Popularity: 2%

Please don’t be PREDICTABLE…

Pretty please?

It’s true… Basically speaking, we all think in clichés but the trick in screenwriting is to NOT write a cliché. Even in current A-List screenplays, I can end up reading a resounding cliché or two.

It’s your job… Nay, YOUR DUTY to set fire to that cliché you’re just about ready to type and watch it burn…

Enjoy it burning. We don’t need any more cliché screenplays and movies.

Predictability is already a problem before you even sit down and outline the damn story! You’re probably going to have a good guy… You’re probably going to have a bad guy. With that ALONE, we are already about to enter “The Cliché Zone.”

Hey, that rhymes!

Sorry.

We’re pretty sure that the good guy is gonna win and the bad guy is gonna lose. Whew! More clichés to deal with.

Real quick, let’s take a look at SE7EN. The good guys win in that movie… OR DO THEY? I bring up SE7EN to illustrate the obvious… The writer took the cliché and TURNED IT UPSIDE DOWN without ruining the story.

YOU MUST DO THE SAME!

Why do you think box office is down? Predictability and cliché characters and stories. We, as an audience are DYING to watch something different. Something that’s not predictable or cliché and guess what will happen when we do finally see that movie?

We will RUN, not walk to tell our friends, family, and associates about how great the movie is and they will in turn do the same thing… i.e., BLOCKBUSTER.

Have I killed the dead horse? Good. It needed it.

KEEP THE AUDIENCE GUESSING…

Here’s some ways to keep us guessing all the way to the end…

1) Kill off one of the good guys that we really, really like. Yeah, it sucks but wow… It really makes the audience sit up and take notice! They are now thinking, “What the FUCK is the hero gonna do NOW?”

2) Beat the hell out of your Protagonist. Not just physically but mentally, financially, emotionally, socially, etc. As stated in a previous post… DRAG HIS OR HER ASS THROUGH THE MUD! Make us wonder how in the hell he or she is going to win out by the end of the movie.

3) Don’t let your Protagonist know everything. There’s two ways to handle this and you really have to perform quite a balancing act to get it right but when you do… BAM! You got us HOOKED! One way is to feed the audience a little information that your Protagonist is not privy to… This helps create more suspense in the audience’s minds because they know something is right around the corner that your Protagonist does not. At the same time, you need to keep both the audience AND your Protagonist in the dark for certain plot elements so that as soon as your Protagonist gets it, WE DO TOO! Use both techniques to foreshadow your plot and we will thank you by telling everyone how great your film is.

4) Crank up the heat at your MIDPOINT. Make your Protagonist think he’s achieved his goal by the midpoint of your screenplay only to YANK THE RUG OUT from under him that reveals a bigger, darker, deeper, more dangerous problem than he ever thought possible. As soon as your Protagonist realizes that he’s only halfway home, we’ll lean forward in our seats and think, “Holy shit! What now?”

5) End with a REVERSAL. Just like I pointed out in SE7EN, the audience just knows what’s going to happen at the end. Sure, they might know that your Protagonist will win but you gotta yank the rug out from under both your Protagonist AND the audience one last time. Think THE SIXTH SENSE. Think THE USUAL SUSPECTS. Think AMERICAN HISTORY X. Think ARLINGTON ROAD. Think THE CRYING GAME. Think FALLEN. Think THE EXORCIST. Think FIGHT CLUB. Think WILD THINGS.

You got that?

Good.

Now go write it.

Unk




Friday: 23 June 2006|1650|Under Tips

Print This Post Print This Post
 

Comments

2 Responses to “Please don’t be PREDICTABLE…”

  1. A newbie on Wednesday: 6 June 2007|1455

    Hi,

    About point 5) yanking the rug out from under both your Protagonist and the audience one last time. Can you name any comedies that do just that?

    Thanks.

  2. Unk on Wednesday: 6 June 2007|2019

    Just off the top of my head…

    YOU ME AND DUPREE
    HITCH
    WHAT ABOUT BOB

    I’m sure there are more… Just can’t think of them right now.

    Unk

Leave a Reply