Greetings and salutations. It is I, Graham.

This week we are circling back around to movies, and how we can take some of our favorites to use as inspiration for characters, plots, and scenes. Two weeks ago I was supposed to write on this topic, but realized that we had written about movie influences back in January. However, Clevenger is pretty sure that we have more to say on this subject, and I trust Clevenger, so here goes.

So last time, I talked about how I watch a lot of low budget movies, B movies, and foreign films. I have personally found several diamonds out there, but I have also learned a lot from the stinkers as well. For one thing, I have learned that it is important to pay attention to where you place your resources in a project. This is true of both time and money. I think back to many of the science fiction movies of the tail end of the 70s and into the early 80s. They looked at the success of Star Wars, what it did with practical effects, and how impressed everyone was.

But for the next ten years, you got movies that would easily spend entire minutes with the camera panning around their fancy practical model. Even big budget movies like The Black Hole were doing this. Everybody went back to the slow shots of 2001, rather than paying attention to the fast paced storytelling of Star Wars. I have seen too many low budget movies that you can tell spent all their time and money on a few shots, or certain actors, and skipped out on writers, script developers, or editors.

The same is true with books. Clevenger and I have limited resources to put behind our writings. We have time, but what limited money we can afford to put to the project, we are having to debate and ponder where we can afford to go without, and where it is needed. Like the low budget movie, we have to decide on our goals, and on our priorities. In addition, something that I learned from low budget movies was the difference between taking an idea that was halfheartedly done in a big movie, and finding a way to present it in a refreshing manner, versus looking for concepts from a blockbuster, and copycatting it in order to try to ride their coat tails.

So that’s some of the more behind the scenes, production lessons I have learned and taken inspiration from. However, there are more craft oriented lessons I can speak on, as well. For one, the reminder that whether a character is morally good or bad, they can be amazing as long as they are not boring. And this also applies to a character’s chemistry with the characters they interact with. After all, they say that a hero is only as good as his villain, right? Movies make it easier to see these interactions and to measure them against others of their kind. But from there, you can translate them into your book characters.

I mentioned in the TV blog from two weeks ago that I learned a good bit about pacing from TV, and also from movies. But something that came a lot more with movies was foreshadowing and twist reveals. See, TV had everything down to a formula. Somewhere in the first third of the episode, you were likely to be introduced to the ally of the week, the villain of the week, and usually, some trick, gimmick, or gadget that was going to be used near the end to get out of the problem of the week. Anything even close to foreshadowing was telegraphed miles ahead. The show might open with one of the heroes being taught a new fighting move, or explained how to bypass a certain type of lock. This was so far past Chekhov’s Gun as to become silly.

With movies, however, they are typically telling one, cohesive story. Sure, sequels exist, but originally the concept starts as being fully enclosed. This means that the storyteller, which is a combination of the script writer and the director, are able to set the tone and pacing for each character as they move through the story. The best ones are able to introduce you to new people, let you get to know them a bit, and then walk you through how they overcome the plot of the story. This means they control the foreshadowing, and they control how subtle or obvious any twists may be. If done right, they even control how insignificant or important that twist might be. That is actually one of the things that has turned out to be an unexpected blessing, working with Clevenger. I am often too subtle with my foreshadowing. He has helped me feel more confident in bringing things into the forefront.

But there you have it. A few more insights into what I have been able to find in movies. Is it what Clevenger was expecting? We shall see. Was it what I was expecting? Honestly, I just started pulling threads. I may not have woven a completely coherent tapestry from what I gathered, but perhaps there is a kernel of wisdom somewhere in here. And perhaps a few threads for you to tug on, and see what shape you can make of them.

Don’t forget to love one another.

Graham