Act Two Podcast

Hosts Tasha Huo and Josh Hallman sit down with Michael Kennedy, writer of Freaky, It's a Wonderful Knife, Time Cut and Heart Eyes, to talk about one of the hardest balancing acts in screenwriting: horror and comedy. Michael tells the story of how a table read in the Family Guy conference room, a cold email Jason Blum answered within the hour, and a lunch with Chris Landon turned into Freaky, then gets into the craft: how to write a jump scare that upends what the audience expects, when to trust silence on the page, why you should treat horror and comedy with equal respect, and why every character starts with who they were before page one. Plus, the first-ever Act Two rapid fire.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro and Michael's credits

02:44 From Cleveland to Scream

09:32 Moving to LA: Family Guy and Bordertown

12:19 How Freaky got made

24:36 Writing scares and jump scares

33:27 Slow burns and pacing

36:22 Balancing horror and comedy

40:07 Character first: final girls and identity

44:12 Rapid fire

47:28 Quote of the week

Your challenge: Take a STAB at your own jump scare and send us the scene. We'll post our favorites.

Movie Club: Join us on Patreon on Monday, Nov 30, 5:30–6:30pm PT, for Planes, Trains and Automobiles: how to construct a road trip movie and use holidays as IP. https://www.patreon.com/acttwowriters

Next week: Composer Emily Rice (Miss Juneteenth) on what a composer hears in your script.

More horror: Why Friday the 13th Became a Franchise (with Dave Levinson): https://acttwo.podbean.com/e/why-friday-the-13th-became-a-franchise-with-dave-levinson/

Questions/Comments: ActTwoWriters@gmail.com

Follow: Instagram @act_two_writers · Tasha @storythursday · Josh @joshhallman

Hosted by Tasha Huo and Josh Hallman · Produced by Jessica Malanaphy · Edited by the GREAT Paul Lundquist · Social: Cecilia Tripp

When a reader says “I don’t connect with your character,” the real problem isn’t necessarily the character. Tasha Huo and Josh Hallman break down the five notes hiding behind it, the questions to ask the person who gave it, and how to fix it on the page.

It’s our annual Halloween episode, and friend of the podcast Dave Levinson (Welcome Home) is back to talk about the 1980 original Friday the 13th.

Hosts Tasha Huo and Josh Hallman take a listener's questions about adapting an audio drama: Where to Start, How to Adapt a Series to a Feature, How to Approach Action Scenes, and How to Build a World Without Getting Overwhelmed. 

 

Questions/Comments: ActTwoWriters@gmail.com 

Edited by the GREAT Paul Lundquist

Hosts Tasha Huo and Josh Hallman kick off their new World-Building Series by discussing how to build your world within scenes. Whether writing high fantasy or just building tension, how you introduce or describe a scene and how your characters approach that scene can have a trickle down effect from engaging studio readers to steering production. Let's talk about that!

TWIW: Josh visits a studio film set; The greatest compliment-insult Tasha has ever received; Resident Evil and video game adaptations.

 

Questions/Comments: ActTwoWriters@gmail.com 

Edited by the GREAT Paul Lundquist