After All, Who Really Knew Him and Loved Him Better That She Did?

CONCEP 54 Sometimes the Characters Need to Know MoreT than the Audience One of the cardinal rules of the storytelling in any medium is that it’s never fair to withhold information from an audience that might have allowed them to solve the mystery or conflict on their own. That’s not to say, however, that a writer can’t mirthfully lead them astray with red herrings, subplots or a “McGuffin.” This latter word came into filmmaking vocabulary courtesy of its master, Alfred Hitchcock. In simple terms, a McGuffin is whatever seems to be important to the characters but is actually just a foil to distract an audience from the real plot. In Psycho, for instance, the $40, 000 stolen by Marion Crane is simply a McGuffin to move her into the creepy world of Norman Bates. Once she steps into the shower, the embezzled funds are never mentioned again, quietly vaporizing the significance we as the audience initially attached to them. There are also instances in which screenwriters have characters play their cards close to the chest and yet engage in decisions and actions that – by the story’s end – are revealed to be consistent with everything else they have demonstrated from the outset. While we are momentarily surprised we weren’t privy to their private thoughts, we are nonetheless satisfied that the writer hasn’t pulled any punches. This is poignantly demonstrated in Robin & Marian in which Sean Connery as the aged hero of Sherwood Forest discovers that his lady fair, played by Audrey Hepburn, has slipped a potion into both of their goblets that will render them lifeless. Wisely, she recognizes that neither she nor her beloved will ever know as glorious a day as those that have passed. She never clues us in on her end game but, at the end, will accept it. After all, who really knew him – and loved him – better that she did?

LOOK & LEARN

In The Sting, an elaborate charade is put into play which will not only divest the villain, Doyle Lonnegan, of a lot of money but also avenge the death of Hook and Gondorff’s fellow grifter, Luther. So successful is the ruse they enact that when an astonished audience sees Hooker and Gondorff mortally wounded on the floor of the casino, it’s as willing as Lonnegan, Lt. Snyder and FBI Agent Polk to believe both men are “dead.” In The Cherokee Kid, the character of Isaiah (Sinbad) is bound and determined to avenge the death of his brother, Jedediah, in a showdown with The Undertaker (Gregory Hines). What’s kept from us, however, is that the Undertaker is Jedediah. And, of course, let’s not forget the layers of secrecy inherent throughout the Star Wars saga. George Lucas knew the story’s destination all along; he just played it coy in sharing glimpses of the map. BRAINSTORMER AnswerS the following question IN COMPLETE SENTENCES. You must decide what your film is going to be about NOW!! You should be writing the treatment THIS WEEK!

1. In the film you want to write, what is your plot’s biggest surprise going to be?

Screenwriting for Teens, (Hamlett) pp. 107-108