Emotional Payoff

In my opinion, movies are an art that needs a master’s hand in order to work properly.  This master is working hard behind the scenes to fulfill what a movie’s purpose is.  They mold it from the vague shape that it began as and craft it into the work you see before you.  Sometimes there are hiccups throughout the process and sometimes they are magnificent pieces of art.  When they work, they work.  When the movie doesn’t pull itself together, you may feel like it didn’t earn the payoff that it provides.

Three main things help to provide a foundation for payoff to work.  The characters in the film need to be built to suit the material at hand.  The plot of the film needs to flow properly.  And there needs to be some stakes for the audience to become invested in.  These three things join together to create the blueprints for a successful payoff later in the movie.

Like many other aspects of a movie, a well established character is the first building block to earning the audience’s attention.  The range of ways to do this is large but the main rule for an established character is to have them be believable in their world.  For example, Chev Chelios is a completely insane, unrealistic character.  When you set him into the world of Crank and Crank: High Voltage, Chev is right at home.  The world around him grounds him.  In that world, his character is believable.  The believability of Chev Chelios in that world allows the viewer to invest themselves into what is happening.

Plotting is the most important part of film making.  I do not mean that there needs to be a plot to the film.  That seems obvious.  What I mean is how the film flows from scene to scene.  If there are plot points that are redundant, or character choices within the film that make little to no sense, a viewer could grow disinterested with what they are watching.  The biggest problem with plotting when trying to create payoff is subtlety within the storytelling.  A film maker who can subtly put a theme into the film that slowly and methodically leads to a powerful moment has completely earned the right to the moment.  When the theme feels forced, such as in Birdemic, the viewer might feel like they are being bashed over the head with a frying pan.  Then, when the film reaches that point, it has become completely unbelievable and the viewer feels cheated.  A well crafted film can earn pivotal moments whereas a poorly crafted film will seem like a joke.

This also leads to the stakes of a movie.  The emotional investment that the character and/or viewer have to the situation on screen plays a large part into earning payoff for a movie.  If the stakes are high, there will be more emotion if something happens, good or bad.  This will crater more interest in the payoff when it happens.  This is in no way saying that the payoff is not ridiculous in itself.  It means that there is a lesser chance of the payoff being unearned.

There was a lot of repetition through this but I think it all states my opinion on the matter.  If you are going to try and pay some emotional through line of a film off, you need to earn it through your character, the plot, and the stakes within the plot.  An unearned payoff feels like a rip-off.