Tony DuShane, Writer/Podcaster/Teacher: Scene work is interesting because in when we talk about scene
work all we really need is a character or we need more than one character but the character needs
conflict so we want to keep our characters in as much conflict as possible and there's a film I
always bring up to my students who and I make them watch it over and over again because it's a Little
Miss Sunshine carries the torch of scene by scene of hitting conflict shifting power dynamics which
is also another word for shifting status I feel like that comes up more in TV shows and TV scripts
the shifts of status and it's so powerful that when we see it in a movie it's pretty cool so when
I'm rewriting a scene I go over who has status in the scene and then is there a way to play with it
so I'll do an example of a cop interrogating a a suspect so there's a cop and he's interrogating a
there it is a cop interrogating a suspect and the cop has high status and the suspect is in
handcuffs the suspect may even be crying and the suspect has low status so when you're watching a
scene think about power dynamics and think about status because that's what actors are thinking
about and that's what writers are thinking about when they're writing and actors are thinking about
that when they're playing together but we can shift we can shift that dynamic because in let's
say in the same scene the suspect has information that the cop wants so then the cop realizes this
and maybe the suspect smiles and the cop slams his fist on the table and he's upset as the suspect
is not giving him this information and all of a sudden the suspect has higher status and the cop
is lower status the cop wants something from the suspect needs something from the suspect and the
suspect is giving it up so when you're watching films keep an eye out on the on the status and
power dynamics and watch how the protagonists can go in and out of high status and low status in
scenes like in here's the example of Little Miss Sunshine when we're introduced to Richard. Richard
is Richard is talking about his life coaching his I forget what it's like five principles
for being the amazing man you are meant to be he's commanding the stage as he's eyeing the crowd and
going over his presentation and then the camera turns around and it shows us how many people are
in the audience and there's like maybe 10 and he gets a tepid applause so the director the director
gave us a power dynamic shift we thought we were seeing a very high status person almost talking
to a stadium of people and then we realize he's low status and it's practically a conference room
and no one really cares what he's saying it's a lot of fun and that's and that and that's when
Richard goes back down to low status refuse to lose that's what it is right, the nine concepts.
Film Courage: Speaking of Little Miss Sunshine of
all characters in the film who has the biggest sort of status shift?
Tony: Well our the the character with that has the most arc is Richard the dad because and when
we look at little miss shine Richard is the protagonist because he's the one that needs
to take the journey and to learn so when we get to act three he has to Showdown with himself to
finally get out of this facade that he's creating as a guy with a master plan and everyone needs to
succeed and he makes a fool of himself at the end with his daughter which just is that scene always
really gives me chills when I watch it but but his his he's trying to get high status the whole time
when he when he gets into his low status and kind of saves his daughter from having embarrassment
alone that's when he has challenged himself and he has won because he's be he's lost his status but
he's become the father he's supposed to be for the family and the whole family comes together
when Dad kind of realizes that wait a second I need to save my daughter that's beautiful.
Film Courage: And just real quick which character has the least arc in Little Miss Sunshine?
Tony: Tony Colette's character the wife really has it she feels like a placeholder and I don't know
if in early rewrites if she had an arc because a lot of these characters have arcs there's Dwayne
who has a oh that yeah that's a great ensemble photo the father has an arc I mean he's a junkie
and then he dies sure and I know and Little Miss and the the young girl who plays Little Miss Sun
little the little going to the beauty contest she doesn't have much of an arc either she's kind of
like a placeholder so there's there's a lot of fun happening I think between Dwayne and the
brother through a lot of the film and that might be they may be hitting the philosophical points
of what the writer was intending to kind of give the moral of the story throughout I'm just coming
off a memory I haven't watched it in about a year because that's my first quarter students we have
to watch it over and over and over again and it's so worth it yeah I want to go back to watch it
it's been a while thank you I want to see it what are storytelling cheats and and which are
some that are fun to use storytelling cheats I'm glad you asked because I have some notes
about okay if you want to like feeling sympathy for for a character some ways to get right to
feeling sympathetic Blake Snyder wrote the book Save The Cat so there so there's that's a way to
get sympathy immediately immediately save a cat here's another example let's say a mom's
just trying to clean the house before her in-laws arrive have her step on a Lego have her have her
step on like a tack or a nail when we when we when we do something with the palm of the hand when we
cut the palm of the hand or the bottom of the foot as we're watching it we've all experienced
that pain especially on the foot the bottom of the foot hurts so bad right and it immediately
gives us an emotional response where we're like we've been there we've done that so that's an
element to add to a scene if we look at Minority Report in a Minority Report everyone is scanned
by their eyeballs and so when Tom Cruise is on the run and he's wanted for the future murder he has
to get rid of his eyeballs it it's so I mean it me just that idea alone brings massive conflict
and then and so think about what you can do with the eyeballs can you touch the eye can you poke
the eye what I through that whole operation scene of Minority Report with Tom Cruise it we're we're
like losing our minds sure and then if we go back to Little Miss Sunshine it's the there's a lovely
thing that the writer does which is he gives Dwayne the vow is silence Dwayne didn't have
to have that vow I don't know what draft of the script where the writer went what because the
writer of the script in early drafts could have just had Dwayne upset and mad at his parents
and it would have been fine but he has a vow of silence and it escalates his tragedy so when he
finds out he's collar blind and he can't become an pilot I think he wants to be a pilot and you can't
be a pilot when you call her blind when the that plot Point happens that's the first time he speaks
and when he speaks after he hasn't been speaking of throughout the whole film we pay immediate
attention so it's like it's symbolic on so many level levels and the other thing about Little Miss
Sunshine is the VW van situation just make make make the VW ban only start in second gear what
what a fantastic story device because it makes it it makes the family push the van and they all
have to jump in the van so there's danger involved there's the family just being disgusted they have
to do this and and it's a device that brings us to the very end of the film it's a device because
they hate working together when this happens it's drudgery through the film when they've
come together in the last scene as they push the van through the parking lot they're they're
pushing the van as a family all of a sudden we see them as they they've all kind of been reborn
into becoming a family and so watching them push the van is a whole new experience for us and them.