Recursive suspension of disbelief: also, robots

Okay, so let's say it's approximately between the years of 1987 and 2010 and you're going to Disney World,  and you're gonna ride "Star Tours".

 Anyway, you, wait through the line get in the impressive but fake spaceship thing and you sit down staring at a large garage door with a TV screen to the right.

 

Somebody turns a switch, walks out of the vehicle, and this shows up on the tv.

 "Hello, I'm a cute robot who shouts a lot, since you're waiting for this ride to start, I'll go ahead and raise this garage door".

 WHOA, look at that, the robot's not in the TV, he's REAL, and ohmygodwe'reflyingthroughspacewheeeee!!!

Anyway, this ties into something I ran across in Rowland Wilson's Trade Secrets:

...the use of the system within a System.

 Let's say your weird drama friends drag you to watch a High School production of Hamlet, and like most High School productions, it sucks, but your weird drama friends won't stop talking about the significance of the play within the play  and how Shakespeare used similar device in a Midsummer Night's Dream and stuff.

You get bored with them talking about all that and would rather read an article about Batman at overthinkingit.com

 Putting a tiny story that the characters view within the context of a big story is more than a gimmick, it's a useful device, that can help acheive such effects as ...

PLOT EXPOSITION
  Here is a man being chased by a Dinosaur.

   His innner monolog, shortly after "Shit, I'm being chased by a Dinosaur" is most likely "Where did this Dinosaur come from?"
The audience wonders this too. But if the characters just opened their mouths and explained all the sciencey stuff in glorious detail...

 
    that would be boring.

  So, Jurrasic Park:the movie features Mr DNA:The movie inside the movie,  an educational-style cartoon starring a strand of DNA talking about science-wizards and other hurbelby burbeldies.

 

  And the audience is sufficiently informed on why there are dinosaurs to chase around Jeff Goldblum, but without being as bored as they'd be by reading Jurassic Park: the book.

  THEMATIC DEVICE.
   The Powell and Pressburger's  "The Red Shoes" (1948) is a talking, non-musical drama about a ballerina choosing between love and work.

 It features an elaborate ballet sequence presented as a story-within-a-story retelling the titular Hans Christian Anderson story. The sequence featured wild set dressing and crazy colors, stylasitcally different from the rest of the movie.

The movie has a downer ending, and seems to comment on obsession, and tragic side of art, which has several parallels with the Fairy Tale about the little girl who dies because she can't stop dancing. 


WORLD BUILDING

 Both Lewis Carrol's "Wonderland"  and J.R.R. Tolkein's "Middle Earth" have proven to be some of the most engrossing worlds in fiction.  Yet the authors seem to be completely different, except both of them love poetry.

Random.

Pointless.

Poetry.


  Whether it be the giant Caterpillar or Aragorn son of Arathorn, it seems like almost everybody has a ballad to sing, or a few verses to recite. These poems are complete works unto themselves, and plopped into the story proper, one suspects, because the author bloody well felt like it.
  Little to none of it has anything to do with the plot.

But  the ancient ballads of Gondor and  exploits of Father William enrich the worlds they exist within, through layers of artifice, much like loud robots.

See what I did there?

  Even though motion simulators were a novel idea in 1987, the concept was easy enough to grasp: the images for the ride were a point-of-view film while the small theater was bounced around on hydraulics in synch with the "ride". Even the Scooby Doo  Gang could figure that out.... But there's that damn TV screen on the righthand side of the ride display: the one that first shows off the robot.

The foolish human brain looks at the TV tube and says "that is FAKE", by comparison, everything else, the larger, more sophisticated movie screen and the onboard shouting robot, seem real, which  encourages the suspension of disbelief through showing depth, rather than breadth.

 So to nest stories within stories is more than a gimmick, it's a tool for engrossing the viewer in plot, character, and making them believe, even for a moment, that what they just witnessed is real.

The Films of Jonathan Lynn: The Fighting Temptations

2003
Released by Paramount Pictures
Screenplay by Elizabeth Hurter and
Saladin Peterson.

Darrin (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is a con man in need to escape some credit card debt who learns his Aunt Sally has just died, leaving him a large sum of money... on the condition that he lead a small time

Let's start with the good: "The Fighting Temptations" delivers solidly on the music, and amazingly (or maybe expectedly enough) the music numbers actually do their job.

In music theater, a songs is expected to further the plot, develop or reveal character, or heighten the mood. In modern film musicals, if a song doesn't further the plot, it's usually cut out. In short, if the story is going to have music, the music has to tell the story.

In her first big number Lilly sings "Fever" at a nightclub, while Darrin watches, this lets the audience know she can sing and is of value to Darrin's choir. The setting is much like the nightclubs where Darrin's mother sang, presumably an intended parallel by Elizabeth Hurter. Also, that "Fever" is a steamy ballad, also serves to set up Lilly as Darrin's love interest.

Later in the film, Darrin has rounded his choir out with prison convicts, who perform the inevitable rap number "Down to da River". In the story context, this impresses the Reverend (since they're rapping about Jesus, yo) and represents a positive swing for Darrin in his quest to build the choir. This action also infuriates Paulina, directly motivating her to make her next antagonistic move.

Even "Loves me Like a Rock", the song performed in honor of a child's haircut ( um... yeah) serves a story purpose in that it's both information for Darrin and exposition for the audience:Monte Carlo is filled with talented singers; they'd just rather work in Barber Shops than in the choir.

So really, as part of a film Genre, "The Fighting Temptations" is as every bit as valid as a musical as Cabaret, West Side Story or Tangled.


It's still a stupid movie though. (up comes unfair comparison).

The end of "Singing in the Rain" concerns talented-but-unknown Kathy Seldon is hidden behind a curtain, dubbing as the singing voice for famous-but-bitchy Lina Lamont at a live performance. Throughout the film, there's been a definite motif of "Somebodies" and "Nobodies", stars and commoners, like Don the movie star and Cosmo the Piano Player. This pattern is even reflected in the otherwise non-sequitor "Broadway Melody" sequence,. What this motif means is pretty much up to the individual critic/viewer, whether it's about class in society, the dynamics of public verses private lives or even just the value of being yourself. Anyway, the motif is consistent throughout the movie, and the whole thing culminates in that moment when the curtain goes up...

And the audience gets a charge of meaning, whether it's political , personal or elsewise. In fact, Singin in the Rain couldn't have ended any other way, and gained the same worldwide resonance it currently has.

The climax of "The Fighting Temptations" the vote to case Paulina out of the group, has no basis or setup in the story and consequently has no meaning whatsoever.
How else could this movie have ended? Darrin starts out the movie by lying a bunch, maybe the big significant climax could be he tells the truth when it really matters? Both Darrin and Paulina manipulate others for selfish reasons. Would an appropriate resolution have to do with selfishness verses altruism? Hell, there was a good three minute speech about booty earlier in the movie, if everybody won the Gospel competition by showing their asses, even that would make more sense.

Thing is "The Fighting Temptations" just doesn't have a point. No overriding theme, moral or observation to be expressed. Which makes the characters flat, without purpose and uninteresting, which in turn fails to engage the audience in any kind of emotional investment which in turn drains the scenarios of tension, peril, suspense or any reason to care. What's left is a plodding collection of sights and sounds that's either a dumb movie that keeps getting interrupted by music numbers, or a concert video with really inane skits between the songs.

Either way it's a waste of time.

a short thought.

Here are some kittens for no particular reason

Continuing with the theme of stage Improv informing storytelling, I’d like to talk about how the game “Half-life” (the stage game, not the video game) can be useful as a focusing tool in the early drafts of a scenario, script or storyboard. The stage game goes that the players improvise a 2 minute scene, then play the same scene at 1 minute, 30 seconds, fifteen seconds, 7, 3 and 1, wherein the scene gets wilder and wilder as people fly into position and scream plot points at the top of their lungs. This is useful in visual storytelling, as Scott McCloud pointed out in page 84 of Understanding comics with an ever-shortening scenario from one full page of panels to merely two. Although in the bare minimum of space, narrative clarity can be lost, I find “half life” to be very valuable as a focusing tool, drawing my attention to the essence of the story spine, which beats need to be hammered, and what is truly extraneous.

(Game proper starts at 50 second mark)

Let’s talk improv. In “Half-Life”, players improvise a 2 minute scene, then replay the same scene, halved, and halved again until it’s one second long.. This is useful in visual storytelling, as Scott McCloud pointed out in page 84 of Understanding comics with a scenario progressively trimmed from one full page of panels to merely two. I find “half life” to be valuable in focusing my attention to which beats need to be hammered, and what can be cut.

In “Half-Life”, players improvise a scene, then replay it, until it’s one second long.. This is useful in visual storytelling, as Scott McCloud pointed out in “Understanding Comics”. “Half Life” focuses attention on what’s importand, and what can be cut.

Improvise a scene. Replay it until it’s one second long.. This is useful in storytelling. You focus on what’s vital.

Improvise until the scene’s one second long! Essence of storytelling!

One second long! Essence! Storytelling!

SHORTEN! ESSENSE! STORYTELING!

SHRESSENSYTELLING!