This is pure comedy. Ask Betty White. |
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Everyone has their theories and tastes on genre. Some people love Western, while some just can't their mind into Sci-Fi. Some people want to watch a movie purely for entertainment, while others prefer something that gets you to think. For many of us, the right mood has to hit to enjoy something. Knowing the genre you're working in is vital, but I don't think the way it's broken down at the video stores really does justice to the multiple layers of a movie.
As far as Fantasy, Western, Sci-Fi, Period Piece, and so forth, I believe these are conceptual settings. It's the broad scope "where" of your story. Sure, the setting might be in New York, but Sci Fi allows you to say it's set in New York, 2137, when the robots have only just fallen back under our rule. The story could still be played out all sorts of different ways. For laughs, for action, for allegory, you can use the same conceptual canvas to tell any number of stories. Just look at all of the different books, comics, television, and so forth in the STAR WARS or BUFFY universes.
Next column I'll go into some detail about what the appeal is to different conceptual settings, what benefits they have, where they generally are limited, and so forth. For now, though, I want to look at the tonal core that fleshes out the story. The world you create, the events that occur, and the characters you follow will exist to present, maintain, or alter this tonal level. If you don't understand it, your story may feel uneven, your environment may feel contrived, and worst of all, those great moments you pictured in your head will seem forced.
The way I see it, three elements drive the tonal core: comedy, drama, and thrills. Yes, each are given their own category in stores, but I think all stories share the three. They're like the Red / Green / Blue values that comprise an entire image. You can make a whole picture having just one, but it takes a very skilled artist to make a decent picture out of just one. They all temper and complement each other, give us moments of relief, buildup, payoff,
and honesty.
The first element, in no actual order or importance save for your story, is comedy. This is when your goal is to 
A classic Hitchcockian thrill, full of angst and unease |
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bring joy to the audience, laughter, a smile, a warm feeling. This is when you want to delight the audience. A common notion is that comedy is purely the moments intended to make you laugh out loud. I think it's okay to be more subtle than that, since comedy isn't just the payoff but the buildup and the timing. Sometimes a string of gags is nowhere near as funny as a well-conceived situation.
Thrills are the nervous moments, the scary moments, the moments your audience may want to cover their eyes, get to the edge of their seat, or feel dread for what they suspect could happen next. Action movies are mainly exciting because the action involves characters we're hopefully invested in barely surviving moments of danger. The reality of the danger is what makes it exciting. Horror films are built on the depth of peril and cruelty that is enacted, even if characters may not be as developed. You don't want to watch anybody go through some of those things. Thrills are the adrenaline moments of survival.
Drama are the character moments. While thrills and comedy generally get their best reactions out of surprise, drama is when you build the framework, put the elements in place, and give us a reason to care about the people whose thrills and comedy (and further drama) we are watching. Drama is the reveal of detail, the open and honest moments, the moving forward of the story. It's the means to not just having a random series of jokes and explosions.
Each are moments of surprise, anticipation, or familiarity. A person walks down a dark alley, only to hear the rattle of a can behind them. They turn and see the outline of a man twice their size. They turn back to realize the alley is walled off at the other end. Anyone who has been trapped, beaten up, or worse will have that trapped feeling of dread called up from the back of their mind. That's a thrill of familiarity. We watch the person slowly turn back, as we hear the footsteps approach. This is the thrill of anticipation, where you know what the audience is thinking, and you feed that feeling. If the person turns back and the figure is even larger and made of snakes, that's unexpected. That's a thrill of surprise (plus 
Dialogue is key to this dull image. Makes me wonder why I picked it |
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familiarity for those afraid of snakes, but you get what I'm saying). If you can get them to relate, feed the fear (especially in a misdirecting way) then hit them with the reveal, it winds up much more effective than having somebody walking down a street and bumping into a snake man.
When you start combining elements, you can start really having fun. Say the person in the makes a quick joke. "I gave at the office." The audience isn't expecting any joke, so the joke doesn't really have to be as good. Actually, too good a joke and they might be pulled all the way out of the tense moment. Conversely, having the killer make jokes has proven to be a franchise-maker. You know the guy with the one-liners will be back next time, and he tends to say something witty before doing something unspeakable. You know you're in for a good ride.
Another example. Your two leads in the middle of a car chase. One seems much more intent on catching the bad guy. It's revealed that the fugitive killed his last partner. There's the thrill to the reveal, but the drama unfolds as he tells the story, opens up, and says why getting this guy brought to justice is so important. Now you have drama and thrills merged, so at each close turn you'll feel the need for speed of your lead a little more. When you get to the end of the car chase, if they succeed or fail it means something more.
The secret is to find out what balance you want. Do you want a serious movie that has dangerous twists, turns, and shocking revelations? Do you want to have a coming of age comedy that pulls at the heart strings? Do you want to do something mindlessly gratuitous in bad puns, over-the-top violence, explosions galore, or strange improvisational rants? There's no wrong answer in making what you want to make. Just know what you want to make ahed of time, and regularly check to see that if you want 50% thrills, 30% comedy, 20% drama, you're sticking to that formula on average. Read through what you have written, watch what you have shot, whatever, and decide before you're done what ingredients are a little light or heavy and season to taste.
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| Make Me Proud |
Every other Monday
Exploring everything you should consider as you make your
indie masterpiece.
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| Patrick Storck |
Patrick hails from Baltimore, MD, where playing by the rules is frowned upon. Only average things come from playing it safe.
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