Twice the size. Examples, examples!
What to do -- what not to do. Definitions, acronyms explained.
Format for those who have a program,
settings for those who don't.
Money-back guarantee.
Perpetual e-mail support.
Your specific questions
answered by e-mail.
GET
THIS--
•
Do all your own formatting ...without
buying
expensive ...software
.
•
Get
started in less than twenty
....minutes.
•
Clear,
step-by-step instructions.
•
Learn how to register your |
...screenplay.FAST
with the .Writers
..Guild .of .America.BY
EMAIL!~~
Create Your Screenplay site
has been updated May 10, 2011
GENRES
- DAY OR NIGHT
.............
BARRY
....A
screenplay guru I once made a
....pilgrimage to said, "Hollywood
is
....all
about Genres." Check out the
....coming
soon's at any multiplex and
....you'll
see that it's true.
.........(a
beat)
....So,
doesn't it make sense that it's
....a
good idea to have firm grasp on
....what
your genre is?
Also
check out our screenplay formatting program.
Final Draft is one of the best at $169.00.
The CYS Templater is really good at $11.95.
Comes with a money-back guarantee, and
perpetual e-mail support.
CYS Templater(order).
If
you're at the beginning of your career, or you're about to start writing
your first screenplay, this is a great book to get you going! What's even
more enticing is that you can read and understand it in a couple of hours,
or less -- about the time it takes you to sit through your top choice
at the local multiplex.
You're
about to go on a creative journey, and this book is a basic road map.
You'll learn how to get original ideas -- not just copies of someone else's
notions.
Learn
how to get your good ideas out of your head and into your computer. Find
out how to source powerful psychological and emotional ideas for your
characters and themes.
Discover
the most efficient, professional ways to build your story, and your script.
I show you how to energize your ideas, how to tell which ideas are good
movie ideas, and where to look for elements that make winning movie scripts.
I
expose the secret of the powerful principle of mendacity in movie characters
and plot, and I show you examples of how to use it in your own screen-play.
Of
course, there are skills you need to learn and use --formatting, scene
structure, dialogue, and writing good narrative prose, for example. But
you'll never have the chance to learn them if you don't
How
do you take an amorphous mass of ideas and create a screen story that
will grow into a successful screenplay?
One
of the key steps for success is to embrace the genres of stories
that fire up your imagination, the genres that have a personal visceral
appeal.
Choosing
the right blend of genres is vital to the success of your story and
ultimately your screenplay. Genres, well understood, provide the writer
with compass bearings on the style, tone, character types, themes and
structure that will enrich and direct the telling of the screen story.
Knowing
a genre?s typical framework and ingredients helps a writer to avoid
cliché and stereotype. More importantly, knowing the genre is
the only way to know how to ring the changes on the story form and create
freshness in the work.
The following
basic genres are defined in terms of the central struggle of the
story.
"Typing"
Genres is, at its worst, a prejudice, and at its best, an inexact science;
nevertheless, here is my version of the basic types of movies.
The main point
of this exercise is to provide a tool to understand, test, and define
the different types of movies being made, and thus assist the writer
to situate his or her own script in a workable combination of genres.
Note:
Most Hollywood movies combine two genres in various proportions. For the
screenwriter, the usefulness of knowing and defining two applicable
genres when creating a screenplay resides in the benefit of greater
focus, richer subplotting, and a keener sense of the audience.
Action
(Disaster): Stories
whose central struggle plays out mainly through a clash of physical
forces: For example:
. Matt
Damon taking his action to Russia in The Bourne Identity
48
Hours
Face/Off
Die Hard
Air Force One
Jurassic Park
Lethal Weapon
Return
of the Jedi (also Science Fiction) Speed (also a Thriller)
Titanic (also a Love story)
The Terminator
True Lies
Twister
Adventure:
Stories
whose central struggle plays out mainly through encounters with
new "worlds." For example:
Apollo
13
The Deep
Get Shorty (extraordinary blend of Gangster, Love, and Crime
with a twist)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (also an Action picture)
Little
Big Man (Also Epic/Myth) Lawrence of Arabia
Quest For Fire
Rain Man
Robinson Crusoe
Water World
Comedy:
Stories
whose central struggle causes hilarious results. For example:
Ace
Ventura, Pet Detective (also Adventure??the name gives it away)
Analyze This
Annie Hall
Bowfinger
French Kiss
Honey,
I Shrunk the Kids (also Fantasty)My Best Friend's Wedding
Nine to Five
Shakespeare in Love
The Spy Who Shagged Me
When Harry Met Sally
Working Girl (also Love Story)
Coming-of-Age
Drama:
Stories whose central struggle is about the hero finding his
or her place in the world: For example:
American
Beauty
American Graffiti
The Breakfast Club
The Graduate
The Last Picture Show
The Lion King
My Brilliant Career
The Paper Chase
Pretty
In Pink
Rebel Without a Cause
Risky Business
Saturday Night Fever
Shakespeare in Love (also Romantic Comedy) Splendor in the Grass
Top Gun (also Action) The Water Boy (also Comedy)
Crime:
Stories
whose central struggle is about catching a criminal: For
example:
48
Hours
Basic Instinct
Fargo
French Connection
Ghost (also Love and Thriller)
L.A.Confidential
Patriot
Games
Pulp Fiction (Also Black Comedy, Bends the Genre a lot)) The Sting
The Untouchables
Detective
Story/Courtroom Drama: Stories
whose central struggle is to find out what really happened
and thus to expose the truth. For example:
Caine
Mutiny
Chinatown
Death and the Maiden
A Few Good Men
The General's Daughter
Inherit the Wind
The
Maltese Falcon
Philadelphia
Rear Window
A Time to Kill
The Verdict
Vertigo
Epic/Myth:
Stories whose central struggle plays out in the
midst of a clash of great forces or in the sweep of great
historical change.: For example:
Alexander
is a movie that typifies the epic -- about a man who conquered
most of the known world in his time.
Apocalypse
Now
The Birth of a Nation
Bridge on the River Kwai
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Ghandi
The Godfather
Gone
With the Wind
The Grapes of Wrath
Lawrence of Arabia (also Adventure)
Star Wars
The Ten Commandments
Fantasy:
Stories
which are animated, or whose central struggle plays out
in two worlds??the "real" world and an imaginary world.
For example:
A
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Alice in Wonderland
Antz
Big
Ghostbusters
Heaven Can Wait
Mary
Poppins
The Mask
Peter Pan
Snow White
Toy Story
The Wizard of Oz
Who Killed Roger Rabbit?
Gangster:
Stories
whose central struggle is between a criminal and society.
A cautionary tale, rooted in a main character who commits crimes
(This genre is often blended with Film Noir). For example:
Badlands
Bonnie and Clyde
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Dead End
Dead Man Walking
The Godfather (also Epic/Myth)
Goodfellas
La Femme Nikita
M.
Out of Sight (also Love Story) Sling Blade
The Usual Suspects
Horror:
Stories whose central struggle focuses on escaping from and eventually
defeating a Monster (either human or non-human). For example:
Alien
The Blair Witch Project
Friday the Thirteenth
Halloween
I Know What You Did Last Summer
It's Alive
King
Kong
Nightmare on Elm Street
Psycho
Scream
Tremors
Love
(Romance):
Stories whose central struggle is between two people who each
want to win or keep the love of the other. For example:
Tichard
Gere and Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, a Cinderella love story
Annie
Hall
As Good As It Gets
Casablanca (also Epic/Myth) Ghost
The Graduate
It Happened One Night
Mickey
Blue Eyes
Notting Hill
Pretty Woman
Roman Holiday
The Way We Were
Wuthering Heights
Science
Fiction:
Stories whose central struggle is generated from the technology
and tools of a scientifically imaginable world. For example:
2001
A Space Odyssey
Back to the Future
Blade Runner (also Crime) ET: The Extra Terrestrial
The Fifth Element
Gattaca
The
Sixth Sense
Stargate
Star Wars (and all the sequels or prequels)
The Terminator
Twelve Monkeys
Social
Drama:
Stories whose central struggle is between a Champion and a problem
or injustice in society. Usually the Champion has a personal
stake in the outcome of the struggle. For example:
A
Civil Action
Dead Man Walking
Dr Strangelove
Grapes of Wrath
Kramer Vs Kramer
Network
Philadelphia (also Courtroom Drama) Schindler's List
To Kill a Mockingbird
Thriller:
Stories whose central struggle pits an innocent hero against
a lethal enemy who is out to kill him or her. This is a favorite
genre to blend with a love story. For example:
The
Net
No Way Out
North by Northwest (also Love Story) Sleeping With the Enemy
Night
of the Hunter
Three Days of the Condor
Wait Until Dark
Witness (also Love Story)
Other
Types of Movies:
There obviously are many other groupings that might be constructed.
Discussing genres of movies might just be a way of describing
the history of moviemaking?a method of grouping motion pictures
for whatever convenient need arises for whatever individual
or group. Without trying to define them, I?m listing here
a number of other possible types.
The
Art Film: Not a preferred Hollywood Type. HOWEVER??the
acceleration of cheaper video-to-film technology makes this
an interesting potential genre to look at for the future.
The
Black Comedy: A comedy that uses death and morbid doings
as the root of its humor. Surfaces regularly. Most recent
incarnations, Very Bad Things and Pulp Fiction.
The
Buddy Movie: Not a distinctive genre. Really describes
a vehicle for two stars of relatively equal importance,
although one of them is usually the main character. Redford
and Newman are the most well known pairing from the recent
past.
When
these types of films work, they can be a cash cow for the
studios; for example, the "road" films of Bing
Crosby and Bob Hope, the musicals of Fred Astaire and Ginger
Rogers, the wacky doings of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis,
Abbot and Costello, etc. In today?s market there is probably
a pent-up appetite for female pairings, witness the phenomenal
success of Thelma and Louise (despite the sour "downer"
ending??somebody took the ending of Butch Cassidy and the
Sundance Kid too seriously. They should have checked out
The Sting).
The
Film Noir: From the standpoint of the way I prefer to
define a "genre"??that is, defining the genre
according to the nature of the central struggle??this type
of film is more of a stylistic categorization. Even so,
the typical black and light patterns, the dark shadows,
the penchant for cynicism and irony, the use of the dark
side of human behavior??these elements still have a potent
appeal for a large segment of the moviegoing audience.
The
Ghost Story: Obvious from its title, needs no definition.
This type of story, popular in the past, has been somewhat
supplanted by the horror genre. Interesting to us writers
for its resurgence with a twist in the Demi Moore thriller
Ghost. Testament to the writer?s imagination.
The
Heist (or Caper): Sort of a "cross-categorization."
An intricately planned theft by a group of people. Examples:
Ocean?s Eleven, The Thomas Crown Affair, The Great Train
Robbery, and more recently, one of the genres in The
Usual Suspects.
The
Picaresque: An episodic string of adventures by a hero
who moves from place to place. Stellar example, Tom Jones,
and more recently, Forrest Gump.
Other
obvious types:
The
Historical Drama
The Musical
The Western
So,
enough analysis of genre.
Try to settle on a mix of two genres for your story. To start
with, that is. Keep the possibility open that you might be
able to spice up your story with little bits of a third genre,
but?proceed with caution. As an old Hollywood pro once growled
at me, "More than two genres is a mess."
Click
to send me an e-mail and get one of my
free mini-books