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10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU, ADVENTURELAND, AMERICAN GRAFFITI, BETTER OFF DEAD, CLUELESS, DAZED AND CONFUSED, EASY A, FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF, HEATHERS, MID 90s - August 17, 2022

TEEN COMEDIES

I have seen many teen comedies, and for every teen comedy film I have seen, I have read many, many, many teen comedy spec scripts. There is a reason for this: With rare exception, teen comedies are based on specs. And of those exceptions, the scripts are often adaptations of classic literature (an excellent example being 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU). Interestingly, teen comedies tend to be most successful when they fall into one of two opposed extremes: Either the dramedy that largely draws from true life experiences of the writer/filmmaker, or the hyper-artificial story that uses the tropes...

ON DIALOGUE

Dialogue is one of the trickier aspects of writing because, unlike elements like structure or format, there are no hard-and-fast rules to act as a guide. But we still know dialogue is good or bad when we hear it. Dialogue is one of the main lures for attracting name talent (i.e. movie stars) to a project. Given that financing is often contingent on name attachments, the level of dialogue can have a direct impact on a script getting traction toward production. One of the main things we want to achieve is to strike a balance between clarity and character. In...

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