Film Courage: What makes a great crime drama?
Jennifer Dornbush, screenwriter, author, speaker, consultant, and forensic science specialist: When
I first started writing crime dramas, I asked myself the same question what makes a great quiet
drama? I couldn't find a lot of resources so I started watching, binging, watching, watching,
watching to find out what makes for a good crime drama? What are the ingredients? I love to cook, I
love to bake, so I think in terms of ingredients. I came up with this formula this recipe,
basically I'll give you the ingredients. How we put them together I think is what really makes
a soufflé better than another soufflé. First of all you start with this thing of what I call Mom
and Pop. Like the foundation of every good family is a mother and a father (mom and pop) Points Of
Proof are what law enforcement start with when they're investigating a case and the Points of
Proof are M.O.M.: Means, Opportunity and Motive. Thinking through those three things whenever
I start a new to write a new or develop a new crime drama I kind of pretend like I'm making
the case file for my story and my crime and I start with the way a detective would
so what were the Means, Opportunity and Motive of my criminal and I do a pretty
deep dive into that I'm not talking just like one word like I really go
deep into what was the crime and why was it especially why was it committed
and then of course you have things like you have to have crime you have to know the crimes there's
usually more than one crime that happens so like what is your series of crimes how does that build
there's always then there's like obstacles and these are really just story elements as
well but there have to be specific obstacles at certain points along the way that relate to how
the criminal and the protagonists kind of do the cat and mouse game I think too there are
I believe and I think this is probably the most important ingredient I believe that the source
or the foundation of every great crime story is rooted in love and it could be a familial love
like a parent child or or two brothers it could be romantic love it could be just an Agape like
a friendship platonic kind of love it could even be maybe a self-love a person who's trying to
forgive themselves for something or come more into themself become more a better person or
the best version of themselves but there's always I think when you look at every great Crime Story
it's always rooted in love look at Breaking Bad it starts because Walter White wants to take care of
his family it's familial love that's the entire basis of ever of whatever he the whole thing
why he does what he does prisoners I don't know if you ever saw prisoners it's a film by Alcon
entertainment Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal that is also familial love everything that Hugh
Jackman does to try to solve this crime is completely based in love for his daughter
anyway monk the TV show monk he comes back to the force because he wants to avenge his wife's
death his death wife was murdered and he wants to figure out how wants to solve that case because of
his love for her so I think once you nail that once you figure that out with your protagonist
that to me is the basis of a really great crime story and then you add all the other stuff your
case file your obstacles your crown your crimes your motive means opportunity I think you need
to Pepper in some of the story there's story tropes for Crime genre that you just have to put
in there like maybe something blows up a bad guy who's turns good or a good guy turns bad there's
there's always at the end of act two always you need to put your Heroes life in danger the
protagonist who's trying to catch this criminal almost dies right that whiff of death moment and
I think you need a little bit of gallows humor I think that's kind of like a little salt and
pepper that you need to put into it and then of course character I think that all these great
crime stories are like when you look at any of the Hitchcock stories they have amazing protagonists
and even the ones of modern the the protagonists are really Dexter Walter White they're all very
very layered characters and so I go through like a whole exercise to help myself really layer who is
this not just a detective or a an investigator it's like there's got to be a lot more to this
character then they just want to solve crimes like why are they solving why are they doing this what
is why did they pick this thing to do versus another thing to do so character of course is
is key what kinds of characters do we most often see in crime dramas any kinds of characters
any any kinds of characters are in crime dramas and that's because they think you have
when I teach on this I teach on 11 crime story types and I kind of go through again
when I was binge watching years ago all these crime stories I started to notice oh they all
kind of fall into like certain story types like there's the traditional cop there's the forensic
specialist there's the profiler there's the caper there's all these 11 and so what I realized in
doing that is like literally anybody can be an investigator you have a whole like amateur
amateur detective amateur sleuth category so it could be a plumber it could be a librarian,
Girl With a Dragon Tattoo [Lisbeth Salander], she's not a professional law enforcement,
she's a computer hacker, Murder She Wrote [Jessica Fletcher], just a writer in a small
town so really the protagonists can be anybody Walter White was a high school teacher right
so I think that's what's so great and then like if you get into like Supernatural crime
stories like Supernatural I think they were brothers if I remember right I haven't seen
it for a while but they can be anybody you have like the X-Files they it's really kind of
stranger things it's a bunch of kids but they are solving a crime they are solving
a supernatural crime that's going on in their community so really can be anybody which is why
I think this genre is so widely appealing like is really something for everybody.
Film Courage: What's usually at stake?
Jennifer: What is always at stake, how again as writers were like okay what does the character
one what does the character need and it's like these two story lines always flowing together
the external goal and then the internal goal so the external goal is 99.9 of the time to catch
the killer to solve the case that's what the protagonist wants they want to restore
the world to justice redeem that world order the chaos right the internal drive is always the same
it's always the same overall goal it's just different depending on who that character
is but it's and this is why I think that these grab people so much well any great
story will grab people the internal goal for any protagonist or the internal need I should say is
if they don't get that thing if they don't solve that case or get that thing that they're after
because of whatever is going on inside they will lose their soul
they will absolutely lose their soul it's always like to say there are worse things
than death. Death is not the worst thing that can happen to us losing our soul is the worst
thing that can happen to us and I think that's why when you find these really great stories
whether they're end up being heroic stories or more tragic stories again back to Breaking Bad
the thing that Walter White's going to lose if he doesn't provide for his family is his
soul he's he will have lost a lot of other things but at the core of himself he would have
it's like he would have failed completely completely lose his soul if he doesn't step
up and do this so that's what I think is always at stake so there has to be a core of obsession
in in the character that's trying to solve the crime wherever that is whether it's like an
actual detective or citizen journalist or somebody there's like this they just like
their whole life will fall apart if they don't yeah interesting yeah I think so Sharper Objects
that's the second one yeah right right exactly and then sharpest yeah yeah so in Sharp Objects
so let's look at and I forget that I'm so bad with the names but Amy Adams [ Camille Preaker], like
her character she's coming back to this small town to really unravel this horrific event that
happened and she's also struggling right herself she's basically an alcoholic if I remember bring
that correctly and so she knows I think we see in her that she knows if she can't get out of this
cycle of alcoholism she's going to lose herself she's going to lose her soul the only way out
of that is she's got to uncover all this stuff that's been going on back home that she tried
to run away from so if she never ever ever in her entire life solves that she'll never become
whole she'll lose her soul right and it's a great opening too because it hints at some of the stuff
that she went through and then she presents to her editor or I forget if how the how it goes
down whether he presents to her or she presents to him and she goes back and it's so wonderful
it's it is on so many levels and he's that Mentor like constantly challenging her right because he
knows she's gonna lose her soul if she doesn't press forward and she does be it does become
an obsession for her because there's a certain point at which she's kind of a a reluctant hero
at points or you see her wanting to pull back but then there's a point where she goes full in
because and it does become more of an obsession because she does realize if she does for many I
mean there's the external like I've got to do this for everyone around me too and save them but if I
don't do it I'm going to be lost forever my whole being is lost so it does become such an obsession
sure and then also too it has a lot of baggage for her to go back because from remembering
correctly she grew up in in Wind Gap [Missouri] and so she kind of has bitter feelings but also
some memories that were bad and some that were it's it was our whole being that was back there
exactly and she has to go back and face that and then redeem it she has to redeem it somehow.