The Ideas Man – A (very) short story
“Regarding storytelling, ideas are a dime a dozen. It’s the execution that matters!”
“Ah, so you’re a big fan of ‘Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace’, then?”
“Excuse me? While it wasn’t the worst film I’ve ever watched, it had some truly terrible scenes and characters in it.”
“But it had great cinematography, top-notch visual effects and and some of Hollywood’s best actors in it.”
“Yeah, but the dialog sucked.”
“The ‘Star Wars’ script had to be one of the best edited scripts in movie history. And the different personality of the characters was conveyed really well.”
“Yeah, but Jar-Jar Binks!! … And a trade route conflict?!”
“So you’re saying that right at the beginning of the scriptwriting process, bad ideas were chosen for the characters and plot and then flawlessly executed?”
“…”
True. The ideas might not have been good, but the execution was Flawless indeed.
I agree with this 100%, good example of both sides of this is Avatar: The Last Airbender and it’s [insert various synonyms for awful here] movie adoption The Last Airbender… Same ideas (sorta I mean one spent the casting budget on making the thing China friendly instead of getting good actors) one was executed almost flawlessly (source TV series) and the other well lets just say when asked what they would like to be different about it they said “we would like it not to exist”
“So you’re saying that right at the beginning of the scriptwriting process, bad ideas were chosen for the characters and plot and then flawlessly executed?”
– Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying.
I beg your pardon, but the execution of Phantom Menace was terrible. The cinematography was one of the worst offenders, due to two offending styles that the film used exclusively: flat and uninspired shot/reverse shot for human-only scenes, and confused and overcluttered frames for CGI scenes. It was an unintelligible mess from start to finish. It’s only redeeming quality was that it wasn’t Attack of the Clones.
I think a better example is Star Trek Into Darkness. The direction, effects, camera work, and acting were all superb. The story was terrible. And if you believe execution is all that matters, then STID is a good film. I, however, prefer a good story, and thus haven’t seen it a second time.
@ James Davis:
In other words I agree with the point of the story, but not the example put forward. 🙂
I disagree with best edited, because that does go in with the idea of crap dialouge. There were lines and pieces of dialouge that would never have survived a good edit, imo, and stood because someone on the team couldn’t kill a line that sounded great in their head and shit in the can.
And personally, the development of ideas is part of that execution. Planet is being blockaded as part of a trade route? easy, we make the planet have some unique material that COMES from it. Stupidty of interspace trade route negated, plot hole filled. ect. So i would not say flawlessly executed on the use of the ideas, part. some bad ideas, yes, but….
This is pretty much what is wrong with the comics and game industry.
Actual Writers and Designers in those fields aren’t respected in those industries, because “anyone can come up with an idea”, but not everyone has the skill to create a picture or create a program. It’s insulting to say the least to say that, because it’s not true. Anyone can certainly come up with an idea…and likewise anyone can create a picture or program. They may be terrible or simple, but they are still those things. Of course they’d say “Well, it takes a lot of time and effort to draw a picture and write a program.” So indeed does writing a good story or putting together elements and constructing them in such a away that a game or story is well designed and everything is put together well.
Until we get over this idea that it is all about execution, the mediums that continue to believe such things will have problems with produce original or good works.
Another way to express a more complete form of this sentiment is good ideas have a much greater potential to be good, but can be bad execution can still produce bad results. Bad ideas have lower potential to create a good result, but even the best execution can only get you so far. If all that mattered was execution then no matter how good or bad the initial idea was a perfect execution would produce the best results everytime.
I know I will get fried for this one but, I think Jar-Jar was needed. The entire film would have been flat and without character without him. He filled the role of the ewoks in episode 6 and brought life and comic relief to the film. Did he pull it off, not always. There are a lot of problems with the film in general. The acting and editing were pretty bad.
When you look at Jar-Jar then look back at episode 4 when Skywalker pulls out his Bat Rope from his utility belt, you realize that the entire franchise has things that are screwed up and need to be looked at tongue in cheek.
@ MJ:
MJ wrote:
Such as Luke and Leia’s pash session, Anakin’s “OMG I’m a Dad now, lets kill of the mother” moment with Padme, and the fact that we only ever see Force “Ghosts” in SW Episode 6, but no where else, despite an intergalactic Jedi-cide.