Chick 1 says:
Welcome back to Troperiffic Tuesday! This week we’re looking at one of the basic tenets of storytelling, Chekhov’s Gun. The trope is based on a principle espoused by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. Chekhov said it a variety of ways but it comes down to this, “If you have a gun on stage, it better go off before the end of the play.”
Chekhov’s Gun falls under the Law of Conservation of Detail which teaches writers to make every word, every bit of dialogue count. If it doesn’t drive the story, don’t waste your precious time with it. In movies you only have 90-120 minutes to tell a story, on TV only 22-43 minutes so every detail has to count. Don’t introduce any element that distracts from the story.
The trope isn’t limited to guns or weapons. In fact it’s created a variety of subgenres like Chekhov’s Skills and Chekhov’s Joke. Chekhov’s Gun can also create Foreshadowing. The opposite of Chekhov’s Gun is the Red Herring, an item or character introduced to fool the audience into thinking the story is going one way when it’s really going another.
Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg are masters of Conservation of Detail and as a result, masters at using Chekhov’s Gun. In both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, there are dozens of details that come back into play later in the movie like the swan that Sgt Angel chases through out Hot Fuzz. The swan is a symbol of Angel’s frustration with his new quiet country life but it’s the swan that actually deals the final blow to the bad guy.
J.K. Rowling uses this trope almost to a fault. By the 3rd or 4th Harry Potter book/movie, the audience began to expect that whatever spell the trio learned in class would be crucial to defeating Voldemort at the end. What was great about this method is that learning the spells served several purposes. First, it added to feel of the young wizards being at school but with a whimsical element. Second, while the kids were studying they were also often passing on exposition to the audience while they were chatting. And finally, Rowling was setting them up with the skills they’d need for the big finale.
Other Chekhov’s Guns include the Omega-13 in Galaxy Quest, Marion’s drinking skills in Raiders, and Tony’s first chest piece in Iron Man. Slumdog Millionaire was one long set of Chekhov’s Guns as each episode of Jamal’s life gives him what he needs for the game show.
And don’t forget ”No capes!” in The Incredibles. Here’s proof that a good fashion designer can save your life!
Excellent blog here! Also your website loads up fast! What web host are you using?
Can I get your affiliate link to your host? I
wish my website loaded up as quickly as yours lol
Howdy! Do you know if they make any plugins
to assist with Search Engine Optimization? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some
targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good gains.
If you know of any please share. Appreciate it!
I am curious to find out what blog platform you
have been using? I’m having some minor security problems with my
latest site and I’d like to find something more risk-free.
Do you have any recommendations?
Howdy! Would you mind if I share your blog with my myspace group?
There’s a lot of folks that I think would really enjoy your content.
Please let me know. Thanks
Heya! I’m at work browsing your blog from my new iphone!
Just wanted to say I love reading your blog and look forward to
all your posts! Carry on the excellent work!
WOW just what I was searching for. Came here by searching
for estausa
Pretty nice post. I simply stumbled upon your weblog and wanted to mention that
I have really loved browsing your weblog posts. After all I will be subscribing in your feed
and I hope you write again soon!
I’m really impressed along with your writing abilities and also with the format on your blog.
Is this a paid subject or did you modify it yourself?
Either way stay up the excellent high quality writing,
it is rare to peer a great blog like this one nowadays..
Quality content is the key to attract the viewers to pay a quick visit
the web page, that’s what this website is providing.
Today, I went to the beachfront with my children. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She placed the shell to
her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear.
She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is completely
off topic but I had to tell someone!
Hi there to all, how is all, I think every one is getting more from this site,
and your views are nice in support of new viewers.
Review my web blog: SLOT88
It is the best time to make some plans for the future and it’s time to
be happy. I have read this post and if I could I desire
to suggest you few interesting things or tips. Perhaps you could write next articles referring to this article.
I desire to read more things about it!
My brother suggested I may like this web site. He
used to be entirely right. This post actually made my day.
You can not believe just how so much time
I had spent for this information! Thank you!
Appreciation to my father who informed me about this webpage, this web site is
in fact awesome.
I all the time emailed this webpage post page to all my contacts, for
the reason that if like to read it next my friends will too.
When some one searches for his necessary
thing, so he/she wishes to be available that in detail, therefore that thing is maintained over here.
Greetings! I know this is kinda off topic but I’d figured I’d ask.
Would you be interested in exchanging links or maybe guest writing a
blog article or vice-versa? My site addresses a lot of the same subjects as yours and I think we could greatly benefit from each other.
If you’re interested feel free to send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!
Wonderful blog by the way!
Hey there this is somewhat of off topic but I was wanting to know if blogs use
WYSIWYG editors or if you have to manually code with HTML.
I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding knowledge so I wanted to get guidance from someone with experience.
Any help would be enormously appreciated!
Wow that was unusual. I just wrote an very long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t appear.
Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Regardless, just wanted to say fantastic blog!
This is the right site for anybody who hopes to understand this topic.
You know a whole lot its almost hard to argue with
you (not that I actually will need to…HaHa). You certainly
put a fresh spin on a subject that has been written about for a long time.
Wonderful stuff, just wonderful!
I’m not sure exactly why but this web site is loading incredibly slow for me.
Is anyone else having this problem or is it a issue on my
end? I’ll check back later and see if the problem still exists.
I have been browsing online more than 3 hours
today, yet I never found any interesting article
like yours. It is pretty worth enough for me. In my view,
if all web owners and bloggers made good content as you did,
the web will be a lot more useful than ever before.
It’s awesome to pay a quick visit this web site and reading the views of
all colleagues regarding this article, while I am also keen of
getting familiarity.
I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you create this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you?
Plz respond as I’m looking to design my own blog and would like to
know where u got this from. kudos
I am sure this article has touched all the internet users,
its really really fastidious post on building up new webpage.
Does your website have a contact page? I’m having trouble locating
it but, I’d like to send you an e-mail. I’ve got some suggestions for your blog you might be interested in hearing.
Either way, great site and I look forward to seeing it grow over time.
Hi there friends, its impressive paragraph on the topic of tutoringand entirely
defined, keep it up all the time.
Hey there would you mind letting me know which
webhost you’re using? I’ve loaded your blog in 3 completely different internet browsers and I must say this blog loads
a lot quicker then most. Can you suggest a good web hosting provider at a reasonable price?
Many thanks, I appreciate it!
What i don’t realize is if truth be told how you are not really a lot more
smartly-preferred than you might be right now.
You are so intelligent. You understand thus significantly when it comes to this
subject, produced me for my part believe it from a lot of numerous angles.
Its like men and women aren’t fascinated until it’s something to do with Girl
gaga! Your own stuffs excellent. At all times maintain it
up!
wonderful post, very informative. I ponder why the opposite experts of this sector do
not understand this. You must proceed your writing.
I’m confident, you’ve a great readers’ base already!
magnificent issues altogether, you just received a
new reader. What might you recommend in regards to your put up that you simply made a few days in the past?
Any certain?
This paragraph is in fact a good one it assists new the web people, who are wishing for
blogging.
Oh my goodness! Impressive article dude! Thank you, However I am having problems with your
RSS. I don’t understand the reason why I can’t join it.
Is there anybody having similar RSS problems? Anyone that knows the solution will you kindly respond?
Thanks!!
Hi, I read your new stuff regularly. Your writing style is witty, keep
doing what you’re doing!
I’m extremely pleased to discover this website. I need to
to thank you for ones time just for this wonderful read!!
I definitely appreciated every little bit of it and i also
have you book-marked to see new information in your website.
I every time used to read piece of writing in news papers but now
as I am a user of net therefore from now I am using
net for articles, thanks to web.
I would like to thank you for the efforts you have put in writing this blog. I’m hoping to view the same high-grade content by you later on as well. In truth, your creative writing abilities has motivated me to get my very own blog now
Hello colleagues, its wonderful paragraph about teachingand entirely explained, keep it up all the time.
Hey just wanted to give you a brief heads up and let
you know a few of the pictures aren’t loading properly. I’m not
sure why but I think its a linking issue. I’ve tried
it in two different browsers and both show the same outcome.
Excellent post! We will be linking to this great post on our website. Keep up the good writing.
Thanks for finally writing about > Troperiffic Tuesday!: Chekhov’s Gun | The Flick Chicks
< Liked it!
I am sure this article has touched all the internet visitors,
its truly pleasant article on creating new blog.
This paragraph will assist the internet visitors for building
up new website or even a blog from start to end.
Good day! This is kind of off topic but I need some guidance from an established blog.
Is it difficult to set up your own blog? I’m not very techincal but I
can figure things out pretty quick. I’m thinking about setting up my own but I’m not sure where to begin. Do you have any tips or suggestions?
Cheers
Greetings! Very useful advice within this article! It’s the little
changes that produce the largest changes.
Thanks for sharing!
Right here is the right web site for everyone who hopes to find out about this topic.
You realize so much its almost hard to argue with you (not that I really will need to…HaHa).
You definitely put a new spin on a subject that’s been written about for decades.
Excellent stuff, just wonderful!
Hello my loved one! I want to say that this article
is amazing, great written and come with almost all important infos.
I’d like to look extra posts like this .
my web blog – หวยใต้ดินบาทละเท่าไร
I’m curious to find out what blog platform you have been utilizing?
I’m experiencing some minor security issues with my latest website and I would like to find something more safeguarded.
Do you have any recommendations?
Way cool! Some very valid points! I appreciate you writing this write-up and the rest of
the site is also very good.
This is my first time visit at here and i am in fact happy to read
everthing at one place.