I think I was about 17 when I discovered I had this ability and stongly suspected many other had it too.
Many of you know me asinternationally knownin naother filed but Little Peyton, now at age 60 is embarking on new career! Film production and screen writing!
Yesterday I disocvered I was coorect, others do have this same abilty,thatis they wath 5 minutes of a movie and know exactly what is going to happen, and even know some of the lines 'word for word' that are going to be spoken later on by a given actor.
Here is quick example of what Imean from one of my all time favote films 'Planet of The Apes' made in 1968 with the late Charlston Hesston.
The spaceship crrashes, Heston says " I read the chronometer before I left the ship, Henlien was right, wev'e been gone ten thousdand years in Earth time"
Ok why write that line in the script unless they are still on Earth? Next Chuck says in regard to why he went into the space service asan exploere " There has to be something better than man somewherw...has to be"
Why put that line in in the first 5 minutes of the film, only one reaons makesense, because Chuck will become the 'single handed defender. of the entire human race against all odds.
Know we are 10 minutes into the film. There is an avaalanche of evidence that Chcuk is on Earth in the future that he seems totally oblvious too somehow. Why write the script like that it is sort of implausible that Chuck would not have figured this out by now?
There canonly be one reason again, so when he does find out he is on Earth it is totally unambigious and visually very dramatic for him to 'disocver'. But the area if your paying attention, "...the forbiden zone was once a paradise' etc, is in what was the US and apparently on the Eaatern Coast.
So what Icon that evryone will at once recognize do we have there? Here there are few coices that are almnost eqully poosible (1) The Satue of Liberty (2) The LIncoln Memorial or (3) The Congess building. Clearly the best and most dramatic and most effective film wise would be the Statue of Liberty.
Hnece at age 17 after watching the film for about 9 minutes I am wondering how they are going to do the Satue Of Libery scen at the end, or wil it be the Lincoln Memorial?
None of this spoils my enjoyment or appreciation for this truly great film in the least either. In fact, I went back and saw 'Planet of th Apes' three times!
Ok so dial it up now to three days ago. I am tlaking with the writer of the script they are going to produce on and nera my Coloraod peoperty. I have also ben engaged to search for 'locations' and send them photos of intresting areas near my place (and there is no end to them really either)where a given scene might be shot.
I ma talking on the phone with the guy who wrote the script they are going to produce.
Unfortunately, I did not think the script was really wrth prodcung but that is not my end of the deal or my concern really. Again I knew every ttwis and turn after reading 5 pages into his script. It was all totally obvious to me.
We were talking about locatiosn for scenes and what might work. But actually I had not had time to read the whole script. But talking ot him I sort of forgot that fact.
But it somehow came out and told him I had not finsihed the reading the entire script yetas I wnat to be honest with him.
But then he said,'Then why did you send those pictures of the dirt roads in the forest and the cliffs?" I realized in a sense I was 'caught'. So I just told him that I assumed that's likley where the story was going,an ATV chase and the Texas millonaire going over a cliff.
He then asked me 'how far did you read?' Being struck with compuison to ell him the exact truth I said, I read throuh page 9. The total script was 137 pages.
He said, you know aht goingto happen even before you read the whole thing right?. And when you see film oyu know evrything that going to happen after the first ten minutes right?"
I was a bit surprised as he was not speaking in 'sarcastic tone' here at all, he was just confirming a fact he strongly suspected.
I came clean and said "As rule yes, sometimes even before that really".
Then he said "I'm the same way, drives my gril nuts sometimes, she says why do you bother wathcing a film when you already know everything that going to happen ?"
Now understand this guy has written and producced several films and some that did real well too. He does speailize in lower budget ,genre films though.
These 'comnfessions' we made to each other opend up an entirely new converstaion that went on for about three hours as I recall.
His basic theory was the same as mine. Everyone had this ability to signficant degree anyway, it was just that only some were super conscious of it at all.
Hence he went on to say that audiences do not like twists or plot changes really, unless yoiu let them know they are coming and do them belivably. The audience recieves pleasure and satisfaction by seeing what they want to happen, actually happen on the screen.
Though they will be involved in a verygood film to the extent that 'suspends belief'' and they momentarily forget rhat they are in a movie theater. Sometimes until the lights comeback on.
This was my ambiotn to withmy feature film. To make it so paced and enageing that the auidence for the most part would have a 'suspension of belief'.
One can't write a story that is both dramtic and engaging without developing each scene properly to give the next one its dramtic effect and make the audience care what hapens to given chatracters and especially the main character.
This is primarily achieved by proper pacing of the story In Raisers of the LOst Ark this was done very well and suuceeded very well. Sure oyu knew what was goingto hapen next, but it occures so fast and then the next thing was right on top of that such that you had 'supension of belief' and were engrossed in the film.
I mentioned that Tarrantino approched this consept by non seqwunetial time line, thatiusnon liner time line of events, and not tellig a story, but showing pieces of several small stories which all incomplette but which at the concluson all came togther in some way.
'Pulp Fiction' being the poster boy par excellence for this approach. But here is the real puzzle.
Did Tarratino use these devices knowing the psychology of the auidience and that pre-consciously they reject any actual unpredictable surpises or 'plot twists' as it creates cognitve dissonance within them that reaches the fully consious level by the need or shortly bfore the conclusion of the film?
Thus he avoids this entirley by using the non-linear time element presentation style avoiding the cognitive dissonance as the viewer is totally engaged in trying to figure it all out and what the story even really is until its almost over?
This is to me a brilliant way to "suspend belief" in an audience, if you can pull it off right and not make it contrived. And clearly Tarantino pulled this fim making technique magnificently in Pulp Fiction.
The next thing we discussed it what actors bring the party and how they impact the various formulaes. But hat is for the next blog entry of mine I suppose. 'time for bedy pie night night for me' now Peyton Quinn
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