McGuffins

A McGuffin is something that is used to give more information or to move the narrative along. This is why it is important to understand these when we go into planning and making the opening of a film. To understand what a McGuffin was we watched the beginning of Forrest Gump.

 

The opening of the film features a feather floating through the streets of America and finally landing upon the shoe of a man. The words I associated with the feather were: Light, white, bird, floating, river, pillows, purity, innocence, swan, cowardness, peace and elegance. The feather could therefore represent a journey through life to reach a final point and probably a revelation or final point or peace. This links to what the film is about and therefore is a McGuffin.

 

The next thing that we did was we were given three words and we had to write down everything that came into our heads when we heard them.

 

Buzz Lightyear

The words/ ideas that I associated with this word were:

• Children
• Infinity
• Space
• Toy Story
• Lazers
• Bees
• Flying
• Dream

Cricket Ball

The words/ ideas that I associated with this word were:

• Ashes
• Australia
• India
• White
• Dust
• Bat
• Throwing
• Travelling

Chewing Gum

The words/ ideas that I associated with this word were:

• Tables
• Mouth
• School
• Mint
• Stomach

These are all connotations of a McGuffin. A connotation is the non-literal meaning we interpret of something e.g. a box can connotate feeling of excitement, suspense, anticipation and fear.