Screenwriting : Not sure of genre by Lisa Beuk

What are the emotions in the set piece scenes? That will point to genre. If those ten or so scenes are designed to create suspense in the audience, Thriller is the genre. If they are designed to create dread and scare the audience, that's probably horror no matter how many people are killed. In one of the greatest horror flicks ever made, THE HAUNTING, only one person is killed... but it is a non stop scarefest that builds dread throughout.

HI William! What are set piece scenes? Thanks!

The "juice scenes". I go into this in my Act Two Blue Book and use romcoms as an example. In a romantic comedy, the story is about the couple coming together (romance) and then something happening that pulls them apart (which is often funny). I use 3 or 4 films as examples, one of them being MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING. So in that film Julia Roberts is trying to break up the upcoming wedding of her best friend and his fiance. About every ten minutes/pages there is a "juice scene" where she comes up with a scheme to break them up and that scheme backfires in a funny way. These are the set piece scenes (I'm simplifying here, for all of you who feel the need to correct me on what a set piece is). So there is a scene where she discovers that the fiance can't sing, so Julia decides they should go to Karaoke... and we get a funny scene where the fiance's singing is terrible... funny terrible... but the groom to be finds in endearing, and the plot backfires. Scenes like this are the heartbeat of your story, and in a slasher horror story they are those scenes where the slasher strikes, in a ghost horror story like THE HAUNTING they are scenes where the ghosts do something scary, in an action movie these are the action scenes, in a comedy movie these are the big funny scenes, in a thriller they are the suspense scene... a scene that is all about creating suspense. Scenes where whatever emotion (genre) you are creating in the audience/reader. In another thread on "dialogue driven thrillers" there are a bunch of non thrillers suggested (no suspense generated, they are just dramas) and some good ones suggested like THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR. The scene I mentioned in that thread has our hero Condor entering an elevator (lift) with the assassin who has been sent to kill him! Except, they are not alone, a bunch of other people are in the elevator, too. And the assassin strikes up a conversation with Condor... and it is a very tension filled elevator ride! Packed with suspense because you know once they reach the lobby and everyone leaves the elevator, Condor will be killed. Usually when you look at the scenes in your screenplay like that, you can identify the genre. The heartbeat scenes. What is the audience feeling?

William, this makes TOTAL sense to me! Thank you for your examples! I was thinking my script was a thriller and now I am sure! Thanks again, William!

Another great example of suspense/drama & gore also is the elevator scene in Drive starring Ryan Gossling . No dialogue just pure suspense with a big bang b4 the elevator ride ends.

Alle, in genre flicks it very often is the work of the antagonist that drives the plot. Take Jason's mom out of Friday the 13th and you just have a bunch of campers necking in the woods. Die Hard without Hans Gruber is a perfectly pleasant office Christmas party. Jaws without the shark... you get the idea.

Genre flicks? Hamlet would be partying with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern if his Uncle and mother hadn't murdered his father. Almost every story is driven by the antagonist's actions because the antagonist brings the conflict and story is conflict. The antagonist is the most important character in your story, without them (or some force of antagonism) there is no story. I know the writer of INTO THE STORM which is still in the top 10 this weekend and the force of antagonism there is a storm front which creates a series of tornadoes. Without that storm front the story would be about two brothers videotaping a high school's graduation ceremony. The antagonist (or force of antagonism) brings the conflict.

Maybe it's the less common case, but some movies are essentially protagonist-driven. American Pie is driven by the protagonists' decision to try to lose their virginity. Ocean's Eleven is driven by the protagonists' heist plan. Who says the protagonist can't bring the conflict? You might need both parties for conflict to exist, but the protagonist is perfectly capable of kicking it off.

I feel that my antagonist drives the story forward and without him, there would be no conflict. His intentions and actions, I feel, are suspenseful and like William said earlier, if the emotions in the set piece scenes cause suspense then it is a thriller.

If it's the antagonist who is going to capture and kill the family, that's not revenge (from the protag's POV and story's POV) it's a thriller like CAPE FEAR.

Kerry is right: not every story is antagonist driven, but a majority are and the big problem I often see in scripts is that the writer spends a great deal of time on their protag and almost no time on the antag... and the story is weak because of this. So I tend to stress the antagonist.

I'm getting a LOT of good feedback here! My antagonist isn't forced to do what he's doing. He's doing it to satisfy an overwhelming need of revenge. So I feel he drives the story forward. @Dan, what do you mean by a confusion of plot? Could that be why I'm struggling to settle on a genre?

Dan, I haven't heard that word "plotframe" before. Is that your term, or have I just not read the right book? Also, what does it mean? :)

So if my antagonist isn't being "forced" to do what he does, then it's not a thriller?