6. The 'Padding Out'
Boy and Girl will invariably fall in love with one another but deny it for the longest possible time because a movie studios lack of respect for a cinema going audience does not extend to charging them full ticket price for what would only amount to a ten minute fucking movie! ... This is your 'montage moment'! If you're a REALLY bad romantic comedy but you've got enough money in the budget to license more then one pop or R&B song then you'll have more than one "falling in love" montage to pad out your running time. And you'll have your montages in quick succession of each other too. However, it has got to be explained with crayoned diagrams and finger-puppets to all screenwriters and directors of modern romantic comedies that, just because you're covering a period of time with your romantic montages, this does not also equal characterisation.
Gareth Howie
Contributor
I'm a part-time writer, part-time stand-up comedian, full time movie geek who strongly believes Martin Brest's MIDNIGHT RUN is one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, movie ever made!
(... This is the bit where you mutter "You must be some sort of friggin' comedian if you think Midnight Run is the greatest movie ever made!")
I'm a massive junkie for 'revenge' and 'conspiracy' movies and I'm an even bigger fan of all things John Carpenter, Albert Brooks, Coen Brothers, Sidney Lumet, Paul Thomas Anderson, Tony Scott, Christopher Nolan, Michael Mann, Oliver Stone, Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante, David Fincher, Wes Anderson and Shane Meadows.
I'm on Twitter at @gazzhowie if you'd like to validate my existence by following me - and my movie review archive can be found at www.gazzhowie.tumblr.com!
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Gareth