Waiting 2B Scene

Tag: Power of story

  • Video Essay: What’s in the Box? (CineFix)

    ** Spoiler alerts a head… though if you haven’t already seen this after twenty years, shame on you. **

    It was one of the most numbing thrillers of the mid-90’s… And if you didn’t immediately think of Se7en after reading that sentence, then you really missed out on something special!

    After a fairly tried-and-true series of murder-somethings throughout the 80’s, Hollywood screenwriters really started toying with audiences by switching it up in the 90’s. Misery served as the decade opener – but it was really The Silence of the Lambs that announced things had gone to a whole new thrilling level – becoming one of the few thrillers to receive a wide array of Oscar’s, including Best Picture1.

    By the time 1995’s Se7en rolled around, few thought that the thriller would turn out to be any good. Especially coming from by a first-time screenwriter and a director who had cut his teeth on music videos – and then had bombed in his “contribution” to the Aliens franchise. But the film wasn’t just good. It became a modern genre classic. And that, in no small part, came down to this very scene… a scene that Brad Pitt (among others) had to fight New Line Cinemas to keep in the film. In EW, Pitt was quoted as saying,

    “With Se7en, I said, “I will do it on one condition – the head stays in the box. Put in the contract that the head stays in the box.” Actually, there was a second thing, too: “He’s got to shoot the killer in the end. He doesn’t do the ‘right’ thing, he does the thing of passion.” Those two things are in the contract. Cut to: Se7en has been put together, and they’ve tested it. They go, “You know, he would be much more heroic if he didn’t shoot John Doe – and it’s too unsettling with the head in the box. We think maybe if it was the dog’s head in the box…” “

    And so today, in honour of it’s twentieth birthday – it is with great pleasure that I am sharing this excellent Video Essay by the CineFlix team – Se7en’s “Box Scene” – Art of the Scene:

  • Blog/Video: Thriller Horror on a Budget (Simon Berry)

    If there is anything that a film such as Paranormal Activity can demonstrate, it is that a creative idea doesn’t actually need an extravagant budget in order to be brought to life. I would argue that is especially true when it comes to the thriller/horror genre. And I will share a video that demonstrates that quite nicely. But first…

    For the sake of my blog space I want to touch on just two (of the admittedly many!) components that contribute to the success of a thriller or horror. If you would like more, well, Google will be your friend.

    Firstly, we need a good story. In a large majority of thrillers and horror films alike we will find a variation of this common theme: protagonist falls victim to someone/something else’s scheme – gets stuck in a moment of dread. There is a reason for that: it lends itself to being a good story. What happens to the protagonist? Do they get out? Are they overcome? Why does this other person/thing want the protagonist involved at all?  Etc etc etc. Exploring this style of thriller doesn’t need a big budget to be brought to life: just an intuitively thrilling way for the story to be told.

    Secondly, we need good pacing. This is critical. Just think about the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. Seriously. The guy was able to develop a proverbial stranglehold on his audiences! I recently read some reviews that suggested Hitchcock was slow and stodgy in his work – honestly, the effects of the reduction in attention span have clouded their judgement! Thrillers and horror are all about the suspense and the tension – and mark my words, Hitchcock was the best at that genre… and he held the mantle for a very long time. He was a maestro who knew how to effectively pace his stories in order to build the suspense. Like all thrillers, he was able to keep the audience in that constant tension of asking, “What comes next?”

    So then – let us turn our attention to the video part of today’s blog. This is fresh off the press, and is a little gem. At under 4 minutes, Simon Berry does wonders with this short thriller/horror. And more to the point – he did so with just a two day turn-around, and working with a micro-budget! He crafts a simple story, and builds tension with the pacing. Simple, yet effective. I think you will enjoy it.

  • Video Essay: Rear Window (Michael McLennan)

    Continuing my series of resource links, today I want to share a short clip that was pieced together by one of my friends, Michael McLennan. Michael also happens to be a long-time cinephile who has worked as producer, director of photography, editor, sound designer, music editor, and has also taught across a variety of film disciplines at the Sydney Film School. Recently picked up by the Indiewire team, today’s clip is a simple video essay that demonstrates Hitchcock’s amazing capacity for structural story-telling. In this instance, we find the story engaging with the audience through a carefully constructed repetition of symmetry.

    I personally find that such examples really ought to reinforce the idea that while amateurs point and shoot and think something along the lines of, “I hope this will look good!” – professionals plan and plan and plan, thinking more along the lines of, “How do I want this to look?” If we want to up our game and get our work seen – then we can all continue to learn tricks from the masters of cinema like this. I hope you enjoy.

  • The Power of Story

    It’s been a while since I wrote, so this one is a whopper. I apologise in advance. 🙂

    I love good media. I really do. There is something extremely satisfying about engaging with media in a way that moves people to action.

    A little while ago my church had a project that needed some video to tell the story. We filmed one of the beautiful mothers in our church sharing some of her story – then I tailed it with a simple After Effects template that was tweaked to give an overall recap of the project. At the conclusion of the clip, the congregation applauded! As linked to previously, I more recently had the opportunity to connect with Hope:Global in the telling of one of their stories which spearheaded a campaign to raise funds for the Village of Hope in Rwanda.

    In both instances, something about the telling of the story engaged with the ‘audience’ and moved them. This got me thinking of a quote often attributed to Plato: “Those who tell the stories rule society.”

    I believe that the power of stories – or myth as Joseph Campbell (author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces) called them – lies in their capacity to communicate and reveal truth. For brevities sake I don’t want to get into the age old question that Pontius Pilate asked of Jesus, “What is truth?” (John 18:38) Suffice to say for now that while different people have differing understandings of truth, the role of storytelling plays a vital role in the conveyance of those truths. A good tale told well will easily communicate ‘truth’ to an audience.

    P.K. McInerney once noted that, “Good reasons for what you believe, should be recognizable as good reasons by other reasonable people.” If that premise is true, then having other reasonable people recognise (and ultimately accept) truths is the great aim of any story. We have even coined a phrase to ask, “What’s the moral of the story?” Subsequently, I would suggest that if Plato’s premise that there is such power inherent in storytelling is correct, then the potential for its abuse is sort of frightening. In fact, that is one of the reasons I seldom watch the news any more. I find it is no longer reporting news inasmuch as it has become a vehicle with which to tell the masses a story of the ‘truths’ of fear, and danger, and hate, and violence, and etc. But it turns out that’s not as new an idea as we’ve been led to believe since ‘9/11’.

    Mass manipulation through fear – and it’s manipulating brother aspiration too, to be honest – is a long-standing abuse by mainstream media. If you wind the clock back to early twentieth century, we can find Edward Bernays telling us that, “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of…” (Bernays, 1928)

    Seldom do we find the virtuous story that inspires us to action in today’s economy. But those are the stories we need more than ever. Why does a story like Les Misérables continue to fire the imagination with it’s numerous stage shows and cinematic releases? Because it communicates love, forgiveness, redemption, self-sacrifice, and courage – to name but a few of the truths that Victor Hugo explored. These kind of truths resonate and inspire us. Is it any wonder that classical myths were so grandiose in nature? Yes, manipulation through fear and aspiration can get people moving: but they are short term solutions. Only inspiration produces long term results.

    And that is where I come full circle. Even though the vast majority of media enterprise is at best frightfully wasted (can anyone say Big Brother?), or at worst, flagrantly manipulative – I still love good media. I love it for the continued potential it has to inspire humanity to deep, long-lasting truths such as faith, hope, and love. And I love it because both you and I can actually step up, cease to be spectators, and actually become active participants in the media conversation if we want to. And when we do that, maybe our own story will inspire others to action. Now wouldn’t that be a story?