What We Do in the Shadows

Read My Spec Script

Episode Title: "Vampired School"
Written By: Ary M

Synopsis: Nandor enrols himself, Laszlo and Nadja into the local community college expecting easy access to an unlimited supply of prey but things don’t go according plan. To top it all off, unknowing to Nandor, Guillermo has decided to take on an additional Master.

READ THE SCRIPT

Cold Open Storyboard Animatic

Directed and Edited by: Ary M.
Illustrations by: Marlon_88

What I Did With The Shadows

I decided to write an episode of What We Do in the Shadows (WWDITS). Here’s what happened.

The first episode of WWDITS I watched was called “On the Run” (Season 2, Episode 6). In the episode, there's a moment where Laszlo, played by Matt Berry, tells the interviewer with a straight face that he burnt down a building for insurance money. It killed me. Matt’s deadpan had me on the floor laughing! I was immediately into the show’s humour, the world, and the characters.

After getting all hot and sweaty from a mid-second season episode, I went back and started to watch from Season 1. About a couple of episodes in, I started to get ideas for a future episode. This was a first because before writing this script I only every had ideas for original stories. I didn’t think I could write anything that featured someone else’s world and characters, but within 2 weeks I had completed a 40-page draft. It took about another week to finish a second draft and a solid amount of polishing to be happy with the result.

I was a bit naive thinking that getting a producer to read a spec script would be as simple as writing the thing and sending it over to their agents. Unfortunately, I didn’t get very far without an agent of own or any rep in the game. I’m still glad that I wrote it. I had a lot of fun writing this story and playing with these characters. Plus, I’d never written a TV episode before, let alone a script that was longer than 14 pages. It’s been about a couple months since I wrote it and I still enjoy reading it so I feel like it would be a waste if I didn’t share it with others.  

If you do end up reading it, I’d love to know what you think.

Happy reading,
- Ary M