genre RSS

audience, genre, paradigm, sub-genre, tone - December 13, 2022

WHAT IS THIS MOVIE?

“What is this movie?” is the first and most essential question that every screenplay needs to answer. It is the question that is on the mind of every reader at every step in the process, and ultimately the question asked by the audience that is deciding which movie to watch. By asking what the movie “is,” we’re talking about a variety of elements: genre, sub-genre, paradigm, tone, audience. We know who is going to watch the movie, and why, and what they expect out of the movie they have chosen to watch, and where the movie exists in the...

ON TITLES

The title is vital. It is the first point of contact between the script and the reader, and between the movie and the audience. When the audience comes to the theater and they look at the one-sheets and the marquee, the title is both the hook and the handle by which they shall make their ultimate decision: Which of these movies will they see? So let’s talk about titles. A good title accomplishes several tasks within just a word or few. The first task is to reflect the genre. We want to tell the audience what kind of experience they...

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action, comedy, genre, horror, subgenres, thriller - November 03, 2021

Thoughts on Genre

First as a development executive, and then as a manager, it was my job to find, develop, and shop screenplays. In the course of those experiences, it swiftly became apparent that the scripts that had the easiest time getting traction were those that were driven by a big, clear genre, and were just as clearly working to deliver the goods of that genre. Simply put, a comedy should be funny, a horror project should be scary, a thriller thrilling, an action script needs action, and so on. For example, if a script is intended to be shopped as a comedy,...

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