Stupid question: Plot Point vs Resolution

thartley

thartley

Veteran
Ok, I am reading Syd Field's Screenplay: Foundations of Screenwriting, and I have a lame question. Is there a name for when you come up with a resolution for your ending that doubles as just one more plot point? Kinda like when your ending really perfectly sets things up for a sequel? Your current conflict is resolved, but there is a satisfying possibility for more?

Or is it just the nature of the resolution you come up?
 
:grin: I said it was a stupid question. :) But I may be thinking too specific and its nothing really.

I'm thinking about how they ended uhmmm, hmm, Risky Business, for one. *I cant think right now*
 
I always heard them referred to simply as "open-ended resolutions".

I also learned early on that not all questions have to be answered, you just have to write yourself out of the mini world that you created for the story at hand.
 
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First ... maybe these are terms that are used differently by different people. But the following seems to make the most sense to me....

Secondly ... I typed everything below the red dotted line first and and then I typed this which is more succint:
  • OPEN ENDING - left for the audience to decide what will happen next after the arc is complete
  • CLIFF HANGER stops MID STORY/ MID ACTION to entice us to watch the rest of an episode or the next EPISODE, which is different from a Sequal.
  • HOOK ENDING or ending that serves as a hook or sets up the sequal is a teaser for a NEW STORY arc and has little to do with the resolution of the action in the story which just took place. As such it is a beat that stands outside it like a CODA or EPILOGEU , IMHO.
Which basically sums up what I was trying to say below, but if it doesn't make sense or you want examples then read on...
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Well are you meaning that you want to leave it:
"maybe Joe will take that new job ... maybe he won't" and the audience is left to decide?"
that's open ending, and is a normal part of your falling action or "[SIZE=-1]Dénouement". That refers to just how specific you are about the arc or what's likely to happen next.

But something like Jason Vorhees coming up and grabbing the girl in the boat after the movie is over, or after the credits role ine the 70's Flash Gordon movie, you hear sinister laughter and then see Ming the Mercilesses hand as it moves across the screen to opick up his power ring ... then that's a different beasty ... that's not leaving the audience to draw its own conclusions about what has happened in story and how it effected the main character (again the open ending) this a is a hook and a part of a new story arc.

If the heart of your question lies in how to consider this structurally and how this influences your story arc I would say that the hook ending is actually a CODA or an Epilgoue and to be considered somewhat seperately from the rest of the movie, especially if its something tacked on to set up a sequal. It might also be to show that events are cylical -- as in SHED, after the Zombie Dad has dealt with his Poo Poo and is dead, we see the mom and daughter packing and it ends with the ZOmbie bite on the daughter's leg. Now this could be to set up a sequal, or used as a hook to hold the viewer 'til after commercial break, but I was just using it as an additional button and to show that this cycle would continue, that it was far from licked. Even as such I would still consider it a Coda or an Epilogue, a little something extra that does not have to do with the main characters journey or resolving that journey.
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Now if there's a name for it I have't heard it. I would call it a HOOK ENDING is its meant to set up for a sequal, which differs from the Open Ending as outlined above and somewhat from a cliff-hanger as follows.

Cliff Hanger usually refers to the techinque of stopping a scene short prioor to some impending and likely disaster or bad turn. Rather than just the bad guy isn't dead after all, or his son lives on and will take up the mantel as Doc. Octopus, the scene ends when Doc. Oc is about to crush Spidey's head and then maybe shows his Aunt in the hospotial before cutting back to see Spidey roll out of the way as the rock hits the ground. Or the famous Duke's of Hazzard commercial breaks that envolved stopping the scene with the General Lee mid air while the Duke boys were being Chased by Boss Hogg. Also the Batman and Robin TV series endings -- usually used before commercial break but sometimes to keep you coming back for a two parter "will the escape". Now this differs subtley from the HOOK ending. When this mid action ending or CLIFF HANGER occurs in a TV series it is in the MIDDLE of the story, not after the story has been resolved in order to set up a new one, which would be the HOOK ending. So Batman and Robin are trying to Catch Cat Woman who has stolen the cure to Baldness and is holding it for ransom. At the end of the half hour she turns the tables on the dynamic duo and burrys them up to their necks in kitty liter ... cliff hanger to be continued (the story hasn't ended yet). You would never end a FEATURE this way -- withe the hero's tied up and not knowing what would happen to them. But after the story was resolved and the cure for Baldness had been returned to society and Cat woman captured ... then you might show her get away or that her identical twin cousin has just arrived in town and decidide to avenge cat woman by donning her cat costume and fighting batman and robin.
 
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that was a lot of typing to read.

been thinking of changing my siganature to "I love to type" or "I love the sound of my own typing"

Glad you got something from it :thumbsup:
 
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