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 crime drama? I couldn’t find a lot of resources so I started watching, binging, 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 makes a soufflé better than another soufflé. First of all you start with this thing of what I call M.O.M. and P.O.P.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 or develop a new crime drama I kind of pretend like I’m making the case file for my story and my crime. I start with the way a detective would so what were the Means, Opportunity and Motive of my criminal? I do a pretty deep dive into that. I’m not talking just like one word, I go deep into What was the crime? Especially, Why was it committed? Then of course you have things like to have crime you have to know the crimes. There’s usually more than one crime that happens. What is your series of crimes? How does that build? Then there’s obstacles and these are 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 do the cat and mouse game.
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. 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 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…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
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BIO:
Jennifer Dornbush is a screenwriter, author, speaker, consultant, and forensic science specialist. Jennifer grew up around the forensic world as the daughter of a medical examiner whose office was located in her home. She has been teaching and script consulting since 1997 and regularly leads seminars and workshops on screenwriting basics, writing for Hollywood, crime fiction, forensics, death investigation, and the creative life.
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