McGuffin and Set-Piece defined
While I was fixing up the Glossary yesterday, I added two new requested definitions:
McGUFFIN
Often associated with Hitchcock, PageWise has a good definition: A device or plot element that catches the viewer‚Äôs attention or drives the plot. It is generally something that every character is concerned with. The McGuffin is essentially something that the entire story is built around and yet has no real relevance. That is, it’s what the movie says it’s about, even though it really isn’t. In the first Charlie’s Angels, the McGuffin was stolen voice-identification software; in the second, it was a Federal Witness Protection List. In both cases, the villain’s real motivation was greed and revenge. In early drafts of Full Throttle, the Angels had to retrieve a glowing vial labelled “McGuffin Industries.”
SET-PIECE
A scene or sequence with escalated stakes and production values, as appropriate to the genre. For instance, in an action film, a set-piece might be a helicopter chase amid skyscrapers. In a musical, a set-piece might be a roller-blade dance number. In a high-concept comedy, a set piece might find the claustrophobic hero on an increasingly crowded bus, until he can’t take it anymore. Done right, set-pieces are moments you remember weeks after seeing a movie.
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October 23rd, 2004 at 11:42 am
FWIW, “set-piece” comes from opera.
A set-piece is a formalized, virtuostic segment of the story, frequently an aria. Formalized in that it has a standrd structure that the audience is usually familiar with, and virtuostic in performance. The virtuosity may also be in dance, music and spectacle.
October 26th, 2004 at 5:25 am
I read about a subtle MCGUFFIN that was interesting. In Good Will Hunting, the mcguffin was Matt Damon’s character’s ability to do the complex math. Every other character in the film was enraptured with it. If he would just apply himself he could change the world. In the end, the film was a love story and about Will’s ability to be vulnerable. Kinda interesting use of a mucguffin in the touchy-feely genre.
October 26th, 2004 at 2:16 pm
John, I’m not so sure your Charlie’s Angels examples qualify as McGuffin’s per se. A McGuffin is a unique sleight of hand story device, and if it is used in the examples you stated, you could say every movie ever made has a McGuffin in it.
March 8th, 2006 at 5:07 am
I think John’s examples do count as valid examples of McGuffins. It could also be argued that every film ever made has at least one McGuffin. For example: -The Ancient Relics (Indiana Jones) -The Philosopher’s (Sorcerer’s) Stone (Harry Potter) -Austin’s Mojo (Austin Powers 2)
These are just a few examples, but that generalisation can be made to any film, depending on how loosely you define the term.
April 22nd, 2006 at 2:16 pm
Minus 10 points for citing a “Charlie’s Angels” movie in a serious discussion of film craft. Minus 100 points for mentioning both movies.
And minus 1000 points for actually retaining any information concerning the ‘plot’ of either.
June 5th, 2006 at 12:39 pm
It helps me to understand the set-piece concept, by remembering that the term originated with theatre stage hands. “Set Pieces” are bits of scenery, like a house or a tree, that are built to stand on their own. The hands carry them on stage and set them down in place first, then assemble the rest of the props around them. Somewhere along the way, the term migrated to the script writers, who in the same fashion would conceive key moments in the story first, then build the rest of the script around them.
August 5th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
All though two of my all-time favourite MacGuffins is “the process” in David Mamet’s The Spanish Prisoner and “Guffman” in Waiting for Guffman, I prefer the more playfully elusive and intricate “losing one’s virginity” high concept sub-plot MacGuffin in such classics as Little Darlings, The Last American Virgin, and Black Snake Moan.