horror filmmaking

World Building Essentials For Screenwriters – Steve Douglas-Craig

Filmcourage

Published

January 31, 2024

[Watch the video interview on Youtube here]

Film Courage: What does world building mean to you?

Steve Douglas-Craig, Owner/Teacher at The New Screenwriter, Financier, Screenwriter and Producer: It means Star Wars. It means setting your main point of view or your character in the world. When you look at sci-fi and fantasy, a lot of horror period pieces, that becomes an essential part of creating the tone and the feeling of what you’re trying to convey. If you’re setting something in a period, if you don’t get that right, the read and the film is not going to work. I think world building is very much about the creation of the setting. The setting is a character in itself in that if you want to set an exorcism for instance, where would you set that? Well let’s set it in a church, there’s a contrast there or let’s set it in a school playground, somewhere where it can be explosive and it can have a say in what world that we’re trying to convey.

That’s also a common thing that I see in the beginning of scripts when I’m looking at:

-Is this a good script or not?

-Do does the writer understand the world that they’re in?

-Do they understand how important the world is and the effect it’s supposed to have on the character’s trajectory out into a new world?

Setting or world building is essential. When you look at the Star Wars series…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).

About:

After graduating from the AFI, Steve Douglas-Craig was recruited by Sony Pictures Entertainment to work as a Story Editor & Acquisitions Executive for the Worldwide Acquisitions team in Los Angeles where he received an induction into story & business development, feature film packaging, domestic & international distribution, theatrical marketing & product acquisition. He helped develop & shepherd film titles including Terminator: Salvation, The Book of Eli, Django Unchained, War Room, Don’t Breathe (Sequel current in post-production), the Insidious horror movie franchise, Manchester By The Sea, The Grudge (reboot), Searching, Arrival, Whiplash, The Call, Attack The Block & many others (including TV releases – The Tudors, House of Cards). Steve’s tenure at Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions was followed with a promotion to Senior Story Editor & Creative Executive at Screen Gems where he was involved in the development & release of theatrical titles like the recent releases of Monster Hunter & the adaptation of James Herbert’s novel – The Unholy. Before that he helped shepherd Black & Blue, The Intruder, Possession of Hannah Grace, Brightburn, & Slender Man. He was also heavily involved in developing content strategies that attracted financiers & talent to specific projects for the studio. Steve is also a professional screenwriter having worked as a freelance staff writer for the hit CBS TV series Hawaii Five-O over a number of seasons & currently has a pilot & several feature films (including a creature feature) going out through his literary managers in Los Angeles.