Lessons from the Incredibly Obvious File #4
Or: Don't Draw Attention to the Stupid Stuff
There's a tradition in screenwriting of pointing out the script's own story or logic problems. I've heard this called both "shining a light on" the problem, or "hanging a lantern" on it. Basically, you've got a minor logic hole that isn't worth writing around, so you have a character in the story acknowledge the issue. The idea is, by acknowledging the issue, you defuse the audience's questions about it.
Say, for instance, a character in a horror pic noting that it would have been smarter to run out of the house, than into the basement. We then think-- okay, they know that was stupid. But too late now.
What you don't want to do? Shine a light on something that will actually make us ask more questions.
There's a scene in The Island in which Ewan McGregor has just started to question the rules of his post-plague institution. This particular institution is supposed to keep plague survivors safe... but is in fact a world in which human beings are essentially prisoners, manipulated into hoping they'll win a ticket to a Utopian island. All the prisoners are dressed in crisp sci-fi white.
In conversation with the director of the institute, an increasingly rebellious Ewan says: "And... Let's talk about all the white. Why is everyone wearing white all the time? It's impossible to keep clean." The conversation moves into a new direction from there, with that question never answered.
Well maybe it's just me, but when the character asks that question and is given no answer-- I start to wonder too! Hey, yeah, that must be so much effort in terms of laundry. And wouldn't it be easier to control all these guys if they wore colour-coded uniforms? Based on, say, gender, or age, or dietary needs, or whatever? Surely dressing them all exactly alike is more work than it's worth.
But the movie can't answer the question, because the only possible answer to the question "Why is everyone wearing white all the time?" is "Because we are in a science fiction movie."
If you're following convention for the sake of convention... or you're trying to get away with something... don't frickin' hang a lantern there, okay?
There's a tradition in screenwriting of pointing out the script's own story or logic problems. I've heard this called both "shining a light on" the problem, or "hanging a lantern" on it. Basically, you've got a minor logic hole that isn't worth writing around, so you have a character in the story acknowledge the issue. The idea is, by acknowledging the issue, you defuse the audience's questions about it.
Say, for instance, a character in a horror pic noting that it would have been smarter to run out of the house, than into the basement. We then think-- okay, they know that was stupid. But too late now.
What you don't want to do? Shine a light on something that will actually make us ask more questions.
There's a scene in The Island in which Ewan McGregor has just started to question the rules of his post-plague institution. This particular institution is supposed to keep plague survivors safe... but is in fact a world in which human beings are essentially prisoners, manipulated into hoping they'll win a ticket to a Utopian island. All the prisoners are dressed in crisp sci-fi white.
In conversation with the director of the institute, an increasingly rebellious Ewan says: "And... Let's talk about all the white. Why is everyone wearing white all the time? It's impossible to keep clean." The conversation moves into a new direction from there, with that question never answered.
Well maybe it's just me, but when the character asks that question and is given no answer-- I start to wonder too! Hey, yeah, that must be so much effort in terms of laundry. And wouldn't it be easier to control all these guys if they wore colour-coded uniforms? Based on, say, gender, or age, or dietary needs, or whatever? Surely dressing them all exactly alike is more work than it's worth.
But the movie can't answer the question, because the only possible answer to the question "Why is everyone wearing white all the time?" is "Because we are in a science fiction movie."
If you're following convention for the sake of convention... or you're trying to get away with something... don't frickin' hang a lantern there, okay?
Labels: convention, meta, sci-fi
posted by Jennica at 3:04 p.m.
4 comments
