The terms comedy and humor are often used interchangeably in screenwriting. Is there a difference between the two? Actually, there is. And screenwriters should know them. COMEDY Comedy is the premeditated act designed to cause an audience to laugh. Comedy relies on jokes, visual gags, and physical acts to amuse and entertain an audience. It…
Tag: comedy
How Many Categories Of Film Comedy Are There?
More than most screenwriters think. Here are some more movie types to get your comedic screenplays completed. 1) HIGH BROW These are comedies aimed at culturally and financially elite audiences. As such, they often deal with lifestyles of the rich and wealthy covering themes such as marrying into wealth, bulking up estates, avoiding taxes and…
Not All Comedy Films Are Equal
Comedy is one of the hardest screenplay genres for screenwriters to master. This is because comedy movies are so broad, so personal and so nuanced. The writing style ranges from jokes so subliminal they barely register with the audience, to laugh out loud slapstick humor. Writing comedy movie and TV scripts is serious business, so…
Smart Dumb Comedy – It’s A Thing!
What the heck is this sub-genre of comedy films that are cropping up on our screens? Well, filmmakers aren’t being rude. They just want audiences to know that screenwriters toiled over their keyboards to write “dumb” gags. They are purposefully farcical and deserve more respect than dumb comedies which are poorly developed and badly written….
The Eight Characters of Comedy
Comedy relies on a stable of eight character types with differing viewpoints to fuel comedic situations. Scott Sedita defined the main character types in relation to sitcoms. However, these apply equally to film. It’s important to note that a character doesn’t have to exclusively inhabit one category. LOGICAL SMART ONE These characters are responsible, emotionally…
The Current TV Landscape
It has been argued that the strongest writing currently exists in television rather than feature films. There is more money available to writers in television and many shows are virtually straddling features in terms of cinematic quality and budget. Television stories have traditionally been structured as either series (sequential stories;must be viewed in order to…
Types Of Romantic Comedies
Pilar Alessandra discusses the different paradigms that make up romantic comedies. 1) I DON’T LIKE YOU, BUT I LOVE YOU These typically involved two people who can’t stand each other being forced together and realize that they actually love each other. Their low point occurs at the end of act 2 when they are torn…
Secrets to Writing a Low-Budget Screenplay
The average budget for a Hollywood movie is well over 8o million dollars according to David Santo. But if you’re waiting for a producer with a Scrooge McDuck sized jack to come along and finance your film you’re begging. A bigshot producer that doesn’t personally know you is not going to trust you to write…
How To Succeed In The Film Business As A Screenwriter
The film and TV business is an industry both like any other, and like no other. It is mired in creative accounting, budget blowouts and rubbery box office figures. Despite these obstacles, we writers love it, because we have a story to tell. We want to share our life experiences with the world. However, professional…
See The Irony?
Story consultant Daniel Manus discusses the use of irony in screenplays. Irony is a dramatic device that expresses an idea which is the antithesis of the underlying concept to draw attention to it such as the super fit Olympic athlete dying of a heart attack after a marathon. There are 3 major types of ironies used in…
Ten Commandments Of Microbudget Screenwriting
Screenwriter, Paul Peditto has neatly summarized the makings of the perfect micro budget film. “The ideal low-budget movie is set in the present. few shots, lots of interiors, a couple of speaking actors (unknowns), no major optical effects, no horses to feed. bunch of not-in-the-guild teens running around an old house with a dude in…
Useful Tips To Writing Short Films
Why write short films? Short films are unique cinematic beasts and it would be foolish to simply consign them to mini-movie or starter movie status. They are more than stories that weren’t big enough to achieve feature status. They’re also a great way for aspiring screenwriters to become produced screenwriters. Short films and web series are…
Gideon's Screenwriting Tips: Now You're a Screenwriter 