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?

Books made into Movies and TV series

Fans of Stephen kill will be glad to hear that his 'The Dark Tower' is to be made into a film trilogy and TV series. It will be directed by Ron Howard who says:

“By using both the scope and scale of theatrical filmmaking and the intimacy of television we hope to more comprehensively do justice to the characters, themes and amazing sequences King has given us in The Dark Tower novels. It might be the challenge of a lifetime but clearly a thrilling one to take on and explore.”’

It would be fair to say that every writer would like to see their book/s made into a TV series of a movie. Only a very few are and, when they are, they can be very different from the book/s on which they were based.

The Harry Potter books were made into movies with varying success. The first few followed the books too closely. It wasn't until (I think it was) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, that they started to interpet the books which led to a more elegantly told story.



Look at the success of Charlaine Harris's True Blood series which had been turned into the TV series of the same name. I found the books an enjoyable read in their genre. Alan Ball, the director of the TV series, has taken the premise and refined it to make a TV series that is biting (sorry about the pun) and insightful. The award winning series titles encapsulates the essence of the TV series.

Then there is the excellent job that Peter Jackson did on Lord of the Rings. Now I must admit that when I read LOTR to my children I skipped the lengthy poems and pages of travelogue. I read my kids the exciting bits and this was what Peter Jackson served up, with hints of the back-story. (Warning, LOTR purists will not agree). I think Jackson improved on Tolkien's structure in the scenes with Faramir. In the book Faramir is never tempted by the ring. He just lets Frodo go. In the movie he has the motivation to keep the ring because he wants to win his father's love and he is tempted, so it is more heroic when he lets Frodo go.

I'm always looking out for new TV series and movies to watch and I particularly like being able to compare these with the books, (if they're based on books). Can you think of a TV series or a movie that is based on a book or series of books that really impressed you?

Antagonist Viewpoint

How far should a writer journey into an antagonist’s mind? How far should they go in presenting this on the page?

I don’t think anyone is going to dispute that fact we need to know the antagonist’s backstory and motivations in order to construct the story. But how much to present?

I personally love writers who give you the full viewpoint of the bad guy. That was one of my frustrations with writers such as Tolkien, where the ultimate bad guy remains little more than a dark cloud on the horizon over Mordor, and the menace of a floating eye glimpsed for a moment from an old stone chair. Can you imagine LoR where you get to see inside Sauron’s mind?

David Gemmell loved to get inside the villain’s head. I always enjoyed his exploration of the bad guys thinking process, where evil acts were often rationalized as the sensible choices made by any rational man -- how there was no good or evil, no ultimate morality, only power and weakness, and those with the strength to do what the weak feared. The sort of reasoning that appeals to psychopaths. Great stuff.

For me it always heightened the final conflict, to see the good guy and the bad guy coming at each other, both inside their minds, and also in the story. An inevitable pair of tangents that had to intersect spectacularly. And when the bad guy took his last gasp and uttered a few fateful words – you knew exactly where these sat in terms of his thinking.

I tend to always give my bad guys a good slice of PoV, not too much -- usually around 5% of the story – but a like to get inside their heads. I like to think this increases the sense of menace and raises the stakes for the good guy.

What are your thoughts on writing the antagonist’s viewpoint? Is the Evil Overlord better as an unknowable mystery? Or do you like to see the dark mechanics of his twisted mind?

Comfort Reads

After Dave's wonderfully clever post about getting it right in books. I thought I'd blog about something a little lighter.

Why do we keep coming back to our favourite authors and TV shows?

For the same reason we love love LOL cats. They are make us smile in a scary world.

One of the reasons the Harry Potter books did so well, was because they were familiar. We've all grownup reading boarding school books, mysterys and fantasy books. JK Rowling combined all these elements.

When I'm too sick to read, I watch the 1960s TV series Bewitched. As a child I wanted to grow up to be Samantha. If I need a change of pace, I turn to the first Lord of the Rings movie. The early scenes set in the shire are so soothing. I could retire there.

When I want a comfort read I turn to Georgette Heyer. Yes, the Queen of Regencies. I have my favourites, and I am gradually replacing the books that have fallen apart with new editions. She writes so effortlessly, knows her period so well and has such insight into human nature.

Another comfort read for me is Terry Pratchett. He can make me laugh aloud. I have to admire his insight and the way he satirizes our world.

What are your Comfort Reads and why?