If you are a low-budget or independent filmmaker, you are
always trying to find a way to get your movie seen. You want to make a name for yourself. To do that, you need people to see your
work. There are a few ways to go about
that. You could cast people who
audiences want to see. That way, they
will seek out your movie to witness actors that they like. You could always have a good story that
people react well to. They spread
knowledge of your movie and the word of mouth helps it become a bigger hit than
it otherwise would have. If you don’t
want to go either of those routes, you could always come up with some sort of
gimmick that makes your movie stand out among the hundreds of thousands of
movies that are already out there.
There are different kinds of gimmicks that I could discuss
when it comes to movies. There are
gimmicks in the casting of a movie, and gimmicks in the marketing of a
movie. But the kind of gimmick that I
want to write about is a gimmick that is used in the very premise of a
movie. You could call it a story gimmick
and that would summarize what I am going to be writing about. It is a gimmick in the concept of the movie
that makes the story have a different structure than most of the other movies
that are available to viewers. It
catches a potential viewer’s eye and piques their interest.
Do these gimmicks in the story always work to make a good
movie? Absolutely not. There is nothing in the world that always
works. There are failures at some point
or another. However, there are instances
in which tossing a gimmick into the structure of a story can make for something
magnificently interesting. (I didn’t
need to toss “magnificently” in there, but I wanted to.) Take a look at the movie that made Christopher
Nolan into the popular director that he is.
No, not Batman Begins. As much as
that movie may have made him into a household name, it’s not the reason that
people love him so much. His first…
Nope… His second full length directorial film was Memento. This movie has one of the biggest gimmicks
that I can think of when it comes to story-telling, and yet it works. The story of Memento is told in reverse
chronological order. That means that the
scene you see first is actually taking place at the end of all of the events
that unfold in the movie. It brings an
interesting twist to the storytelling as you are given the result and slowly
learn details about how things came to that specific point.
This reversal of the order in which details are given about
a final result in a story is not the only gimmick in the order of the story
that has been used in cinema. Not that
it was the first instance of this kind of storytelling, Pulp Fiction helped to
spawn an upsurge in movies told in a non-linear fashion. Many movies capitalized on the storytelling
method of that movie and told separate stories that intertwined in a very
tangential way. One character overlaps
between stories. All of the characters
are in one location at one time, then go their separate ways. That kind of thing. It was a refreshing way to tell a story when
it first came to the forefront. It got
audiences’ attention because they rarely saw a movie play out in that way.
A more common method of telling multiple stories in one
movie is through the use of anthologies.
Multiple stories are told through short films compiled together in one
feature length film. Sometimes that’s
not gimmick enough for filmmakers, however.
A movie like Movie 43 might not be good enough because the concept is
too broad. The concept is simply
gross-out comedy shorts. Sometimes, the
people behind an anthology want something more niche. They want something more than just an
anthology that will attract viewers.
This kind of thinking is what brings about movies such as The ABCs of
Death. The title gives away most of what
the gimmick of this anthology feature is.
Throughout the movie, there will be twenty-six short films. Each short film will be assigned one letter
of the alphabet, and the director and/or writer has to come up with a story
about death that relates to that specific letter. It is a concept that catches the attention of
anybody searching for something to watch, and is a concept that will hopefully
lure them in so that they watch the movie.
This week’s Sunday “Bad” Movie didn’t use any of the already
mentioned gimmicks when telling the story that it told. It used a different gimmick altogether, and
one that I haven’t seen previously.
Monster Brawl is a movie that premiered at film festivals in 2011 and
was released on DVD in 2012. The premise
is fairly simple. Six monsters are
pitted against each other in a winner-take-all, fight-to-the-death wrestling
tournament. The movie plays out as if it
is a television broadcast of the titular Monster Brawl. There are commentators, a ringside announcer,
a referee, and statistics for the wrestlers.
It is a valiant attempt at bringing something unique to the table. However, the concept crumbles under the fact
that there is barely any story beyond the wrestling, and the wrestling isn’t
entertaining enough to sustain the hour and a half running time of the
movie. It was still an interesting idea
that has the potential to be something great.
That potential was not met this time.
It could be brought to fruition in the future, if someone decided to
take time to remake the movie.
Many different movies use a gimmick to get their movies
seen. I’ve listed a few different types
of gimmicks that can be used to make a movie stand out. From telling a story in a non-linear way to
setting it up like a television broadcast, there are various ways that the
people behind movies frame their narratives.
It is all about standing out as an original in the movie landscape. As I’ve said in previous posts, originality
is not really about the story being told.
The story is a part of it, but not the whole deal. Originality comes more from the way that a
story is told. Using a gimmick such as
one of the ones I have listed is a way to try and make a movie seem more original. It is a way to get people to put their eyes
upon your work. It has certainly
convinced me to watch a specific movie when seeking entertainment.
I have a few notes to lay down here before we’re done:
- I’ve covered an anthology for the Sunday “Bad” Movies before. It was called The Summer of Massacre.
- In relation to wrestling, I wrote about The Marine movies way back when.
- Monster Brawl was suggested to me by @jaimeburchardt. Follow him on Twitter. You won't regret it. Jaime previously suggested House of the Dead for the Sunday "Bad" Movies.
- Can you think of other gimmicks that have been used when making movies? What are the gimmicks? Can you think of other movies that use the gimmicks I’ve listed? What movies? Have you seen Monster Brawl? What did you think? You can answer these questions in the comments, or give your thoughts on other things about this post.
- Also in the comments, you can leave suggestions for bad movies that you think I should watch. You could also suggest these movies to me on Twitter.
- Next week is the 100th week of the Sunday “Bad” Movies. I’ve been writing these posts for 100 weeks now. There are a few things happening next week. First, there is a post about the Birdemic movies that will be popping up. That’s just your average, weekly post for the Sunday “Bad” Movies. Then there is the retrospective that I do with every 25 posts. That will be there too. But there’s also going to be a special post that was partially written by people who suggested movies and people who read these posts. And finally, there will be a poll opening up for which movie I should rewatch for the two year anniversary. All that and possibly a little bit more.
No comments:
Post a Comment