Setup and Payoff

Clickbait title: hack writers hate him! One weird trick to improving your screenplays! My friend Lindsay recently did a video on this subject looking at Mad Max: Fury Road talking about this same subject (though she uses the term 'planting and payoff'; both are equally valid, though I'll admit that 'planting and payoff' has a wonderful alliterative quality to it versus 'setup and payoff') and I'll admit that I was a bit chapped, like I'd been beaten to the punch on a great idea. But that's the thing: not only was it a great idea it was also an obvious one. Anyone with a trained eye came away from Fury Road blown away by the almost perfect efficiency of the story in managing the establishment and use of every single prop, from the guns planted around the war rig to the steering wheel to the bolt cutters to the boot and the blood and the bullets. It's a really good video and you should go watch it, here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLLGN7zv-3k Written and performed by Dan Olson Twitter: https://twitter.com/FoldableHuman