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I am now going to ramble on about something that probably has a technical term already, but I'm going to coin and use my own, so there. :)
I call it "Going to Oz", and it's the moment in a movie where it shifts from the mundane, boring setup to the fantastical adventure part. I call it that because it's so clear a break in "The Wizard of Oz," what with the tornado and the shifting to technicolor. You start in Kansas, you Go to Oz.
A lot of movies, especially movies that I watch, involve a meeting of the mundane and the fantastic. Either the hero enters a world of wonders (Willy Wonka, Last Starfighter, Wizard of Oz, etc), or the fantastical comes into their world (E.T., the new Fat Albert movie, etc).
The opening of the movie is Kansas, it's the protagonist in a life that's, well, not great. Maybe it's reasonably comfortable, maybe it's poverty, but whatever it is, the protagonist is dissatisfied with Kansas. Kansas is dull, it's uninspiring, it limits one's options.
Then there's the shift, and the movie Goes to Oz. Sometimes, the protagonist finds their destiny in Oz, as they rebuild the Starfighter Corps or take the reins of Wonka Chocolates. Sometimes, the protagonist learns the lessons they need to find their way out of Kansas in the real world. Sometimes they just go back to Kansas and it's the same as before, but with memories of Oz. And once in a while, Kansas looks pretty good in comparison to Oz, as was the case for Dorothy.
But, when you get down to it, Oz is the selling point of the movie. You don't see ads and trailers that linger on Kansas, often they utterly ignore Kansas in favor of showing how neat Oz is.
Kansas, however, is where storytellers often want to linger. They establish the character in Kansas, show by Oz is so necessary, provide the stark contrast between Kansas and Oz. The danger, though, is that people came to see Oz, and get bored by Kansas.
For instance, while I like The Last Starfighter, when I first saw it in the theater I practically squirmed with impatience during all the trailer park scenes. I wanted the space battles, by damn! And all that time showing Charlie Bucket being poor before finding the Golden Ticket? Hit scene advance, dude. Kansas holds up especially poorly on rewatching, since you already know all the background stuff that it's there to convey.
On the other hand, one of the things I liked about the new Fat Albert movie was that there was ONE scene of Kansas before Fat Albert came to town and the movie Went to Oz. Just enough to establish the lack of satisfaction the protagonist had with her life (and it got fleshed out later in the movie over the course of several scenes), and then the stuff I went to the movie to see started happening. Boom. Shorthand? Maybe. But I was DREADING having to sit through half an hour of Kansas before Fat Albert showed up, and was quite relieved it wasn't going to happen that way.
Of course, Oz is often expensive. The Last Starfighter spent so much time in Kansas because all the early generation CG animation was barely within the realm of possibility at the time...even another minute might have broken the bank. Whenever Oz is effects-heavy, there's a danger in having the movie ever leave Kansas, because you might not be able to afford to have enough Oz to satisfy the viewers, just enough to make Kansas look bad by comparison.
Anyway, just thought this all up the other day, and felt like typing it up somewhere. And where better than a blog to be bloggish?
I call it "Going to Oz", and it's the moment in a movie where it shifts from the mundane, boring setup to the fantastical adventure part. I call it that because it's so clear a break in "The Wizard of Oz," what with the tornado and the shifting to technicolor. You start in Kansas, you Go to Oz.
A lot of movies, especially movies that I watch, involve a meeting of the mundane and the fantastic. Either the hero enters a world of wonders (Willy Wonka, Last Starfighter, Wizard of Oz, etc), or the fantastical comes into their world (E.T., the new Fat Albert movie, etc).
The opening of the movie is Kansas, it's the protagonist in a life that's, well, not great. Maybe it's reasonably comfortable, maybe it's poverty, but whatever it is, the protagonist is dissatisfied with Kansas. Kansas is dull, it's uninspiring, it limits one's options.
Then there's the shift, and the movie Goes to Oz. Sometimes, the protagonist finds their destiny in Oz, as they rebuild the Starfighter Corps or take the reins of Wonka Chocolates. Sometimes, the protagonist learns the lessons they need to find their way out of Kansas in the real world. Sometimes they just go back to Kansas and it's the same as before, but with memories of Oz. And once in a while, Kansas looks pretty good in comparison to Oz, as was the case for Dorothy.
But, when you get down to it, Oz is the selling point of the movie. You don't see ads and trailers that linger on Kansas, often they utterly ignore Kansas in favor of showing how neat Oz is.
Kansas, however, is where storytellers often want to linger. They establish the character in Kansas, show by Oz is so necessary, provide the stark contrast between Kansas and Oz. The danger, though, is that people came to see Oz, and get bored by Kansas.
For instance, while I like The Last Starfighter, when I first saw it in the theater I practically squirmed with impatience during all the trailer park scenes. I wanted the space battles, by damn! And all that time showing Charlie Bucket being poor before finding the Golden Ticket? Hit scene advance, dude. Kansas holds up especially poorly on rewatching, since you already know all the background stuff that it's there to convey.
On the other hand, one of the things I liked about the new Fat Albert movie was that there was ONE scene of Kansas before Fat Albert came to town and the movie Went to Oz. Just enough to establish the lack of satisfaction the protagonist had with her life (and it got fleshed out later in the movie over the course of several scenes), and then the stuff I went to the movie to see started happening. Boom. Shorthand? Maybe. But I was DREADING having to sit through half an hour of Kansas before Fat Albert showed up, and was quite relieved it wasn't going to happen that way.
Of course, Oz is often expensive. The Last Starfighter spent so much time in Kansas because all the early generation CG animation was barely within the realm of possibility at the time...even another minute might have broken the bank. Whenever Oz is effects-heavy, there's a danger in having the movie ever leave Kansas, because you might not be able to afford to have enough Oz to satisfy the viewers, just enough to make Kansas look bad by comparison.
Anyway, just thought this all up the other day, and felt like typing it up somewhere. And where better than a blog to be bloggish?
