What we can learn from Genre films and TV shows

I've spent the day marking storyboards assessments at work, left at 7am, did two lectures, marked the rest of the day and got home at 7pm, so my brain is a bit fuzzy, but marking the storyboards made me realise how much we writers can learn from film. Sure it is a different medium but some things remain the same.

For instance, I tell the students that 13th Warrior is a good example of world building and introducing back-story by using a character who does not know the culture and has to have things explained to him.


Then there's what Peter Jackson did when he made the movies of Lord of The Rings. When I read the books to my kids I skipped whole chunks of travelogue and poetry. I read the meat of the story, the exciting adventures. And what Peter Jackson did was embed the back-story in the props (if you watch the special features you'll see how the designed the props to contain the history of each of the cultures).

He tightened up the story and he gave Faramir a story arc. In the book Faramir isn't tempted by the ring at all. In the extended version, he has a good reason to want the ring to win his father's love so he is tempted, which makes his refusal to take it from Sam and Frodo much more noble.And then we have Firefly, which is brilliant for so many reasons. There's great world building, embedded into the narrative. There are character arcs for all the different characters and Joss Whedon deliberately chose to use an ensemble cast because he said he liked to use the characters to bounce of each other. As each episode unfolds bits of back story are told by one character to another, so that the audience are told at the same time. The story is told with a leavening of humour, and it has realistic emotional reactions so the audience can engage with and worry for the characters.

It is set against a big backdrop but the story is intimate. It brings us close to the characters. I'm always telling my students to use Close Ups to show what the character feels and to make the viewer care about the characters. This is what we need to do as writers. We need to make the reader feel connected to the character. We need the readers to have an emotional investment in the characters so that they keep turning the page.

So there you have it. I've been marking storyboards all day, but at the same time I've been refining my sense of story and how to tell a story. So, do you get 'writer' revelations while watching films and TV shows?

Non Linear Story Telling

I went to see the movie Inception and really enjoyed it. (The set design and lighting were beautiful). I liked it that the main character's driving motivation was to return to his children.

For any one who hasn't seen the movie I will say only that is about dreams within dreams. It reminded me a little of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in that it was playing with reality. It also reminded me a little of Momento, in that it made you ask what what is real and can I trust the main character's perception of reality.

There are many SF stories that ask what is reality but there seems to be more non-linear story lines in movies than in books.

Linda Cowgill says:

‘Nonlinear film deconstructs a character, complicated event, situation, or a combination of these elements by reordering the time sequence and creating a new arrangement of time for dramatic, and thematic, purposes. This rearrangement makes the telling of a story more compelling than if we left the scene progression in chronological order.’ (See full article Non-linear narrative: the Ultimate in Time Travel).

Think of the Firefly episode 'Out of Gas'. That was a complicated time line, but ultimately a very satisfying episode.

You see the occasional flashback in books. But I'm having trouble thinking of examples of more complicated non-linear story telling. Can you think of any? Were they done well? Why do movies use this device more than books?

Confessions of a TV series addict.

Okay, I admit it, I'm a TV series addict. Especially, if they are spec fic based. If you are into lists, here's a site with the 10 worst SF series ever. See if you agree. It is a bit hard to know because some of these have never made it out to Australia. And, while I do trawl sites looking for interesting TV series, I won't buy one that's bad just to see how bad it is. I'm not that far gone ... Not unless it gets to Ed Wood stage ... gasp, I am almost that far gone.

I guess you can tell by the illustration that I think one of the all time best TV series was Firefly. Go, Joss Whedon. I really enjoyed Buffy, found Angel took itself too seriously and thought Dollhouse was only just getting into its stride at the end of the first series. The problem with Dollhouse was that it was too hard to connect with the female protagonist because she changed each episode (she was a Doll who assumed a new personality for clients). It wasn't until we started to see the workings of the Dollhouse that the show lifted a notch.

Back in the entertainment desert that was TV before we had VHS and then DVDs, there was always Doctor Who. For me the quintessential Doctor Who has to be Tom Baker and his companion would have to be Leela, the girl in the leather bikini who liked to resolve disputes with her knife. And then there was Blake's 7. Oh dear, I thought Servalan, the evil super sexy Supreme Commander was luscious. For all those teenage boys who grew up in the 70s, here she is. Give me an intelligent, powerful woman any day. And there were so few in those days.

OK, time for confessions. What were your favourite TV shows growing up?

For me, Bewitched in the 60s. I wanted to grow up to be Samantha.

70s -- Doctor Who with Tom Baker and Blake's 7.

80s --Gee, I can't think of a spec fic TV series in the 80s. I discovered The Young Ones, but they were absurdist rather than spec fic.

90s -- it would have to be Absolutely Fabulous (not really spec fic) and Red Dwarf.

I didn't discover Buffy until about 2 years ago, which meant I could buy the whole series and pig-out watching it one episode after the other.

What are your favourite TV series and why?