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BLAM! (To be continued...)

  
 
Chubby P
12:35 / 16.04.02
As a budding writer I've been thinking about cliffhangers and dramatic endings lately and the different ways that they are presented. In my mind there are two main different forms of dramatic endings, the "will they or won't they" get shot, runover, reveal the secret; as opposed to the, "they have" got shot, been runover, revelaed the secret.

When reading a comic or watching an episode on TV, has the, "Oh my God they shot JR!" ending been watered down so that the audience excepts that the character is going to survive since they always do when the audience is left wondering? If the character is to die then the episode normally ends without a doubt that the character is dead. When Dallas hit with the "Who shot JR" storyline it was sufficient enough to build up hype for Dallas. But when Eastenders had the "Who shot Phil Mitchell" story line no-one really cared.

Looking at another eighties soap, Dynesty, the producers decided to end a season with a wedding massacre. Everyone was shot and the audience was left wondering who would still be alive at the start of the next season. This suitable fuelled the audiences emotions to get the press involved and build up lots of hype.

One ending that has worked well in book form was the end of Stephen Kings "The Gunslinger" (The first book in the Dark rtower series). It wasn't so much what happened at the end, it was more the case why it happened. I remember being quite shocked when I read it. I lent it to a friend and the ending had the same effect on them.

If you really wanted to rip up your audeinces emotions what would you do? And would it work better today than it did twenty years ago or vice versa? Do you regard some dramatic endings to be timeless? (As in despite how many dramatic endings the audience get used to they will still be gutted by one particular ending.)

I've been thinking about this and decided that an ending I would like to do would be the do they / don't they die, only to reveal the next episode that they do die. Maybe a slow painful death that is dragged out for the whole episode but a death all the same. I think it would put the audience on edge enough to realise that they cannot predict everything that is to come. Not highly original I know but it would go against the current trend.
 
 
Shortfatdyke
12:49 / 16.04.02
i don't tend to 'end' a lot of my [horror] stories as such - i prefer to leave them at various points: i see stories as like looking through a window to another world, then moving on - so that particular world will carry on when the reader has gone. so, often no finality. that said, the protagonist is in a rather bleak spot at these points, because i find that realistic [they are horror stories after all]. but the 'endings' have been described as very sad. it's not a deliberate attempt to rip up the reader's emotions, just my worldview.
 
 
grant
13:11 / 16.04.02
I love endings where something (especially something meticulously planned) is about to take place.
The Watchmen ended that way, with the kid reaching for the diary.
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
17:21 / 16.04.02
Sometimes the cliffhanger is not 'will they live?' but 'how will they manage it?'...

The other thing is, it wasn't always the case that the hero was always going to live. We've created that culture, because, basically, we like neat, upbeat crap. Or we allow ourselves to be represented that way.

But in old John Wayne movies, the Duke spent a lot of time gasping his last in sacrifice to a higher cause etc.

So, you want a cliffhanger? Make it clear this is a story where the hero isn't necessarily going to live, where not everything will be right at the end. Where the odds are so stacked that perhaps only death can solve the problem, beat the badguy, exculpate the sins...
 
 
Chubby P
08:20 / 17.04.02
That was pretty much the point that I was trying to make. That Cliffhangers have fallen into a pattern that the audience pretty much knows what to expect. I think the only way to keep the audience on their tows these days is to try and break the modern trends. That guy with the harmonica and the photo of his fiance back home, he's going to make it. The tough talking hero who has nothing to live for and discovers a reason to live in the conflict, BLAM, you're dead!

Babylon 5 did it well. It was made clear that any character could be offed or driven to mistakes that had devestating consequences. Just because a character was popular didn't mean they were safe.
 
  
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