Why Modern Movies Suck - Setup And Payoff

one of the things you've probably heard me prattle on about in reviews and live streams is the concept of setup and payoff and why it's so important in movie making but what the hell does it actually mean and why is it so important well the truth is i don't really know because i'm making this [ __ ] up as i go along [ __ ] tatiana edit that part out and get me a [ __ ] sandwich set up and pay off is actually a pretty simple idea basically it means if you're gonna have significant things happen later in your story then you kind of need to build them up first if it's some big emotional payoff for example like your main character overcoming the antagonist to win the day then you need to help your audience understand why that antagonist needs to be defeated if it's some unusual or unexpected event that changes the course of the story you first need to help your audience understand how that thing could happen it's like planting little seeds in their minds that slowly grows over the course of the story in other words the setup so that when the time comes for the important event to happen i.e the payoff it feels believable and as a result it's both intellectually and emotionally satisfying for the audience basically what i'm saying with all this pretentious shite is that you can't just throw in any random crap at any moment and expect people to stay invested in your story you need to set it up first the key is to do it in such a way that the audience doesn't know it's being done you need to subtly manipulate them into knowing the things you want them to know without giving the game away completely make your setup too obvious and clunky and you'll tip your audience off about future events killing the tension and drama when you need it most on the other hand if you don't do any setup at all you'll end up with payoffs that feel cheap contrived and manufactured because that's exactly what they are but don't worry we'll talk more about that later believe me the point here is that a good well-constructed setup should be subtly woven into the script so that it feels like a natural part of the story and people don't see it for what it actually is and i think the best way to explain it is to show you a couple of examples of how it's done right and wrong the first one is going to come from the 1990 movie tremors now bear with me here because if you think this is just a dumb monster flick you might have a different opinion by the time i'm done explaining it anyway tremor centers around a small isolated town in america that suddenly finds itself under siege by giant underground worms that can burrow through the desert sand and grab you from below without warning it's a bit like jaws except in this case there's no way to get out of the water obviously because they live underground these things have no eyes so they hunt instead by sensing vibrations through the surface stand still and they'll struggle to find you jump around and make noises and well by the mid point of the movie most of the characters have holed up in the town's general store to regroup and plan their next move they know they have to keep quiet to avoid detection so they're careful to keep their voices down and move around as little as possible smart move they've recognized the threat and taken appropriate measures to combat it but then this happens [Music] oh no an unforeseen factor they didn't account for which totally changes their situation and puts them on the defensive again it's a neat little way of pulling the rug out from under our character's feet just when they're starting to get a handle on things raising the tension and stakes once more and it feels like a believable event given where the film takes place after all this is a dusty old convenience store in the middle of nowhere it's totally plausible that their equipment would be aging neglected and prone to mechanical faults like this but what's great here is that the script actually sets this event up in the first 10 minutes of the film when val and earl the two main characters visit the store to pick up some supplies now keep in mind what i said earlier about making your setup feel like a subtle natural part of the story and let's see what this scene does first and foremost it establishes that the cooler is defective and prone to making loud noises something which is obviously going to pay off later in the movie but it's how this is woven into the rest of the scene that's so interesting in the subsequent conversation walter the owner of the place points out the problem to the two handymen hinting that he wants them to fix it for him hey guys listen going out what do you think since they basically make a living doing odd jobs around town this is a good chance for them to make some extra money notice how val seems vaguely interested only for earl to stop him and remind him about the schedule that he's worked out thus preventing them from fixing the machine uh catch you later chang i gotta schedule the key ironically this one decision actually results in walter getting killed later in the film but anyway this behavior fits perfectly with the character of the two men val's kind of a free spirit who does what seems best at the time and doesn't think too far ahead he's young and impetuous more inclined to rush in without considering the consequences earl on the other hand is older and supposedly wiser and sees himself as the brains of the operation a big picture kind of guy who plans ahead and takes the longer view i mean his version of seeing the big picture is planning like two days ahead but that's what makes these two characters funny and endearing they're both pretty clueless and totally unprepared for what they're up against anyway val correctly points out that earl's attempts to plan ahead are actually causing them to waste time that could otherwise be used more efficiently if only it was a bit more flexible oh yeah see we plan ahead that way we don't do anything right now earl explain it to me not only is this kind of a funny dig at his friend but it also tells you a bit more about val himself he might not be a planner but he's still savvy enough to spot opportunities when they arise it establishes a neat balance between the two characters where neither one is smarter or better than the other they just have different points of view each with their own strengths and weaknesses and the movie gives both men a chance to shine at various times now it probably seems like i'm spending a lot of time spunking over a scene that lasts just a few seconds but honestly i can't emphasize enough just how well put together this is on a technical level what you've actually got here is set up for something that will have a major impact on the movie an hour later cleverly hidden behind a humorous and insightful exchange between our two main characters so that you don't even realize it's a setup the hallmark of good writing for me is the ability to achieve multiple things at the same time and make it seem so easy that you don't even realize it's happening it's not until you start to break it down that you realize how much thought and care goes into stuff like this the people who wrote this script really took the time to cover the bases here anticipating questions the audience might ask and probably put a lot of work in to deliver all in the slickest most efficient way possible in short they respected their viewers intelligence and didn't want to waste their time with bloated inefficient exposition scenes imagine that in movies today which brings me neatly along to the opposite end of the [Music] spectrum honestly i'm so over this [ __ ] movie at this point and i imagine you are too but when it comes to scripts that break just about every writing rule in the book tlj is pretty much the pinnacle of [ __ ] i'm not gonna waste time bemoaning all of the film's various problems but for the sake of this video let's just focus in on one little aspect of setup and payoff the main plot line revolves around a group of resistance ships trying to escape from the first order who now have the ability to track them through hyperspace the only option for the resistance fleet now is to flee at top speed until they exhaust their fuel now let's just ignore all the problems this creates for the star wars universe since well accept it as being true at the climax of the movie with the final resistance ship almost out of fuel they load all of their personnel onto small unarmed transports which they want to use to evacuate to a nearby planets now audience members with an iq higher than that of a grape were probably asking won't the first order spot them leaving and blow them up clearly the writers anticipated this question too because it's so obvious that you literally can't avoid it and so an explanation was required the first order was tracking our big ship they're not monitoring for little transports really and how do you know this because i'm genuinely struggling to think of reasons why they wouldn't be on the lookout for small ships trying to escape at a time like this it would seem like a very obvious precaution for even the most inexperienced enemy commanders to take you see how the script now has to come up with a flimsy explanation for why its characters are doing something so incredibly stupid and dangerous because it never took the time to set up any of these events earlier the whole thing now hangs on a single line of dialogue from a character who absolutely shouldn't know this stuff then it gets even worse because the script calls for the transports to get discovered after the resistance gets betrayed so now we have to switch up the situation again which leads to this incredible piece of dialogue we ran a de-cloaking scan and sure enough 30 resistance transported just launched from the cruiser again people with functional brains probably had a lot of questions at this point such as what the [ __ ] is a decloaking scan why is such a device never been mentioned or even referenced before if such a thing exists and you have the ability to use it why wouldn't you be using it all the time just in case why wouldn't you be using all of your scanning equipment at maximum potential when you're literally in the middle of an active combat situation where exactly did the movie even mention that the transports were cloaked to begin with i mean they looked pretty [ __ ] visible to me if leia had mentioned earlier that they were cloaked it might have given them a better chance of survival and made their plans seem less ridiculous but then if they have position of cloak transport ships this whole time why wouldn't they have used them to escape before now can other ships cloak themselves it seems like that would be a pretty useful ability in a galactic war you see how all of these questions could have been avoided if the writers had taken the time to set up any of this stuff in advance instead of a carefully constructed narrative that makes sense and obeys its own rules you instead have a series of dodgy single line attempts to fix problems that didn't need to exist in the first place and those fixies are so flawed and short-sighted that they themselves give rise to yet more problems that have to be hastily patched over basically it boils down to an escalating series of storytelling failures brought about by a complete lack of planning and an unwillingness to go back and rework something that's clearly broken it's the writing equivalent of digging a hole to fill in another hole and each time you post [ __ ] like this you chip away at your audience's investment in your story because they realize that at any moment some random [ __ ] device or character that's never been mentioned before could pop up and completely undo everything that's happening it's the cheapest lamest laziest form of writing imaginable and it still boggles my mind that ridiculous nonsense like this made it through a major studio with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line but then it's not exactly an isolated example these days smart subtle well-constructed setup and payoff like i showed you earlier feels like a dying art in modern filmmaking where the focus is increasingly put on spectacle action snarky humor and above all quick results just get more content out there guys that way we can get them excited for the next product before they start thinking too much about how [ __ ] this one is for me bad writing is the one aspect of filmmaking that have zero tolerance for visuals can be let down by budget shortcomings performances are dependent on the actors involved but writing is the one thing you have total and complete control over so it's the one thing you have total and complete responsibility for and if you still manage to [ __ ] it up then you've got no one to blame but yourself i don't know man it just feels kind of disheartening to realize that a low-budget monster movie from 30 years ago had more care thought and attention put into it than most of the 200 million dollar mega blockbusters we get today i think it's part of the reason that for all the money they rake in most modern films don't stay with us a minute longer than their run time they're just dumb formulaic sludge churned out by the same battery farm studio process as every other generic movie for the simple reason that there's no real incentive for them to be any better as long as people keep paying to see them studios will take the path of least resistance that allows them to make as much money as possible with the least amount of efforts i might blame them for the [ __ ] writing they churn out but ultimately well we're the ones who let them get away with it anyway that's all i've got for today go away now

Channel: The Critical Drinker

Views: 2,245,652

Keywords: The Last Jedi, TLJ, Tremors, Rey Skywalker, Jian Johnson, Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy, star wars, review, feminism, feminist, Graboids

Id: wmOZgSyQjtA

Length: 12min 32sec (752 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 21 2021