Genre talk: Trying to be all things to all people
I received this email from Jeff Messerman:
It is interesting as it brings up the question can a movie be all things to all people. Certainly easy to understand a studio’s thinking: The more people we target, the wider the potential audience. But there’s the risk the movie won’t be able to connect with any specific core audience because of the cross-genre elements being marketed, leaving everyone shaking their heads and saying, “What the hell kind of movie is it?”
One of the very first pieces of advice I received in Hollywood was from a producer who said the single most important question a writer should ask about any story they’re interested in writing:
Who is the audience?
And you can’t just say “everyone.” Well, you can, but that’s not going to help you write a focused script with a unified voice.
This takes me back to a recent reader question: What’s the best way to write cross-genre movies? My key advice was this:
Drill down into your story and determine which of the genres most reflects the essential story you want to tell. Pick one as your primary genre. If you’re writing an action-comedy, decide: Is it an action movie with comedy, or a comedy movie with action? If you’re writing a science fiction-thriller, decide: Is it a science fiction movie with thrills, or a thriller with science fiction elements?
Otherwise you run the risk of writing a mishmash story.
I bumped around the web to see what I could learn about The Chaperone and found this salient comment from someone who had watched the trailer:
Who ditches a bank heist at the last second, then joins his daughter on a school field trip knowing that the guys he ditched would be after him?!! That’s just bad parenting.
That narrative choice goes against the movie’s tagline: “Her dad did time… now he wants quality time.” It’s an example of trying to squeeze an action genre element into a film that wants to be a family movie.
The Chaperone opens in select theaters in February. We’ll see if the trying to be all things to all people approach works in the marketplace.
Takeaway: When you write a script, know who your audience is.