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Have any of you ever heard of the term "MacGuffin"?
It's a term commonly used by Alfred Hitchcock and others to describe a plot device the existence of which is used to further the action, but which itself plays no active part.
So, for example, in Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" Cary Grant's character gets involved in a shadowy plot by being mistaken for a secret agent -- and he and the rest of the characters spend much of the rest of the film trying to find the person he was mistaken for. Except that the secret agent doesn't, and never did exist. So the secret agent is a MacGuffin -- entirely passive, but still crucial to the course of events.
Or in the James Bond film "From Russia with Love" James Bond goes on a mission to find a Soviet coding machine called a "Lektor". But apart from being a device to get Bond to Russia and to provide an excuse for plenty of action, it features little in the plot -- he could have been sent to Russia for any number of other reasons, or to recover something entirely different, and the plot would have been the same.
In J.K. Rowling's book and Chris Columbus's film "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", the Philosopher's Stone is a MacGuffin. All the characters are looking for it, but ultimately the only one who succeeds is the one who does not want to use it. Since it is retrieved before falls into the hands of the antagonist, it does not itself influence events; but the characters, in their pursuit of it, do.
Why do I ask? Well, I'm currently writing a treatment (plot summary) for a screenplay. I'm not sure how long it is going to be but at the moment I'm aiming for full feature length (an hour and a half).
I've got the characters.
I've got the setting.
I've got a number of scenes of dialogue, and a number of scenes of action that stem directly from the characters (the best sort of action, so they say).
What I don't have is a MacGuffin -- something to drive the characters from scene to scene. Something to occupy them while they learn about each other. I've got a few ideas but I'm not very happy with them because they are boring or cliched.
Essentially, it's a story about two sixth formers, set in a boarding school the night before term begins (so it is just them and the housemaster; partly for reasons of narrative simplicity, partly for reasons of budget). The plot structure is closer to a play than a film, really -- I'm aiming for unity of time (the action takes place over a single night, and there are no flashbacks), unity of place (most of it takes place in a boarding house study bedroom) and action (everything that happens is significant to the story -- i.e. few subplots).
Okay, I've taken an awfully long time to get to the point. And since I haven't given a proper plot summary I am basically asking you to invent all the peripheral details yourself. But in fact, after all that, I have just one question to ask.
- What events can *realistically* happen in a boarding school that would cause a boy to leave mysteriously at the end of a previous term, without explaining to his friends? (Both possible but also interesting)
So far, I've come up with the following possibilities:
- Suicide, or suicide attempt
- Drugs
- Theft
- An illicit affair (but these days it would have to be with a teacher, and I don't want to go there)
...all of which are rather boring. I'm trying to think of things that are outrageous and daring and wonderful and yet could actually happen. But I also don't want anything that would threaten the audience's suspension of disbelief. (I'm thinking of "If..." here. It's a film that starts out in the same genre, but it gets so bizarre and random and fantastic that by the end I feel it rather invalidates its own point. That's not to say it's not worth watching, though. Do watch it if you have the chance.)
I don't know if anything I said above makes sense, but whether it does or doesn't please feel free to post something in reply.
Congratulations on reaching the end of the post!
Deeej
P.S. Yes, one of the characters is gay, but that's not the main point of the story. The British public schoolboy genre is small enough as it is without restricting it even further, I'm afraid.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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How about something to do with a character who is for ever climbing buildings and putting cutouts of penises on (eg) clock hands, and who breaks into the computer centre to find evidence of a dodgy dealings?
No, that is so unlike real life as to be unbelievable 
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Thank you, Timmy. I was beginning to wonder if my post was so long and so off-topic that nobody could make head or tail of it.
>How about something to do with a character who is for ever climbing buildings and putting cutouts of penises on (eg) clock hands,
I think that would be difficult to justify dramatically. In real life there is such a thing as a "naughty boy" but in film you end up having to give such a character a great deal of back story to justify why they behave that way.
>and who breaks into the computer centre to find evidence of a dodgy dealings?
Well, I've come up with something like that already -- a boy discovers a conspiracy in the computer centre / staff common room / board of governors, so they expel him. The problem is, it has to be both thrilling and reasonably plausible. (Financial irregularities such as price fixing are, of course, absolutely neither of those.)
For example:
Fun but impossible in this setting:
- The staff are part of a secret terrorist plot to murder the queen
- The staff have all been replaced by zombies
- The physics department has built a secret nuclear weapons test facility under the boat house
- The school is secretly filming its classes and selling them on the internet as reality television
Boring but probable:
- The bursar has been price fixing
- Allegations of bullying/child abuse
- The school is covering up a suicide
- The school buildings are unsafe to live in due to asbestos
Etc.
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Said I,
>Fun but impossible in this setting:
>- The staff are part of a secret terrorist plot to murder the queen
>- The staff have all been replaced by zombies
>- The physics department has built a secret nuclear weapons test facility under the boat house
>- The school is secretly filming its classes and selling them on the internet as reality television
>
>Boring but probable:
>- The bursar has been price fixing
>- Allegations of bullying/child abuse
>- The school is covering up a suicide
>- The school buildings are unsafe to live in due to asbestos
I should have added -- I'm looking for something in between. Not so unlikely as to ruin the suspension of disbelief, but more "fun" than simply price-fixing (though, as we all know, that's not a very good example as British schools are never involved in price-fixing).
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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Read "Henry in the Outfield". It may give you some ideas
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Student finds out that his housemaster is having an affair with one of the students. Housemaster plants drugs on student and has him expelled before he can explain. Student, before expulsion, uploaded to a website incriminating pictures of the teacher and the other student together and left a clue of some kind in the computer in the study.
Sorry it's so improbable - I just let my mind wander. I really shouldn't let it go out alone!
In the unlikely event that you use this idea I want 10% of all the box-office profits! LOL.
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
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Thanks, JFR. You've brought up some interesting points.
The device of a master having an affair with one of the students is a very powerful one. Unfortunately in the eyes of most viewers that would condemn him absolutely, and I would quite like all the characters to be redeemed at the end of the story, even the housemaster.
Unless... Yes. Hmm. Interesting.
Don't mind me -- I'm not specifically refuting your story. I'm just musing.
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the character who did not return could have died from complications that arose because of neglect on the part of the school. perhaps bullying or an over zealous punisher. that would give way to a scandal and a cover up. the neglect could have come from someone higher than the headmaster, perhaps the board or generous benefactors to the school. I must say that i'm not familiar with boarding schools beyond what I have either read in stories or seen in movies so I have no idea how plausable this is. perhaps it will spark an unrelated idea however. good luck and I imagine I speak for a large number of people on this board by saying I am curious as to how it will turn out. i recently watched the miniseries Tom Brown's Schooldays (or something to that effect) on BBCAmerica so boarding school is kind of interesting to me at the moment. Plus it seems like there are a ton of stories that have boarding school as a main element in their plot so yeah.
On a side not I'm glad that you used "From Russia With Love" as an example 'cause i watched that movie last night.
Anyway, Good Luck and I hope that I have been atleast some help
It's always the old to lead us to the war
It's always the young to fall
Now look at all we've won with the sabre and the gun
Tell me is it worth it all
~Phil Ochs "I Aint Marching Anymore"
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Thanks, David, for your suggestions.
A lot can go on in a school -- in fact, just about anything that happens outside school. In many British private secondary boarding schools (known within the UK as "public schools", but very much opposite of the American term "public school") the pupils get at least as much freedom as they would at home -- probably more, actually. As long as one is subtle one can get away with smoking and drinking (and sex? well, I wouldn't know myself, but I should think so, as long as it's consensual and very subtle indeed), though schools draw the line at anything antisocial or illegal (drugs, stealing, etc.). (Though even then they will avoid the police wherever possible.)
These days public schools tend to take a hard line on bullying. There is (by law) no longer any corporal punishment, and pastoral care is taken very seriously. The main problems that arise are usually personal problems -- depression, loneliness, homesickness, people being overworked. Occasionally a teacher will unfairly pick on a pupil, but it doesn't happen very often. In a decent school there are always other teachers for a pupil to turn to in the event that they feel they are being persecuted by a member of staff. That makes it hard for me to come up with something that is both possible and makes good cinema. Unhappiness is a very personal thing.
I'm very much feeling my way through this; and it's likely to be many weeks before I have a fully self-consistent plot and can start writing. And even then only a tiny proportion of finished screenplays are ever made into films. I've written a number of short scripts (anything from 1 minute to 20 minutes in length) but never anything feature-length (a feature is a film that is at least 70 minutes long; most Hollywood features are two hours).
David
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cossie
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On fire! |
Location: Exiled in North East Engl...
Registered: July 2003
Messages: 1699
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... this is just the sort of problem I enjoy thinking about when not actually working - it makes a drive or a walk so much more enjoyable! Mind you, my flashes of inspiration tend to be few, and depressingly far between!
Before I start drifting aimlessly, could you clarify how closely the 'event' has to be linked to the departed pupil and the school? Could it, for example, be a 'McGuffin once removed', reflecting some form of interaction between the pupil's parent and the school?
Incidentally, I'm delighted that you are constructing a screenplay rather than writing a storyline and adapting it. It means that you'll keep your eye firmly on the ball - far too many 'adaptations' omit minor details (sometimes major details!) which, though apparently insignificant in themselves, are essential for a proper understanding and enjoyment of the overall drama.
The recent TV dramatisation of Ian Rankin's crime novel 'The Falls' is a case in point; it was riddled with incomprehensible edits which made the storyline almost impossible to follow, even omitting any reference which might explain the title of the piece! And that despite my admiration for Ken Stott's ability to convey angst by the bucketful!
For a' that an' a' that,
It's comin' yet for a' that,
That man tae man, the worrld o'er
Shall brithers be, for a' that.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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Deeej wrote:
>Unhappiness is a very personal thing.
I am not sure how to express it in a plot stratagem, but could that not be the key you need? Somehow finding out why Bloggins Minor is unhappy?
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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>I am not sure how to express it in a plot stratagem, but could that not be the key you need? Somehow finding out why Bloggins Minor is unhappy?
Yup. But the problem is that I've already got one unhappy character, and the main point of the film is to find out why that is. I'm trying to come up with a credible subplot that doesn't duplicate any of the same concepts, otherwise it'll be both boring and confusing for the audience.
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>Incidentally, I'm delighted that you are constructing a screenplay rather than writing a storyline and adapting it. It means that you'll keep your eye firmly on the ball - far too many 'adaptations' omit minor details (sometimes major details!) which, though apparently insignificant in themselves, are essential for a proper understanding and enjoyment of the overall drama.
Well, in some ways it's cheating, as most films have a very rigid three-act structure, and in some ways I am relying on that to keep the plot in place. Adaptations, especially of long rambling novels, often have to get rid of so many details to get the film to conform to that structure. While a film doesn't *have* to conform to it, people (consciously or unconsciously) will notice narrative unconventionality. TV movies especially tend to go for the "safe" road, even if it means butchering the original text.
That said, a lot of books already fit the paradigm. It's a natural way of telling stories. A beginning, a middle and an end.
At the moment the plot's getting so tortuous that even I am not quite sure what's going on! You really need to know the whole plot so far before it can all make sense. What I've been asking about is not part of the main plot, but a subplot in the past that affects the main characters' actions in the present.
>Could it, for example, be a 'McGuffin once removed', reflecting some form of interaction between the pupil's parent and the school?
It could, yes.
Sorry for being so cryptic!
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cossie
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On fire! |
Location: Exiled in North East Engl...
Registered: July 2003
Messages: 1699
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... sorry, I just can't control the urge to re-title!
I do appreciate the strengths (and weaknesses!) of the 'three act' formula; in many ways, the structure of a successful film is similar to Ralph Waldo Emerson's formula for a successful speech - it should have a good beginning, a good ending, and these should be kept reasonably close together. Alas, too many directors pay too little attention to the third requirement!
I suppose that in essence the point I was trying to make in my reference to the dramatisation of Ian Rankin's 'The Falls' is that a really skilful screenwriter is as rare as a really successful author, and too many of those in the screenwriting business are journeymen (or even apprentices!); very few are masters of their craft.
A good story is filled with nuances - and McGuffins! - each of which contributes to the overall plot. The skilled screenwriter will identify these nuances, and even if the plot needs to be drastically simplified to fit a specified time-frame he will ensure that all nuances which remain relevant are retained or replaced. The screenwriter for 'The Falls' failed misrably on this account, but it CAN be done - witness (in the same genre) the 'Inspector Morse' TV series. Some episodes were original screenplays, but all of Colin Dexter's original and complex novels were adapted, mostly with conspicuous success.
Hence my suggestion that in writing an original screenplay you would keep your eye on the ball, ensuring that all the elements necessary for appreciation and enjoyment found a place in a coherent whole - and I wish you every success in your endeavour!
For a' that an' a' that,
It's comin' yet for a' that,
That man tae man, the worrld o'er
Shall brithers be, for a' that.
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Oh, of course there are good screenwriters who know exactly what to put into a screenplay when adapting a book. (Though when they make absolutely necessary changes, they will invariably be criticised by the readers of that book for destroying it completely.) The problem is: there aren't very many of them. And those that are very good will usually end up in Hollywood, or at least the "proper" British film industry. (There's a British film industry?, I hear you ask. Not really, but there are various offshoots of the American industry here. That's not a joke, by the way.) Television pays less, and attracts proportionately less talent.
Screenwriting isn't a nice profession to go into, even if you are very good. Unless you can persuade someone to pay you to write (i.e. you can team up with a director and/or producer, or have already made a name for yourself) you will end up writing "spec(ulative) scripts" and sending them off to the big studios in the hope that they are interested. And studios aren't interested in interesting or clever film scripts. They are looking for ones that make safe money. What is more, they receive so many bad scripts from wannabe writers that they'll only devote a couple of minutes of time to each one. The chances -- even with a good scripts -- that they will be interested are hundreds to one. Then even if they buy or option your script the chances of it being put into production are tiny.
Or there's the independent film industry. Which pays even less than television. The independent film industry relies largely on writer-directors, as there simply isn't enough money (unless a film is picked up by a major studio like Miramax) to employ screenwriters full time.
I have nothing but respect for good screenwriters. They really have to fight to get to the top.
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