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Movies, more often than not, tell a story. Most of that time it seems that this story is told to us in as simple manner as possible. We're introduced to our hero, then we see a bunch of stuff that happens to him, and it all reaches a nice ending. Most blockbusters are like this because it's easy, people can understand what's going on, and just look out for big explosions and flashes of breast.
If a director of a blockbuster movie is being really clever they might adjust the formula just a little to throw in a 'flashback'. A flashback is just as it sounds, a short scene of something that happened in the past. Usually used to help show why a character is the way he is eg. an alcohol because he couldn't hold onto his wife when a family skiing holiday went tragically wrong, and she plummeted to her death from a cable car. Flashbacks are cool, it helps build character, and fill in the background without too much dialogue!
I've found a number of films that are really great to watch because they choose to ignore this basic formula of story telling. Perhaps the most well known example of recent years would be Pulp Fiction. There's nothing too tricky to grasp with Pulp Fiction, it's just not told in chronological order. It's broken up into 3 linked stories, with the one we see second actually being the last events to occur. As simple as this is, it really was quite effective.
If we go back a little earlier in Tarentino's filmography we'll find the classic Resevoir Dogs. I love this movie, and in particular the way it's told. We get plenty of action, find characters arriving in a warehouse after a robbery gone wrong. Then, one by one we get the build up to the event from each of the main characters lives.
Another film I saw recently and thought was excellent was One Night At McCools. What's great about this, from a story-telling angle, is that we get to see the same events a couple of times from different characters points of view. For instance, when Matt Dillon is narrating he's a perfect gentleman, but the others all make him out to be a bit of a loser, and a bit of a slob. Who do you believe? Doesn't really matter, but it's certainly an interesting way to tell it.
What else is quite popular seems to be movies with plenty of characters with separate lives, all involved in a linked story. Last night I saw Traffic. Watching that movie is a bit like being handed 4 bits of string, and trying to follow them, only to find that they're all tied together. The lives of the characters seem unrelated at first, and you see how they're all linked, and involved in the same things. Once you realise how they're linked yuo start to see how what one does effects the other, and how all of their lives are effecting during the course of the movie.
Many people tend to shy away from such movies, think that they're somehow difficult to understand. What's wrong with these people? They're the same people that ask too many questions during movies too, not realising that if they stop talking they will be able to follow it themselves, and figure out that there's a plot!
It's a shame that some of the best tales are told from the narrowest of angles. There's the opportunity to do so much more, and it's wasted, traded in for bigger explosions with the hope of bigger profits.
If a director of a blockbuster movie is being really clever they might adjust the formula just a little to throw in a 'flashback'. A flashback is just as it sounds, a short scene of something that happened in the past. Usually used to help show why a character is the way he is eg. an alcohol because he couldn't hold onto his wife when a family skiing holiday went tragically wrong, and she plummeted to her death from a cable car. Flashbacks are cool, it helps build character, and fill in the background without too much dialogue!
I've found a number of films that are really great to watch because they choose to ignore this basic formula of story telling. Perhaps the most well known example of recent years would be Pulp Fiction. There's nothing too tricky to grasp with Pulp Fiction, it's just not told in chronological order. It's broken up into 3 linked stories, with the one we see second actually being the last events to occur. As simple as this is, it really was quite effective.
If we go back a little earlier in Tarentino's filmography we'll find the classic Resevoir Dogs. I love this movie, and in particular the way it's told. We get plenty of action, find characters arriving in a warehouse after a robbery gone wrong. Then, one by one we get the build up to the event from each of the main characters lives.
Another film I saw recently and thought was excellent was One Night At McCools. What's great about this, from a story-telling angle, is that we get to see the same events a couple of times from different characters points of view. For instance, when Matt Dillon is narrating he's a perfect gentleman, but the others all make him out to be a bit of a loser, and a bit of a slob. Who do you believe? Doesn't really matter, but it's certainly an interesting way to tell it.
What else is quite popular seems to be movies with plenty of characters with separate lives, all involved in a linked story. Last night I saw Traffic. Watching that movie is a bit like being handed 4 bits of string, and trying to follow them, only to find that they're all tied together. The lives of the characters seem unrelated at first, and you see how they're all linked, and involved in the same things. Once you realise how they're linked yuo start to see how what one does effects the other, and how all of their lives are effecting during the course of the movie.
Many people tend to shy away from such movies, think that they're somehow difficult to understand. What's wrong with these people? They're the same people that ask too many questions during movies too, not realising that if they stop talking they will be able to follow it themselves, and figure out that there's a plot!
It's a shame that some of the best tales are told from the narrowest of angles. There's the opportunity to do so much more, and it's wasted, traded in for bigger explosions with the hope of bigger profits.
Movies, more often than not, tell a story. Most of that time it seems that this story is told to us in as simple manner as possible. We're introduced to our hero, then we see a bunch of stuff that happens to him, and it all reaches a nice ending. Most blockbusters are like this because it's easy, people can understand what's going on, and just look out for big explosions and flashes of breast.
If a director of a blockbuster movie is being really clever they might adjust the formula just a little to throw in a 'flashback'. A flashback is just as it sounds, a short scene of something that happened in the past. Usually used to help show why a character is the way he is eg. an alcohol because he couldn't hold onto his wife when a family skiing holiday went tragically wrong, and she plummeted to her death from a cable car. Flashbacks are cool, it helps build character, and fill in the background without too much dialogue!
I've found a number of films that are really great to watch because they choose to ignore this basic formula of story telling. Perhaps the most well known example of recent years would be Pulp Fiction. There's nothing too tricky to grasp with Pulp Fiction, it's just not told in chronological order. It's broken up into 3 linked stories, with the one we see second actually being the last events to occur. As simple as this is, it really was quite effective.
If we go back a little earlier in Tarentino's filmography we'll find the classic Resevoir Dogs. I love this movie, and in particular the way it's told. We get plenty of action, find characters arriving in a warehouse after a robbery gone wrong. Then, one by one we get the build up to the event from each of the main characters lives.
Another film I saw recently and thought was excellent was One Night At McCools. What's great about this, from a story-telling angle, is that we get to see the same events a couple of times from different characters points of view. For instance, when Matt Dillon is narrating he's a perfect gentleman, but the others all make him out to be a bit of a loser, and a bit of a slob. Who do you believe? Doesn't really matter, but it's certainly an interesting way to tell it.
What else is quite popular seems to be movies with plenty of characters with separate lives, all involved in a linked story. Last night I saw Traffic. Watching that movie is a bit like being handed 4 bits of string, and trying to follow them, only to find that they're all tied together. The lives of the characters seem unrelated at first, and you see how they're all linked, and involved in the same things. Once you realise how they're linked yuo start to see how what one does effects the other, and how all of their lives are effecting during the course of the movie.
Many people tend to shy away from such movies, think that they're somehow difficult to understand. What's wrong with these people? They're the same people that ask too many questions during movies too, not realising that if they stop talking they will be able to follow it themselves, and figure out that there's a plot!
It's a shame that some of the best tales are told from the narrowest of angles. There's the opportunity to do so much more, and it's wasted, traded in for bigger explosions with the hope of bigger profits.
If a director of a blockbuster movie is being really clever they might adjust the formula just a little to throw in a 'flashback'. A flashback is just as it sounds, a short scene of something that happened in the past. Usually used to help show why a character is the way he is eg. an alcohol because he couldn't hold onto his wife when a family skiing holiday went tragically wrong, and she plummeted to her death from a cable car. Flashbacks are cool, it helps build character, and fill in the background without too much dialogue!
I've found a number of films that are really great to watch because they choose to ignore this basic formula of story telling. Perhaps the most well known example of recent years would be Pulp Fiction. There's nothing too tricky to grasp with Pulp Fiction, it's just not told in chronological order. It's broken up into 3 linked stories, with the one we see second actually being the last events to occur. As simple as this is, it really was quite effective.
If we go back a little earlier in Tarentino's filmography we'll find the classic Resevoir Dogs. I love this movie, and in particular the way it's told. We get plenty of action, find characters arriving in a warehouse after a robbery gone wrong. Then, one by one we get the build up to the event from each of the main characters lives.
Another film I saw recently and thought was excellent was One Night At McCools. What's great about this, from a story-telling angle, is that we get to see the same events a couple of times from different characters points of view. For instance, when Matt Dillon is narrating he's a perfect gentleman, but the others all make him out to be a bit of a loser, and a bit of a slob. Who do you believe? Doesn't really matter, but it's certainly an interesting way to tell it.
What else is quite popular seems to be movies with plenty of characters with separate lives, all involved in a linked story. Last night I saw Traffic. Watching that movie is a bit like being handed 4 bits of string, and trying to follow them, only to find that they're all tied together. The lives of the characters seem unrelated at first, and you see how they're all linked, and involved in the same things. Once you realise how they're linked yuo start to see how what one does effects the other, and how all of their lives are effecting during the course of the movie.
Many people tend to shy away from such movies, think that they're somehow difficult to understand. What's wrong with these people? They're the same people that ask too many questions during movies too, not realising that if they stop talking they will be able to follow it themselves, and figure out that there's a plot!
It's a shame that some of the best tales are told from the narrowest of angles. There's the opportunity to do so much more, and it's wasted, traded in for bigger explosions with the hope of bigger profits.
I love loads of little plots that eventually merge into one.
Star Wars, for example. Characters are introduced around and usually involving the two droids... and eventually all link into one, with more things in common with eachother than it first appears.
I'm writing a story at the moment, a prequel to a story I've already written... and the whole thing is based around a thought I had once, while just sitting back and thinking.
Two plots. Completely different, no connection at all... they both revolve around a single character, a man.
One day, these two men walk down a street towards each other. They brush past each other.
That's it.
Star Wars, for example. Characters are introduced around and usually involving the two droids... and eventually all link into one, with more things in common with eachother than it first appears.
I'm writing a story at the moment, a prequel to a story I've already written... and the whole thing is based around a thought I had once, while just sitting back and thinking.
Two plots. Completely different, no connection at all... they both revolve around a single character, a man.
One day, these two men walk down a street towards each other. They brush past each other.
That's it.
Kevin Smith films do that well i.e. in Mallrats you've got all the seperate characters coming to a head at "Truth or Date."
Meka Dragon wrote:
If we go back a
> little earlier in Tarentino's filmography we'll find the classic Resevoir Dogs.
> I love this movie, and in particular the way it's told. We get plenty of action,
> find characters arriving in a warehouse after a robbery gone wrong. Then, one by
> one we get the build up to the event from each of the main characters lives.
It was an amazing film, I only saw it recently though. I was annoyed it wasn't in the top 100 of all time on CH 4
If we go back a
> little earlier in Tarentino's filmography we'll find the classic Resevoir Dogs.
> I love this movie, and in particular the way it's told. We get plenty of action,
> find characters arriving in a warehouse after a robbery gone wrong. Then, one by
> one we get the build up to the event from each of the main characters lives.
It was an amazing film, I only saw it recently though. I was annoyed it wasn't in the top 100 of all time on CH 4