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oh my GOD how have I never heard his philosophy before
From the same interview:
“I feel like in telling stories, there are the things the audience thinks are important, and then there are the things that are actually important.”
Your job as a screenwriter is to take the audience on a ride. It can be an emotional ride or entertaining ride — preferably both. And to accomplish that at a high level, you need to be able to balance the sharing and withholding of information. That’s how you keep the audience guessing.
Misdirects, red herrings, false endings, twists, and turns are the best tools you’ll use as a storyteller. Use them wisely. Use them often. Use them well.
The only thing that matters is twists!
The rationing of information is absolutely the beating heart of story structure
He has phrased it in a mercenary way (as befitting a dude who has existed in massive-budget franchises for most of his career), but he is not actually wrong.
That first paragraph is right
The second one is wrong
Not in an absolute sense, because there is a place for all of those things, but JJ sets the worst example because he uses them too often and not well
But you can't NOT use them and tell a story?
Every major plot beat in forum-favorite Knives Out, for instance, is a misdirect, red herring, false ending, twist, or turn. What he has said is so pedestrian and obvious as to be not really worth saying, arguably, but it isn't unique or wrong
There are so many things to dunk on the dude for that it's weird "Sounds like a bland storytelling 101 textbook when on a press junket" even charts
gotta get mad at the guy who did a bad star wars
This is mega condescending and dismissive
People had problems with his work even before that
I think that JJ is usually a flawed creator in his approach and outcomes, but I also think a lot of the criticism of him recently is hyperbolic and performative.
If the original Cloverfield had like even 20% less shaky camera, I probably would have loved it even with all the other flaws
Nah, you don't want to actually show the audience things! It's much better if you force them to keep guessing and wondering, "Hey, what's that out-of-focus thing behind all the lens flare? It might be important? Maybe?"
IT'S A MYSTERY
Cloverfield Paradox is one of the few times where I was upset at myself for watching something. Like, not even really mad at the film, just mad I was giving it the time of day instead of doing anything else.
That movie is basically "Here's {CONCEPT}, we're going to have wacky stuff happen because of {CONCEPT} but have no internal consistency over WHAT {CONCEPT} can actually do, so any time we want something random and nonsensical to happen, we just need to point back to {CONCEPT} rather actually try to be comprehensible."
any film dracula without hairy palms is the result of cowardice
dracula jacks off all day in his coffin
Okay so is he just really into edging or is the underside of the coffin lid fucking filthy
I mean, the dude wears all black and never seems to change his clothes, he can't just lay prone while whippin' off a batch and expect to be sinister the next night without some serious laundry.
if you lead an elite group of scientists into the desert to develop a top secret project, known as "quantum leap"and are pressured to prove your theories or lose funding, and prematurely step into the project accelerator and vanish; awakening to find yourself in the past, suffering from partial amnesia and facing a mirror image that is not your own but contact with your own time is made through brainwave transmissions with al, the project observer, who appears in the form of a hologram that only you can see and hear too much, you turn into a bakula
Rorshach Kringle on
+20
FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
any film dracula without hairy palms is the result of cowardice
dracula jacks off all day in his coffin
Okay so is he just really into edging or is the underside of the coffin lid fucking filthy
I mean, the dude wears all black and never seems to change his clothes, he can't just lay prone while whippin' off a batch and expect to be sinister the next night without some serious laundry.
if you lead an elite group of scientists into the desert to develop a top secret project, known as "quantum leap"and are pressured to prove your theories or lose funding, and prematurely step into the project accelerator and vanish; awakening to find yourself in the past, suffering from partial amnesia and facing a mirror image that is not your own but contact with your own time is made through brainwave transmissions with al, the project observer, who appears in the form of a hologram that only you can see and hear too much, you turn into a bakula
Posts
This is mega condescending and dismissive
People had problems with his work even before that
but yeah I mean 10 Cloverfield Lane is the only good one
Steam
but gimme a couple of hundo and I'll give it a go.
i just don't want to
dracula jacks off all day in his coffin
Steam // Secret Satan
Nah, you don't want to actually show the audience things! It's much better if you force them to keep guessing and wondering, "Hey, what's that out-of-focus thing behind all the lens flare? It might be important? Maybe?"
IT'S A MYSTERY
Okay so is he just really into edging or is the underside of the coffin lid fucking filthy
That movie is basically "Here's {CONCEPT}, we're going to have wacky stuff happen because of {CONCEPT} but have no internal consistency over WHAT {CONCEPT} can actually do, so any time we want something random and nonsensical to happen, we just need to point back to {CONCEPT} rather actually try to be comprehensible."
yeah I mean how else is he gonna open the lid
the coffin is to hide their shame in this daily ritual
why is Neville Page allowed to do what he does
he must be very pleasant and always turns in work early
Well yeah cause he owns a photocopier
I never knew it, but apparently I'm a vampire
I feel like this is a criminally underrepresented aspect of Dracula's character.
Steam // Secret Satan
It's a picture.
You can't click it.
It can't hurt you.
I mean, the dude wears all black and never seems to change his clothes, he can't just lay prone while whippin' off a batch and expect to be sinister the next night without some serious laundry.
The entirety of the internet experience in 2 posts.
He's a vampire, obviously he's got black cum
JACK ULAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Steam // Secret Satan
Sippin' jack is forever
Gus weve had our differences but I'd never fuckin do that to you bud
This was a journey.
Or he is a collector of more esoteric items