This week we’re highlighting one of our very own judges for the Killer Shorts Contest, Julian Terry. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Julian is a writer, director, and cinematographer now based in Los Angeles. He has directed four short horror films, three of which have been picked up by major studios. His first horror short, The Nurse, won the Annabelle: Creation Contest in 2017, which has since been optioned by New Line Cinema. Whisper, his second short, was made on a super tight budget in one location and has been optioned by Amblin Entertainment. His third horror short, They Hear It, was made as a proof of concept for a feature and was pitched and sold to Legendary. Finally, his fourth and most recent, Don’t Peek, was also shot in one location with a pocket camera, and has just been released.
We talked with Julian about getting his start in horror shorts and his journey in the industry since, what he expects to see from the Top 10 short horror scripts of our competition, killer advice on tackling the horror genre, and what steps you can take to break in. If anyone knows a thing or two about horror shorts and getting them sold, it’s Julian!
Conversations With Julian
How did you get your start in horror shorts?
I kind of stumbled into horror shorts actually! For awhile I was making comedies at BuzzFeed. I shot close to 200 shorts there. I loved horror films growing up. When I was 7 years old I wrote my first short story that was a sequel to The Thing! My mom made sure to take me to Blockbuster every Friday night. We would get a Chicago deep-dish pizza and two movies. My mom loved scary movies! When I was an intern at BuzzFeed I made friends with another intern, Alex Anderson. We realized we were the only ones that dug horror movies at work. After a long day of work, we would watch a horror movie.
One day when I was crashing on Alex’s couch I discovered the Annabelle: Creation Contest. There was only a handful of days left in the contest and I wanted to give it a shot. Alex and I teamed up and treated it like BuzzFeed video. We shot it extremely fast. We threw most of it together in one day and shot it that night. I had to edit it overnight and was exhausted going into work, but I didn’t care how tired I was. I had so much fun filming it and I knew I wanted to keep making more!
You have had three horror shorts (so far) get picked up by major studios. What’s your secret?
Ha! I don’t think there’s much of a secret. The key ingredient is finding a great team. Every horror short has been made with Alex. We throw ideas at one another all day. On set, I keep it open so if something isn’t working I will ask for suggestions.
The problem with shooting horror shorts is that no one takes you seriously. Many people rolled their eyes when I told them I was going to shoot a horror short. Some people quit last second because they didn’t think the shorts would look good on their resume.
Alex stuck with me no matter what crazy short we were making. On They Hear It, it started snowing and everyone left the set because they didn’t want to be stranded on the mountain. Alex and I stayed behind and shot everything else. It turned out really good!
If there ever was a secret to these shorts, it’s to make a clever scare. Something worth remembering. Many create a fun “game” in their shorts. We call them scare mechanics. For example, the lights turning on and off in Lights Out. That’s a great mechanic! The closest thing I came up with is in Whisper where an Amazon Echo can hear voices that our main character can’t! I tell a lot of emerging filmmakers to come up with a fun scare mechanism that will make execs remember you!
Whenever you make these horror shorts you may feel like they aren’t scary. I don’t feel like any of my shorts are scary because I’m so close to it, I know every detail of those shorts. I remember I almost didn’t release Whisper because I thought it wasn’t scary, I thought it was clunky. We shot it in a day and released it a week later on Halloween. I’m glad I did! Less than a year later it scared Steven Spielberg and he demanded Amblin option it immediately. Don’t let those little thoughts about your short get in the way of making it. Always finish your shorts, you don’t know who could end up seeing them!
Did you get representation with a manager/agent because of your horror shorts? If so, which short was it and how and when did that come about?
It’s a bit of a wild story. When The Nurse got attention I was contacted by many managers. No one knew what was going to happen with my meeting at New Line. The Nurse had won the contest and New Line optioned it. Alex and I had a meeting with David F. Sandberg and New Line Execs. It was very thrilling. After Whisper, I even got meetings with managers.
When you make a popular horror short you will get contacted by representation. Usually, they won’t sign you immediately. No one signed me until I was pitching to studios. These managers just want to get to know you and what you want your career to be. Many general meetings are like this. Many managers flirted with me but wouldn’t sign me till I had a feature ready to pitch to studios.
Ten months after making The Nurse, I got three agents at Paradigm and a manager at Good Fear all in the same week. It wasn’t from The Nurse.
I was working at Pixomondo at the time and I was finishing color on They Hear It in my spare time. I was contacted by Alex Heineman and Andrew Rona at The Picture Co. and they were interested in Whisper. They came across it when Jacob Chase showed it to them and loved the clever idea of the Alexa being used. They asked if I was working on anything else, so I sent them the most updated version of They Hear It with the logline in the description. It was different from any of my other shorts. It was the opening scene to a full feature I had so it was only 8 minutes long.
They loved it. I pitched them the whole feature idea and they came aboard and wanted to start pitching in a week! They asked if I was represented and I said no. They sent a note to Paradigm and I had a meeting the next morning. I was signed shortly after.
Since then I am now with Scott Henderson at CAA. I am with David Baggelaar at Good Fear Management. David was the first manager to reach out to me after The Nurse! It’s been a fun journey. Just remember these are your teammates and they want you to have the best career you can.
Did you write feature versions or even feature outlines of your short films before they were discovered?
I write all the outlines before they move forward to the script stage. I like to explore the story a bit on my own to find out what I’m trying to say. What’s the theme going to be? My main goal is making sure every story I work on is personal to me.
How involved are you with the feature versions of your shorts?
I am attached to direct each feature version of these shorts. I have a strong team that fights for me. Know that if you have the story rights you have the power. You can argue to be the director of the project because you own it.
Before this, I was treated very poorly when I worked at social media companies. They treat filmmakers like trash. The only thing that gave me power was having a story. Having your own IP is the most important thing. Don’t let just anyone have it.
Some social media platforms will reach out to place your short on their platform. There are many horror channels on YouTube. Be careful when you do this. My friends have given their shorts to these channels and lost their rights. Some of these channels are very well known and still delete the filmmaker’s credits on their own shorts. Some make multiple sequels or movie deals without the original filmmaker attached. They can do this if you give away your IP. Trust who are working with. Know your worth.
Why did you agree to be on the jury for the Killer Shorts contest this year?
I agreed because this is something I wished I had entered! It’s such a cool way to get your work seen!
As a member of the Killer Shorts jury, what are you hoping to find in the Top 10 short horror scripts?
I am just hoping to read something that surprises me! Something that scares me in a different way. I love finding work that I can’t stop thinking about!
What is some advice or tips on how to create an impactful horror short that you would enjoy reading/watching?
I like to write from different perspectives. I have two shorts that feature a young girl in them (Aria Walters). It’s a fun way to shake up a story.
The other way to shake it up is finding a different way to scare people. Can you scare someone with an Amazon Echo or a Nintendo Switch? The shorts I have directed are more suspense-driven. Can you make something off-putting with just an off-putting conversation? A conversation that starts off casual but feels more and more off?
I don’t like to think of short films as typical movie scenes. I like to think of them as moments. Moments that can go anywhere. Something that feels unpredictable. Something that shivers you in your bones.
Do you think writing and producing horror shorts is a helpful path to take for screenwriters trying to break into the industry?
Yes. It’s also important to sit with the director during the filming. Since it’s so easy to shoot shorts these days I tell everyone to direct something once. Actors and screenwriters should sit in the director’s shoes at least once. You look at the scene very differently. You think more about the edit and pacing. Writers will change up their whole style after directing. They know when dialogue is dragging or a fun way to close a scene.
Always have a few feature scripts at hand. At least three feature scripts at the ready. Scripts that vary are important. I would also have a TV pilot ready to go. When you go into these meetings they will ask for what else you may have. It’s important to be able to give them a follow-up email right after with a script.
You recently released your fourth horror short ‘Don’t Peek’ which was filmed during the pandemic. What were some of the biggest challenges during production?
Don’t Peek was full of challenges! I was in lockdown with my girlfriend, Katie C’etta, and my roommate, Alex Anderson. We were losing our minds together. We watched Lord of The Rings, built a Lego Millennium Falcon, anything to distract ourselves. A lot of my friends were making horror shorts during quarantine. I wanted to make something too. The challenge of making something with only the people and items in my apartment excited me. I couldn’t think of an idea to shoot.
One night I was playing Animal Crossing at night and didn’t want to wake up Katie so I played in the dark. That’s when I saw a shape by my bed. I was terrified. That next day I knew what I wanted to shoot!
Obviously, a huge challenge was wearing many hats. Alex and I were doing everything behind the camera. Alex luckily had a Blackmagic pocket camera and two lights. He and I rigged the lights to the ceiling and my window blinds. Alex not only played the monster, but he also pulled focus and was the gaffer. He flicked off lights and closed drawers in the same shot!
Katie even lit herself with the Nintendo Switch! She absolutely killed it with her silent performance. She carried the whole short. I was able to hold on many takes with just her expression. I couldn’t show the monster so I threw a blanket on Alex. It’s silly looking but paired with Katie’s performance it becomes terrifying. Not to mention, Christina Gonzales and Alex Winkler came back for score and sound design. They have been aboard every short so far. We share our own language when discussing sound. I love our collaboration.
A huge challenge was the Switch. Every shot with the Switch has some VFX on it. We had to eliminate the clock in the corner of the screen. That was pulled off by Tim Hendrix. The short would not have worked without Tim’s incredible techniques. No one knows there are over 18 VFX shots in it. He hid them all! His work comes across so naturally.
The biggest challenge by far was staying focused during post. I lost friends to Covid. My old classmate, Jacob Blake was shot by a police officer. It wrecked my hometown of Evanston. Marching for Black Lives Matter was very important to me. It made the short films feel very small. I pushed the release date to Halloween because I didn’t feel like it was the right time. I’m happy I did. The horrors of real-life need time to heal. Halloween is the best time to destress and release some of the tensions we’ve been building up all year.
Finally, what’s next for you and where can our readers learn more about you?
You can find more about me on my website: JulianMakesMovies.com.
All of my updates are posted on my Instagram @julianmovies and you can find my shorts on my YouTube channel.
Julian certainly has an impressive resume and we’re super excited to have him on the jury for Season 2 of the Killer Shorts Contest. His journey into the industry is certainly an inspiring one and can act as a guide for anyone wanting to break in with horror shorts. Julian has a huge career ahead of him so be sure to follow him on social media for updates and catch his latest horror short, Don’t Peek on his YouTube channel.
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