Live From Miskatonic: Stephen Volk in Conversation with Moderator Sean Hogan
7pm - 10pm
£10 advance / £11 on the door / £8 concs / £35 Full semester pass
Moderator: Sean Hogan
Screenwriter and author Stephen Volk is perhaps best known for writing the notorious BBC Halloween hoax Ghostwatch, which spooked the nation, hit newspaper headlines and prompted questions to be asked in Parliament. However, his many other notable screenplays include those for the films Gothic (directed by Ken Russell), The Guardian (directed by William Friedkin), the BAFTA award-winning The Deadness of Dad, and The Awakening, while his other TV credits range from Afterlife to the recentMidwinter of the Spirit. In addition, he is also a renowned prose author of novellas and short fiction, winning British Fantasy Awards for his collection Monsters in the Heart and his novella “Newspaper Heart”. Arguably his most acclaimed work of fiction so far has been the 2013 novella Whitstable, a story featuring legendary horror icon Peter Cushing. He followed this in 2015 with another novella,Leytonstone, about the early life of Alfred Hitchcock, and will be completing his Dark Masters Trilogy this year with the publication of Netherwood, a fictional account of an encounter between famed black magic author Dennis Wheatley and notorious mystic Aleister Crowley.
During this exclusive event, Stephen Volk will discuss his career and work with screenwriter and filmmaker Sean Hogan. Covering both his film and TV credits as well as his prose fiction, the pair will look at the differences between writing for film and television; his contrasting screenwriting experiences in the UK and the US; the process behind writing fictionalised biographical works such as Gothic and the Dark Masters Trilogy; discuss the stories behind the creation of some of his most famous/infamous credits; examine why and how he built a successful prose career away from screenwriting; and talk more broadly about the methodology of representing the supernatural onscreen and what horror is actually 'for'. The evening will end with a Q&A session with the audience, and should provide an invaluable insight into writing for page and screen by an acknowledged master of the forms; no aspiring writer should miss the chance to learn from Stephen Volk's hard-earned experience across a wide range of writing disciplines.
About the Instructors:
Stephen Volk is best known as the writer of the BBC’s notorious “Hallowe’en hoax” Ghostwatch – called by some the most frightening thing ever produced on TV – and the award-winning ITV paranormal drama series Afterlife starring Andrew Lincoln and Lesley Sharp. His screenplays include 2011’s The Awakening starring Rebecca Hall and Dominic West, Ken Russell’s Gothic starring Gabriel Byrne and Natasha Richardson, The Guardian (co-written with William Friedkin), and the 3-part TV adaptation of Phil Rickman’s Midwinter of the Spirit. He won a BAFTA for The Deadness of Dad starring Rhys Ifans and wrote the play The Chapel of Unrest which was premiered at the Bush in London starring Jim Broadbent and Reece Shearsmith. A greatly admired prose writer, his 2014 short story collection ‘Monsters In The Heart’ won a British Fantasy Award for Best Collection, while his novella ‘A Newspaper Heart’, won the 2015 Award for Best Novella.
Sean Hogan is a writer and filmmaker. His directorial credits include Lie Still and The Devil’s Business; he also produced the feature documentary Future Shock! The Story of 2000AD and has worked on the screenplays for a number of other films, most notably The Borderlands. In collaboration with Kim Newman, he was responsible for devising two multi-author anthology plays, The Hallowe’en Sessions and The Ghost Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, both of which he directed. Most recently, he wrote a metafictional book on the cult 70’s horror film Death Line, and wrote and directed a short film homage to the BBC Christmas Ghost Story tradition entitled We Always Find Ourselves in the Sea.
Named for the fictional university in H.P. Lovecraft’s literary mythos, The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies is an international organization that was founded by film writer/programmer Kier-La Janisse in March of 2010 and now has branches in London and New York. Miskatonic London operates under the co-direction of Kier-La Janisse and Josh Saco.
All classes take place at the historic Horse Hospital, the heart of the city’s underground culture. Full semester passes are £35. Individual class tickets are £10 advance / £11 on the door / £8 concessions.
For full details of the next courses please check the Miskatonic website.
For all enquiries, please email Miskatonic.london[at]gmail.com.