How not to use a soundtrack…

As an independent film maker, I am also a student of film and the techniques used to create it.  Subscription based video rental is one of the most useful tools I’ve ever seen for this, like Blockbuster Online or NetFlix.

I use NetFlix for one simple reason: instant online movie watching. Granted, it’s not their entire catalog, and many of the selections are old, but there’s still plenty there to keep my second monitor at work buzzing with distractions.

Today, I watched 9 1/2 Weeks. Not a bad little erotic/romantic romp. If Mickey Rourke being an asshole is your thing, you’ll be in heaven, although I was a little disappointed to find out that all of Kim Basinger’s nude scenes were performed by a body double.

If I had one real complaint about the movie, though, it’s the soundtrack, and if you’re a budding sound designer I’d strongly suggest you watch it to find out how NOT to create one.

Three things an aspiring movie maker needs to know about writing:

1. Each movie operates by its own set of rules.
2. You can’t make up the rules as you go, but you can make them up.
3. The rules don’t have to be explained, but the audience does need to know what they are.

In today’s installment, we’re going to examine rule #3: The rules don’t have to be explained, but the audience does need to know what they are. Of the three, this one is the hardest to grasp, and the one that is most easily messed with.

When you were a kid, did you ever get caught with your hand in a cookie jar? Your mom, glowering down at you over her horn-rims, demanded, “Explain yourself!” And the best you could reply was, “I dunno…” Your audience is like, in this over-stretched analogy, your mom.

The audience wants to know what the rules are. They need to know, deep down, what the rules are. Knowing the rules gives the audience something to stand on while they watch the rest of the movie. That’s why movies like Jacob’s Ladder and Donnie Darko are so tough to watch: those movies operate with their own set of rules (see #1) mostly made up (see#2) but the audience is not told what they are (as in DD) until the end (as in JL). It takes a skillful director and/or writer to carry that off. Me? Probably not yet.

You don’t have to explain everything, part 2…

Three things an aspiring movie maker needs to know about writing:

1. Each movie operates by its own set of rules.
2. You can’t make up the rules as you go, but you can make them up.
3. The rules don’t have to be explained, but the audience does need to know what they are.

In today’s installment, we’re going to examine rule #2: You can’t make up the rules as you go, but you can make them up.What I mean by that is that the rules don’t have to make sense outside the context of your movie, but you have to know the rules before you start playing the game, and then you have to play by them for the duration of your movie (or series of movies.)

A really good example of rule creation is in the movie 5ive Girls. It’s not a particularly good movie, but it follows this rule almost as if the producers read this blog before hiring a writer. The rules this movie operates under are the most non-sensical and derivative of any movie I’ve ever watched, but they’re established early on and solidly.

A series that violates the rules? Star Wars. Example: midichlorians. In Episode 4, “A New Hope”, we’re told by Ben Kenobi that “the force” is an energy field created by all living things. In Episode 1, “The Phantom Menace”, we’re told it’s a side effect of a bloodstream parasite.

‘Scuse me?

Anyway, thanks, George, for making my point. (Disappointingly, the Matrix trilogy does the same thing, though it’s much more subtle.)

So, to sum up: when you’re in the early stages of working through an outline, start thinking about the rules that will govern the characters and situations. If necessary, write them down as a list and post them by your computer. If you change the rules in the middle of the film (or series), the audience will catch it, and you’ll lose them.

The smart ones, anyway.

Next up: Rule #3. The rules don’t have to be explained, but the audience does need to know what they are.

Preview:

When you were a kid, did you ever get caught with your hand in a cookie jar? Your mom, glowering down at you over her horn-rims, demanded, “Explain yourself!” And the best you could reply was, “I dunno…”

This just in…

clicking the image will open a larger version in a new window

You don’t have to explain everything…

Three things an aspiring movie maker needs to know about writing:

1. Each movie operates by its own set of rules.
2. You can’t make up the rules as you go, but you can make them up.
3. The rules don’t have to be explained, but the audience does need to know what they are.

Let’s look at each point, briefly.

Number 1: each movie operates by its own set of rules. This point applies more to science fiction/fantasy/horror than to your average coming-of-age’r or costume drama. Many movies have rules in common: gravity works, for instance. The hero gets the girl but has to be tested to - but not beyond - the limits of his endurance. The bad guy (or girl) dies at or near the end, onscreen, and in the most spectacular fashion imaginable. In the eighties and early nineties, there was a rule that there was no aphrodisiac more potent than nearly being killed by the bad guy, so about an hour in to the film the hero and heroine would end up in bed and, if us 18-40 year old guys were lucky, having sex in decent lighting.

Unfortunately, it was another rule that sex was poorly lit. See Terminator for a great example.

Next Up: Rule 2, Making up the Rules.

Preview:

A really good example of rule creation is in the movie 5ive Girls. It’s not a particularly good movie, but it follows this rule almost as if the producers read this blog before hiring a writer.