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Worst sci-fi cliche on TV: a main character is possessed by an unknown alien being, and controlled like a puppet. He does terrible things, but in the end when the alien is driven out, his crewmates instantly believe this improbable story, and thus forgive him completely.
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In any whodunit, at some point in the film or show, we meet the person whodunit, even though they have yet to be identified as the culprit.
For once, I would like the person whodunit to be someone who DOESN'T appear in the film until right up to the point that they are apprehended or whatever.
That's very dangerous dramatically for a whodunnit or drama, unless the guy is a stealthy, near-supernatural killer.
A rule of thumb for films and books is you NEVER introduce a major character who influences the plot after around the half-way point in a film. (Although Bollywood films break this rule, but that's the least of their genre-bending issues.)
If you don't find out who the killer is until the very end, and you've never seen him in the entire film (only the aftermath of his work), then the film would have to completely focus on the protagonists, and the reveal of the killer won't be as shocking, or scary (since it could literally be "anyone") as knowing that you've actually SEEN him earlier in the film, but it's as much a mystery to you as it is to the heroes.
The only film to pull off a conceit similar to this is "Seven," and even then, there were suggestions of the killer throughout the movie. Dramatically, it's very tough to do this without the audience feeling cheated.
-- Jon
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The "Sword and Sorcery" plot...
A young, naive "reluctant hero" must make a perilous journey to a far-off "dark fortress" where a monstrous villain is poised to destroy the world. At the last minute the hero vanquishes the villain and sets the world aright (and usually lives happily every after with the maiden or princess).
J.R.R. Tolkien more or less came-up with this, but ironically every fantasy movie -- Dark Crystal, Dragonslayer, Krull, Legend, Black Cauldron, Willow, et al -- exhausted the idea long before LOTR was brought to the screen.
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Roger Ebert has a whole list of movie cliches that are really funny.
One of my favorites is "the fatal cough" -- if a character in the film coughs for no obvious reason, that guy/girl is gonna die of some hideous disease. You can bet money on it.
So, what are we to make of a TV personality's face swelling up like a balloon, Roger?
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Posted: |
Jun 14, 2007 - 10:21 PM
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By: |
Jim Phelps
(Member)
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Let's also retire the "spinoff within an established TV series" plot. The Star Trek episode "Assignment: Earth" comes to mind, it dispenses with Kirk and crew almost entirely and they only emerge at the end with that sickening bit when Kirk and Spock wish Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln "luck." Magnum, P.I. also pulled the spinoff trick, with the episode, "Two Birds of a Feather" with William Lucking as some pilot and Magnum nowhere to be found except at the end when he phones Lucking about the case or whatever.
Another tired premise is the "letting the audience know that their beloved main character will not be in this episode" routine. There was a Quincy episode, "Has Anyone Seen Quincy?" that had the Klug-Man absent from the entire episode and replaced with some Asian guy. The regular characters are either not seen, except for maybe one token scene and it's usually via a phone call or a hurried explanation by a supporting character, like that tried and untrue bit when Redd Foxx held out for more dough: "Oh, Fred Sanford? Why he's in St. Louis, but I'm Grady and I'll be here this week", or some such nonsense.
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Posted: |
Aug 21, 2007 - 7:27 PM
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By: |
CindyLover
(Member)
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How about having a suspected suicide actually be a suicide, rather than murder. That would put many 1970s detectives out of business, however, and we all know that Frank Cannon and Dr. Quincy need the dough...
Quincy maybe, but Cannon certainly seemed to live pretty well (unlike most private eyes on TV). That plot premise actually was used, sort of, in Quincy, M.E.'s "Semper Fi" (in which a cadet found dead after a fall hadn't died accidentally or been murdered, but jumped) and Hawaii Five-O's "R & R -- & R" (also suspected murder, but suicide).
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(I'd also like to see, in every shot of a film set in Paris, the Eiffel Tower visible through every single window in a flat, even if you have a Steadicam going from room to room, each facing a different direction. Same with London and Big Ben, San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge, etc.)
-- Jon
Fantastic idea! Can I use that in a short film?
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I could forever lose the "screaming police captain who's always wrong about our hero." Or the "punch the jackass official at the very end after pretending to walk away."
Evil twins can go. Also, I'd love to see the main bad guy just shoot the son of a bitch without explaining anything (or even taking the time to say he's not going to explain). A real evildude would not take the chance of a delay.
A little tired of the "bad guy dies quickly, but springs back to life at the last second" thing.
TV show specific chiches:
Trek - "Shields are down to 30%. 15, 12. The next shot will kill us for sure!"
The landing party is on another ship. They start to beam them up, the other ship explodes. Did they get the crew off in time?
24 - Jack torturing someone. "4 cc's!" Jack going rogue. Jack getting the shit kicked out of him, is clinically dead, but running after a terrorist less than an hour later.
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