Screenwriting : Can i use the term "Dramentary"? by Kristen Kuhns

Sounds like dromedary (the one-humped camel) to me ... but hey why not coin a new genre? Socially-conscious drama? Elevated drama? That probably doesn't make sense?

You're the writer - you get to make up whatever words you want (I don't have a problem with it).

Daniel, I don't 'understand your last sentence/question. Yes it could be socially conscious drama but I am trying to a) teach people about something of which there is a lot of misperceptions and misconceptions both, and, eventually, b) help lead the way to social change through storytelling. Much like .. oh for example, you don't really see everyone smoking in movies now. Or how now every single person who ever grocery shops comes home carrying a recyclable bag (with celery sticking out the top, lol)....

I like new words. Especially when they fill a gap in understanding. But your word needs explaining. Can you fix so it is explanatory. Dramedy, people automatically can see Drama-Comedy.

SoCoDram - Wow am I crap at this.

drama + commentary - teaching people about the insane (and very real - almost all people and storylines are inspired from true stories) world of animal rescue, and the commentary is taking a lot of jabs about how people see rescues, shelters, adoptions, the warring factors, the insane bureaucracy & politics (and money) involved, the the sheer and utter drama, racial & ethnic, social, cultural, normative, economical, even religious overlays that lie alongside the animals whose lives are at others' mercy. You mix money, politics, and literal animal (cute puppies!) life and death and people go insane. I'm a firm believer in our culture being both reflected back to us in storytelling, as well as teaching us. So I would like these stories to get people to face many of the harsh realities, expose a to of the seedy and greedy underbelly that the general public probably has no idea about, and confront currently accepted social norms, all while telling juicy drama stories.

Why not just use a documentary format?

Kristen Kuhns watch Honelyand, see how those guys managed to receive both noms in Best Documentary and Best Feature (foreign)

Eoin - b/c it's def not a documentary but a commentary (and all fictionalized)

Then just make it a docudrama?

right, maybe I mis-phrased that, sorry. It's not a documentary at all. It's all totally fiction. It's just loosely based on all of many true type events, situations, and people that occur in this world (of which I've been a part of for a long time). Kind of how The Good Wife bases those on similar real court cases or Law & Order (real crimes) but honestly, I'd be really getting off the mark here. It's a drama series, a la The Wire. There is a very strong overlay of social commentary in it, a la The Wire as well, but even moreso. I would love to, through fictional-based-on-real-life storytelling, educate people on the truths of what occurs in our shelter systems.

Hey Kristen Kuhns - when I worked in Abu Dhabi, I once jokingly used the term "pre-make" to describe an English language film that we were going to translate and localize into Arabic language with the idea that it would build an audience and later be remade for an international audience. The term stuck and "pre-make" was born. The point is, this is show business - making up terminology and being pioneers is what we do. Go ahead and use it.

Okay - so it IS a drama. The primary goal of drama is entertainment, regardless of the source material. If you want EDUCATE people, you need to do that through the theme - people don't go to the movies or watch TV to be preached at. I don't think there's any reason to call it some odd hyphenate. You can have INSPIRED BY TRUE EVENTS or BASED ON A TRUE STORY etc is this is very important to the material. If you writing amazing characters that people connect with on an emotional level and the theme(S) resonate with people, that's the social commentary/water cooler moments

Eoin, yes, and just so it's clear, I do actually know all that, and thank you. In your prodding me to be clearer, I ended up muddying the waters. I think your point /answer is saying my term is not necessary, but I'm not yet convinced. I am def not looking to preach, but through compelling storytelling, people will learn what happens in the world of animal rescue, shelters, adoptions, animal advocacy, and much more. I'm trying to think of what it's most like as a comp, and I keep coming back to The Wire, but The Wire's most baseline premises are already generally accepted and understood (drugs are bad! social injustices occur; race and economics directly impact stratified behaviors) whereas mine is less so. I want to challenge a lot of current assumptions in this space - through, as you said, amazing characters and stories.

My first question is; who's the target audience? It's your story - so write it however you want but keep in mind who you're writing it for.

Doug - people who love animals (esp dogs)

That's called a "docudrama" isn't it?