Tip # 15: Predictability

By Anant Mathur (June 16, 2011)

I truly feel film like "The Sixth Sense (1999)" and "Memento (2000)" have spoiled the audience. Because in a way these films are training the audience and giving them the ability to predict what is going to happen next. You may not realize it while watching films, but your eye sees something new and your mind remembers, so the next time you watch a film with a familiar theme or situation your mind will automatically remember and react. You will realize what's happening and be able to predict what will occur next.

As good as the story of "Inception (2010)" is, it could've been better. The main problem with Inception is there are too many twists - when a story has too many twists the audience has no reason to believe anything on the screen and the story becomes predictable because they can figure out that what they're watching is not real it's going to be another twist, and feel a little disappointed. It's better to have one really good twist in a story than to have too many twists and make it predictable. While watching inception I felt that if it didn't have so many twists I wouldn't have figured out what was going to happen next. 

Take the films "Saw (2004)" and "Saw II (2005)" for example - all through the films you're shown certain events unfolding and you believe everything you see to be true, but right at the climax there's a really good twist and everything you thought is totally useless and you're given a really great ending. With too many twists the ending is never as great as it could be because there are too many scenarios floating around and after seeing all the directions the story could have taken, if the ending isn't perfect chances are the audience will be disappointed.

As a screenwriter or filmmaker you have to be very alert nowadays. Let's take a scenario where your hero's wife is in danger or dying - the hero spends the whole film trying to find a way to save her - right away your audience is thinking that by the end of the film he will save her, it doesn't matter how he does it the audience already knows the end and snoozes through the film (that is if they decide to stay). They've seen this scenario a thousand times, it would be a much more convincing story if his wife died and he has to find a way to go on, now he has a more realistic problem to deal with. Or the story could continue in another dimension where his wife is still alive, something that the audience isn't expecting.

A film with a title like "I Hate Luv Storys (2010)" reveals the whole story to your audience. Even without seeing the film I know that by the time it ends the character who hates love stories will find himself in one. Titles like "Angoor (1982)", "Mughal-E-Azam (1960)", "Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959)", "Chupke Chupke (1975)", "Dhoom (2004)", "Sholay (1975)" or "Teesri Manzil (1966)" work well because the audience has no idea what to expect and has no preconceived notions before they enter the cinema hall. Choosing the right film title is just as important as the story itself, you don't want to pick a title that reveals the whole story before the audience has a chance to see your film.

One of my pet peeves is when a writer or filmmaker says that he has written a story with a certain actor in mind. Right away I know there's no characterization, what I see on screen is going to be the actor - as I have seen him in hundreds of films - and not a character. It is the responsibility of every writer to create interesting characters and then find a suitable actor to play that character - actors should be challenged to deliver a performance they've never given before with each film, if you're just going to play the same romantic hero you've not grown as an actor and shouldn't be considered among the best no matter how good you're in one genre. 

Actors, writers and filmmakers need variety. If you made a comedy try a thriller next or a drama or a sci-fi film - even if you're not good you will learn a whole lot by giving it a try. Research is extremely important - it's surprising that with everything just the touch of a few keys away how many writers don't do any research for their stories. You don't know everything, but you can find out. If you're writing about a master thief who can open a safe in 10 seconds - you must know yourself how it's possible otherwise how will you convince the audience. 

You're probably not a master thief, but that's why research is so important. You need to know inside out how the safe works - what mechanism is used to open it and lock it, can it be opened in 10 seconds or does your character need 30, etc. etc.

Today it's not very easy to write an original story considering that most situations have been used in the thousands of films released over the last 10 decades, what one must remember is that even if you're telling a story that's been told before, it's predictability is what's going to keep the audiences from staying or leaving. The less predictable it is the more likely it is that the story will find an audience.
 

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