Imagine being an uber driver and while giving some teen and his uncle a ride you end up getting pulled into a hostage situation/anti government rebellion forces
Han Solo did not sign up for this
To be fair, in this metaphor, the uber driver is in trouble with the local mob boss because he was ferrying cocaine and dumped it out the window when it looked like he might get pulled over, so…
So the uber driver hooks up with the sister of the guy who first hires him, and it turns out that their dad is the Deputy Sheriff, and things go downhill even faster than previously imagined when they hit up a local truckstop for a bite to eat, fuel drop and impromptu family reunion.
Truckstop’s run by an old friend who he won his car off that one time, and the dude’s hitting on the chick he’s hooking up with and it’s like come on man, don’t do this to me but then the girl’s dad is there and he gets hit over the head and shoved into the trunk of the cop car and it’s like oh, shit. Fuck. Chewie man, don’t let them take my car!
And then the kid, who had never been off the farm before he hired you, comes back with Green Beret-level skills to bust you out of jail and his sister, who was honestly kinda preppy, straight up MURDERS the mob boss. And then you get the plans to the DOD’s biggest single piece of equipment so you go to the middle of nowhere where it’s being built and you have some trouble with the locals, but somehow the annoying nerd speaks their language and manages to impress them, so you work together to infiltrate the military base. Oh, and the kid lets himself get captured so he can talk to his dad, and after a knock-down drag-out fight, the dad realizes that he’s been played his entire adult life by the corrupt politician overseeing everything, so he chucks the politician down the maintenance shaft of said politician’s high-rise just before it gets destroyed by the rebels, led by your friend in your truck that he borrowed with the promise that he wouldn’t put a scratch on it, but he knocks off your side mirror getting out of there.
@deadcatwithaflamethrower HAHAHAHAHAHA
NerdProse.
Tag: storytelling
Ava DuVernay, Dee Rees, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira celebrate at Janelle Monáe’s Fem the Future brunch
#this entire scene is a fucking masterpiece #the building tension in Barbossa’s cabin #the strings in the score rising ominously #and then the entire movie turns on a /dime/ #‘oh okay’ #I remember thinking #‘fucking GHOST PIRATES’ #it drops from historical swashbuckler to fantasy swashbuckler in one set piece #in which the rules for how the crew work are given to you purely in visuals #and you get to see that sharp difference between horror-horror and fun horror #because this scene genuinely terrifies Elizabeth #and delights /you/ #instead of being awful for both of you #god
it’s just so neatly done and raises the stakes for the film and puts
everything into context and adds depth to the characters #and comes as a complete surprise #this is all the things you want in a set piece #we should all aspire to storytelling so economical #(incidentally so should THE SEQUELS #christ) (via wizzard890)
A reminder on the rules of the Bechdel Test (and Other Variants)
A movie passes the original Bechdel Test if two or more women have a conversation with each other that is not about a man. They do not have to be alone to have this conversation; they can be in a crowded room. It can even be a group conversation involving other genders. They can be related to each other. The only two points that matter are that the women have to speak directly to each other, and it has to not be about the male protagonist.
A movie passes the Vitto Russo Test if there are one or more characters who are identifiably LGBT(QAI), not solely or predominantly defined by their sexual orientation or gender identity, and are tied into the plot in such a way that their removal has significant effect on the story. You can even infer on this one; just because a movie does not outright have two people not-hetero sucking face does not mean they’re cis-het. Sometimes in film you’ve gotta really watch for the subtext, alas. Better when you don’t! But still a thing because Hollywood is stupid. I’m not talking about “I wish these two pretty people would knock boots!” desires. I’m talking about subtext you can highlight in a film and back up with evidence based upon the film itself or pre-existing rules of thought.
A movie passes the Ellen Degeneres POC Test if two people who are not white have a conversation that is not about the white (usually male) protagonist. They pass the Nikesh Shukla Variant if they’re having this conversation without mentioning their own races, which is often a Hollywood bit of bullshit of producers trying to scream about how inclusive they are.
A movie passes a Basic POC/Gender Equality Test when there is actual mixed representation of all groups among the characters, named and unnamed, with dialogue fairly and/or plot-wise fairly distributed among everyone.
A movie passes the Sphinx Test if women feature prominantly in the action, if they are proactive rather than purely reactive, and if they’re not portrayed stereotypically.
A movie passes the Mako Mori test if a significant or primary female character has a narrative arc that isn’t about supporting the male protagonist’s story. Their narratives can interact, but her narrative should never become his.
Steel Phoenix Studios 