Dave Bailey

What is your name, company name, and URL?

Dave Bailey

What is your specialty: filmmaking or screenwriting? If filmmaking, which aspects?

Specialty is screenwriting with a side of short film producing

What are you currently working on?

I am currently/always working on multiple things. I have 2 scripts entered in Shriekfest as well as working on a webisode for this year's competition featuring killer cicadas.

Who do you consider your mentor and why?

My cousin and I have been writing fan fiction since we were in high school so I'd say we've been co mentors for each other.

Why do you think the horror/sci-fi genres have such a large following?

Horror has such a huge following in my opinion because of the same type of reaction in comedic movies. You see a comedy to enjoy life and get a good belly laugh that makes you squeeze tears of joy from your eyes. As a collective, it is fun to be scared. Just look at the success of haunted houses around the country. Immersing yourself in a horror movie let's you be scared, but survive. Even if you've had sex at some point in your life. Ha! Even rule breakers can survive!

What do you love most about this business?

Seeing a good horror flick. Awesome that it is still possible with all this reality TV drivel around, that projects like The Walking Dead and The Conjuring are still possible. It's also fun to scare people and "die" in movies.

What do you dislike most about this business?

Trying to sell scripts once they have been written.

What career accomplishment are you most proud of?

I am still trying to win that Shriekfest award!! But, other than that I suppose winning a Chrysler Sebring convertible for a video I wrote, shot, and edited is pretty cool. Oh, and supposedly Stephen King read and passed on an adaptation I wrote of his short "The Fifth Quarter." Kind of a cool reject letter if you have to get one.

Any advice you'd like to give to newbies?

There is no such thing as overnight success for the most part. If I even attain the status I'm reaching for, it will have been because of what I call the "longest homework assignment in history." What is that you ask? From 1991 until 2012 I wrote a fan fiction mixture of Dark Shadows and Friday the 13th the series, with a yearlong appearance of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was a few thousand pages long. I read back on some of it and cringe. But, there's something about writing and creating a world that only one other person on the planet will ever read and experience for all times. I had to deal with deadlines, writing through the brick wall of writer's block. I grew as a writer as I watched my character and world grow and the stories begin to come alive and tell me what should happen instead of vice versa. Many people fancy themselves writers. The thing about being a writer is you have to write. You have to write when you don't want to, when you're ideas are zapped. You have to sacrifice time with family and friends. In the end you have to dedicate yourself to this love, for it is the only way to break through the stage of being someone who wants to write....and someone who does. Regardless of if you've sold anything you've written or not. That is the advice I'd give to newbies.

Anything else you'd like to say?

Walking Dead is the best horror show ever. And I don't like to knock other writers, but the storyline for Jason VS Freddy is so simple how could I have been the only one to come up with it? A bunch of teens who live on Elm Street are being targeted by Freddy. The kids are all so freaked out that their parents get pissed and send them off to summer camp......at Crystal Lake. It's so simple and easy! How could it not have happened? Oh, and why don't you hire Betsy Palmer to play Jason's mother? She was still alive? Okay. That's my rant! Happy Halloween!