The Thing About Cliche

[roscoegino]

There will be scenes in your script that will come across as cliche, perhpas even a tad corny -- no matter how you write it. But, because they contain The Uncompromising Truth of the story they are forgivable and therefore must stay.

True or false?

[omovie]

Nope.

[wcmartell]

There are many paths to the same truthful destination. There are many ways to phrase the same truth.

- Billucius

[Joe Unidos]

Cliche is lazy truth. Don't write lazy, but write truth.

(Wow, that came off a little pompous...)

[asjah8]

Originally Posted by roscoegino

There will be scenes in your script that will come across as cliche, perhpas even a tad corny -- no matter how you write it. But, because they contain The Uncompromising Truth of the story they are forgivable and therefore must stay.

True or false?

i think this is a trick question...?

if a scene is cliche regardless of how it's written then that means the writer has no choice in the endgoal; ie, to make it other than cliche, right? but, i think the only cliches that stand irregardless of creative input are genre expectations. no matter how a scene/story is written there still has to be a 'cute-meet' et al; and those are cliche but they are forgivable because they are expected.

true or false? i go with true - i wouldn't want to piss off the movie-going public by not giving them what they expect to see.

[Ven]

I think it's cliche for people to excuse bad writing.

square peg, round hole

[Hamboogul]

I avoid cliches like the plague.

[Mac H.]

Originally Posted by roscoegino

There will be scenes in your script that will come across as cliche, perhpas even a tad corny -- no matter how you write it. But, because they contain The Uncompromising Truth of the story they are forgivable and therefore must stay.

Utterly false.

The reason they must stay is because the paying customers enjoy watching them.

That's the reason. Nothing to do with 'uncompromising truth' or any of that nonsense.

People who enjoy rom-coms enjoy the classic 'run to the airport to stop her from leaving' trope. It's a cliché - but the viewers of that genre enjoy it.

People who enjoy detective cosies enjoy the classic scene at the end when the detective has all the suspects in the room and explains who really killed the butler. It's an unrealistic cliché - but viewers of that genre enjoy it.

People like me who enjoy action films enjoy the classic scene at the end when all is lost - there's clearly no way the hero can survive this and rescue the girl .. and then the camera pans around and we see he has a gun sticky taped to his back. It's an realistic cliché - but I love the 'all is lost ... except' scene that is obliged to appear in almost all films of that genre.

It's the enjoyment of the audience that matters. Not the 'uncompromising truth' of a story.

(Heck - even Shakespeare had Falstaff making fart jokes throughout his plays)

Mac

[Bulldog]

Conventions are forgivable. Cliches, not so much.

In an action movie, the hero and main villian usually save each other for last. Works out that way 99.9% of the time.

What should not be uttered in the process: "Is that all you got?" "Your ass is mine!" "Okay, who's almost dead?"

[wcmartell]

Writers discussing cliches, what a ...

- Bill