Screenwriting 101 – Assignment 03 – Genre Writing

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NOTE: See additional handouts below this assignment.

THIS WEEK’S ASSIGNMENT:

The assignment is to write a short screenplay that’s tailored to a GENRE. It should be five pages at most. 

        1. Should be a finished story with a clear beginning, middle and end, not just part of a longer story.
        2. In doing this assignment it’s usually best to start with a genre that you know and love and are very familiar with.
        3. Some popular genres include fantasy, science fiction, horror, romance, bromance, womance, drama, comedy, relationship drama, historical drama, mystery, thriller, spy, crime, romance, and pulp fiction.
        4. Some genres have sub-genres. For example, time travel stories, alien invasion stories, technology gone awry stories are all sub-genres of science fiction.
        5. Pick a genre you feel would be interesting to explore, and write a short story influenced by it. (For example, a crime story might revolve around a murder or robbery. A time travel story might center around the experiences of a traveler from the far future or distant past. A relationship drama might revolve around characters needing to face and resolve a situation such as a bad marriage, an unwanted pregnancy, a flirtation that threatens a marriage, a child being accused of a crime, or a death in the family.)
        6. Try to include enough known genre elements that people reading it or hearing it read will recognize your genre within the first two pages.
        7. If you have a script you’re writing, you can write a few pages from it instead.

ELEMENTS TO INCLUDE:

PROPS – choose one or two, and make sure you use them somehow in your story:

    1. six pack of beer
    2. pack of cigarettes
    3. toy gun
    4. flower

DIALOGUE – include this line:  “I don’t want it.”

CHARACTERS – choose two or more:

    1. ULNA: Elderly woman; has made her living as a writer
    2. EMMA:  high school teacher
    3. PAUL: unemployed; looking for a job
    4. MICKEY: doctor
    5. KAY: counselor or therapist
    6. LON: ex-murderer (once killed someone in anger; trying not to do so again)

Need some help in thinking about genres? Here’s a list of some common ones:

  1. Crime/detective – story or movie about a crime, how the criminal gets caught (or doesn’t), and the repercussions of the crime
  2. Fantasy – movie with strange or otherworldly settings or characters
  3. Folklore – the songs, stories, myths, and proverbs of a people or “folk” as handed down by word of mouth
  4. Historical – story with fictional characters and events in a historical setting
  5. Horror – movie in which events evoke a feeling of dread and sometimes fear in both the characters and the reader
  6. Magical realism – story where magical or unreal elements play a natural part in an otherwise realistic environment
  7. Mystery – story having to do with the solution of a crime or the unraveling of secrets
  8. Mythology – legend or traditional narrative that reveals human behavior and natural phenomena by its symbolism; may involve “the gods” (of various cultures)
  9. Drama – Ordinary people dealing realistically with challenges, as well as they can
  10. Science fiction – story based on the impact of actual, imagined, or potential science. May be set in the past or future or on other planets
  11. Suspense/thriller – stories about damage about to befall a person or group or people who are trying to evade the damage. (Running from a killer… trying to escape the city before invading force arrives… trying to stop a letter from being delivered that was sent by mistake.)
  12. Western  – stories set in the American Old West in the late eighteenth to late nineteenth century
  13. Bromance – a story about a close relationship between two guys – the relationship is not about sex
  14. Womance – a story about a close relationship between two women – the relationship is not about sex

 

FIRST, HERE ARE SOME NOTES RELATED TO QUESTIONS IN CLASS:

  1. FORMATTING A MONTAGE – CLICK HERE
  2. FORMATTING A PHONE CONVERSATION – CLICK HERE
  3. FORMATTING LARGE GROUPS SPEAKING – CLICK HERE
  4. FORMATTING MULTIPLE CHARACTERS SPEAKING – CLICK HERE
  5. FORMATTING AN INTERCUT: SEE BELOW
  7. FORMATTING A FLASHBACK – SEE BELOW:

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