10 points to the best answer, about movies and writing about them.?

Question

I am writing on movies, and how they changed over the years. I was wondering if someone could help explain the blockbusters of the 70's and 80's (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, etc...). What were som guidelines used to create a blockbuster back then, how did they create the stories, if I wanted to create a blockbuster that matched Star Wars or Indiana Jones, how would I create a story like that today?

Answer 1

Well... Most of the blockbuster films released in the late 70's and early 80's use the same guideline we use today, but back then it was used with a lot more of originality. If you are3 writing about it, you should read "The Hero With a Thousand Face".

Campbell's insight was that important myths from around the world which have survived for thousands of years, all share a fundamental structure, which Campbell called the monomyth.

This fundamental structure contains a number of stages, which include (1) a call to adventure, which the hero has to accept or decline, (2) a road of trials, regarding which the hero succeeds or fails, (3) achieving the goal or "boon," which often results in important self-knowledge, (4) a return to the ordinary world, again as to which the hero can succeed or fail, and finally, (5) application of the boon in which what the hero has gained can be used to improve the world.

IT's been divided in chapters as follows.

Chapter I: Departure

1. The Call to Adventure
The adventure begins with the hero receiving a call to action, such as a threat to the peace of the community, or the hero simply falls into or blunders into it. The call is often announced to the hero by another character who acts as a "herald". The herald, often represented as dark or terrifying and judged evil by the world, may call the character to adventure simply by the crisis of his appearance.
2. Refusal of the Call
In some stories, the hero initially refuses the call to adventure. When this happens, the hero may suffer somehow, and may eventually choose to answer, or may continue to decline the call.
3. Supernatural Aid
After the hero has accepted the call, he encounters a protective figure (often elderly) who provides special tools and advice for the adventure ahead, such as an amulet or a weapon.
4. The Crossing of the First Threshold
The hero must cross the threshold between the world he is familiar with and that which he is not. Often this involves facing a "threshold guardian", an entity that works to keep all within the protective confines of the world but must be encountered in order to enter the new zone of experience.
5. The Belly of the Whale
The hero, rather than passing a threshold, passes into the new zone by means of rebirth. Appearing to have died by being swallowed or having their flesh scattered, the hero is transformed and becomes ready for the adventure ahead.
Chapter II: Initiation

1. The Road of Trials
Once past the threshold, the hero encounters a dream landscape of ambiguous and fluid forms. The hero is challenged to survive a succession of obstacles and, in so doing, amplifies his consciousness. The hero is helped covertly by the supernatural helper or may discover a benign power supporting him in his passage.
2. The Meeting with the Goddess
The ultimate trial is often represented as a marriage between the hero and a queenlike, or mother-like figure. This represents the hero's mastery of life (represented by the feminine) as well as the totality of what can be known. When the hero is female, this becomes a male figure.
3. Woman as the Temptress
His awareness expanded, the hero may fixate on the disunity between truth and his subjective outlook, inherently tainted by the flesh. This is often represented with revulsion or rejection of a female figure.
4. Atonement with the Father
The hero reconciles the tyrant and merciful aspects of the father-like authority figure to understand himself as well as this figure.
5. Apotheosis
The hero's ego is disintegrated in a breakthrough expansion of consciousness. Quite frequently the hero's idea of reality is changed; the hero may find an ability to do new things or to see a larger point of view, allowing the hero to sacrifice himself.
6. The Ultimate Boon
The hero is now ready to obtain that which he has set out, an item or new awareness that, once he returns, will benefit the society that he has left.

Chapter III: Return

1. Refusal of the Return
Having found bliss and enlightenment in the other world, the hero may not want to return to the ordinary world to bestow the boon onto his fellow man.
2. The Magic Flight
When the boon's acquirement (or the hero's return to the world) comes against opposition, a chase or pursuit may ensue before the hero returns.
3. Rescue from Without
The hero may need to be rescued by forces from the ordinary world. This may be because the hero has refused to return or because he is successfully blocked from returning with the boon. The hero loses his ego.
4. The Crossing of the Return Threshold
The hero returns to the world of common day and must accept it as real.
5. Master of the Two Worlds
Because of the boon or due to his experience, the hero may now perceive both the divine and human worlds.
6. Freedom to Live
The hero bestows the boon to his fellow man.
Chapter IV: The Keys

If you look to this structure you'll find that the stories are all the same but with different looks. Even George Lucas said that Star Wars could not be possible without this book.

Answer 2

Briefly:
The 1970's marked the end of the old studio systems, which were, in effect, movie factories. New and relatively independent film-makers were able to make their own films, with studio support, but without the complete studio control--films like The Godfather, Bonnie and Clyde, M*A*S*H, etc, with controversial themes could be made---these were gambles for the studios and film-makers which paid off. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, on the strength of their earlier films (American Grafitti, Jaws, etc) were able to convince the studios to provide financing for their favorite film ideas (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, ET, etc)--
they never set out to make "blockbusters"--they were good film-makers who made great, audience-pleasing movies.
Because of the extreme cost of making movies these days, nearly every studio wants to make a "blockbuster", in order to sell tickets, get in on merchandise franchising, etc. The only problem is that no one can guarantee a movie will be a blockbuster. Every film is a gamble. Only the audience can determine a film's popularity in the end, no matter how much hype that accompanies the movie's release.
How does one "create" a blockbuster? Make the best movie you can, about something you want to tell a story about, the best way you can, then see what the audience has to say about it.

Answer 3

many movies today lack a stong storyline/acting and relay on specal effects instead, ie "300". Movies in the the past time had supior acting, just look at the robert redford films of "The Natural", "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", "The Sting". And this is just from once actor. The key differnces is the storylines, acting, ect. I appoligize for any spelling errors, but really don't care for most of the newer movies as studios have relized that almost whatever they make people will come and watch if they publize it correctly.