tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post2367133316216869007..comments2024-03-19T01:35:16.890-04:00Comments on Cockeyed Caravan: The Ultimate Story Checklist: CasablancaMatt Birdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07319984238456281734noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post-56352575370100438332013-05-06T18:27:14.047-04:002013-05-06T18:27:14.047-04:00"Does the hero enjoy some success and have so..."Does the hero enjoy some success and have some fun? Is the promise of the premise fulfilled?"<br /><br />Rick does enjoy some success, even if he's not having much fun at all the wheeling and dealing. But I'd say even more so that the promise of the premise is fulfilled by all the machinations at his club. We're set up for intrigue and that's what the film delivers.<br /><br />In light of the way this step seems to work in CASABLANCA, ALIEN and THE SHINING, maybe it's time to revise the phrasing of this point slightly? Or perhaps maybe to start thinking of each part of it in isolation: 1) success (though sometimes defined negatively in horror films where a hero's failure = audience fun); 2) fun (for the audience if not the hero) and 3) the promise of the premise (the potential for interesting stuff to happen in the story world given our narrative and genre expectations)<br /><br />"Q:Do you withhold exposition until the character and the audience are both demanding to know it? A: Yes. They don’t even reveal Rick until we’re eager to meet him."<br /><br />I'd argue that this actually qualifies as a kind of special case for exposition. In a way, there's a ton of exposition about Rick before we meet him. It's just all very mysterious, sometimes contradictory and lacking in detail. But part of the reason we're eager to meet him is because he's been deliberately, expositionally, built up in our minds. Orson Welles referred to such roles -- like his own famous turn as Harry Lime -- as "Mr. Wu" parts, after a character he once played in the theater, who the audience didn't get to meet till halfway through the play, but who all the other characters talked endlessly about.j.s.noreply@blogger.com