A different way to depict on-screen violence

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  • A different way to depict on-screen violence

    Hello everyone,

    I'm not a screenwriter, just a viewer of movies and TV shows. I have an idea about a non-cliche way I'd like to see violence handled on-screen.

    Aside from murder investigation and crime scene shows, it seems like there is little treatment of the aftermath of violent assault and battery. Shows often depict someone being punched/kicked/etc, but I haven't noticed much exploration of the legal, financial, and social consequences that should/could realistically happen.

    How often do you see an on-screen attacker later being served with papers for a lawsuit in small claims court?

    How often do you see the victim (an acquaintance of the attacker) seeking a restraining order, thereby forcing the attacker out of all social circles that the two have in common?

    Could the victim, and/or maybe the attacker, be depicted as experiencing chronic pain or other long-lasting health problems?

    Imagine the attacker trying to explain his actions in court, and feeling shame.

    Suppose the attacker is enrolled in any martial arts programs, like in that old movie The Karate Kid. Imagine depicting the people in charge of those programs being informed that a student used his/her fighting skills illegally. You could depict the dojo master/sensei either expelling the attacker from their classes or at least punishing that person.

    If an especially dangerous or violent attack happens between students at a school, you could show the attacker being expelled. Then explore the social and academic disruptions that result.

    One problem would happen if the two parties are underaged. Maybe the victim's parents would have to sue the attacker's parents, have to get the restraining order on their child's behalf, etc, because minors cannot represent themselves in court? In any case, parents would be depicted as being motivated enough to get involved.

    I don't believe these ideas would be a main theme/topic in a show. They would be included in an incidental way.

    Some people complain that Hollywood glorifies violence. Alternative treatments like this, which sort of discourage violence, might serve to answer those complaints.

    What do you think?

  • #2
    Re: A different way to depict on-screen violence

    Actually, you see all those things really often in tv movies.

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    • #3
      Re: A different way to depict on-screen violence

      Watch movies that serve the conservative Christian market and you'll see this kind of consequence inclusion all the time. In that market, they believe that if you don't show the punishment for the crime, you're glorifying the crime. In my opinion, that's one of the fundamental reasons those movies will never rise above Lifetime/Hallmark level of material. You're trying to treat a story problem from a social standpoint, instead of from a story standpoint ("What delivers the right social message?" vs "What delivers the right resolution for this conflict?"). Sure, it's great when the bad guys get their do, but it's important to remember not every bad guy does.

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      • #4
        Re: A different way to depict on-screen violence

        Watch Lifetime movies, you'll see all of this.

        But the problem is *time*. If you have just over 40 minutes for a crime story, the collateral damage usually isn't as dramatic or interesting as the main solving the crime story. So if those scenes *were* in the script, they'd likely be cut for time.

        The average Hollywood movie costs about a million bucks a page/minute by the time it hits the screen, so any page that isn't "worth a million" is likely to be trimmed (or rewritten so that it *is* worth that much). I like to work on my pages until I think they're worth a million bucks... that *may* mean a big emotional scene after the violence.

        Bill
        Free Script Tips:
        http://www.scriptsecrets.net

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        • #5
          Re: A different way to depict on-screen violence

          If you are looking at procedural type TV shows - they are focussed around a group of regularly returning characters - usually the detective.

          So it will always be focussed around what she is involved in - no what happens elsewhere. So scenes that don't involve the detective (or, more often now, the quirky offsider consultant) aren't relevant to the series.

          Plenty of film & TV shows have gone the other way. eg: "The Slap" went into the repercussions of a single kid getting slapped. And by 'repercussions'- it went on for 8 frigging episodes on the same subject ...

          So those types of TV series do certainly exist.

          It's your TV. Choose to watch those ones instead of the others.

          However - perhaps TV should be congratulated on how it deals with presenting violence:
          • In the USA, domestic violence has decreased by 64% between 1994 & 2010. ( Ref)
          • In 2011 the US celebrated the firth consecutive year of decreased violent crime. (Ref)


          Perhaps Hollywood should concentrate on doing MORE of whatever it was doing in the leadup to those great results?

          Mac
          New blogposts:
          *Followup - Seeking Investors in all the wrong places
          *Preselling your film - Learning from the Experts
          *Getting your indie film onto iTunes
          *Case Study - Estimating Film profits

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          • #6
            Re: A different way to depict on-screen violence

            There's been violence in fiction dating back to the oral tradition. There's something about the human need to exorcise feelings of anger and rage through story.

            The vast majority of people who commit crimes know the consequences. But at the moment they commit a violent crime, including murder, they're not thinking about consequences.
            Advice from writer, Kelly Sue DeConnick. "Try this: if you can replace your female character with a sexy lamp and the story still basically works, maybe you need another draft.-

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            • #7
              Re: A different way to depict on-screen violence

              Originally posted by Mac H. View Post
              If you are looking at procedural type TV shows - they are focussed around a group of regularly returning characters - usually the detective.

              So it will always be focussed around what she is involved in - no what happens elsewhere. So scenes that don't involve the detective (or, more often now, the quirky offsider consultant) aren't relevant to the series.

              Plenty of film & TV shows have gone the other way. eg: "The Slap" went into the repercussions of a single kid getting slapped. And by 'repercussions'- it went on for 8 frigging episodes on the same subject ...

              So those types of TV series do certainly exist.

              It's your TV. Choose to watch those ones instead of the others.

              However - perhaps TV should be congratulated on how it deals with presenting violence:
              • In the USA, domestic violence has decreased by 64% between 1994 & 2010. ( Ref)
              • In 2011 the US celebrated the firth consecutive year of decreased violent crime. (Ref)


              Perhaps Hollywood should concentrate on doing MORE of whatever it was doing in the leadup to those great results?

              Mac
              I don't think films induce more violence. Outside of a few wackos blaming their crimes on the media -- which is BS IMO because they had to have the impulse first anyway -- it's a misleading claim.

              I just read that the number one reason these stats are down is the increased ability of police solving crimes quicker and putting offenders in jail before they reoffend. Surveillance video, AFIS, quicker turnaround on processing DNA, local police quickly sharing info from state to state. Better gun control is another factor. And, believe it or not, there were stats showing a correlation between less crime and better access to birth control (including abortion) resulting in fewer unwanted children growing up abused and neglected.

              Conversely, lower crime rates of past eras are misleading. There was lousy record keeping. Crimes were seriously under-reported. A book I read about the 1869 World's Fair in Chicago mentioned bodies found in Lake Michigan were often taken straight to potter's field if they couldn't identify them or weren't sure of the cause of death. Many were written off as suicides completely unreported as murders. The good old days were not as good as everyone assumes.
              Advice from writer, Kelly Sue DeConnick. "Try this: if you can replace your female character with a sexy lamp and the story still basically works, maybe you need another draft.-

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