Why Most Romantic Comedies Suck by Steve Kaplan

I thought you were gonna ask me why do you must rom-com suck and I'll tell you why must round come suck most rom-com suck because there's the mistaken belief that a rom-com is about creating obstacles for two people to keep them apart because otherwise the film would be 12 minutes long but that's not the way it is in life in life it's not about keeping you and David apart it's about figuring out once you're together how you can possibly stay together without killing each other so so a rom-com bad Ron comes focus on stupid stupid events that arbitrarily keep two people apart where the best-run comes I just saw I just saw a heroine Harry Met Sally the other day cuz it's New Years Eve and really the the whole film is framed by these people most of them elderly recounting how they met the one and there you see a guy who meets her when he's 21 and he doesn't realize it so so it's not about keeping them apart it's about realizing who you are and who and what you want and it's it's a wonderful moment in When Harry Met Sally that they just don't and they don't hate each other at first sight in fact they're kind of attracted to each other but because they have these masks in front of them she has the mask of a good girl he's the mask of a you know a world a world traveled man what my friend Michael Haig calls their identity because they have their so locked into their identity their masks they can't be vulnerable enough to see who the other person really is and it's only when his wife leaves him when Billy Crystal's wife leaves him in fact has planted Lee but because you know as soon as she tells him the moving guys come up to move all her stuff out so she can go live with this accountant she's fallen in love with that he becomes vulnerable enough to not always be condescending to to the girl and and to pretend that he knows everything it's when he admits that he doesn't know everything but he desperately still wants to be happy that they start to become friends it's just a wonderful wonderful rom-com because it doesn't say love you it's love at first sight because what you see in the framing device is you see two people who he was sure he's gonna marry this woman when he first saw her you see another couple who 37 years go by and then they meet each other again and and and this time the right time is right and hairiness a leader right in the middle they had to wait for the time to be right but they were right for each other so so you know most rom-coms suck because they're too busy trying to create op are betrayed false obstacles and they load their films with wouldn't it be funny if silly things that somebody's thinking wouldn't it be funny if there's a film that I screened in the workshop we screen a screen a couple of scenes of a Alex and Emma Alex and Emma the premise of Alex and Emma is Alex Luke Wilson is a writer and he's oh he's also a gambler you know was the mob a hundred thousand dollars but he's gonna get one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars when he finishes his manuscript but he hasn't written one word of it and in a you know in a previous scene the mobsters to threaten him throw his laptop out the window and I guess because there's no other laptops in New York he comes up with a great idea to hire a stenographer he's going to dictate an entire novel in 30 days okay you buy the premise you guys don't buy the premise but it sets up Kate Hudson comes up she's the stenographer she's kind of uptight professional little cautious she goes to his apartment and he's supposedly this law firm and he says want to come in she says I don't want to come in and this doesn't look like a law firm doesn't even look like a nice place to live and so he starts to Luke Wilson starts to make up a story about how they're you know they're between offices and then in a wouldn't it be funny moment he faints at her feet and you might think well what wins for him what what does he really want to do why doesn't he just say listen I owe I owe some guys $100,000 I have to dictate a novel in 30 days and most people will say well because if he just says that the movies over but why would the movie be over why would she say okay and and what she does is she says you know the guys lying in her feet and she says oh here I am with a dead lawyer lying on my feet and I asked the women Mike in my workshops well what would you do and some say I'd run away really good Samaritans others who would say I you know knock on some neighbors George all right call 9-1-1 somebody would say I check his eye check to see if he's alive and I'd say if you were cautious and professional how would you check to see if he's lively he says well I might you know just touch his neck or I might you know kind of tow him see if he moves see if he's still alive but in the movie what happens is Kate Hudson after the line what am I gonna do with a dead lawyer lying on my foot okay and she picks him up by the family jewels she picks up his two legs like a wheelbarrow and cracking wise the whole time she drags him into his apartment and it's like why would you possibly want to do that how how is that cautious and and uptight and professional it's just something that somebody put in there I don't know whether it's the writers of director or the actors because that somebody thought wouldn't it be funny if but that's a terrible way to to write a comic screenplay not wouldn't it be funny it but who are your characters what do they want what did what are they what are they willing or able to do to get what they want and if you simply follow your characters what Bill Prady calls who's the executive producer of The Big Bang Theory who says I don't even premises I don't even have situations III start with a simple situation and then I just follow my characters and see what they say like it like like he's a reporter writing dictation just figure out what your characters want because the the less not realistic but believable the less believable your characters are if they give up believability to do something wouldn't it be funny if then you're not going to care about them when you need to care about them you

Channel: Film Courage

Views: 26,984

Keywords: Romantic Comedy (TV Genre), steve kaplan, the hidden tools of comedy, the serious business of being funny, skcomedy, comedy, funny, interview, video interview, screenwriting, comedy writing, comedy and drama, comedy characters, filmcourage, film courage, why romantic comedies suck, romantic comedy, humor, screenwriting interview

Id: Lhq7JoymKNQ

Length: 7min 17sec (437 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 27 2014