Cliches

actually cliche's are good, when properly used. Cliche's are great short hand for bringing a lot of information to the audience very quickly. But you have to move past them, expand on them, or show it in a different light.

In other words; cliche's are a great place to start but a horrible place to end.

Heh heh, "A maverick cop who does things HIS way..."
Ditto "An ex-Special Forces soldier..."
Religious fanatics, either as serial killers or terrorists. Or robots.
Battles between Heaven and Hell, with the Devil as guest star.
Aliens who speak English.
Robots/androids who want to "be human."
Creature features, from invasive insects to Architeusis Dux.
Vampires who just can't update their Gothic wardrobe.
Werewolves too frakkin dumb to predict when the next full Moon is about to rise above the mountains.

Maybe that's not what you meant, but it's a starter to argue over or dismiss out of hand.

-Derek

There's a reason they're called...

Cliches.

Because they work. All of the things Dpat mentions above have made millions of dollars for movie studios.

The real trick is trying to figure out which cliches will sell at what time. Several execs in LA get paid big bucks to figure this out.

As a writer, cliches provide us with ideas -- how can we "change up" a cliche? Make it our own. I would say cliches are good, especially when you can alter them a bit to make a new, and maybe more interesting, cliche.

Think about it. Shane Black is often credited with creating the modern "buddy cop" flick. Not a bad cliche to start. Look how many of these movies have been made since. Heck, "Seven" takes the buddy cop flick and throws it into a suspense/horror. So many films are just extensions or "tweaks" of well known cliches.

Using cliches, combining cliches, twisting cliches -- do one of those, and you have just about every movie Hollywood puts out these days. Why? Because the big studios care about one thing -- making money. Which is why all the edgy, new ideas are almost exclusively relegated to independent film.

So attend some film festivals and support all these exciting film makers who try to go in new directions. All the new cliches will come from those willing to take chances.

R

I don't think cliches have to be a bad thing. The one thing I would try to avoid is character cliche. Try to avoid the actions the character takes to get across a point, or his/her body language.

Ex: Bosses seem to always sit on the corner of their desks, this is an example of actions a character can take that seems to be played out a little to much.

But if thats what it takes to move on, then write it, take a note and come back to it. As far as story cliches...I think a lot of cliches still work today, especially in comedy...

See... the trick is to find a "motif." A motif is a cliche that appears fresh.

Zombies that eat flesh. Cliche. Zombies that eat flesh every day of the week but friday, and on friday eat fish because they're catholic zombies? A fresh twist on the zombie motif.

It's tricky, like I said, but it's the difference between groan and great.

Like a Bad Penny, I always turn up. Cliches can be fun when used properly.

On the other hand, when I went to the video store last week, I couldn't find a single movie I wanted to see even though I hadn't rented a movie in months nor seen a movie in the theater since the summer. I didn't see anything that looked remotely original.
I ended up with The Sound of Thunder, and they massacred the story.Nice gratuitous no shirt scene for Norton, but otherwise it was a big disappointment.

Nanobots.
FBI profilers.
Hit-men.
Hit-women.
Hit-cats and hit-dogs.
Drug dealers/drug users in deadbeat social dramas.
Hookers with a heart of gold.
Sci-Fi ideas that are 50+ years old for God's sake, regurgitated as if they're something new, you fools, don't you realize it's already been done before, a thousand times better than you could ever do it???

...Eh, that last wasn't so much a cliché as a mental episode. Carry on.

-Derek

That's a common misconception. Brains are a lot like creme center of a cadbury egg. It's the best part, but you still want to eat the chocolate and caramel covering it up.

Ditto...

C.bronco said:

Like a Bad Penny, I always turn up. Cliches can be fun when used properly.

On the other hand, when I went to the video store last week, I couldn't find a single movie I wanted to see even though I hadn't rented a movie in months nor seen a movie in the theater since the summer. I didn't see anything that looked remotely original.
I ended up with The Sound of Thunder, and they massacred the story.Nice gratuitous no shirt scene for Norton, but otherwise it was a big disappointment.

Click to expand...

Have a look at IMDBPro and see how much that pile of crap cost to make. It is on a list of the biggest money loser movies of all time!

R