u/penumbrapictures

A little while back, I posted here about my screenwriting journey, and somehow that led to a real producer reaching out and asking to read my script. Still one of the stranger, cooler things that’s happened to me from Reddit.

Since then, I’ve been working on a new TV pilot, and I’m at the point where I’d love to get it in front of a few serious readers.

TITLE: DEEP MOTHER

FORMAT: Serialized One-Hour TV | Cosmic Horror 

LOGLINE: After their father’s death, estranged siblings return to their childhood farmhouse and discover their missing mother may still be alive in a prehistoric city buried beneath the land he spent his life trying to keep sealed.

COMPS: CABINET OF CURIOSITIES meets OUTER RANGE

What I’m most interested in is whether the pilot makes you want to watch episode two. Not just “is this well-written,” but: does the world feel like a show? Do the characters feel like they could sustain a season? Is the central engine clear enough?

I’m looking for a handful of readers who are genuinely into cosmic horror. Happy to send the pilot, or even just the first 10 pages, to anyone who connects with the premise.

And if anyone here has had luck getting a pilot read through Reddit, I’d be curious what actually worked for you.

https://preview.redd.it/4eihbyjanc1h1.jpg?width=1980&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5348c4bb8f1cef7df00f498ecf5a990f31b07705

We just finalized the official poster for our indie horror short film THE DROWNING PLACE, designed by Kim Thompson.

The film is a supernatural lake/camp horror story built around guilt, drowning, and the idea that “the water knows what you’ve done.” We’re still early in the process, but the project is starting to pick up momentum in a way that feels genuinely exciting.

Would be very interested to hear how the poster reads to people at first glance - tone, genre, title treatment, anything that jumps out.

https://preview.redd.it/m86ssj9utsxg1.jpg?width=3840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a35570b1b99a5730202e90edb659c444fdfd90c0

BTS frame from our proof-of-concept horror short THE DROWNING PLACE.

We didn’t have deep water to shoot in, so we tried to make the fear come from the surface: black water, no visibility, something holding you under, and the sense that there’s nothing solid beneath you.

Curious whether this hits the thalassophobia button, or if it reads more like straight monster horror.

I’m a filmmaker in LA, and last year we shot a proof-of-concept episode for a food doc series called ORDER UP! LA

The premise is: a fish out of water takes a shift on a busy LA food truck. We wanted it to feel warm and commercial enough to be watchable, but not like branded content or a generic food influencer piece.

The production challenge was that food trucks seem simple until you actually shoot it. You need coverage of the vendor, the cooking, the customer experience, the truck as a location, the neighborhood, the order itself, and the story underneath it. If you only shoot the food, it feels thin. If you only shoot the person, it stops being appetizing. If you over-light it, it dies. If you under-cover it, you have no edit.

A few things I’d do again:
Use food as structure, not just insert footage.
Keep the camera close to the physical labor.
Let the truck environment stay messy and real.
Shoot the neighborhood as part of the character.
Make sure every beauty shot has story context.

A few things I’d rethink:
More controlled sound around generators and street noise.
More transitional material between order, prep, and handoff.
More intentional coverage of customers reacting to the food.

I’d be curious how other doc/food people approach this kind of material. How do you keep a food piece cinematic without making it feel overproduced?

https://preview.redd.it/qqwgholhrsxg1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ef29450dfb73d227b4ac5bd17b39fd12798af79b