Dial of Destiny (2023) and Far From the Whole Indiana Jones: Producer? Director? or Digital?

Introduction

Establishing and shaping a plot based on a main character is the basic starting point of any art form that includes a narrative theme, especially cinema. In the continuation of the creation process that begins with this step, the formal tools of the current era and their capacities come into play. Cinema also strives to establish a visual structure by considering the narrative with formal elements. With the diversity of formal elements and the increasing number of elements serving different purposes, an unlimited number of combinations emerge to create this structure. What is important here is that the creator of the work determines the visual narrative that is suitable for his/her story and establishes the right combination that the work may need.

In cinema, there are several ways to edit the story at the script stage. One of these is to determine whether the film will be a single film or more than one - a series, a trilogy or a sequel. Generally, mainstream cinema uses this detail extremely well in the creation of high-budget universes. The story structure can be designed to be open to continuity (see also Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049); It can be considered a film series from the beginning (see also 007) or conceived as a trilogy (see also Back To The Future I-II-III). The contents that were thought to generate good financial income from the very beginning were productions with high budgets and planned to work with the same people and actors.

Of course, the main lines of the story and side details are the basic starting point of the cinematic universe to be created. When we consider who will portray the character/characters, the basic personal characteristics they should have, the space created depending on the time period and where the film takes place, the technical and formal preferences based on the footage, and the procedures to be done after shooting, there should be a harmony between all of these. It will take the movie to the targeted point. The universe created here may include brand new designs that have never been created before, but it may also choose to create a hybrid of themes that have not come together thematically before, inspired at different points by previously created examples.

In general, it seems that films of this type are more common in mainstream American cinema. Hollywood cinema, which started in the early 1920s, entered a pause in film production towards the 1950s. The reason for this is that the production of genre films based on certain narrative formulas has reached a saturation point for the audience and the new environment that emerged in the world in the 60s required more thought-provoking and satisfying content. Hollywood, on the other hand, needs new directors in order to revive itself with some individual initiatives after the collapse of the studio system. Names such as Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Brian De Palma, who started making films during this period, began to produce content by combining different themes and blending their own cinematographic styles. When we look at these contents, the common point of all examples such as The Godfather I-II (1972, 1974), Star Wars (1977-1983) and Indiana Jones (1981-1989) is that they were designed as a trilogy or sequel. The main reason behind this choice is that the universe created in the story has a structure that can be expanded and continued. Another detail is that they include a mixture of different genres thematically, referring to the environment of the world.