Exploring Genre: Match My Freak is the direct aftermath of one of Narrative for New Media’s writing assignments, specifically one that sees students explore the concept of genre, how genre interacts on the screen, and how genre interacts with itself. The assignment had students produce a film treatment that must include, and ideally meld, at least two separate genres. A delicate and divisive ask, but not without immense creative potential.
There were no specific genres selected to coalesce when I began writing this treatment, instead opting to see what could become of a campy and charming concept when given the reign to run riot. In short: what would happen if I, the writer, had some earnest, shameless, and unscrupulous fun with this treatment, fanciful audience be damned? What resulted was this amalgamation of psychological thriller and romantic comedy. A decidedly perverse combination, that unbelievably, fashioned a forbidden yet uniquely enthralling concept.
I opted to present Match My Freak as the original version that was submitted in class to preserve the authenticity and candour of the creativity explored within.
Footloose Writing Tactics: Given the unfettered approach to Match My Freak it is sensible to speculate as to whether or not personally cherished themes or concepts made its way into the treatment subconsciously. To which I say: it was unfailingly conscious. As a writer, there are two concepts that seem to emerge and reemerge across much of my work, personal and academic. Those being the feeling and form of voyeurism and the potential of perversion through the corruption of familiar archetypes. Personal experience has often illustrated the most compelling and hauntingly memorable narratives are not overly grotesque or cloy, but instead marry an excess of comfort and discomfort. While writing Match My Freak, I found it utterly delightful to experiment with trying to pervert darling love with these escalating erroneous actions while preserving enough sincere, tender, and revering romance as to ensnare a wavering audience into witnessing that much more. Like a car crash unfolding before your eyes, it sends an eerie chill up the spine, yet looking away remains impossible.
