How many times have you read a book, watched a movie, or seen the last episode of a show you like, and can't help but think, “That's it?” You've just spent a good part of your life invested in something, enjoying every twist and turn, and suddenly it's over and you feel a little betrayed. It's like you took the wrong door in a funhouse and suddenly you're in the alley outside, and part of you is convinced there's more to it " there's gotta be " but it's not worth going through it all again to find out.
DVDs are where the big money is these days. Theatrical runs are big ways of getting word of mouth out. Sure, they help recoup the budget early, but more importantly they help put the title in people's heads. If you really like a movie, you buy it when it comes out. You tell friends to rent it, or lend it to them, then they like it and buy it, and so forth. This is hopefully common knowledge, and I apologize for wasting a paragraph on it.
Bad word of mouth means bad sales. Bad shelf life. Nobody will be demanding the new HD disc to replace the DVD that replaced the laserdisc of a movie they thought fell apart. How many times have you heard somebody say something “just sort of fell apart at the end,” no matter what they liked? That last impression is what an audience walks out thinking about, what gets discussed, and what gets taken to be the opinion of the whole movie. Positive notes are almost discussed as if they were excuses. “Sure, she was good in it, and the effects were great, but it didn't come together.”
The last ten minutes of your movie need to knock the audience out, or you're going to have problems. You have a limited window in which you need to bring the conflict to a crescendo, reintroduce loose plot elements, resolve them all in an interesting and hopefully unforeseen manner, and give just the right amount of epilogue to impress an idea of how things turn out without giving the audience the urge to look at their watch now that they know the real story is over.
Ten minutes is being generous, by the way. Some movies can play it out in one or two. These are usually twist endings, to be fair. The audience still isn't sure what's going on, they know that there are too many mysteries to be solved the way they see it, and suddenly one piece of information is put in the middle. A quick summary of how it all fits, be it in reaction, montage, or something else, finishes the story. If there had been a car chase after the big reveal of THE USUAL SUSPECTS, it would have ruined it.
Know where your story ends. Not what happens in the happily ever after, but what is the last important thing the audience MUST know. Write it down at the bottom of a piece of paper. Study that moment. Why is that so important? What makes you care that this had to happen? What brought you here as a storyteller, creatively, emotionally, instinctively? Every answer you come up with should be written down above that moment.
Write down every important thing that happens in your big finish. What props do you need? Who is there, who is elsewhere, and why? Where are we? How did we get there, both physically and emotionally? What big jokes, stunts, or other “moment' have you envisioned taking place? What sort of backstory would make those things so much cooler?
Take all of those things you've written down, and as you write your script just grab one or two here and there and work them in. When you start a new scene, see what elements fit. How do they maybe tie with other things that will make them less obvious as exposition? As you get them placed, scratch them off of your list. Once you get to the ending, all of the set up you needed will be done. You've laid the groundwork so the audience will not think twice about how over the top you get. This is the payoff they've been waiting for.
If your ending is a nun walking into a MechaClown factory with a flamethrower, follow your bliss. Just set it up early, bit by bit, and tie the orphanage's worried nun from the opening with the children disappearing, the grease paint found at crime scenes, and then how flammable grease paint is. Grease and grease paint can be the same in your world. Add some mystical arts, if you're so inclined. The nun can shoot lightning balls from her ruler if you want. Just give a casual mention early on by a scholar that “the Catholic Church hid many psalms that unlocked secrets of the universe, martial arts, secret spells, maybe even the meaning of life itself!” The “life itself” bit is the smoke over the plot point, for those in the back of the class.
If you have a big ending, you can expect one of a few common reactions. “Where the fuck did that come from?” means an audience felt alienated. “I saw that coming a mile away!” at least means they were paying attention, and still could relate. The best thing you could hope for is “I should have seen that coming!” That's the audience's way of saying “You have outsmarted me, and I concede the victory.” You've given them a good ending.
They will tell their friends they liked the movie, start to talk about it, then say some magical words: “I don't want to say too much. I don't want to ruin it for you.” Now their friends are practically obliged to see the movie. To do anything less would be to torture this generous person looking out for their entertainment, and merely wants to talk about a good film.
Please keep in mind that I'm not just talking about explosions and set pieces. If you have a love story that just involves two people bickering until they hook up, you better have Meg Ryan or Jennifer Aniston cast because not a lot of people can make that charming. If you have them go through ups and downs, shared moments, and little details that eventually they see adds up to mean they were meant for each other, that's fireworks. Okay, I have an addiction to explosions. Get used to it.
On the way-low budget side, consider the original ending to CLERKS. Dante gets shot at the end of the night. Does it make sense to the themes of the movie? Sure. Ultimate shitty day, life hits rock bottom, and as soon as he's motivated to start living BLAM! Life is a series of down endings. The general reaction after that ending was that the whole movie was a bummer. Not as many people recommend a bummer. Truth be told, the movie is half funny stuff, half hardship. With an up ending, or even potentially up, we say it sees the humor in life's frustrations.
One moment changes the way we look at the whole thing for every moment afterwards. Know it, feel it, and let the whole story bring you to it.
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| Make Me Proud |
Every other Monday
Exploring everything you should consider as you make your
indie masterpiece.
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| Patrick Storck |
Patrick hails from Baltimore, MD, where playing by the rules is frowned upon. Only average things come from playing it safe.
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