Genre

Taking an in-depth look at a particular genre.

Biting Social Satire: How to Write a Great Critique

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Get Out Social Satire
Social satire is a genre of film that relies on irony, exaggeration, ridicule, or humor to critique an unfavorable aspect of society and/or human nature. The best social satires are entertaining at the surface level – often featuring elements of fantasy or absurdism – and also pack a critical punch.  In this article, we’ll break down the key aspects of a social satire. Warning: This post contains spoilers for GET OUT, SORRY TO BOTHER YOU, and FIGHT CLUB. Table of ContentsWhat

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Writing the Tragic Romance: 7 Essential Elements to Breaking Hearts

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Tragic Romance The Notebook
Heartbreak is the key feature of a tragic romance.  The central love story ends in heartbreak and, as a result, audiences walk away from the film feeling heartbroken. Most people still remember the utter anguish they felt after watching The Notebook or Titanic for the first time.  For a tragic romance film to be effective, viewers must form an emotional attachment to the main characters and their relationship. Once audiences are fully invested, tragedy strikes and the film delivers its

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Mockumentary Scripts: The Keys to Writing a Great Mockumentary

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The Office Mockumentary Script
A mockumentary is a satirical film or television show that combines documentary-style filmmaking with fictional subject matter. But although mockumentaries feature fictional events, they differ greatly from traditional narratives. And this can manifest in a mockumentary script.   Improvisation is often a major aspect of the mockumentary. In this case, the dialogue is secondary to the topic and characters. For example, the Christopher Guest classic THIS IS SPINAL TAP is based on a four-page script and a character bible, meaning it

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How to Write an Animated Film: 6 Vital Steps to Scripting Animation

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Inside Out Animated Film Script
Have you always had an affinity for animation? Do you have a story idea that you think would be perfect for an animated film? Are you simply finding that your live-action project can’t move forward, and want to see if it could be a match for animation?Animation is incredible in that it isn’t just another genre of film (in fact, it really shouldn’t be considered a film genre at all) but it is an entirely different medium through which to

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How to Write a Modern Western: The New Wild West

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Logan Modern Western
The Western was one of the earliest cinematic genres and it has had a number of resurgences and reinventions over the last one hundred years. It’s a genre that through its popularity has continued to grow. But what does a modern Western look like? Contemporary Westerns are typically genre hybrids. In this article we will use five different films that combine genres to form modern Western films. No Country For Old Men is a modern Western crime thriller.Hell or High

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How to Write a True Crime Movie: The 12 Key Elements to a True Crime Story

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Wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belfort True Crime Story
How to Write a True Crime Movie: Working with a True Crime Story The phrase “Based on a true story” is one guaranteed to make any moviegoer perk up in their seat, before the title credits have even started rolling. There is something about their promise of truth (or some portion of it) that functions as a snare for the audience of a true crime movie. Evidently, this notion has continued to persist, as we have seen the popularity of

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The 10 Key Elements to Writing a Courtroom Drama

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Just Mercy, Courtroom Drama
The courtroom drama, also known as the legal drama, is a long-standing staple in entertainment. This noteworthy genre of film has generated such timeless classics as To Kill a Mockingbird and 12 Angry Men, proving itself to be a endlessly relevant fixture within the cinematic landscape. In this article we’re going to look at: What is a Courtroom Drama? The Origins of the Courtroom Drama. What Are Examples of Courtroom Drama? And the 10 Essential Elements to Include in a Courtroom Drama.

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Looking to the Future: How Video Game Logic Can Enhance Your Screenplay

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Source Code - Video Game Logic
This article will delve into the dynamic world of video games and video game logic. Many video games have been translated on-screen into video game movies, and the line between the two is blurring all the time. But there’s also a style to them that can be applied to other genres, a so called video game logic. The Key Aspects Of This Article Are: Films which look like video games and adopt video game tendencies.Video games which have been adapted

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How to Write a Film Noir: Utilising the 8 Essential Pillars of Film Noir

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Film Noir - Double Indemnity
This article will delve into what film noir is and its common tropes. We’ll offer pointers on how to write a film noir that both honours the traditions of the genre and puts a contemporary spin on the genre. Wikipedia defines film noir as… “a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations” What Is Film Noir? It quite literally translates to ‘dark film’ in French. There is often a debate

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How To Write a Captivating Love Triangle: The ULTIMATE Guide

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Hunger Games Love Triangle
How To Write a Love Triangle This article will offer some key pointers on that most time-trodden (and wildly successful) cinematic device – the love triangle – and hopefully assist those looking to craft an original and effective one. Using a few films which incorporate love triangles into their narratives, we will discuss the key aspects to a successful and interesting love triangle.We will highlight how love triangles are typically a plot device for romance films. Many of these are romantic-comedies,

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Writing Science Fiction Screenplays

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Ex Machina - Science Fiction Screenplays

Writing Science Fiction Screenplays Sci-Fi is one of those odd genres – like the Western – that among script theorists often stimulates more argument about ‘defining your terms’ than it …

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Writing Horror Screenplays: How to Write Supernatural Horror

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Insidious - Writing Horror Screenplays

Writing Horror Screenplays: How to Write Supernatural Horror Supernatural Horror is perhaps the most writer-friendly of all Horror sub-genres because its effectiveness really does live on the page, rather than being hostage to practical …

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10 Underdog Films With a Script That Beat The Odds

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Being John Malkovich - Underdog Films that Beat the Odds

A Crazy Script Can Beat The Odds Every screenwriter at one time experiences the look of confusion and ridicule in the face of a friend, producer or agent when they …

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10 Great Quadrant Movies Screenwriters Can Learn From

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four quadrant movies

  With the box office increasingly dominated by big budget ‘Four Quadrant’ movies, squeezing out mid-budget releases, Industrial Scripts looks at the recipe for quadrant movies’ success in that seemingly …

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