ScriptFaze

Screenplay Genre: HORROR

“Supernatural, perhaps; baloney, perhaps not.”
--Bela Lugosi in The Black Cat, written by Edgar G. Ulmer

Don’t go in that closet! A popular sentiment for fans of scary films, the urge to yell at the screen and steer a protagonist from danger is a must-have for any great horror film! Good versus evil. Innocence versus corruption. Slobbering monster versus cute high school cheerleader. These are the epic themes of horror films. Often moralistic in their message, horror films are meant to cause dread and panic by playing on our innermost fears and vulnerabilities. In their attempt to evoke a deep-down visceral response from audiences, no sight is too ghastly or liquid too precious—be it blood, pus, drool or general goo! 

Usually a normal Joe or Jane, horror film heroes are plucked from their everyday lives and forced to confront a horrible, and often demented antagonist. Whether it’s a ten-year-old with a penchant for sharp objects, a talking doll or a serpent of the netherworld, the horror film villain is irrationally obsessed with doing harm, and is quite often a more interesting character than the protagonist. Caught in an all-out contest for life and loved ones, the horror-film hero’s last hope for outside help is usually caught or killed in the beginning of Act Three. Forced to go it alone in a final, one-on-one battle with a now-more-powerful-than-ever monster, the protagonist realizes they are outmatched physically, and must instead outsmart or outmaneuver their aggressor. Against all odds, horror movies END when evil is vanquished and normalcy is restored—or so we think!

Horror movies to watch: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974 version), The Exorcist, Halloween, Jaws, The Blair Witch Project, The Night of the Living Dead, Saw

Genre hybrids: The Shining (Thriller Horror), Rosemary’s Baby (Sci-Fi Horror), The City of Lost Children (Fantasy Horror), The Cat People (Psychological Horror)

Screenplay Genre: ADVENTURE

“Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz, written by Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf

Think foreign lands and exotic locales. The adventure film hero may travel the world in eighty days or shrink to the size of pin and spend ninety minutes trapped in their basement. Either way, your hero is going somewhere new, and returning home ain’t gonna be easy! A close cousin of the action genre, adventures films are no marguerita on the beach; they are fast moving, often perilous journeys full of unexpected obstacles and un-asked for sidetracks. Act One ends when your hero realizes he/she can’t go back; Act Two ends when he/she realizes there might be a way after all!

Adventure heroes live by their own rulebook, and often narrowly escape their antagonist early in the movie. Often average folk, adventure heroes find themselves in situations beyond their physical abilities, and are usually forced to entertain some very creative problem solving ideas. As the plot snowballs toward a final event, the hero must outsmart rather than outfight their antagonist, and is often forced to go it alone. When it’s all said and done, the hero will usually see a clear path back home; whether they take it or not is up to the screenwriter!

Adventure movies to watch: Apocalypse Now, The Goonies, Children of Men, Seven Samurai, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Raiders of the Lost Ark

Genre Hybrids: Star Wars (Sci-Fi Adventure), North by Northwest (Thriller Adventure), The Wizard of Oz (Fantasy Adventure), Deliverance (Horror Adventure)

Screenplay Genre: ANIMATION

“Yes, that’s right, I saw the Terrance and Phillip movie. Now who wants to touch me?”
Cartman in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut

A versatile and ever-changing format, animation films have pushed the boundaries of cinema and taken on nearly every movie genre. From Winsor McCay’s experiments with Gertie the Dinosaur in the 1910s, to the fast-paced computer-generated graphics of today, animation films have always ridden the wave of technology. Although often associated with children’s films, an influx of adult-oriented titles has reshaped the genre since the late 1980s. Borrowing heavily from the framing and story conventions of their live-action counterparts, the best animation films also take full advantage of the medium, utilizing line, texture and color to establish mood and atmosphere.

Animation is a hybrid genre, and writers of this format are well-served by first studying the conventions of their project’s live-action cousins. That said, animation films can go much further visually, and can get away with a lot more controversy. In recent year, live-action filmmakers have even begun to steal ideas from animators, and this trend is likely to grow more common as computer technology continues to improve. The most memorable animation films tend to be those that mix cutting-edge graphics with meaningful storylines; beyond that, the test of a great animation flick is no different than for live-action. Whether they’re dwarfs, puppet or Canadians, your characters should be dynamic and relatable. If you’ve got that, you may just have yourself the next Shrek.

Animation movies to see: The Incredibles, Spirited Away, Fantasia, Shrek, Pinocchio, Watership Down, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Triplets of Belleville, 9

Stop Motion movies to see: The Nightmare Before Christmas, Chicken Run, The Curse of the Were Rabbit, Team America

Screenplay Genre: CRIME/GANGSTER

“I don’t feel I have to wipe out everybody, Tom. Just my enemies.”
---Michael Corleone in The Godfather: Part II, written by Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo.

Crime films blasted their way onto the silver screen in the 1910s, and have been a regular fixture of world cinema ever since. Inherently dramatic, films of the crime/gangster genre are violent by nature, and commonly based on real-life criminals and events. In crime films, the bad guy is often the dominant character. To make him likeable, our hero is usually a one-time underdog who rose from unlikely circumstances to become a figure of respect and power. Beneath their façade of cruelty is often a softer soul who is capable of great kindness and bouts of class; but don’t piss them off, or their murderous nature will be quickly revealed. The crime protagonist is usually more than just a part of the story; he or she IS the story, and they’re not gonna let you forget it!

At the end of Act One, the criminal mastermind usually realizes he’s gonna have to start to do things differently; either the cops have gotten too smart, his business has grown too large, or his competitors have made a move into his territory. At midpoint this anti-hero on top of the world, and success seems inevitable. By the end of Act Two, they’re still in control, but their pesky antagonist must now be dealt with directly. It is the rare crime gangster movie that does not see it’s crime lord die in a blaze of violent glory in the Act Three climax, but some of the best films have found ways to keep their heroes breathing. The good life must always comes with a price, however, so if it’s not the death of the boss himself that caps your crime script--it’s probably that of those nearest and dearest.

Crime/Gangster movies to watch: The Godfather, The Godfather: Part II, The Usual Suspects, Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction, The Big Sleep, Reservoir Dogs, Dog Day Afternoon

Genre Hybrids: (Gangster Drama) On The Waterfront, (Road Movie Crime) Bonnie and Clyde, (Crime Drama) Boyz ‘N the Hood, (Crime Thriller) Dial “M” for Murder (1954)

Screenplay Genre: DRAMA

Real people. Real world. Real life.

Drama writers have been grappling with these deceptively simple terms for centuries, and for screenwriters, they are goals no less daunting. While drama and dramatics are the stuff of all great movies, and every memorable action/western/comedy is ultimately grounded in a little home-spun drama, the drama genre is distinct unto itself, and boasts some of the most lauded films in cinema’s history. Drama storylines are often smaller in scope, but broad in thematic ambition. However intangible, the ultimate goal of drama films is to capture reality in some form, and through it to offer some worldly observation and/or judgement.

Drama film protagonists must usually weigh their outward ambitions against inner conflicts, and often the first will work aggressively against the second. Over the course of two hours, drama films show their heroes at their very best and at their very worst, and it is usually power, or a struggle for or against power, that will push them to these heights. Half-way through Act Two, drama protagonists stop following the path laid out for them, and start to play an active part in their own destinies. In contrast to action/adventure films, drama protagonists tend to discover that a life alone is not worth living, and that their inner demons are best handled when confessed to a trusted friend or loved one. While most drama films end with a reaffirmation of life, there is a long and noble tradition of ending the drama with its protagonist’s nose landed face-down in the mud!

Drama movies to watch: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, A Place in the Sun, Twelve Angry Men (1957), Manhattan, Shawshank Redemption, Do The Right Thing

Genre Hybrids: Thelma and Louise (Crime Drama), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Sci-Fi Drama), Raging Bull (Sports Drama), Y tu mama tambien (Road Drama)

Screenplay Genre: ACTION

Explosions, chases, stunts, and uber-violence! If this is the stuff of your screenplay, then you’re probably writing an action movie. Usually armed with a fast-paced plot and a super-human hero, action movies are high-stakes adrenaline rushes designed to keep their audiences glued to their seats.

Action-film protagonists are usually exceptional human beings from the start of the movie; spies, ninjas, elite cops, cyborgs and soldiers are regular actors. Usually pulled into the chaos by a man-made disaster, the action hero is generally called in to save the day by otherwise helpless stooges. The antagonist is quickly identified, and is usually both smarter than the hero and adept at exploiting the protagonists’ innermost flaws. Act Two starts when the hero realizes who the bad guy is; Act Three starts when the hero realizes who the bad guy really is. The hero in action films will regularly face off with death, and will arrive victorious only when they realize: a) they can’t do it alone this time, or b) they had what it takes all along.

Action Movies to watch: Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, Fist of Legend, Speed, Bad Boys, Rambo, La Femme Nikita, Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Genre hybrids: Matrix (Sci-Fi Action), Blade Runner (Sci-Fi Action), Never Say Never Again (Action Adventure), Spiderman (Action Comic), Terminator 2 (Action Fantasy)

JOSH FLANAGAN: I Hate The Term "Comic Book Movie"

I asked JOSH FLANAGAN, a New York writer and co-creator of the comic book website www.iFanboy.com, for his insight on COMIC BOOK MOVIES. Here's what he had to say:

I HATE THE TERM "COMIC BOOK MOVIE."  

I have nothing against them, you understand. They’re great for the industry, if for no other reason than they give lowly starving comic creators another revenue stream. While there seems to be an enormously low conversion rate for moviegoers, comic book movies even tend to sell a few more books than they would otherwise.  They’re also good for publishers, where a company like Top Shelf can get a lot more notice and sales because they’ve got a Bruce Willis vehicle coming out from their Surrogates series. Even when a movie doesn’t do all that well, as seems to have happened with Whiteout, it still garners more attention than they would normally get, and again, they sell some books.

However, to the general public, the term “comic book movie” is a weighted one, and not necessarily in a good way. A “comic book movie” carries many of the same suppositions about the content or the maturity and sophistication of said movie. Go ahead and ask some random folks what they think of when they hear the term “comic book movie." Nine out of ten mother in laws will agree that it has something to do with the following terms:

superheroes
childish
silly
immature
explosions

The list goes on, of course. You know all the prejudices against comics, and by extension movies made from them. Of course, we know that’s not true. Trying to paint all films adapted from comics with a single stripe is as absurd as saying that all comics are the same. There are no “comic book comics” (excepting Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey’s series). To anyone who has even an inkling of the current state of comics, the notion that all comics share any specific traits is foolishness. Last year, during the summer of “A Thousand Comic Book Movies,” I did a lot of radio appearances for my website iFanboy. They kept asking why so many comic book movies were coming out, and what it was that made them so attractive to film producers.  

Since X-Men was released in 2000, it’s been a bit like the gold rush for film producers, building every year, and reaching critical mass in 2008, when there were an inordinate amount of comic books made into films. Of course, movies had previously been made from comic book properties. There were movies like Men in Black, Tank Girl and The Crow, but it never caused the entire film industry to look south to San Diego and snatch up any property available. There are twp reasons this happened in my view.  

For one thing, effects technology finally advanced to the point where they could actually show some of the ideas that have existed in comics for years, because comics were the only place where such giant ideas could be portrayed. Comics have no effects budget as the spectacle of a comic book story is limited only by the imagination and drawing ability of the creative team.  Up until very recently, movie effects simply weren’t up to the challenge of depicting these things in any way that wasn’t sort of silly looking. Fifteen years ago, they were still trying to make rubber suits look realistic and use miniatures and green screen to fool the audience, but mostly it didn’t work, and the movies were a bit laughable. There are exceptions of course. Audiences lapped up the Superman movies, but in retrospect, the flying is sort of goofy looking today. The Fantastic Four movies almost worked against this for reasons I’ll never understand. But now we can see Spider-Man flinging himself through the skyscrapers of Manhattan, and it damn well works. This is a recent thing.

The other part of my theory has to do with the development of ideas in the ghetto of comic books.  By the late ’90’s, comics were on life support. Comics didn’t sell many copies, there was a paucity of comic shops, and only the most ardent supporters had anything to do with comics. Even today, with so much focus on comics from the film and pop culture industry, desperate for new Intellectual Property (IP), making money on an independent comic book, or even almost any comic book that’s not coming from Marvel or DC is a gigantic long shot. This leads me to the conclusion that the people in comics are in comics very much for the reason that they really love comics. That passion shows on the pages that we few lucky souls are fortunate enough to know about.  Comics are a terrible place to try to “make it big," so if you’re in comics, you’re probably in it because you want to be -- and love comics. The more optimistic part of my mind thinks this would lead to better stories, and now, finally, producers have realized it and are strip mining the vast, deep veins of IP ore hidden in the San Diego Convention Center every year. I think this is changing as people have realized that they can come up with high concepts that are easily understood and adapted to film. But by and large, there are a lot of creators out there making comics for the sake of making comics.

But comics are vast and diverse. Any kind of story you want to tell can be told in comic book form.  Obviously, comics have their strengths, but it’s a huge mistake to think you can’t tell certain kinds of stories in panels and pages. You can do anything. This is why the term “comic book movie” should mean one thing -- and that is “a movie made from a story originally appearing in a comic book." It should mean nothing else, because that story can be any type of story, and the movie can be anything as well. Sure, there are dumb childish action movies made from comics, but American Splendor, Ghost World, Persepolis, Watchmen and The Dark Knight dispel all those stereotypes. I think the worst of comic book movies come from ideas held by shortsighted producers who think, “it’s just a comic book movie, so why bother?” -- and then we're left with Catwoman, Punished War Zone and LXG.

The next time you or someone else talks about the low expectations that come along with a “comic book movie,” remember it’s not the same thing as a “popcorn movie." A comic book movie can be anything, and of any quality. Stand up for comics, and put an end to this destructive terminology that just forwards stereotypes about what comics are. It's not good for comics, and it's not good for films. Comic books movies can be anything, and that is exactly what is so great about them.

Josh Flanagan is a founder, writer and podcast host at iFanboy (www.ifanboy.com) and a comic book writer. He lives in New York City, and can be found at his blog (www.jaflanagan.com) or on Twitter (twitter.com/jaflanagan). He believes comic books are every bit as valid a storytelling method as any other, and works to prove it every day.

Screenplay Genre: FAMILY FILM

On Halloween, I wrote about FEAR. On Thanksgiving, I've decided to delve into even murkier waters, and take a tear at a genre that has been the downfall of many good writers: 

THE FAMILY FILM

(duhn, duhn, duhhhhn) 

That's right. The family film is to screenwriters as the furry white rabbit was to Monty Python's knights on their search for the holy grail -- deceptively cute, but one false step and it'll tear your head off... 

Get it right, and your family-film screenplay can make you rich and raise your project to classic-movie status for decades to come. Get it wrong, and your punishment may be a flat-lined career, and a lifetime of quiet disrespect by your screenwriting peers. Think about it -- who was a bigger hero than Robert Zemeckis after penning Back to the Future with Bob Gale? And whatever happened to the guy who wrote Garfield? Seriously -- family films are tough stuff, and sometimes the line between total success and wash-out failure is deceptively thin. 

Calling family films a genre is actually a bit of a misspeak. Really, the 'family film' sub-group includes any film that caters to a mixed-aged audience, and nearly every genre is represented in this popular category. Take a look at the top-10 rated films on imdb's list of "family" titles, and you'll immediately see how wide a net is cast: 

1. Star Wars (1977) 

2. It's A wonderful Life (1946) 

3. WALL-E (2008) 

4. Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001) 

5. Safety Last! (1923) 

6. Back to the Future (1985) 

7. The Wizard of Oz (1939) 

8. Ivan Vasilevich menyaet professiyu (1973) 

9. The Gold Rush (1925) 

10. The Cameraman (1928) 

Wow. Can you imagine a more varied top ten list? 

Turns out, however, that GOOD family films have quite a lot in common, and dissecting the elements that make them work just might offer a clue into how to avoid the family film sand-trap. Let's start with the obvious: 

1) To qualify as a family-film, a movie must receive a G, PG, or PG-13 rating, which means no bad language and minimal-to-no sex or violence. 

But that's easy. The BAD movies hit that benchmark. What qualities make a family film really WORK? 

2) Your movie should teach a lesson, or reinforce a moral. That may sound geeky, but the good movies achieve this without being too obvious. What's the lesson in Back to the Future, for instance? It's there, but not necessarily right in the forefront. You might think the moral is don't mess with fate, but that's too easy. Plus, Marty ultimately DOES mess with his fate, and ends up with a better life. The real lesson is much simpler: Take a risk. That's it. Don't be chicken -- grab life by the balls, and don't be passive about improving your destiny. Good family movies actually do more than teach a lesson -- they wrap their entire story around it, and generally cast the lesson or moral as the character's central weakness. What's the lesson in The Wizard of Oz? Easy -- there really is no place like home. How do we learn this? When the main character tries to run away, and ends up on the other side of the rainbow. 

3) Good family films have STRONG HEROS. Sure -- Judy Garland runs away from home, but she also has the fortitude to skip down a cobblestone path for days on end with nothing but a bite-sized dog and team of screw-ups to guide her. She is STRONG -- both in character, and in dimension. Her character is well-formed, interesting, and plagued by serious weaknesses that threaten to undermine, but ultimately fall-short of overwhelming her terrific strength. 

4) The last one's important -- family films are not kid's films-they have to entertain a FAMILY, and this is where many good writers have stuttered and failed. The best films works on TWO LEVELS AT ONCE -- they entertain the little ones while successful tugging on the heartstrings or rattling the funny bones of adults. Movies like Shrek have turned this balancing act into an absolute science, but think about movies like It's A Wonderful Life. How good was that film when you were eight? And how much do you still love it now? I bet the REASONS you loved it as a child were somewhat different, however. When I was ten, I remember identifying with young Peter Bailey being slapped in the face by the scary pharmacist. As an adult, the pharmacist seems absolutely tragic - a man at rock bottom who's just lost his only son. That's a small example, but It's A Wonderful Life successfully walks two roads through its entire run. 

Beyond these four elements, many of the best family films also seem to provide some degree of FANTASY. There are exceptions, which is why I didn't include this in my breakdown above, but think about your favorite family film for a minute -- is it all set in the real world, or is some element of it truly outlandish? Think of The Goonies, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, National Treasure, The Incredibles -- and any of the films on the top-ten list above. ALL of them contain a fantastical element, and many of them base their plotline on one.

So there it is -- family films are tricky to pull off, but if you're drawn to this 'genre', there's no reason you shouldn't give it shot. A successful family film won't just make you a lot of money -- it also stands a chance of wedging its way into a child's heart somewhere, and becoming their deep-down, favorite film of all time for rest of their lives...