Serendipity Writes the Plot: Difference between revisions

 

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* The limits of CGI regarding the [[Uncanny Valley|depiction of organic shapes and natural surfaces]] is the reason [[Pixar]]'s first feature film was about [[Toy Story (franchise)|toys]]. As the technology improved, they worked their way up to [[A Bug's Life|bugs]], then [[Monsters, Inc.|furry/scaly monsters]], then [[Finding Nemo|fish]], and finally, [[The Incredibles|human]] [[Up (animation)|beings]].

* This trope is touched on in the classic black and white movie, ''[[The Bad and The Beautiful]]''.

** A horror movie producer couldn't afford decent special effects for the monster. He teams up with the director to use camera tricks to make the monster into ''[[The Unseen]]''.

* [[Steven Spielberg]] couldn't get the mechanical shark in ''[[Jaws (film)|Jaws]]'' to work very well, so it became mostly [[The Unseen]], with the entire concept of the sailors using barrels to track it as a way to keep filming as though the shark was there. The film is widely credited as working ''far'' better because of the increased tension and the greater impact of scenes where the shark actually ''did'' appear.

** Hooper was originally intended to die in the screenplay. However, some footage captured by Spielberg's secondary crew, of a ''real'' great white attacking a visibly-empty diving cage, was so awesome that the plot was changed to let Hooper slip out of it safely, allowing them to use the shot.

* In the climax of the film version of ''[[From Russia with Love]]'', villainess Rosa Klebb was fighting [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] using a poisoned shoe knife. The script called for her to be accidentally killed by her own weapon, but the director couldn't figure out a way to film it that didn't look ridiculous. Then someone realized that a) there was a gun on the floor from when Bond had disarmed Klebb and b) the heroine, who had been an enemy agent recruited by Klebb before falling in love with Bond, was [[Neutral Female|just standing there watching the fight]]. So the director changed the script to have the heroine pick up the gun, and after some hesitation, shoot Klebb.

* In the ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]],'' the scene with the swordsman involved Indy disarming the man with his whip. But [[Harrison Ford]] was sick with [[The Oregon Trail|dysentery]] at the time, and asked if he could just shoot the man, which the final cut had him doing.

* The sequence in ''[[The Fugitive (film)|The Fugitive]]'' where Kimble loses his pursuers in the confusion surrounding the St Patrick's Day Parade was added to the script after the filmmakers realised that their scheduled dates for location filming in Chicago included the day that the real-life parade would be held.

* In the first ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' film, the amphibious duck vehicles in Siberia were included in the movie because the director thought they looked cool. Similarly, the procession of monks was not written in the script, but the procession happened to take place as they were filming and the monks consented to appearing in the movie. In the second film, most of Lara's outfits have long sleeves, because the concealing makeup used to hide [[Angelina Jolie]]'s tattoos in the first movie was not as effective as the filmmakers would have liked.

 

* Some TV shows do "[[Bottle Episode]]s" due to budget limitations.

** One episode of ''[[Friends]]'' did one about the NYC blackout because of budget constraints.

*** Not quite. Although it was a fairly low-budget episode (mostly pre-existing sets, and only two additional actors), the blackout gimmick was part of an NYC blackout storyline running through one night of NBC programming. The characters in ''[[Mad About You]]'' knocked out the power, and characters in ''Friends'' and one other show (can't recall which one right now) suffered through it since those shows were all set in New York. The ''[[Seinfeld]]'' folks wouldn't play, though. A better example of this in ''Friends'' would be "The One Where No-One's Ready", which, with the exception of the credit sequence, takes place entirely in Monica and Rachel's apartment and features only the main cast. Even the final scene is in a very uncomplicated set with only one additional actor.

* ''[[Star Trek]]'': Originally, going down to the planets involved the crew boarding a shuttle and flying down, but the cost of doing landings would have been too expensive, thus, the transporter was created. (Years later, members of the writing staff admitted that they had completely overlooked the even simpler expedient of writing "Send down a team!" followed by a [[Hard Cut]] to "Here we are, on the planet".)

** Played straight with the model used to depict Romulan Warbirds in the original series. A technician apparently dropped the model before filming, and there wasn't time to fix it or come up with a new one, so they used the Klingon Warship's model instead. This led to the conclusion that Klingons and Romulans formed an alliance, with warships sent over to the Romulans and cloaking device sent to the Klingons. Consequences of this action influenced the storyline of the entire franchise forever.

* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' had this, with the character Dax. Jadzia Dax was a "joined species," an alien who was actually two entities sharing one body. Both entities (Jadzia, the "host," and Dax, the "symbiont") were intended to remain on the show for the entire run, but Jadzia's actress Terry Farrell left the show. The writers killed off Jadzia, but kept Dax, and gave it a new host, Ezri. The suddenness of Jadzia's death and Ezri's arrival worked greatly into the storyline, with Ezri Dax's main conflict being her having to form new relationships with people who'd already been her (Dax's) friends, and in Worf's case, ''husband''.

* Jane Leeves' second pregnancy on ''[[Frasier]]'' came at the perfect time, plot-wise, for Niles and Daphne to have a baby—in the final season, just ahead of schedule enough for Daphne to give birth {{spoiler|in the finale.}}

* ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' originally was going to have a massive fight scene between the FBI and the central antagonist of the first season, a Terminator called Cromartie. When the budget turned out to be too low for it, the writing team got creative. This resulted in a [[Nightmare Fuel|chilling,]] [[Nothing Is Scarier|minimalistic]] sequence where Cromartie slaughters the FBI agents (mostly off-screen) and tosses their bodies into the hotel swimming pool. All while [[Johnny Cash]]'s [[Crowning Music of Awesome|"When The Man Comes Around"]] plays...

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* The ending of ''[[Saints Row]]'', and the plot of the second game by extension, was changed when a "look at watch and walk away" animation was accidentally used instead of a "desperately running away while injured" animation. This resulted in a complete change to {{spoiler|who set the bomb}} in the game's ending that was kept.

** The name of the franchise, which previously used "Bling Bling" as a placeholder, comes from an early prototype that lacked a proper introduction, making the first thing seen a loading screen that said "Entering Saints Row", as Saints Row was the starting location.

 

* The webcomic ''[[Bob and George]]'' is made of this trope. Originally the comic was supposed to be a hand drawn comic about teenage superheroes. The Mega Man sprite comics were originally just filler material. However, the author, Dave Anez, was a self admitted lousy artist and the hand drawn comic wouldn't pan out. After trying and failing multiple times he gave up. By then the "filler" sprite comic had become so popular that it became the main comic and a storyline was written to bring the title characters into the plot. Subsequent storylines would frequently change direction in order to fill in plot holes.

** Another prominent example is the existence of the Helmeted Author. Originally it was meant to be the normal Author character who was now wearing a helmet because it was impossible to render a helmetless sprite in certain positions. However Dave later accidentally put both the normal and Helmeted Author sprites in one holiday comic. As a result the Helmeted Author went on to become not only a separate character, but a major recurring villain.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* A music editor decided to make the turrets from ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]'' sing. Some parts of the song didn't work out well, so the editor made a story about this crazy person who blew up Aperture Science Enrichment Center before he could finish. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnZxQiLGDtk Watch it here!]

* The author of the ''[[Chaos Timeline]]'' originally had planned to call the internet of this world "[[Gratuitous German|Weltnetz]]" but found out that German neonazis use this term already for the existing internet, so he changed it to "Weltsystem".

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Similar to the Pixar example above, ''[[Veggie Tales]]'' came into being because the creators were limited to armless, legless, hairless characters thanks to rudimentary CGI.

 

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