3. Set Up/Pay Off
Another simple tip, and one that Shane Black has openly spoken about when discussing the screenwriting craft. It's the old set up/pay off method, which you've probably seen in, oh, every film ever made. But this one doesn't really get old, and it's a tried and tested way to bring back old plot points that seem relevant and allow the audience to go, "Oh, man, how did I forget about
that?" Here's what Black had to say about this one:
"There's a great example of this in Face/Off. Near the start of the film John Travolta explains to his daughter how to defend herself with a knife: he says she should stab a guy in the leg and twist the knife once it's in there. By the end of the film, the audience has half-forgotten the scene. But when the daughter has a bad guy holding a gun to her head and pulls out a knife, everybody remembers."
And how does he write these moments? Well, he cheats.
"Sometimes I write a scene and I think to myself: "That would be even better if I'd somehow set it up earlier in the film." So I turn back to page 15, insert a set-up and wind up looking like a genius who had planned it like that all along."
And Black employed this technique in
Iron Man 3, when Tony Stark gives Harley, the kid he befriends during the movie's "Tennessee" sequence, a deterrent gadget to use against a school bully. We make a note to remember this, of course, but straight away you forget, distracted by the rest of the movie. Harley later uses this gadget on a bad guy and saves Tony's life. It's a small, arguably meaningless touch, but when you're writing a blockbuster, moments like this count for a lot.