Screenwriting : Elevating and playing with genre by Shari D. Frost

My last (optioned) screenplay was set in a classic genre, the producer ensured that we ticked all the boxes. But we strayed from the genre by adding extra boxes to tick.

Thought provoking piece, Shari. Thanks for sharing!

Hi Shari, Pat is a fellow CineStory volunteer. Respectfully, I want to speak out against the way she characterizes genres like horror and rom com as being seen as "less than." In her defense, she is certainly not alone in stating that conventional genres can be viewed as "less than." AND while she herself doesn't think genre-writing is "less than," she's saying that other people can view genre-writing as "less than." However, I wouldn't want anyone to think their own genre-driven writing is any "less than" someone else's writing in what people may call a "more sophisticated" genre. Execs who know the business judge a script on its own terms, within its own genre. In my S32 class, I refer to this as "competing in your own weight class." Horror is just as valid as "sophisticated drama." It's not "less than." It's certainly geared for a different target audience, and no target audience is any "less than" any other. I mean, if we're talking exploitation, that's another thing... but in general, no genre is "greater than" or "less than" any other genre. Just different. With a different target audience, and a different space in the market. In a completely different example, Pixar has certainly shown even the biggest skeptics that animated family films are just as valid and well-crafted as any other genre. If you're writing horror, you're not writing something that is "less than." You're just competing in a different genre from someone writing a political drama. (I think Pat made a nuanced argument, but I don't want a newbie to interpret genre work as "less than.")

@geoff, extra boxes - I like that! @jim, a thriller within a thriller - intriguing! @regina, thanks, that's a really good point and nice to hear. (personally i love a good rom-com - nothing "lesser" about them for me!) @sean - wow!

JJ - that sounds really cool. I think a lot of great horror and thriller films have a great B story drama going on at the same time in them. From Hitchcock's The Lodger to the Purge. Good luck with that one!

Thanks, Shari. I totally get Pat's observation. She's not wrong. I mean, how many horror movies get Oscar noms? But I believe that writers devoted to conventional or genre-driven material should not feel disrespected or that their material is regarded as "less than." Audiences who prefer horror to Merchant Ivory films are also not "less than." They're not "greater than," and they're not "less than." Just different.