|
Homepage > Joss Whedon’s Tv Series > Buffy The Vampire Slayer > Reviews > "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" Tv Series - Uninflectedimages.blogspot.com (...)
Uninflectedimages.blogspot.com Buffy The Vampire Slayer"Buffy The Vampire Slayer" Tv Series - Uninflectedimages.blogspot.com AnalysisThursday 22 February 2007, by Webmaster Twisting And Turning... Now that I’m so old (and wise?), I’m going to talk a little bit about writing tv mysteries because it’s at the front of my brain right now. But I’ll try to be brief as I’m not much for tips and I’m sure Epstein or Espenson or August or whoever has already covered this topic much better than I ever could. First, decide whether your mystery is "open" (meaning the viewer knows whodunit from the start), or whether it is "closed" (meaning we the viewer find out what or who the killer is the same time that the hero does). Paraphrasing Lee Goldberg from the Mystery Readers Journal: An open mystery works when both the murderer, and the viewer, think the perfect crime has been committed. The pleasure is watching the hero unravel the crime, and find the flaws you didn’t see. A closed mystery works when the murder seems impossible to solve, and the clues that are found don’t seem to point to any one person, but the hero sees the connection you don’t and unmasks the killer with it. According to Lee, ’Columbo’ mysteries were always open. In today’s television, we see open mysteries on ’Law & Order: Criminal Intent’, even ’Heroes’ and ’Dexter’ are open to some degree, and a lot of the ’X Files’ were open mysteries (as in we usually knew ’who’ or ’what’ was up to no good, we just didn’t know ’how’ they were doing it)....but just about everything else on tv these days are closed mysteries or a mix of the two (as in they start closed, and then open up). The CSI’s, the Law and Order’s, Medium, Criminal Minds, Cold Case, Without A Trace...and even more dramatic shows like House are all structured around a closed mystery. Some shows (like House) will hold off solving the mystery and revealing the killer (or disease) until almost the very end (Act 4, or is it Act 5 these days?), but most shows reveal the killer/’monster either at the mid point or by the end of act 3 so the hero can ’catch’ whoever or whatever the bad guy is. (I say whatever because I’m primarily experienced in genre mysteries (sci fi, paranormal, etc.) where the bad guy can be a bad ’thing’.). And when it comes to constructing the plot for good genre mysteries (Supernatural; Eureka; Stargate; X Files; Buffy; Angel; Dresden Files; etc.), there is one question to always be asking: What is it...what is it really. (In the case of procedurials and investigative mystery programs like ’Veronica Mars’, the mantra becomes: Who is it...who is it really.) Take that tip to the bank, baby. We put this principle into practice constantly on ’Outer Limits’, ’Earth: Final Conflict’, and ’Psi Factor’ (as in, if it looked like a werewolf wrecking havoc, it damn well better not turn out to be a werewolf). And we studied and learned from the master, Joss Whedon. Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Firefly) and his disciples execute this principle to perfection in their shows. It was always a closed mystery, and would usually remain that way until the mid point or end of the third act. If you thought Buffy was losing her powers and Giles was out to harm her, it would turn out that Giles was preparing his Slayer for a rite of passage test set for her 18th birthday. Or if Buffy thought some swamp creature was eviscerating members of the school swim team, it would turn out that the swimmers were turning into creatures because of all of the steroids the coach was feeding them. What is it...what is it really. Of course, this is just one aspect to telling a good mystery story. To take it to the next level, you also need to pick an overall theme to flesh out the episode. Whedon would take something dramatic like ’breaking up with a friend’ or ’losing your virginity’ and let the character conflect drive the drama in conjunction with the unfolding mystery. Yet he was always keeping you on your toes, and tended to not only play the ’what is it...what is it really’ card in the overall story, but even within individual scenes. Here’s the opening from his pilot for the ’Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ tv series... TEASER EXT. BERRYMAN HIGHSCHOOL - NIGHT The buildings of the affluent Southern California school gleam darkly in the moonlight. We TRACK about the campus - it’s deserted. INT. HALL - CONTINUOUS TRACK through the halls. Nothing. INT. CLASSROOMS - CONTINUOUS Silent. We track along the wall, past the maps and drawings tacked up on it, past the window, which SHATTERS in our faces! It’s just a single pane, knocked in by someone’s hand. It unlocks the window and slides it up. EXT. OUTSIDE THE BUILDING - CONTINUOUS The intruder is a college age BOY, a timid GIRL beside him. She looks about nervously. GIRL BOY INT. CLASSOOM - CONTINUOUS As they climb in. She peers around some more as he shuts the window behind them. GIRL BOY GIRL BOY CUT TO: INT. BACKSTAGE - A BIT LATER He leads her through the back of the school theater and ANGLE: ON STAGE which is lavishly dressed as an oversized alley set: a huge wooden fence, trash cans, etc. It looks suspiciously like the set of CATS. She wanders through it a bit. GIRL Suddenly the curtains open, revealing the empty auditorium, and the foot lights come up. The boy has worked all this from the side of the stage. He comes up to her. BOY GIRL He moves to kiss her, but she turns suddenly, real fear crossing her face. GIRL BOY GIRL BOY GIRL BOY GIRL He looks about them. The place is dark shadowy. She cowers behind him. BOY Silence. BOY GIRL BOY GIRL She bares HORRIBLE FANGS and BURIES them in his neck. BLACKOUT. OPENING CREDITS. Simple. Clean. Effective. And with a Twist. A nervous girl is led into a school by a horny boy. It’s late at night. It’s a little creepy. He’s a little creepy. We’re nervous. We’re concerned for her well-being. And it turns out he’s the one we should’ve been concerned for. A perfect example of good ’what is it...what is it really’ mystery story-telling, from the man who had Buffy the vampire slayer fall in love for the first time with...a vampire, of course (albeit one with a soul). Not to over simplify things, or to suggest that there’s not more to it all than this...but you’ll be a lot further ahead in the game if you begin with... What is it...what is it really. There...my two cents about writing television mysteries. Go knock one out of the park. |
Sitemap XML