This is old. OLD. but i will always stand by my opinion that langdon was right to reprimand santos on her unsupervised trigger point injection. If that were me, I'd have been put on scutwork for the rest of the shift. That kinda behaviour is dangerous.
I have to roll my eyes at people complaining about the “green screen” in this scene because the background is “blurry”.
This is a practical set. Only the distant background that will be out of focus anyway may be digital.
It’s blurry because the focal length of a camera lens can only take in so much and that in a shot you want to focus the audience on what’s important and not the background.
Not magic like wizards and spells. Stage magic. Misdirection, sleight of hand and such.
In the most basic sense, plotlines are curating audience expectations for the purpose maximising the effect of your pay-off scenes.
Ready to learn more? Follow me...
Genre
There's two ways to look at genre and you must look at it both ways to truly thrive. The first way is the general labelling system that groups stories by similar elements and surface details. It's about detectives? Crime drama. It has elves and magic? Fantasy. It has elves and magic in the modern day? Urban fantasy.
Growing up, we would call this window dressing. It's the little decorations you put up that signal to people the types of things they're to expect in your story. People have certain ideas and expectations when they watch a period drama romance, a superhero movie, a cold war-era spy thriller, etc. And most come with associated story conventions -- aka. the second way to look at genre.
The second way to look at genre involves first understanding not what is being used, but how it's being used. By cracking open conventions and understanding what's going on underneath, we can better use these elements for any genre of story and really make things that stand out.
Feelings
Ultimately, this is the pay-off for all the major moments in your story. A feeling. Horror, fear, anxiety, angst, joy, wonder, enlightenment, hope, etc. Every big moment in your story is trying to get a reaction from your audience, and everything leading up to your big moments is cultivated using genre-savvy, misdirection and accepted tropes to make that scene have a big impact!
The Tools
We have some strong tools in our hands in the form of genre conventions. Some genres suggest surface details that more immediately understood: the fantasy genre evokes visions of medieval Europe, castles, dragons, magic, Kings, prophecies, adventure and war, etc.
Other genres suggest more story beat elements that we expect to play out in the story: the mystery genre often involves a murder (or more), red herrings, suspects, lies and deceit.
But we can mix the elements of both to create a whole new beast. Now, I'm not gonna go over plot frameworks like I originally planned to... because the truth is that I don't really know what kind of frameworks fit for me. It could be a situation where it's different for everyone, so I'll just keep it loose here but if things like Save the Cat, Plotto or any other master plots framework book help you, use them. Pacing is something absolutely individual to a person. I found 3-act structure to open-ended and things like Save the Cat far, far too restricting. I use a 5-act structure~
Now, let's crack open the Fantasy Genre and see how we can use the elements within to create something new...
Castles.
What are they and how are they used? They're often secure headquarters for other characters or groups, either friendly or enemy. If friendly, they may have to be defended. If enemy, they may have to be attacked or perhaps the characters might have to sneak into them.
Dragons.
What they are is highly dependent on how they're used.
Is the hero supposed to slay the dragon? If so, the dragon is may be used as an impressive, near-unkillable foe that must be overcome. Or it may be an entity of great wisdom viewed by it's more bestial traits. Or it could be something ancient compared to everything around that is poorly judged, persecuted or deeply vengeful.
Is the hero supposed to encounter and be afraid of the dragon?
Is the hero supposed to steal from the dragon?
Is the hero supposed to raise the dragon?
There are ways to break every element down to its core component and use it in any scenario.
You could make an entire heist story set in a fantasy realm with the dragon being a stand-in for bank/vault the characters have to break into. Not unlike The Hobbit but more leaning into the conventions and roles of a typical heist: seeking out particular misfits to deal with specific aspects of breaking into a dragon's lair.
You could make a murder mystery follow the basic conventions of a prophecy story element, only instead of a divine prophecy with vague nuance ripe for multiple ways to interpret it... you have a veiled threat in the form of a calling card, promising death or retribution and many of the characters start to suspect themselves or each other of being the "chosen one".
By taking the plot elements (things that happen) of one genre, and dressing them up in the standard conventions of another genre (window dressing), you can really create something unique.
And it doesn't all have to be light-hearted and played for laughs either. You can take a typical slash story framework, with horror lurking around every corner, and set it on... say... a spaceship?
You could take a buddy-cop story framework and put the characters in a zombie apocalypse fighting with each other and against the world to get on the last train leaving the area before it's too late. You could take the framework from any story you enjoyed or any type of story you enjoy and fine tune it to suit your needs by giving it more impact and oomph in the pay-off scenes, and suit your taste by dressing it up in the genre flavours you like.
Radical idea: when your friend is having a shitty time, that's not the time to make them take care of you and your problems on top of their own burden.
