Now, I don't claim to be an English major, or even particularly smart, but I can and do write and can and do watch movies and there is something in both that is often overlooked yet can be incredibly satisfying for the reader/viewer: foreshadowing.
Foreshadowing is a technique that involves putting clues or hints in the early part of the text that refer to events that will occur later. A prime example of this in cinematography is the work of SImon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), and if you don't know who I'm talking about, you should be ashamed, ashamed and terribly aware of your own failure as a human being. Or, you could just go and watch them now, and be awesome.
Anyway, both movies contain cues as to what will happen later in the movie. I chose them because they are both particularly obvious ones: where words and phrases from early relaxed events are literally repeated verbatim in later, more dramatic moments, transformed in meaning by the new dangerous situations.
Why is this important? It's very satisfying. People like to think they're smart, and also like patterns and structures. When they pick up on words or events that happened before the in the movie, they both feel as if their attention has paid off (passing a test, almost) and that there is a pattern, a logic behind the movie. For similar reasons did Shakespeare write in iambic pentameter. It formed a constant rhythm and pattern throughout his works, making them satisfying on a structural level.
Foreshadowing, ladles and germs. It serves many purposes; apart from the above, it also adds a sense of dramatic tension that helps build suspensethroughout the book. The trick with foreshadowing in wirting, though, is not to make it too obvious. Movies can get away with blatant foreshadowing ala Simon Pegg because the audience's attention is only kept for approximately 100 minutes. In books, however, foreshadowing only works if it is subtler, more meaningful, and there is a longer gap between the initial suggestion and the final culmination.
Doilies, Vases and Greek Life Lessons
9 years ago
Simon Pegg is God.
ReplyDeleteIn other news, I think that some movies could use more of it to stop me feeling like a colossal idiot later on. (I fail to think of examples now.)
However, Alice in Wonderland could have tried harder to not be a live-action version of the Disney animated one for the first half. Here's where imagination could have worked well with the foreshadowing. "Alice is having bad dreams of wonderland, she ends up in wonderland, omg who would have thought?"
Brain's broken after spending entire day creating and fixing websites. And I don't even know what I'm doing. Will write more meaningful comment later.