{"id":7658,"date":"2017-10-19T07:00:23","date_gmt":"2017-10-19T07:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/\/?p=7658"},"modified":"2021-07-30T23:05:00","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T23:05:00","slug":"genre-is-meaningless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/genre-is-meaningless\/","title":{"rendered":"Genre Is Meaningless"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thinkpiece Thursday<\/h2>\n

I am a screenwriting heretic. \u00a0I don’t believe in many of the so-called foundational tenets of screenwriting. \u00a0For example, I don’t believe\u00a0genre is a helpful term for writers.<\/p>\n

Genre is mostly style, tone, and setting. \u00a0It’s a marketing tool. \u00a0It’s designed to help people scanning Netflix or Hulu for something to watch that fits their mood.<\/p>\n

The Silence of the Lambs<\/em>, on a streaming service, could be found under keywords: detective, crime, serial killer (sub-genre), mystery, thriller, or even coming of age (it’s about a young woman who is assigned her first professional job). \u00a0How is that mix helpful\u00a0to a writer?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A detective story sometimes involves a murder, but not always. A thriller often involves a crime, but not always. A serial killer story sometimes involves a mystery, but not always.<\/p>\n

This is very hazy ambiguous stuff when great writing is always about specificity. \u00a0What to do instead?<\/p>\n

Apocalypse\u00a0Now\u00a0<\/em>and Chinatown\u00a0<\/em>would never be located on the same “genre” shelf, but they both have the same emotional structure. \u00a0To me, emotional structure is key.<\/p>\n

Both of these films feature a protagonist trying to find the truth about one simple thing (AN: where is Colonel\u00a0Kurtz? CT: Who killed Hollis Mulwray?).<\/p>\n

Over the course of the film, the protagonist finds out the truth about a much larger thing (N: The moral quagmire that was the war in Vietnam. CT: The corruption in City of Los Angeles water system.).<\/p>\n

\"\"

In Chinatown<\/em>, we know Gittes has a strong relationship with the press because he threatens the bureaucrat with exposure in the press. \u00a0He could expose Noah Cross publically. \u00a0His ex-partner is a decent cop. \u00a0Gittes admits as much to Cross. \u00a0But Gittes doesn’t go to his partner for help in exposing Cross.<\/p>\n

In each alternative, Evelyn Mulwray probably would never speak to or see Gittes again for revealing their monstrous family secret, but she wouldn’t be dead and her daughter\/sister wouldn’t be in the hands of Cross.<\/p>\n

Emotionally, Apocalypse\u00a0Now<\/em> and Chinatown<\/em> have the same structure. \u00a0This is a specific emotional pattern that I think is much more useful than undefined notions of genre.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Save<\/span>Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span>Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

#ThinkpieceThursday – Chinatown and Apocalypse Now are the same film <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,47,49,128],"tags":[1482,25,26,661,27,28,30,31,1381,1483,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,666,41,42],"class_list":["post-7658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies-character-development-screenwriting-screenplay-script-blog","category-random-thoughts-pop-culture-political-movie-television-blog","category-television-character-development-script-scriptwriting-tv-blog","category-thinkpiece-thursday","tag-apocalypse-now","tag-character","tag-characters","tag-chinatown","tag-emotional-toolbox","tag-etb","tag-film","tag-films","tag-genre","tag-heretic","tag-laurie-hutzler","tag-movies","tag-nine-character-types","tag-screenplay","tag-screenplays","tag-screenwriting","tag-script","tag-scripts","tag-scriptwriting","tag-silence-of-the-lambs","tag-tv","tag-writing"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-10-at-15.47.07-1-e1507647004464.png",675,483,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-10-at-15.47.07-1-e1507647004464-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-10-at-15.47.07-1-e1507647004464-300x215.png",300,215,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-10-at-15.47.07-1-768x386.png",768,386,true],"large":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-10-at-15.47.07-1-1024x515.png",1024,515,true],"ttshowcase_normal":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-10-at-15.47.07-1-e1507647004464.png",125,89,false],"ttshowcase_small":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-10-at-15.47.07-1-e1507647004464.png",75,54,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-10-at-15.47.07-1-e1507647004464.png",675,483,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-10-at-15.47.07-1-e1507647004464.png",675,483,false],"Image Size 500x500":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-10-at-15.47.07-1-e1507647004464.png",500,358,false],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-10-at-15.47.07-1-e1507647004464-300x400.png",300,400,true],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-10-at-15.47.07-1-e1507647004464.png",600,429,false],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-10-at-15.47.07-1-e1507647004464-100x100.png",100,100,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Laurie Hutzler","author_link":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"#ThinkpieceThursday - Chinatown and Apocalypse Now are the same film","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7658"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}