process. And we can be specific with Those Who Call you know, what did that writing process look like with this screenplay?
Anubys Lopez
Yeah, so that one was actually written during COVID has, you know, we’re kind of bogged down, we didn’t have anywhere to go. And usually what I do is I write at night and I usually like telling people or like joking about the fact that horror movies are written during winter and they’re shot during summer, because that’s usually when it’s more calm, or I guess cold. You got to stay inside. There’s not much to so, you need to go outside, but in my case, I always ran a night, I try to do it like around eight or nine, when I’m already done with the day, I like to somewhat dim the lights, you know, get into the atmosphere, I’m kind of hard to focus sometimes. So, I don’t like any noise. So, I kind of tell my wife, like, you know, like, you go do your own thing. And I’ll be here for the next couple of hours, just kind of writing. And when I don’t do it in the office, just the writing in the office, I do it on my laptop, but I try to like kind of just keep away from everybody, just sit by myself and just kind of focus on the story. Sometimes I do wear like, like a earplugs because I don’t like getting disturbed. But if not, I just try to stay away from civilization as much as I can. Because I feel like I can focus better that way. Yeah, that’s pretty much how I do.
Ashley
Gotcha. So, what is your outlining phase look like? Do you spend many, many weeks and months just outlining index carding, and then you open final draft and write script pages? Just give us some breakdown? How does that break out for you? How much time do you spend with preparation? How much time do you actually spend writing script pages?
Anubys Lopez
Yeah, so pretty much, the way that I find is better for me personally, I don’t know if it works for everybody like this. But for me, personally, when I’m thinking of ideas, you know, just either personal situation where something happened, and I wish I could include that in there, or maybe just talking about something or maybe just watching a movie and being like, oh, wow, like, maybe you know, something similar could go in my script, what I do is I just pull out my phone. And I wrote on my notes, like the main ideas. For the last couple of scripts, what I’ve done is pretty much I have the beginning of how I want the film to start, and kind of like the main points of it, and like, where it’s going to go pretty much. And then once I have everything kind of I just broken down on like parts of the of the film how it’s going to be, then I actually take it into final draft. And then I make the actual script, you know, like, just break it down for him in details, like dialogue and pretty much everything else. But I go with pretty much the main ideas first. So I know where to go with it.
Ashley
Yeah, gotcha. And what is your development process look like? So, you wrote this script, it sounds like your wife was involved. So do you give it to her to get notes? Do you have some actor friends? Do you have some other writer friends? Just what does that look like for you? How do you develop the script? How do you do rewrites?
Anubys Lopez
Yeah, so I have a couple of pretty awesome people that I work with. So my wife, definitely, she’s the first one that I show it to because, you know, she likes to kind of like, see what I came up with. And she’ll be very sincere and be like, No, this is crap. Or like, hey, this doesn’t sound too well. Or sometimes when she reads something and scares her, and she’s like, Oh, this is kind of creepy, then I kind of know, because she’s very hard to scare. But after I’m pretty much done with the first draft, give or take, I send it to our script supervisor, which is the same person that was there on those who call and with my last film as well. And she pretty much looks it over. And she’s very good at you know, like story development, and pretty much grammar, all that type of stuff. And she’ll look it over and tell me what she thinks. And then I have someone that works with us as well. And he’s an agent, and he’s been like, representing me and helping me out with a lot of things. And once I have a well written kind of script, not 100% there, but something that’s pretty good. I send it to him. And then he’ll kind of look it over and tell me from his perspective, because obviously he knows a lot more than I do. So, he’ll tell me about what works and what doesn’t. And from a selling perspective, he’ll be able to also tell me like, hey, you know, maybe you can get rid of this or maybe you can add more of this, you know, different things.
Ashley
Gotcha, gotcha. So, how do you approach screenplay structure and you just sort of genre requirements in general, you’re doing a horror, but on the structure question, there’s the sort of the Syd field, Blake Snyder, where they have these very clearly delineated plot points and stuff. There’s maybe a more intuitive thing where you’re not leaning quite into those, but just what’s your approach to screenplay structure?
Anubys Lopez
Okay, yeah. So, I usually watch other films that are within the same genre to kind of get a feel for What I’m trying to do, and get ideas here and there, obviously nothing too similar to what they’ve done. But I usually, most of my preparation just comes through inside my head honestly, like, I just think of a lot of creepy stuff, and real-life scenarios of things that happen here and there. But a lot of times also with, like, ideas that I see with like random posters, or like pictures from like, creepy, like, the certain places and all that I can kind of, like, put it together and be like, oh, what don’t make the weird if that isn’t that happened in this place. And that’s how I just thought, I don’t know if that answered your question.
Ashley
Yeah, no, it does for sure. Okay. So, once you had your script, sort of whipped into shape, it was what you wanted, what were those next steps to actually getting it produced? How did you actually get it together and get it into production?
Anubys Lopez
So that was specifically Those Who Call since it was my very first film, I self-funded and myself. So, my director of photography, he’s like my brother, we were working together for a lot of years, on the events and the whole YouTube stuff. So, we just pretty much sat down and came up with like, the shortlist and a storyboard and pretty much everything that we thought would work best. And since it’s self-funded, I didn’t really have to go through, you know, any other like executive producers or any other process to fund the film. But once we had it, and we had to where we wanted it to go, we’re just kind of broke it down on well, we can do what they and let go of that. And then from there, we’re just wanting to casting pretty much. Yeah, it wasn’t the most complicated process, because you know, back then we it was COVID time, so we couldn’t really do much, you know. But yeah, that’s how pretty much how we did it.
Ashley
Did you shoot this in Houston?
Anubys Lopez
Yeah, so we shot it very close to Houston. It was in a town called Magnolia. So, it’s kind of like more in the woods. And we also shot a lot of it in some Houston National Forest, which is the biggest forest in the Houston area. And Kenny Texas, another town a little bit, leaving Houston, more towards the south. So, we shot him more on that on that side of town. So, I wasn’t really torched. Like in the Houston area, but more around that area. You know what I mean?
Ashley
Gotcha, gotcha. So okay, so once you guys had your film shot, and through post production, what were your next steps actually getting this movie out there? I’m curious, do you go to film festivals, and then ultimately, you came to me through a publicist, that I think Keith over done court uses, but how did you end up did you do festivals? How did you end up ultimately getting distribution with uncorked?
Anubys Lopez
Yeah, so it was kind of a complicated process, because I knew nothing about distribution or anything like that, like we shot this film, because we love making films, and we shot it for fun. And, you know, just to, it was one of my goals in life pretty much. And I was like, okay, I’m going to do it. And I don’t know where it’s going to end up. But I’ll do it, you know, because it’s fun. And I want to do it. And we shot it. And then once we were done with it, we actually had my friend came up to me, and he’s like, okay, so what are you going to do for distribution? And I was like, I don’t know, like, I thought I could just distribute it myself, you know? And I come to find out, that’s a very hard process. And yeah, it is not as simple as you think. So, I had someone that had distributed a film with uncorked. And he had done a couple of films with them. And he recommended me to them. However, uncorked, at the beginning, they didn’t want to take the film, obviously, you know, as a first time filmmaker, there’s a process to it. It’s a very complicated. So, we actually, when we had a distribution in mind, and we knew that we could possibly get somewhere with it. We went back and we reshot some things. We shot a couple of extra scenes, like the beginning scenes that you see in the film. Those were all shot after we shot the actual film. We reshot some scenes. We went back and fixed a couple of things. And yeah, I pretty much you know, started googling distributors and contacting a lot of distributors. Some of them wanted the film, some of them didn’t want the film. And I came very close to signing other deals that were not willing to court. But I wanted to work with them, because I knew that they do a good job and that I was going to be safe with them. So eventually, the conversation just kind of like, restarted again. And I sent them a new screener. And then like, okay, well, we can work with this one. And then yeah, pretty much went from there. It was a long process, because this was shot in 2020, by the way. So, it’s been three years. It was a long process. As a first-time filmmaker, I made a lot of mistakes. You know, we did a lot of things that we now know not to do.
Ashley
Yeah, sure.
Anubys Lopez
Yeah, so it was a long process. But we managed to get it working with uncourt. They were very nice. And they actually have October coast, which is the people that do the publicity. So, they’ve been nothing but supportive. Very, very understanding. Yeah, that’s how we got.
Ashley
Yeah, that was great. Yeah. So, just to wrap things up, I’m curious. Just what are some of the lessons that you’ve learned from this from making this movie? Can you distill? And especially just on sort of the screenwriting front, are there any lessons you really come away with this project?
Anubys Lopez
Yeah, absolutely. I’ve learned so much from this film since it wasn’t first film, you know, from a script writing perspective, I would say, character development is very important when it comes to a script. So maybe in my own for, you know, and in my own perspective, I should have had a more of a backstory on a lot of these characters. And also, a lot of the scenes, a lot of the dialogue was a little bit repetitive. So. I would have changed it up a little bit more. They usually always tell you that 1 page on script equals to like around one minute of screen time. So. I would say to be very careful with dialogue, and don’t make it too repetitive. And also make sure that when it comes to emotions, you you’re able to describe it. I guess it’s easier. So, the actors are able to interpret it better, I guess. Yes.
Ashley
Yeah, yeah, no, that’s a great. I’m curious, all of this experience doing YouTube, like, it seems to me, that’s one of the great things about YouTube or Tik Tok or any of these platforms, you can put something out and you get feedback almost immediately, where there’s some lessons there that you can impart to us as you made these horror shorts on your YouTube channel, where there’s some things that surprised you some things that maybe worked well with an audience that maybe you were surprised, and some things that you thought were going to work well with an audience, but maybe didn’t work so well with an audience. But just in general, are there some things that you can sort of take away from your YouTube experience doing these shorts and putting them out there?
Anubys Lopez
Yeah, I think it’s very important as a filmmaker, if you’re not ready to do a feature, and you want to create, just put it out there, because people can give you a lot of good feedback. There’s a lot of like, when I started, I did a lot of like, found footage and all of that, because it was easier to make, it was less expensive. And I noticed that some people were liking it, but a lot of people like, I said, like the character development and seeing a little bit of the stories of the backstories of a lot of these characters. I think it’s important to just whatever you have to just get it out there, even if it’s a short and feature.
Ashley
That’s great. No, I think that’s great advice. Exactly. Just getting stuff out.
Anubys Lopez
Yeah. Just kind of get it out there.
Ashley
Yeah. So, what have you seen recently that you think maybe screenwriters could get some value out? Is there anything out there you’re watching HBO, Netflix, Hulu, anything you’re watching that you think screenwriters might really benefit from checking out?
Anubys Lopez
Yeah, I recently watched one of A24th’s films Pearl. I love it so I’m very into them. And I think the script for that one because you can you can actually find the script online. And I love just kind of like looking and looking for all these like scripts and all that. The script for that one is very entertaining to read. And I feel like a lot of people could be interested in reading it because it could help you to write your own. This is a very well-made movie. I feel like it was very little shot as well. And the whole story of it was very well done. So, you know, definitely give it a shot.
Ashley
Yeah, yeah, that’s a great recommendation. How can people see your film – Those Who Call, what’s the release schedule going to be like on that?
Anubys Lopez
So, those who call is already streaming on all major platforms pretty much except for like Netflix and Hulu, like the main ones. But as streaming right now on Prime Video, on Hulu, on YouTube, it is streaming on Google TV, Apple TV. Those are pretty much the main ones. So. for the next 90 days, it’ll be streaming on that. And then after that, it’ll go Tubi TV and the ad supported like networks.
Ashley
Gotcha, gotcha. What’s the best way for people to keep up with what you’re doing? Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, anything you’re comfortable sharing, I will put in the show notes.
Anubys Lopez
Yeah, so we have an Instagram, and it’s herohousefilms. And then I also have my personal one, which is Anubys Dan Lopez. And then I also have a Twitter, so under the same name Anubys Dan Lopez. So that will be the best way to kind of keep up with everything and seeing everything.
Ashley
Gotcha. Gotcha. Perfect. Well, Anubys. I really appreciate your coming on and talking with me today. Good luck with this film and good luck while your future projects as well.
Anubys Lopez
Thank you for having me.
Ashley
Thank you. Yeah, thank you. We’ll talk to you later. Bye.
I just want to talk quickly about SYS Select. It’s a service for screenwriters to help them sell their screenplays and get writing assignments. The first part of the service is the SYS select screenplay database. Screenwriters upload their screenplays, along with a logline, synopsis and other pertinent information like budget and genre, and then producers search for and hopefully find screenplays they want to produce. Dozens of producers are in the system looking for screenplays right now. There have been a number of success stories come out of the service. You can find out about all the SYS select successes by going to sellingyourscreenplay.com/success. Also, on SYS Podcast episode 222, I talked with Steve Dearing, who was the first official success story to come out of the SYS select database. When you join SYS select you get access to the screenplay database along with all the other services that we’re providing to SYS select members. These services include the newsletter, this monthly newsletter goes out to a list of over 400 producers who are actively seeking writers and screenplays. Each SYS select member can pitch one screenplay in this monthly newsletter. We also provide screenwriting leads, we have partnered with one of the premier paid screenwriting leads services so I can syndicate their leads to SYS select members. There are lots of great paid leads coming in each week from our partner. Recently, we’ve been getting five to 10 high quality paid leads per week. These leads run the gamut. There are producers looking for a specific type of spec script to producers looking to hire a screenwriter to write up one of their ideas or properties. They’re looking for shorts, features, TV and web series pilots all types of projects. If you sign up for SYS select, you’ll get these leads emailed directly to you several times per week. Also, you get access to the SYS select forum, where we will help you with your logline and query letter and answer any screenwriting related questions that you might have. We also have a number of screenwriting classes that are recorded and available in the SYS select forum. These are all the classes that I’ve done over the years, so you’ll have access to those whenever you want once you join. The classes cover every part of writing your screenplay, from concept to outlining to the first act, second act, third act as well as other topics like writing short films and pitching your projects in person. Once again, if this sound like something you’d like to learn more about, please go to sellingyourscreenplayselect.com Again, that is sellingyourscreenplayselect.com. On the next episode of the podcast, I’m going to be interviewing Canadian writer director Jason Eisner, who’s done a number of horror feature films. But his latest film is a cool horror sci fi film called Kids vs. Aliens, talking about his career, how he got into the business and then ultimately how this movie Kids vs. Aliens came about. So, keep an eye out for that episode next week. That’s our show. Thank you for listening.