Here are the crime stories I recommend you study: films American Hustle, Heat, Pulp Fiction, The Town, The French Connection, and The Untouchables. Transcendent crime: the novel Crime and Punishment, the films The Usual Suspects, In Bruges, Blood Simple, Fargo, No Country for Old Men, Un Prophet, and TV’s Fargo.
Crime is a fundamental genre because it highlights the unacceptable desires when living within a society, since fulfilling those desires may hurt someone else.
2. Enter a cop, who appears average, but is actually deep. He quickly figures out who did it and comes after him.
They are also living in a society of extreme wealth and poverty.
He should also have a deep weakness: for example, he may be poor or average or lonely.
Character Technique: the cop is a regular person but extremely good at his or her job.
This is why the crime genre is a blend of detective and action: the cop usually figures out fairly easily who did the crime.
Desire Technique: make the criminal at least partially justified in breaking the law to get what he wants.
Whether he is the hero or the opponent, the criminal is usually brilliant and/or a master at the game of beating the system.
Best Opponent Technique: make both guys great and both guys equal.
The more deception the criminal uses, the better the crime story will be.
In a morally relative world, the line is not so clear, especially when there is a difference between what is legal and what is moral.
This can be overcome if you make both cop and criminal masters of the game.
Assignment for next class IF YOU ARE WRITING SCENES FOR YOUR STORY: 1. write the next three scenes in the story where there is dialogue That means three scenes, not three chapters. Be sure to start by listing the premise in 1 line
2. write your hero’s weakness in 1 line 3. write the endpoint of your hero’s character change, In other words, his or her self-revelation
IF YOUR STORY IS AT ANY OTHER STEP OF THE WRITING PROCESS 4. Important: state which assignment you are doing 5. follow the instructions for that month’s assignment Don’t hand in more than the assignment asks for.
6. send in any question you have about story in general or about your story in particular
Remember: hand in only 1 assignment at a time.
Next class: Wednesday, July 24
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