How To Get A Script To Stand Out Amongst A Crowd by John Truby Video Lecture | Screenwriting: From Beginner to a Pro - Career Development

why is it so important to approach a
genre in a way that hasn't been done
before it goes back to that first rule
of Hollywood which is that a Hollywood
marketing is based on selling genres now
that means that everyone who has any
sense of how Hollywood works now knows
that if you want to be in the game you
have to write a genre based story now
they're not that many different major
genres they're 12 major genres that
99.9% of Hollywood films get made from
typically in combination of those twelve
now there's the problem which is that if
everybody is writing a genre script and
genres of course have essentially have
anywhere from 8 to 15 basic story beats
that must be present in that script if
you are writing that genre script
properly if all you do is write that
genre in its normal way you're going to
write a script that everybody else is
writing that has no chance to sell and
this is why in my class I'm constantly
talking about these are the beats of the
genre which gets you in the game who
I've referred to it is paying the dues
hitting the beats of the genre but then
you got to go beyond that which is you
have to transcend the genre you have to
rise above it you have to twist the
genre in such a way that the audience
hasn't seen before which means that you
take those 8 to 15 basic beats and for
each one of them you do them in a unique
way that the audience that surprises the
audience and notice that what you get
there when you transcend the genre is
you get to have your cake and eat it too
which is you give the audience all the
genre beats that they're coming to that
movie to see but you also support
you're putting a different skin on those
bones in a way that they haven't seen
before so they get that double pleasure
and that is the only way in my opinion
that a writer can break through from the
crowd and have their scripts stand out
you