This time we are going to take a break from looking at the darker side of entertainment and look at something a little bit lighter. For our film studies, we will take a look at the film The Holiday (2006). Over 3 articles, we will explore setting up a genre, storytelling, doing the fun stuff and getting creative, whilst finishing it off with the basics of film/TV/streaming and theatre.

Genre

The best way to visualise a genre is to view it as the structure of a building, with the story providing the foundation, walls and the roof.

The structure of a genre serves as a blueprint for your final product or project. Much like how a blue-steel or timber structure helps shape the project of building a home, we use genre.

The Holiday Genre;

The main genre of this film is romance.

The film’s writer, Nancy Meyers, then added over 6 main subgenres. The main genre is romance, combined with the 5 main subgenres, which form the structure of the story, making narrative writing a lot easier. The main genre has many different styles for romance, from tragedy to the famous Hallmark Channel-style stories, there is something for everyone. Let’s have a closer look at the 6 main subgenres for The Holiday;

1. Contemporary. Setting the time period for a story is of great importance, are we looking at an Austen-style story or something a little more modern? Asking simple questions like this quickly takes the guesswork out of storytelling while offering a clear path to writing a solid story.
2. Comedy. The story lands in that feel-good Christmas Holiday time of year, lifting it with humour. This is a strength of Nancy Meyers, looking at a couple of her other films, you will see that her timing is good with comedy.
3. Dual Narrative. This keeps the story moving easily;; it is something the writer has used more than once in her work, and it keeps the comedy lighter.
4. Feel Good. This complements the time of year the story is set in, which is the Christmas Holiday genre. This is still a popular genre.
5. Fish-out-of-water. An easy go-to for the style of comedy used.
6. On Trend. Tying in with contemporary, it points to what stylised version of contemporary we are watching. For example, house swapping was a real thing and very popular in this time period, whereas staying at a hotel would be a classic contemporary story, and an Airbnb-style would be more suited to a more savvy age group.

When rounding off some of the choices for the story, keep the demographic in mind. Aiming at women aged 18-49, with the target audience firmly in the 25-35 years of age bracket.

The Holiday trailer below.

Picking Your Genre

Building your story’s structure is easier when you follow a simple formula. Staying true to our film’s example, we will stick with Romance as our main genre.

This would open a possibility of at least 10 subgenres;

1. Is it contemporary, a period (similar to Austen), or an historical tale?
2. What time of year is it? Are you aiming for a Valentine’s Day story or a quirky Halloween meets Romance idea, for example Warm Bodies (2013)?
3. Is it a Comedy or a Drama, or a mix?
4. Consider the weather: is it a hot, on the beach, summertime story? The famous Gidget films from the 1950s and 1960s were set on the beach and included surfing.
5. Is the story nostalgic or sombre?
6. Is there any self-reflection and growth involved? Very popular in the simpler Hallmark-style stories.
7. Are the protagonists wealthy or poor to develop a narrative trope?
8. Does Class conflict occur, as we might see in a period drama like Downton Abbey?
9. A thriller, a mystery, or even time travel could be a subgenre.
10. Does a coming-of-age story appeal?

Asking a few simple questions about the main genre and subgenres makes the step of forming a story much easier.

The Story

“Amanda lives in LA and is a movie trailer editor. Iris lives in Surrey and is a journalist. The two decide to swap houses for two weeks at Christmas – both trying to forget their troubled love lives, until love finds them anyway.”

The above synopsis gives the viewer an idea of what the story will become. While film and theatre lean heavily into the visual, it does not replace good storytelling; visual effects do not create a story, they enhance it. The industry has suffered from some wannabees who add fluff with special effects, hoping that, as filler, it will work. Let me assure you, it doesn’t, and fans hate it.

The story needs to be developed and worked at. Easter eggs, special effects and the like enhance a story, they aren’t the story. While this isn’t an article about correct story structure, it is still worthwhile to watch how The Holiday used comedy to enhance the story; the timing of the humour was good.

Nancy Meyers also wrote Something’s Gotta Give (2003) and It’s Complicated (2009), if you wish to compare her other works to this film.

Whatever genre you pick, it is always worthwhile to compare 3 different works to see similarities and differences that can help with your storytelling.