Directors’ Cut: 3 Golden Rules for Film-making
From the Lumiere brothers lighting the way to Hitchcock mastering suspense to Spielberg’s summer blockbusters to George Lucas’s galaxy far far away, they’ve done it all. Pioneers like this paved the way for great film-making and now you can too. But what makes a great film so great? Great story, theme, and characters? Fancy editing? Tense climatic build-up? Famous actors? Compelling camera shots? Maybe, maybe not, or maybe a combination of many different elements are all at play. Every film is different. Some are comedic while others are dramatically serious, some have more action and adventure while others rely on a theatrical setting, some are nonstop violent and gory while others use the stillness of suspense. You get the point. No two films agree with each other. So what components make a film great? To answer this existential question here is a list of three fundamental rules in film-making. Lessons for the world of film-making and the techniques of the men behind the cameras.
Rule 1: Don’t Be Boring…
Filmmaker Frank Capra once said, “There are no rules in film-making. Only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness.” There’s nothing worse than the sin of boredom. Boring characters and a boring story can put the audience to sleep and make forgiveness hard.
In the live-action film, The Last Airbender M Night Shamalan does just that. There are so many chances for him to show the audience, but the film would rather explain, explain and keep explaining the plot away without being very engaging for the viewer. Exposition is a good thing because we find out what is going on, but it has a weakness too if you’re telling it in a very 2 dimensional way. The characters in this series seem to have little or no emotion. To make it more interesting during exposition try including a fight or chase scene, something that builds on the anticipation for our characters to succeed. When Zuko is at the water tribe village everyone is just standing and staring, very little is going on. To make things tenser Zuko and his men should be threatening people to show they mean business.
Exposition done right can be shown in Kubrick’s film “The Shining”, when Jack is slowly approaching Wendy with an ax he torments her, saying all the horrible things he’s going to do to her. This tormenting doesn’t stop when he’s tearing down the door with an ax he sticks his head in the hole and says “here’s Johnny”. Even though this moment lasted only a few seconds we remember it, quote it, and react to it because of how iconic it is. Everything about it is visually captivating and terrifying at the same time. Thereby avoiding boredom and being very suspenseful!
Rule 2: Be Dramatic!
Alfred Hitchcock; “The Master of Suspense” once said, “Drama is life with the dull bits cut out”. Just because something may seem interesting for you doesn’t mean the audience will feel the same way. Read your audience, know what they came to see. Look for what makes the story dull and cut it out.
In Hitchcock’s 1960’s “Psycho” the audience came to see a dramatic suspenseful horror and that’s exactly what they got. In the beginning, we see Marion Crane steal a large amount of money from her boss and go on the run. We don’t see her as the villain, instead, we empathize with her when we find out about her money problems.
Her boss is rich enough and treats money like grains of sand. He couldn’t care less if he lost a large sum of money. This is all very dramatic considering the risk and reward she’s taking. This drama is intensified when she’s out on the run and we get to the famous shower scene. Without giving away any spoilers the drama is passed on with Marion’s friends, family, and the people around her.
We can also use cross-cutting editing techniques to be dramatic. By cross-cutting you can juxtapose between two seemingly unrelated shots and connect them into one. In Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” cross-cutting is used to keep the suspense moving and the dullness cut out. The sequence shows Joker trying to cause harm to innocent citizens. As the viewer we know the hostage situation. Two boats have dynamite attached while a high rise of hostages wearing clown masks are about to be taken out by police. The shots cross-cut between boat hostage, high rise hostages, the police and Batman all this while suspenseful music is playing. The situation is tense and the cross-cutting multiplies it. If one boat chooses to sink the other they will be free, but at a coast.
Rule 3: Know The Audience!
As we just described like any good director, a good director must know their audience. This will mean the difference between failure and success. For example M. Night Shyamalan’s film adaptation of “The Last Airbender” was one of the greatest examples of a director not knowing the audience. Ranking at a 5% on Rotten Tomato and a 4.1 on IMDb could be considered a failure, but in his defense they made a lot of money tho! Most people watching the live adaptation came from the Nickelodeon TV series animation crowd, therefore expecting a faithful adaption. Of course wanting an adaptation without any changes is unrealistic, but wanting the simple things could’ve been stride for. However this was not the case. In Shymalan’s film characters’ personalities were changed, probably to match how their name and story changes. Scenes were cut out and action battles were lame, thus committing the cardinal sin of boredom. The story was rushed to fit 20 seasonal episodes into an hour and forty-three minutes movie. Nothing about it continuity wise made any sense. If a production company wanted to they could’ve set up to produce individual live action TV series with around 10 episodes that would cover two or three episodes from the animation. With the fandom behind it there should’ve been some consideration to go for it. That’s what the audience would’ve wanted.
In fairness from the very beginning it was set up to fail. Shyamalan’s background as a horror director such as the “Village” and “the sixth sense” made it challenging for a lighthearted family friendly film. In most of his movies use of very little dialogue, over reliance on music and sfx are used, contrary to the TV series. Also to consider was the audiences’ expectations. The greater the expectations the greater the disappointment. Being a huge fan of the animation TV series I can personally say my expectations were crushed with the weight of a fire-bending battle ship suffocating the life out of me. If I were to go into the theater without having any knowledge of the show I would probably walk out with an opinion of “it was okay, the set was flashy and the effects were decent, however having such expectations set the standards for this film were higher than usual. An smart director should be aware of what they are walking into if there’s already a huge fandom behind it. However the upcoming 2020 Netflix version does sound more promising. It will be produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the creators of the original series. They will have more creative control and be able to supervise all aspects of this newer version. Being the creators, naturally they have a better understanding of the fans and the stories behind it as showed in their previous works.
In conclusion follow these three rules and you will have better understanding in creating film. Of Course there are so many more components that make a film great rather than just knowing the audience, being dramatic and avoiding dullness. Film techniques that one director chooses, may not be the same as what another director wants. It may take a lifetime to perfect this Art of Film, but let us begin.
