In most cases I strongly believe that flashbacks are a very easy way to explain a twist in a plot line that should be figured out by the audience. I think that when a flashback is used it is abused in such a way that it will make the story less interesting. For me this is because when most flashbacks are used they explain too much to the audience. When most writers use a flashback they will abuse it and make it reveal too much of the plot, this gives the audience too much information and makes it so that they don’t have to think about what they are watching thus losing interest. When they lose interest they will not enjoy the story to their full potential and they will not understand the deeper meaning. In most cases this is true, but in some special cases authors can use flashbacks to their full potential.
One author that I believe uses flashbacks to their full potential is Christopher Nolan; I think he uses them especially well in Memento. The entire movie is being told backwards, you are shown an event and then for the movie you are seeing the events that led up to the larger event. At the same time you are being shown flashbacks of his life in a different timeline. The entire movie is one big compilation of various flashbacks into this man’s life. This gives it the effect that the story is being told in reverse; normally I don’t enjoy those kinds of movies. This movie doesn’t end like you would expect it to; in the last scene Nolan adds an interesting idea. He makes the audience think about reality and perception; he poses the question of what is true and what is manufactured. If he used something other than literary devices I think they idea he got across wouldn’t have been as potent.
Nolan makes you believe that the main character (Leonard) has done something that he has been striving for and makes you believe that it is something very noble. Throughout all of the flashbacks you figure out how he got to the point in time that you see him. You find out a lot about him and you really start to think he is a good guy. In the end you are shown that Leonard’s reality is just so twisted and manufactured that he doesn’t even know what is true. This makes you question what you really perceive as a person and what you can trust to be fact. It also makes you think about what reality really is, makes you wonder if reality is one big thing or if it varies from person to person. This idea was put across very blatantly, but it makes you think deeper. If Nolan made the plot play out differently I don’t think the audience would have seen the same picture.
Using the flashback plot line that seemed to go in reverse really added to the idea of the movie, whenever you saw something, you didn’t know how Leonard got to that point in time. So you would start to think of possibilities of how he got there, then just like that with the next scene he would show you the truth and make a new reality for you. This got me thinking of what reality really is, because you didn’t know what happened you would forge an idea and stick with that one. Until that idea is proven wrong you believe this to be real thus making it your reality. Now this leads me to the conclusion that Nolan was trying to make you think that reality varies from person to person.
Reality seems to be a bigger theme in many movies and stories in general, people like to question if things are real or not. Most movies that try to do this can do it pretty well since it is a very easy thing to get across. Although most movies don’t do it in the way that Nolan has done it, he has guided you to an idea. He knows that he will get you to the idea that reality varies from person to person. To do this is an extremely hard thing to do, to not see anyone in your audience but write something that you know will guide people to one thought. It seems impossible but since Nolan took a very powerful literary device and used it he did a very good job of making it possible.
History
Many things make up a great play; you can’t just have one thing and have everything else be terrible. That would completely drown out whatever you did that was amazing. It doesn’t matter if the dialogue is amazing and puts you into the world of the play if your set is completely bogus. There are so many things that you have to do right to make a play great, but I believe that one of the more important things is that you need a captivating set. Without a good set your audience won’t be brought into the world of the play. There are various ways to make a good set; it completely depends on the play that you are making. You will never see a set that is completely similar to another one, which makes it so sets are very diverse and interesting.
The set is a tool that can be utilized in very many ways, it can do so many things to make your play so much better and have a deeper quality of meaning. With a set there are a couple basic things that you need to do to make it work, but after those are created it is really open to interpretation. This gives it so much room to be made up and above the standards of the rest of the play. Since it is so opened ended you can really play with the little things that add the depth to it. It is all of the little things that you don’t notice in a set that make it all the better. In my opinion the less people notice about the set the better it is, if during the play people get distracted by the set then I think it takes away from it. That is why you add the little things to it so people don’t notice it during the play at all, making it so that their attention is completely focused on the story and the characters. When the audience isn’t focused on the set and how good or respectively bad it is then they will get more out of the play, thus enjoying it more thoroughly. On occasion there are times when making the set the center of attention is a good thing.
On the occasion that the set should become the center of attention it should be because you want it to. It should be when something very dramatic happens with the set that adds to what the characters are doing. I believe that movies are a great demonstration of how set should be used, in most movies during conversations nothing is really happening in the background. This brings more attention to what the characters are saying, giving you a deeper understanding into what they are saying. Then when the only time attention is brought to the set is when there is some event that advances the plot. Now this is harder to do in a play since the set is much more prominent because the audience is much more immersed in a play then a movie. This being said I think that if you can do it right the set can add much more to a play then a movie.
With a movie no one really says “Oh wow the set adds so much to that movie”, but when you come out of a play (at least all of the plays that I have seen) people come out talking about how good the set was. When a set is commented on after the play and not noticed during the play, you know you have made a beautiful set. If the set is made in that way then it adds depth to the play, people will walk out of the theater and be astounded at how great the play was and also how great the set was.
Nobody will ever walk out of a play and say ‘I didn’t really look at the set”. The set is the first thing people will see when they walk into the theater; it sets the precedent for the entire play. All the more reason it has to be good, if people see a garbage set then they will be regretting paying to come see the play that you have created. It is for this reason that I think that one of the biggest aspects of theatre is the set. The play is nothing without a great set.
No comments:
Post a Comment