The Screenwriters Taxonomy

A Collaborative Approach to Creative Storytelling

Eric R. Williams, Eric Williams

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138090392
• eBook ISBN: 9781351610667
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

In The Screenwriters Taxonomy, award-winning screenwriter and educator Eric R. Williams offers a new collaborative approach for creative storytellers to recognize, discuss and reinvent storytelling paradigms. Williams presents seven different aspects of storytelling that can be applied to any fictional narrative film—from super genre, macrogenre and microgenre to voice and point of view—allowing writers to analyze existing films and innovate on these structures in their own stories. Moving beyond film theory, Williams describes how this roadmap for creative decision making can relate to classics like Sunset Boulevard, The Wizard of Oz and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as well as such diverse modern favorites like 12 Years a Slave, Anomalisa and Shrek.

Part I
Defining the Film

2
Movie Types and Supergenres

Movie Types

The most general category in the Taxonomy of All Living Things is “kingdom,” which bifurcates all living things into plant or animal—that’s it—one simple distinction. The Screenwriters Taxonomy has a similar delineation with films: Comedy or Drama. The fundamental distinction within all narrative films is whether they are going to be funny or serious. That’s it. These are the two “Types” of movies.

Of course, there are nuances. There are more than a dozen different brands of comedy, and at least ten brands of drama—including the ever-popular “dramedy.”

10 Brands of Drama

Brand	Description	Examples
Dark Drama	Dramas dealing with intensely serious issues.	Oldboy Requiem for a Dream The Reader
Docudrama	Dramatized adaptation of real-life events. While not always completely accurate, the general facts are more or less true.	Black Mass Into the Wild Zodiac
Docufiction	Different from docudramas, docufictional films combine documentary and fiction, where actual footage or real events are intermingled with recreated scenes.	Interior. Leather Bar Strangers in Good Company Your Name Here
Dramedy	A serious story that contains some characters or scenes inherently humorous to the audience.	Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Everything Must Go Silver Linings Playbook
Hyperdrama	Coined by film professor Ken Dancyger, these stories exaggerate characters and situations to the point of becoming fable, legend or fairy tale.	Alice in Wonderland Fantastic Mr. Fox Maleficent
Light Drama	Lighthearted stories that are, nevertheless, serious in nature.	The Help Mary Poppins The Terminal
Satire Also see: Comedy of Ideas (in Comedy)	Satire can involve humor, but the end result is typically sharp social commentary that is anything but funny. Satire often uses irony or exaggeration to expose faults in society or individuals that influence social ideology.	Birdman Dr. Strangelove Fight Club Idiocracy Thank You for Smoking
Straight Drama	This broad category applies to those that do not attempt a specific approach to drama but, rather, consider drama as a lack of comedic techniques.	The 39 Steps Ghost World Wuthering Heights
Tragedy	Stories that explore human suffering and end in devastation.	Manchester by the Sea Million Dollar Baby Fruitvale Station
Tragicomedy	A story that explores human suffering, but with an uplifting ending and/or with enough comedic elements to keep the audience laughing throughout the tragic story.	50/50 Bronson Man on the Moon Moonrise Kingdom

12 Brands of Comedy

Brand	Description	Examples
Bathroom Comedy	Indecent comedy, often about sex and bodily functions, containing a healthy dose of profanity.	Animal House Dumb and Dumber Wetlands
Comedy of Ideas Also see: Satire (in Drama)	Comedy used to explore serious ideas such as religion, sex or politics. Often characters represent divergent worldviews and are forced to interact for comedic social commentary.	Adventures of Baron Munchausen Bob Roberts MASH The Player
Comedy of Manners	Emphasizes verbal gymnastics above all else, utilizing clever insults and witticisms to entertain.	Breakfast at Tiffany’s The Graduate Under the Tuscan Sun
Dark or Black Comedy	Humor that makes light of subject matter typically considered taboo.	American Psycho Deadpool Killer Joe
Farce	Exaggerating situations beyond the realm of possibility, thereby making them entertaining.	In the Loop The Producers Some Like It Hot
Observational Humor	Finding humor in the common practices of everyday life.	Carnage Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood Fast Food Nation
Parody (or Spoof)	Humor based on imitation. All parodies are based on a preexisting work that is widely recognized. The work is summarily exaggerated to the point of mockery and trivialization.	Airplane! Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me Hot Fuzz Young Frankenstein
Sex Comedy	Humor that is primarily derived from sexual situations and desire.	Choke Don Jon Knocked Up
Situational Comedy	Humor derived from knowing a stock group of characters and exposing them to different situations to create humorous and ironic juxtaposition.	Galaxy Quest The Princes...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Introduction
• PART I Defining the Film
• PART II Refining the Film
• Index