When you're writing a film or television script, sometimes you resort to a plot device that's totally implausible but necessary to the story - a coincidental meeting of your two main characters, for instance, in a crowded airport. There's no logical reason they should meet, but they bump into each other and - well, we've all seen versions of this picture.
Or, maybe, like a screenwriter friend of mine who just finished an action-adventure script, the only way you can free your hero from certain death by attack helicopters is when he suddenly remembers the little toy scissors his son handed him that morning, and uses them to loosen the ropes -
Every screenwriter I know has resorted to these kinds of tricks, telling himself that despite the improbability of the plot event, the audience will buy it. "Hey, look, it's a buy, OK?" we tell ourselves. Or, "It's way deep in the third act, at this point, the audience wants an earthquake to happen."
But, really, the only way to get around the artificial, fake-ish plot device is to do what we call "hang a lantern". Meaning, you call attention to it. A character admits to the implausibility of the event, with a "You! What are the odds of meeting YOU here?" and then you move quickly along and get the story going.
For some reason, audiences don't mind so much that a certain event seems implausible, as long as the characters in the story also think there's something fishy going on.
Think of a screenplay as a huge line-up of dominoes. It's fun to watch them all tumble by themselves, forming those cool patterns. But to get them all started, you're going to have to use your finger.
"Hanging a lantern" on an obvious plot contrivance is a great hack writer's trick.
Here's another one: sometimes, when you have crucial exposition to get out for the audience - stuff they have to know to make the rest of the scene make sense - you simply make sure that there's at least one character in the scene who doesn't know what's going on, and have your star character explain it to all to the clueless character, as the audience listens in.
This is why so many movies have at least one dim-witted character hanging around - he's the guy that the other guys explain things to.
I know what you're thinking: what do you do when, for whatever reason, both characters know the information? You can't really have one character explain to the other something that they both know.
Well, you can, and I've seen it done - once, on a television series a few years back (not mine, by the way) the daughter character turns to the mother character and says, "Mom, three months ago I had my dream job - I was a prominent magazine editor. And then, suddenly, my boss gives me a new assignment.
To run one of his struggling magazines! The one Dad writes for! So now I'm Dad's boss!" And the mother, who presumably knew this information, just smiled blandly and focused on the middle distance while the exposition was being unspooled.
So how do you avoid this?
Simple: you have the characters argue. You have them bicker over the details. The audience hears the arguments and the details and gets clued in effortlessly.
So that's Hack Writer Trick Number Two: the Useful Argument.
Now, I use the term "hack" in its professional sense. A few weeks ago, while compulsively Googling myself - I admit to doing this at least once a week - I discovered that someone in the comments section of some blog referred to me as a "hack writer".
Which I know was meant to be vaguely insulting - well, not vaguely, I guess, but specifically insulting - and really, a few years ago, I would have indeed been insulted. I didn't think of myself as a "hack", as a by-the-numbers kind of writer, as a mere journeyman in a trade. I thought of myself as an artist, a creative force, a visionary iconoclast.
It's great and desirable (and maybe even necessary) for success to have a vision, to have passion, to believe in your story and your characters. I certainly do.
Most of the time. But the crucial thing - more crucial than vision or passion or art or anything - is that you get it done. That you turn it out. That the pages get written and printed out. That the creaky, unbelievable, necessary plot events get executed in the most elegant way possible; that the audience is not left in the dark. Hacks get it done. And that counts for something.
Rob Long is a writer and producer based in Hollywood.
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
Tuesday's fixtures
Kyrgyzstan v Qatar, 5.45pm
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDecember%202014%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%20Former%20UK%20chancellor%20of%20the%20Exchequer%20George%20Osborne%20reforms%20stamp%20duty%20land%20tax%20(SDLT)%2C%20replacing%20the%20slab%20system%20with%20a%20blended%20rate%20scheme%2C%20with%20the%20top%20rate%20increasing%20to%2012%20per%20cent%20from%2010%20per%20cent%3A%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EUp%20to%20%C2%A3125%2C000%20%E2%80%93%200%25%3B%20%C2%A3125%2C000%20to%20%C2%A3250%2C000%20%E2%80%93%202%25%3B%20%C2%A3250%2C000%20to%20%C2%A3925%2C000%20%E2%80%93%205%25%3B%20%C2%A3925%2C000%20to%20%C2%A31.5m%3A%2010%25%3B%20More%20than%20%C2%A31.5m%20%E2%80%93%2012%25%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EApril%202016%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20New%203%25%20surcharge%20applied%20to%20any%20buy-to-let%20properties%20or%20additional%20homes%20purchased.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EJuly%202020%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Chancellor%20Rishi%20Sunak%20unveils%20SDLT%20holiday%2C%20with%20no%20tax%20to%20pay%20on%20the%20first%20%C2%A3500%2C000%2C%20with%20buyers%20saving%20up%20to%20%C2%A315%2C000.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EMarch%202021%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Mr%20Sunak%20extends%20the%20SDLT%20holiday%20at%20his%20March%203%20budget%20until%20the%20end%20of%20June.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EApril%202021%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202%25%20SDLT%20surcharge%20added%20to%20property%20transactions%20made%20by%20overseas%20buyers.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EJune%202021%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20SDLT%20holiday%20on%20transactions%20up%20to%20%C2%A3500%2C000%20expires%20on%20June%2030.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EJuly%202021%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Tax%20break%20on%20transactions%20between%20%C2%A3125%2C000%20to%20%C2%A3250%2C000%20starts%20on%20July%201%20and%20runs%20until%20September%2030.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Tightening the screw on rogue recruiters
The UAE overhauled the procedure to recruit housemaids and domestic workers with a law in 2017 to protect low-income labour from being exploited.
Only recruitment companies authorised by the government are permitted as part of Tadbeer, a network of labour ministry-regulated centres.
A contract must be drawn up for domestic workers, the wages and job offer clearly stating the nature of work.
The contract stating the wages, work entailed and accommodation must be sent to the employee in their home country before they depart for the UAE.
The contract will be signed by the employer and employee when the domestic worker arrives in the UAE.
Only recruitment agencies registered with the ministry can undertake recruitment and employment applications for domestic workers.
Penalties for illegal recruitment in the UAE include fines of up to Dh100,000 and imprisonment
But agents not authorised by the government sidestep the law by illegally getting women into the country on visit visas.
Dhadak
Director: Shashank Khaitan
Starring: Janhvi Kapoor, Ishaan Khattar, Ashutosh Rana
Stars: 3
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind