A simple share from me today. This is why some filmmakers leave me cold, with the complexity of their plots. The stories are so densely packed with cinematic tricks or sometimes it feels like it’s all a clever effects and shifting POVs that are meant to confuse, that I just can’t get in to it and feel something.
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I didnt like Tenet because the plot involved too much thinking, too many wtf scenes, and Nolan is one of my fav filmmakers of this generation.
Long ago, I invited myself to a WGA event and writer Billy Ray was giving career advice to new members, and his big thing was keeping plots simple. Not dummy down plots but focus on emotional journeys characters must face.
basically Sweeney & Ray are saying the same thing- they must be right since they got jobs.
Dunno..."mechanics" and "feel" are not quite same in script and on screen...In "Saving Private Ryan" you probably read "Miller cries" but try watching that scene...that statement I think would better suit novelists than screenwriter...in our job, words on paper are not the final stuff...you only need to hint the other side...their job is to deliver...
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Its something that comes up when giving feedback sometimes, making the distinction between "complex" and "complicated". Sometimes writers when wanting to make something complex throw in too many twists and unnecessary extras, making the result feel cumbersome and weighed down by its need to seem more intelligent than it is. The original Ghost In The Shell is a great example of a movie that is complex without it becoming overburdened and unnecessarily complicated. It is also regarded as one of the most cerebral movies ever made and is only 82 minutes long!
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I agree and have experienced this. I am a worldbuilder. I was getting so caught in building my world that I lost character and to a degree story. They say story is king, but character is the co-ruler.
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Absolutely. Sometimes a story told in a low voice touches the heart...
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I genuinely enjoy a simple story with a lot of nuance.
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Scott Myers (Go Into The Story) said on Twitter: "Complex characters, simple plot." (paraphrased)
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This is a good perspective. A lot of popular TV shows and movies a few years ago cared more about shock value than a comprehensive plot and it failed miserably.
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Dan MaxXx so right, Dan. For me, some filmmakers convolute a story to show how clever they are and I’m at a time in my life that I’m just not interested in seeing someone else flaunt their superior talents to me, for two hours.
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Hi Shellie (sorry, can’t tag again) that’s a great word - ‘nuance’. That to me is the word of the day! Characters with nuance, not cardboard cut-outs. Stories with ‘nuance’ and not on-the-nose dialogue. Plots with ‘nuance’, that strike the emotional chord with every twist and turn.
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Jan Lech Hi Jan, excellent. One of my favourite David Bowie, late in life words of wisdom was “to be heard, the truth needs only to be whispered.”
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Maurice Vaughan yes, yes and yes!
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Jan Lech by the way, I love your job title. Dramaturge is such a wonderful descriptor!
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Martin Reese nice one, Martin!
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Ewan Dunbar yes, Ewan. The Original Ghost in the Shell was complex but it didn’t stop the action nor did it shirk from some deep philosophical, existential issues. Loved it. Oshii is such a great Director.
Complicated would seem to be a word that suggests there was too much narrative glue that stopped the flow of the story. It’s a intricate balancing act, is it not?
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I am a collector of life dramas and stories. In Siberia, I found and arranged a meeting with the most unknown Olympic champion in Munich in 1972, Ivan Dvorny. When I asked him at the first meeting to take the gold medal of the Olympics in his hand and smile ... To take a photo. There is a champion, there is a gold medal, but there are no smiles! He couldn't smile! Could not! It was difficult to make contact. For a long time he did not believe that I was collecting material in order to write a book about him ... Until the age of 14, he lived in a peasant family, in a Siberian forest, and at 20 he became an Olympic champion in the American game - basketball ... At 21, he went to prison, I spent half a year in solitary confinement... Amazing drama! By the way, he was an honorary citizen of the city of Baltimore...
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Jan Lech Jan, that is an incredible story. And the book, please tell me more.
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Thank you sincere professional interest! The book is called "Block Shot" and has become a world-famous circulation in Siberia. Absolutely private project - my initiative. Ivan Dvorny could not hear her, because he could not stand the surging storm of emotions. I read May from the story to him. On the first page of the manuscript, he says: "Here is my life described, truthfully and honestly." When they returned from a tour of US cities, in Paris, Ivan Dvorny way to the Eiffel Tower. One. He watched that, looking at the landscape of Paris from above, an incredible feeling of happiness and freedom. “It seems to me that I will never get to Paris again,” he said bitterly. At birth, he was greeted under the slogan of the struggle for the purity of Soviet sports. Arrest. Six months in single transmission. He was accused of smuggling, he was carrying some things for resale. Convicted. Olympic champion, honorary citizen of the city of Baltimore is approaching the construction of a pig farm in the village of Nurma, Leningrad Region. All, by the way, in the same sneakers that he bought in America. A little later, according to the same scheme of detention at customs, Alexander Belov, another center of the Leningrad "Spartak", was occupied with all ranks. The one! The legendary man who hit the basket in the last second in the USSR-USA match at the 1972 Munich Olympics. For him, this blow was fatal. Alexander Belov died of heart sarcoma at the age of 26. Ivan Dvorny was released from the prison area for the funeral of a teammate. Such a "gratitude" was received by the attacking centers of the Leningrad "Spartak" ... Ivan Dvorny returned to Siberia, to his native village, got a job as an assistant beekeeper with a salary of 48 rubles a month. Then he moved to Omsk, worked as a railway worker, started a family ... He said that he often dreamed of a game, as if he were passing under a shield and, while jumping, kicked the ball into the ring from above. ..Blessed memory to the heroes of sports...
But what about Paris?
I recently learned that the book "Shot Block", despite a very small circulation, published in Siberia, ended up in Paris, in the F. Mitterrand Library. Center from under the sky returned to Paris ...
I tried to send a copy of the book "Block-shot" from Siberia to the USA, to an American publishing house. For a long time there was no answer. Made a request by mail. The answer came from the mail: they say, your book was lost in America, you are entitled to compensation of 1600 rubles ... So, they didn’t release it ...
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"Block Shot" sounds like a great book, Jan. So, the book was published in Siberia, but not the U.S.?
Yes, that's right ... In the depths of Siberian ores, the book "Block Shot" was published ... The book was read and positive reviews were written by two professors, from Omsk - Vladimir Azarov, from St. Petersburg - Alexander Belyavsky ...
More or less like this... )))