Hollywood Today Is Not Known For Originality by John Truby Video Lecture | Screenwriting: From Beginner to a Pro - Career Development

how would you rate the level of
storytelling coming out of Hollywood
today to really look at how storytelling
works in Hollywood today we really have
to see the different parts of Halloween
because it is not a monolith in any way
for example in film we really have the
Hollywood mainstream filmmaking and we
have independent film and these are very
very different in terms of originality
and creativity that's found in
independent filmmaking Hollywood today
is not known for its originality it's
all about branding it's all about taking
these basic stories essentially myths
stories and trying to create a franchise
that can not only sell one film to
worldwide audience but multiple films
over many years which they then now will
remake very quickly I mean I was amazed
at the fact that we needed a new Spider
Man film right this is 10 years ago we
had the first one and just a few years
ago we had the third one in that first
series so the point is that is again the
marketing strategy that Hollywood is
using now what that means is that for a
writer working trying to work in
mainstream Hollywood filming there are
certain skills that they have to know
versus if they are going to write for
independent film for Hollywood
mainstream filmmaking for example again
the the key emphasis on is all genres
and combining genres and knowing which
john was appealed to a worldwide
audience for example myth action through
our those sorts of genres work for the
worldwide audience comedy much less so
on the other hand if a writer is working
in independent film and for many writers
that is
way they get their start then there is a
much more emphasis on an original idea
on coming up with very unique quirky
characters often an emphasis on comedy
and line comedy ie comedy that is what
has very witty dialogue in other words
we have the they work with very
different story structures now there's a
third key element when we're talking
about Hollywood storytelling and that is
television because in my opinion
television is the best writing in the
entertainment business and when I give
my class all over the world what they
what those students are most interested
in is not how do I write a Hollywood
mainstream film it's how do I write a TV
script that's as good as the TV dramas
coming out of Hollywood
the level of excellence in TV drama has
never been higher and the the quality of
the craft of writing in television is
phenomenal the ability of these writers
to produce that quality of work that
quickly week after week after week if is
frankly amazing to me I don't know how
they do it
you