A film's genre refers to the conventions and tropes that place the story into a specific category, which is expected by audiences.

Genre: A Business Decision

One of the major business decisions a writer has to make is to commit to a certain genre for the script. Producers tend to specialize in certain genres. For instance, one producer may only produce horror movies. Another producer may only produce rom-coms. So the writer will do well to make their story fit within the conventions of one genre.

One Genre

Sticking to one genre is the ideal from a producer’s standpoint. More than one genre will make the project difficult to market to distributors, so the writer should try to stay within the conventions of one genre and certainly not more than two. If a producer sees a genre mash-up in a script, they tend to be very wary of accepting it. The smarter business decision for a writer is to commit to the conventions of one genre and master those conventions.

Conventions

So with that in mind, we have a section here where we present just some of the main genre conventions throughout a few different genres that are very popular right now and that are likely to receive a positive response from producers.

Thriller Conventions

  • An unwitting but resourceful protagonist.
  • An antagonist with an insidious and clandestine scheme.
  • A mystery that the protagonist must solve in order to survive.
  • Danger at every turn.

Horror Conventions

  • Protagonist is removed from their ordinary world and isolated.
  • An unrelenting monster.
  • Constant threat of brutal violence.
  • Starts at a high key of anxiety and proceeds to a point of absolute hysteria.

Rom-Com Conventions

  • A meet-cute between two people who have deeply conflicting lifestyles.
  • Mistaken identity between the protagonist and an antagonistic character.
  • Structure is a variation of "boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl" (or "girl-meets-boy," "boy-meets-boy," "girl-meets-girl," etc.).
  • Outlandish obstacles and situations in the protagonist's path to obtain true love.

Drama Conventions

  • A complex protagonist with a deep flaw that needs to be overcome for the character to live a full and meaningful life.
  • A character who serves as a mentor or agent of change.
  • Situations that challenge the protagonist's existing, flawed beliefs.
  • A situation they must deal with, and can only succeed by adopting new ways of thinking and living.