"Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there."
Did Chekov follow his own rule?
No (at least, not literally).
In his 1887 "The Avenger" (available online here), Chekov's character Fyodor Fyodorovitch Sigaev spends quite some time in the gunsmith's shop considering buying a Smith&Wesson, before changing his mind and buying a net for holding dead quails. It's a funny story, and highly recommended, but no guns go off.
On a lighter note, Matt Nix (creator of Burn Notice, among other TV series), made this student film:
No comments:
Post a Comment