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Contextual research (screenwriting)


  • It's important to know the anwer to the question "what is it?"
  • Hollywood uses sequels, prequels and reboots to avoid the question and make easy money (pre-sold franchise)
  • Logline is the most important part of a hollywood screenplay
  • Good logline has
    - Irony
    -A compelling mental picture
    -Audience and costs
    -A killer title.
  •  It has to be about someone.The story has to have one or two main people we can focus our attention on, identify with, and want to root for.
  • Important to know what genre you're wrting.
  • 10 types of movies
    - Monster in the House(Jaws, Tremors, Alien, The Exorcist, Fatal Attraction, and Panic Room )
    - Golden Fleece  (Star Wars; The Wizard of Oz; Planes, Trains and Automobiles; Back To The Future; and most "heist movies." )
    -Out of the Bottle ( Liar, Liar; Bruce Almighty; Love Potion ; Freaky Friday; Flubber )
    -Dude with a Problem  (The genre that ranges in style, tone, and emotional substance from Breakdown and Die Hard to Titanic and Schindler's List. )
    -Rites Of Passage   (Every change-of-life story from Ordinary People to Days of Wine and Roses makes this category.)
    - Buddy Love  (This genre is about more than the buddy movie dynamic as seen in cop buddy pictures, Dumb & Dumber, and Rain Man and every love story ever made )
    -Whydunit  (Who cares who, it's why that counts. Includes Chinatown, China Syndrome, JFK, and The Insider)
    - The Fool Triumphant (Being There, Forrest Gump, Dave, The Jerk, Amadeus, and the work of silent clowns like Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd.)
    - Institutionalized (Animal House, M*A*S*H, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and "family" sagas such as American Beauty and The Godfather. )
    -Superhero ( Superman, Batman, also includes Dracula, Frankenstein, even Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind. ).
  •  primal urges get our attention. Survival, hunger, sex, protection of loved ones, fear of death grab us. The best ideas and the best characters in the lead roles must have basic needs, wants, and desires
  • The story should be about a person who:
    - I can identify with
    - I can learn from
    - I have compelling reason to follow
    - I believe deserves to win 
    - Has stakes that are primal and ring true for me. 
  •  The perfect hero is the one who offers the most conflict in the situation, has the longest emotional journey, and has a primal goal we can all root for. 
  • The very first impression of what a movie is - its tone, its mood, the type and scope of the film - are all found in the opening image.
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