By Banes, talented screenwriter:
- http://www.drunkduck.com/user/Banes/

From Quackcast 70!
-http://www.drunkduck.com/quackcast/episode-70-the-love-between-two-buddies-screenwriting-part-3


Screenwriting part 3

Buddy Love

Elements:
An incomplete hero,
A Counterpart that has what the hero needs (and needs what the hero has),
A Complication

These kinds of stories are legion. Though lots of stories have a friendship or love component (with the B story of many movies being the love story), BUDDY LOVE tales are different. The whole point of the story is the relationship between a couple of buddies!

A subgenre of this are the romantic comedies and love stories - theyre buddy stories with romantic love in the mix!

Whether its a buddy cop story, a couple of dorky, bickering pals, or various romantic versions, this type of story boils down to this…the transformation in the protagonist is created by another person!

Everything from Abbott and Costello and Waynes World to Lethal Weapon and Wedding Crashers to E.T. and all those romantic comedies fit right in here!

Anyway, this genre includes many variations. Lets do what I do best, and recite lists of movies!

ROMANTIC LOVE: when harry met sally, the wedding planner, sleepless in seattle, youve got mail, fever pitch…and on and on and on and on!

PET LOVE: where its a non-human that comes into your life: Seabiscuit, Black Beauty, Free Willy, Benji, Because of Winn Dixie. E.T. also fits here…as does FIDO, the brilliant zombie pet movie!

WORK / FAMILY LOVE: with a family bond or a family-TYPE bond: I Love you, Man, Lethal Weapon, Waynes World, Tango and Cash, The Odd Couple, Rush Hour, Role Models.

EPIC LOVE: love with a big, epic backdrop: Gone with the wind, Titanic, The Notebook…also True Romance and True Lies!

FORBIDDEN LOVE: where society stands in the way: DONT DATE ROBOTS! examples include: Harold s Coming to Dinner, Romeo
Example on Drunk Duck - A Cat Tale by ayesinback
http://www.drunkduck.com/A_Cat_Tale/
…its a sweet, I believe true story about the arrival of a…well, some kind of new arrival in the household. I dont want to spoil what it is…it could be a turtle! It could be a spider monkey!


Whydunnit

Elements:
A Detective, A Secret, A Dark Turn
mystery stories, dawg!

These are mystery stories. Stories wherein the secret of whodunnit is revealed piece by piece. I think they call it WHYDUNNIT because the WHY is often more interesting than the WHO. Getting to the deeper and deeper secrets of What Happenned involves asking who, what, where, how, AND why, really.

And the structure of deeper and deeper secrets is probably why these stories tend to be dark, dark business.

There is generally a detective…not necessarily an actual cop or P.I, although thats the standard. its someone uncovering the clues.

There is a SECRET, of course - a why to get to the bottom of.

And there is a Dark Turn - where the detective breaks his own rules, or discovers the darkness within himself.

Interesting stuff!

The mystery very often comes back to the detective him-or-herself, whether its a connection to an earlier case, or the detective becoming personally entangled in things.

One interesting point is that in these types of stories, the protagonist often does NOT change. Quite unusual…we the audience are taken on a roller coaster….WE are the ones who change by what we discover. The hero is usually the same person at the end than they are in the start.

EXAMPLES include:

POLITICAL WHYDUNNITS - All the Presidents Men, JFK

NOIR WHYDUNNITS - The classic! As in Chinatown, Devil in a Blue Dress, Brick, and The Long Goodbye and The Big Sleep
.
COP WHYDUNNITS - Fargo, Sea of Love, L.A. Confidential, Silence of the Lambs. Maybe Dirty Harry flicks belong here, and not in the dude with a problem area. Who knows? Its a mystery! :-D

PERSONAL WHYDUNNITS - As in Rear Window, The Jagged Edge, Kiss the Girls, and Mystic River.

and even FANTASY WHYDUNNITS - as in Blade Runner, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Ghost, Minority Report and the Sixth Sense.

Example on Drunk Duck:

Well, our 2011 Radio Play certainly was!
http://www.drunkduck.com/A_Cat_Tale/
A classic noir!


Fool Triumphant

Ah, the noble fool! But is he an idiot? Or is he actually the wisest one among us?

Could be either one. But he is APPARENTLY a fool. A character who is disregarded by the world around them. A true underdog, who stands against an establishment of some kind…but not on purpose!

The fool is just trying to live their life, but just by being who they are, they will expose the establishment as the REAL fools!

The fool is not a revolutionary, or a warrior. Just by their presence, they show the power of the individual…even the least among us…to make a difference. Hooray!

Elements:

A Fool, of course! One whos naive about what theyre capable of
An Establishment to be disregarded by
A Transmutation….assuming a new name or identity, or a new persona, is often an element of these stories.

Examples
The POLITICAL FOOL: Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Dave, King Ralph, Bulworth, Being There

The UNDERCOVER FOOL - Mrs. Doubtfire, Tootsie, Big Mommas House, Shes the Man, Soul Man, School of Rock, Royal Flash

The SEX FOOL - wherein the fool is mistaken for a lothario, when hes not - Lover Boy, Bridget Jones Diary, and the 40 Year Old Virgin.

The SOCIETY FOOL - Forrest Gump, I Am Sam, Charly, Mask, Sling Blade, Shine, The Mouse that roared

FOOL out of WATER - Beverly Hills Cop, Stripes, Mr. Mom (theres Michael Keaton! yay!) Coming to America, Legally Blonde, Private Benjamin, The Man who KNew too Little

example on Drunk Duck
this is gauche, I know, but my comic is somewhat of an example


typical strange by Banes
http://www.drunkduck.com/2011_Drunk_Duck_Voice_Contest_Radio_Play/
Thats three more genres! HOORAY!

THATS IT ! WEre DONE Fer NOW!

See you next time for our conclusion!