Macguffins and Red-herrings

Macguffins and Red-herrings

Red herrings are used rather commonly in thriller genres, It mainly consists of clues which are both misleading and distracting from the actual issue, this could be done either intentional or unintentional.
This expression is normally used to claim that the argument at which another person has brought up is entirely irrelevant to the specific question.
A good example of a red herring is "I think that we should make the academic requirements stricter for students. I recommend that you support this because we are in a budget crisis and we do not want our salaries affected."
Like i have said before, red herrings are commonly used in films. Another example which is more related to film language is...The red herring can take in form of a character, which the audience may feel that he is a killer, only to later discover that he is innocent. Or another good example could be that a red herring can take the shape of an item which could be seen as clue to a discovery by the audience, but turns out to be worthless.

Macguffins are also commonly used in films, most notably thriller genres. It consists of a plot device which is a motivator that the protagonist, or even the antagonist is willing to do and sacrafice anything to protect or control. It also often comes with little or no information as to why this particular thing is so important.

The specific nature of this device is widely left to interpretation. The most common type of macguffin is either an object or a person, however the device could also be in the form of things like money, glory, etc.

Alfred Hitchcock popularized the term macguffin and the technique most noticably in one of his early films 'The 39 steps' which the concept of a macguffin is emboddied in the film.



Alfred Hitchcock popularized the term Macguffin