Q&A: How can a "small world" work in an epic scale movie, and how might that conflict when expanding the conflict and the story in sequels?

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How can a "small world" work in an epic scale movie, and how might that conflict when expanding the conflict and the story in sequels?

Jul 20, 2011

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Bass wrote

at Jul 20, 2011 - 8:39 AM

There is another principle for creating the sequelling story, one that for some strange reason is falling out of style.

The rogues gallery.

This is something comic books, tvs, and radio serials would do, ever since Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes in order to continue a serial in which all the story elements were resolved. The idea was essentially to retell the same story again and again but with such variance that it felt new each time, and the way to do that was a gallery of villains that would show up, one their own or together, to create new conflict.

I miss those. Now, everyone does an 'arc' story that takes three films or five seasons to tell because that's 'legitimate', and what upsets me about them is how boring the installments are. They plod at a snail's pace, promising a big pay-off that never arrives, either because their talent cannot meet the hype, or because the first installments are so boring it gets cancelled. And then there are those immoral con-artists who don't even bother to work out where it's going in the first place and adlib while claiming it's all planned out like the writers of LOST or BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

Of course, there are arc stories that work: BABYLON 5, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, HARRY POTTER – and when they work it's wonderful.

But the rogues gallery isn't getting much attention at the moment, and I miss it. It can be a wonderful form.