I watched 28 short student films the other night as an adjudicator for the student film festival. My overall takeaway was hopeful and proud: we've gone from zero student films to more than 28. Every film had something wonderful in it, something that made me optimistic about the future of our film/TV program.
That said, I and the other adjudicators also noticed some repeated themes, images, or action patterns--tropes--that began to seem cliched or lazy simply because they're overused and less than original.
I see the same thing whenever I review scripts for Outworks. I read good scripts. I read bad scripts. But above all I start to read the same kind of script--or the same tropes, character types, plot twists, etc.--over and over and over again. Some of these work, but they're overused. Others are flatly offensive--but still awfully common.
So:
Wave a magic wand that would get rid of three annoying (overused, offensive, irksome, lazy, etc.) tendencies you see in either plays/musicals OR film/TV shows that get produced. These can be tropes, genres, plot structures, or anything else. You may speak generally (film/plays produced anywhere and everywhere), or you can speak specifically about LSU.
Explain what your three "Get Rid of This, Please" things are. Explain why they're annoying to you (and/or bad for the field/craft). Explain how getting rid of them would help things. And finally, explain if and how anything we do at LSU can help to take a step toward fixing these problems.
JF
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