Chick 1 says:

What do you do when you need to develop certain elements of a story but you don’t really have the time to do it?  Use this week’s trope, The Montage!

The Montage is a common trope that has fallen into disrespect in recent years.  Like many common tropes, it has been overused or done badly and that has given it a bad reputation.  It has the stink of a hack writer on it.  But I think it’s time to clear the air.

Like any other trope, The Montage can be powerful, funny, energetic, and even touching if it’s done well.  The Montage, of course, is the stringing together of short scenes or vignettes, with or without diaglogue, usually set to music.  It can be used to show a passage of time or solidify a development in the story.

As such a large trope, it has a variety of subtropes.  Like the A-Team Montage, where the group of misfit heroes use their individual skills to set up the plan/contraption that will save the day.  The Avengers Assemble Montage shows each character being summoned like the one lampshaded in The Muppets (which you can see here).

The popular Falling In Love Montage is probably what most people think of when they decide The Montage is overused.  That or the Fashion Shop Fashion Show/Shopping Montage.  OK, they’re fun but yea, seen them a million times.  The ubiquitous Training Montage made famous by the Rocky franchise also continues to be a staple. And this is just a tiny sampling of the different types of Montages out there.

Some of my personal favorites include the Terrible Interviewees Montage as seen in Notting Hill when Will suffers through a series of bad dates and in Mrs. Doubtfire and Baby Boom, both interviewing nannies.  The Makeover Montage is always fun.  (“Cher’s main thrill in life is a makeover.  It gives her a sense of control in a world of chaos.”)

One of the most well used subtropes is the Time Passes Montage.  I still like the one in Notting Hill where Hugh Grant walks through the seasons and there’s a gorgeous one in Pride and Prejudice with Lizzie on the swing.

But if The Montage needed any evidence to support its validity as a storytelling tools, the geniuses at Pixar have created one to silence all critics.  I leave you with one of the greatest montages ever.  It qualifies as a Time Passes Montage, a Good Times Montage, and a Sad Times Montage.  Enjoy the opening sequence of Up.  And break out the tissues.

Chick 1 says:

Welcome back to Troperiffic Tuesday!  This week we take a look at one of my favorite action movie tropes.  When in a tight spot, the Hero often has to improvise a way to defend himself or others.  He may not have a weapon; maybe he’s the kind of Hero who Doesn’t Like Guns (a la MacGyver).  If he and his entourage are trying to escape, they may turn to one of the biggest and most easily obtainable weapons around, the car.  Let’s hope our Hero is skilled in the not-so-ancient art of Car Fu.

The action movie genre comes with a pretty standard set of expectations and limits so writers and filmmakers are always looking for ways to get more creative with their action sequences and the Improvised Weapon is a way to do that.  Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is a master of this, having killed people not only with a car but with a pen, a magazine, and a towel.  Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) in The Mummy even managed to take down an escaping baddie by throwing a chair at him.

Car Fu is a subtrope of the Improvised Weapon.  Car chases are a staple of action movies and if you can come up with creative ways to use them all the better.  I was first turned on to Car Fu by the movie The Peacemaker.  George Clooney used his car to take down several bad guys in a crowded European city, even using the bare rim on his busted wheel to generate sparks to ignite the gas from the other vehicle.

The aforementioned Bourne Series used Car Fu in the 2nd and 3rd installments.  Bruce Willis drove a car into a freaking helicopter in Live Free or Die Hard.  (OK, that one was ridiculous but…it’s Bruce Willis!)  James Bond often uses his car as a weapon but that’s a little bit of a cheat, isn’t it?  Q has usually designed it as a weapon.

Happy Hogan saved Tony Stark in Iron Man 2 by pinning the baddie with his limo.  And Mr. Incredible actually threw a car at the bad guy in The Incredibles.

So get creative and tell me your favorite Car Fu moments!

Chick 1 says:

This week’s trope is once again an example of how the world of fiction often doesn’t (and possibly shouldn’t) mirror the real world.  Ever notice how in most books, TV shows, and movies no one has the same name?  But in the real world people share first, last, or both names all the time.  There is a very important reason that it doesn’t happen often in fiction; it’s confusing.

When you are creating a story and the universe in which your characters will live, everything is completely new to your audience, even if the plot takes place in modern day America.  And there are a lot of details to keep track of.  Having two characters with the same name or even similar sounding names, even if it is more realistic, will just muddy the waters. (Anyone else wonder in Lord of the Rings if they were talking about Sauron or Saruman?)  Thus almost all fictional works have a One Steve Limit.

This trope is so prevalent that it’s easier to point out exceptions instead of examples.  Having two characters share a name is usually used for comedy although it can be played for drama as in The Two Jakes or The Big Lebowski, in which a case of mistaken identity sets off the entire plot.  Inside Man subverted this trope by having all the bank robbers go by some form of Steve. (Yes, they actually picked “Steve” as their common name.)  A common name was one of the characteristics of the ruling clique in the movie Heathers, although this could be considered an example of the subtrope Planet of Steves, where a common name is used to demonstrate lack of individuality or personal freedom.

On a lighter note,  we have the classic from Newhart. “I’m Larry. This is my brother Daryl.  This is my other brother Daryl.”  Made all the sillier in that it’s not just coincidence; their parents actually gave them the same name.

An episode of Doctor Who encountered a group with two Daves.  They went by Proper Dave and Other Dave.  Neither fared very well in the adventure.

The clever title of The New Adventures of Old Christine uses a subversion of this trope when the titular character’s ex-husband marries another woman names Christine.  See how confusing that can be?

Chick 1 says:

What do the Ark of the Covenant, the Maltese Falcon, and Unobtanium all have in common?  They are all versions of the MacGuffin, one of the most commonly used tropes of all time.  The MacGuffin is simply what they are after; what the hero is chasing, trying to find, or trying to protect.

The MacGuffin has been a trope in stories for as long as there have been stories (see the Golden Fleece in Jason and the Argonauts) but it was first given its name by Alfred Hitchcock who credited one of his screenwriters with the term.  The MacGuffin is the external motivation for the hero’s journey but has little to do with the hero’s actual character arc.  In its purest form, the MacGuffin could be replaced with any other item and the story would remain essentially the same.

Many genres come with their own MacGuffin built in like treasure in a pirate movie or archealogical finds in an Indiana Jones movie.  Most action, adventure, or fantasy movies have some form of a MacGuffin.  And like most popular tropes, the MacGuffin has its own set up sub-tropes.  The MacGuffin can be a person like MacGuffin Girl (Leeloo in The Fifth Element) or an Artifact of Doom or Attraction.  (The One Ring qualifies as both.)

There are too many to list but here are a few to start you out:

-the above mentioned ring in Lord of the Rings.  Yes, it represented the life of Sauron that would destroy him if it were destroyed but it could have easily been a goblet, a stone, or a leaf.

-the suitcase in Pulp Fiction.  This is a classic MacGuffin in that we don’t even find out what it really is.

-the Rabbit’s Foot in Mission Impossible 3.  Again, a mysterious item that is never defined.

-Both Romancing the Stone and The Jewel of the Nile include their MacGuffin in the title although Jewel of the Nile gives it a nice little twist.

Finally, here’s Hitchcock himself to explain.

Chick 1 says:

In continuing to explore my friend’s own personal genre of Men of Honor Blowing Stuff Up, this week we look at … Stuff Blowing Up.  Explosions are such a staple of movies that they are basically a subgenre of tropes.  And the reason for their rampant use isn’t nearly so deep or complicated; explosions are cool and people, especially men, like them.  They’re an awesome way to anchor an action set piece and they look great visually.  Should you put explosions in your movie?  Unless you’re working on a Jane Austen adaptation the answer is yes!  And even then you should at least consider it.  (I think I just invented my own genre.)

One of the most common types of explosions is the Unflinching Walk.  You already know what I’m talking about, don’t you?  That’s because it’s the most badass.  There’s a huge explosion and the Hero or the Big Bad casually saunters off while fireballs blossom behind him, completely ignoring the shrapnel, heat, and air percussions, cause he’s just that tough.  Examples include Iron Man, The Punisher, The Transporter, several James Bond movies, and Desperado. Burn Notice loves this trope and it’s been parodied on Futurama and The Simpsons.  A related trope is Out of the Inferno, where a character emerges from the fireball relatively unharmed because Convection Schmonvection.  This happens in The Terminator and The Right Stuff.

On the flipside of the Unflinching Walk is Outrun The Fireball.  This trope is usually in Slow Motion and may be accompanied by a Big No.  This is a great way to give the audience a momentary scare thinking the Hero or his Entourage may have been killed.  You can see Outrun The Fireball in Independence Day, Return of the Jedi, Chain Reaction, Die Hard, Watchmen, and even Shrek.  There are some fun inversions of this trope in Hot Fuzz and the Doctor Who episode The Sontaran Strategy.  In both of these, the Hero et al run and dive from a potential explosion only to be disappointed.  The Doctor even comments, “Is that it?”

There are so many other explosion tropes out there like the Gas Leak Coverup or Every Car Is A Pinto.  I highly recommend the checking out the Stuff Blowing Up page on TVTropes.org.  You could waste a lot of valuable time over there.

You can also waste some time checking out this Top 10 Greatest Explosions video.  From the list in the video I’d have to say The Matrix is my favorite.  I also have to point out that the late, great Heath Ledger totally saved the scene from The Dark Knight.  When you are shooting a live explosion in a building you pretty much have just one chance to get your shot.  There was a detonation malfunction and the explosions stopped.  Ledger stayed in character, turned around, fiddled with the remote.  His startled reaction is real but he just kept going as the Joker and saved the production the expense and effort of finding another building to blow up.

Chick 1 says:

It’s time to give you a little help with all these tropes I’ve been dishing out so this week we will discuss How To Deal With Tropes.  Because, let’s face it, learning about tropes can really screw with your ability to enjoy a movie or tv show.  You start realizing that almost everything is a trope and suddenly everything seems cliched and you can tell the entire plot of a movie from the trailer.

It’s OK.  You can move past this.  And the MST3K Mantra can help. 

If you don’t know what MST3K is then…I feel sorry for you.  It’s only one of the funniest shows ever!  It’s a cheesy little set up of a guy stuck in space with some robots who’s forced to watch bad movies and we get to watch him make fun of them.  MST3K stands for Mystery Science Theater 3000.  Here’s the opening that explains the premise, demonstrates how extremely low-budget the show was, and also states the Mantra.

Did you hear the Mantra? 

Now technically, the mantra specifically addresses fans who pick apart details of a show that deal with things like physics, logic, geography, and other fact-based areas but don’t actually contribute to the enjoyment of the show.  Passionate fans can sometimes get so obsessed that they start combing over elements of the story and blow tiny little errors out of proportion.  (I’ve never done this, especially not with Lost or Doctor Who.) (Did you catch that that is a Suspiciously Specific Denial?)

Occasionally, fans need to be reminded that focusing on the wrong details can detract from the simple pleasure of the story.  The MST3K Mantra addresses this directly.

But it also comes in handy when learning about tropes.  At first it will seem like they are everywhere because they are!  Just like wood and nails are everywhere at a construction site.  If you’re going to create something, you have to have the materials to put together.  And tropes are one of the main materials used to construct a great story.

So when you feel like your new found knowledge of tropes is holding you back from losing yourself in a movie, just sing the litttle song to yourself.  (La,la,la.)  And relax, after a while, the tropes won’t scream at you.  Instead, they will make you appreciate the story even more.

I promise.

Chick 1 says:

It’s the moment we go to the movies to see; the Damsel in Distress, or the Mentor, or the Innocent Bystander is about to be killed by the Big Bad, but at the very last second the lead bursts in and saves the day, making him the Big Damn Hero!

The entrance of the Big Damn Heroes is one of the most popular tropes in movies today, especially big blockbuster popcorn movies.  It creates a huge rush of adrenaline and rightly so.  As conflict is the heart of all drama, waiting until the last minute to rescue the victim makes maximum use of this tension.  And it’s usually accompanied by a swell in the music.

It doesn’t have to be an individual.  It can be a group or even a non-human.  One of my favorites among recent movies is in the most recent Star Trek when the Enterprise rising from the fog, photons firing, to rescue Spock from Nero’s missiles.  Of course the classic is Han Solo showing up at the last minute to deal with Darth Vader so Luke can destroy the Death Star.

Almost anytime Batman (in any of the movies) crashes through a window or wall counts as this trope.  As you can imagine, it’s quite prevalent in super hero and action movies.  Iron Man does it a couple of times in the first  movie, first with the villagers and at the end with Pepper. 

Lord of the Rings has plenty; in The Fellowship of the Ring Aragorn charging in at Weathertop to save the hobbits from the ringwraiths (Viggo Mortensen’s first day of shooting btw) and Boromir saving Merry and Pippin, Gandalf’s charge at Helm’s Deep at the end of The Two Towers, and the Charge of the Rohirrim in The Return of the King.

A couple from Harry Potter; the Order of the Phoenix in the movie of the same name, coming in complete with really cool smoke effects and of course, Neville killing Nagnini in The Deathly Hallows.   Naturally the Doctor gets a few, like in The Fires of Pompei, complete with Divinity Lighting and a Come With Me line.

This trope can also be played for laughs, especially if the hero, usually an Idiot Hero, fails after their big entrance.

What are your favorite Big Damn Heroes entrances?

Finally, here’s the Trope Namer from Firefly (I’m gonna have to start watching Firefly or they’re gonna revoke my nerd card.)

Chick 1 says:

If you’re unfamiliar with the Blue Screen of Death then you are a very lucky computer user…or a mac user.  The Blue Screen of Death appears when your pc is crashing to inform you that basically you’re screwed.  It’s Microsoft’s merry little way of saying, “You’re computer’s going away for awhile and you won’t be allowed to visit.”  When people are shocked they can go into a sort of Blue Screen of Death (hereafter known as the BSOD).  This trope is oftened used when the story is moving into the final act and it’s know as the Heroic BSOD.

The Heroic BSOD can be caused by a number of events and is used to show just how serious the situation is.  “See, even our hero doesn’t know what to do; even he thinks we’re screwed.”  The most common cause is the loss of a loved one, usually someone the hero was supposed to save or protect.  The loss combined with the ultimate failure can send the hero over the edge.   Being betrayed by someone the hero loved or trusted can also bring on this trope.  The hero learning that he or she is not what they thought (Tomato in the Mirror) can induce this trope as well as some event, information, or villain that makes the hero believe the quest is hopeless (Despair Event Horizon).

The Heroic BSOD can take several forms ranging from a violent outburst to a catatonic state.  In war movies the BSOD can be the same thing as shell shocked.  Sometimes the hero just gives up altogether and heads home (10-Minute Retirement).  It usually takes an even worse moment or crisis (or the appearance of a loved one) to shake the hero out of his/her BSOD and continue the quest.

In I Am Legend (spoiler alert!), Will Smith has his own BSOD after losing his only companion, his dog.  He eventually descends into suicidal thoughts.  Oddly enough, Peter in Dodgeball suffers one after Patches O’Houlihan is crushed by two tons of irony.

Cameron in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off suffers a major BSOD when he realizes he can’t hide the theft of the car from his dad.   Ross on Friends has a mini BSOD when Rachel tells him she is pregnant.  Leeloo shuts down after in The Fifth Element after learning just how violent the humans she was sent to rescue could be.

In the identity crisis category, Buzz Lightyear shuts down after discovering that he really is just a toy and not a SPACE RANGER.  He even manages to get a little tipsy on Darjeeling tea.  “I am Mrs. Nesbitt!”  Luke Skywalker has a bit of a shut down after learning that Darth was his daddy.

The Doctor on Doctor Who has a couple of BSODs on The End of Time episode (both of them in a highly annoying emo fashion); once when the main villian is revealed and another after the villain taunts him about his companions.

What Heroic BSODs have you noticed?  What form did it take?  And what got the hero back on track?

Whether you live or die in a movie or TV show depends on how secure your contract is.  But if you’ve been signed on for the sequel or the next season, then any medical emergency can easily, though dramatically, be solved through CPR!

In the real world, CPR stands for Cardiopulminary Resuscitation.  But in trope world it stands for Clean, Pretty, and Reliable.  What’s the difference?  In real life, CPR is an emergency procedure used to buy time for a victim until more advanced treatment can be given.  If someone’s heart and/or breathing stop then brain damage and tissue death can set in fairly quickly.  CPR gets the blood and oxygen flowing in an attempt to delay the damage until the patient can be revived.  But CPR alone usually does not revive the patient.  But not so in Hollywood!

Despite the fact that various bodily fluids can be involved in CPR and that well-trained medics take precautions to protect themselves when they perform CPR, for the most part that is not an issue in the movies.  CPR is portrayed as so Clean that it’s basically like kissing an unconcious person.  If the person has drowned they might cough up a little water for dramatic effect where as in real life vomiting is often a response.

The unconscious kissing and the pounding on well built chest area contribute to the Pretty side of things.  And if there’s one thing we know, a little CPR will cause the person in distress to pop up, ask what happened, and continue the rest of the adventure; no big deal.  Yes, CPR will Reliably fix any number of problems.  Heck, it works so well that if the victim is a love interest of the person performing the procedure, they will wake up and start kissing without missing a beat!  (The “R” can also stand for Romantic!)

Naturally, Baywatch was a serious offender.  Week by week, drowning victims received treatment from the bronzed and wet lifeguards and recovered with nary an ill effect.

ER was among the most realistic as they weren’t afraid to throw in an effective amount of bodily fluids.  They also have a more realistic death count.

The Abyss gets points for de-glamourizing it somewhat. While played for serious drama, at least afterwards Lyndsey is feeling the pain and bruises and not exactly perky.

Jurassic Park shows it reviving someone as well but Tim does show the signs of electrocution afterwards.

Mission Impossible 3 and Lost, among others, use a similar version of CPR and both border on the Miraculous Bitchslap of Life as well as Don’t Die on Me, Dammit!

I’m sad to say Doctor Who gave us one of the worst examples of CPR being Reliable.  After having his body drained of all its blood, the Doctor is revived through CPR and jumps up to save the day!  I don’t know how alien biology works; maybe pounding on his hearts causes them to produce blood.

I couldn’t find a good video to embed to here’s Jerry Seinfeld and Newman playing the whole CPR thing  for laughs.

Seinfeld Mouth to Mouth

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!