[Holden, right?]
[Edward.]
[Edmund.]
[I'm sorry I just assumed it was--]
[Are you tired?]
[Yeah, how could you tell?]
[It's a beautiful drive, but it's long]
How do you make dialogue scenes
interesting and compelling?
This question represents the core challenge
of the Netflix series Mindhunter,
a show about the work of FBI behavioral researchers
in the early days of criminal profiling.
[We're doing research, interviewing men like you.]
Mindhunter is giving us character studies
of serial killers.
And that's a tricky task, because,
when it comes down to it,
what we're really seeing happen in the show
is fairly simple and repetitive:
the FBI agents travel the state
to interview murderers,
using psychology to understand
how their minds works
and faking empathy to make them open up.
[We all have fantasies don't we?
I can remember my first fantasy of girls]
Basically, the whole show is made
of typical four wall settings
with people talking about murder
around a table --
it's something that we've seen literally everywhere.
Yet somehow, Mindhunter's coverage of dialogue
feels different.
Why?
[I'd like to know too.]
Before we go on, if you're new here
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What makes the difference in Mindhunter
is in the ways dialogue develops and unfolds --
and what happens around what's said.
[Do you have a lot of friend's Dwight?]
[Do you?]
[I saw a dog leash in the house,
but I don't see a dog around here.]
The best example to study is the series of interviews
with the character Ed Kemper.
[Ed Kemper, they call him the co-ed killer.
Six teenage girls, he chops their heads right off,
has sexual intercourse with the corpses.]
[Ugh]
[Kills his mom with a claw hammer,
has sexual intercourse with her head.]
Agent Ford's investigation doesn't revolve around
the Who or the How, but the Why.
When agent Ford introduces himself to Kemper,
[I'm an instructor, working out of
the behavioral science unit at Quantico,
and I had this idea--]
[Have you had breakfast?
Can I get you something?
You want a sandwich?]
Kemper interrupts him, as a way
to take over authority.
He projects his need onto Ford, insisting --
and he both asks questions
and provides the answers.
[Well what kind of sandwich you like?]
[I'm...
I'm good.]
[You want an egg salad sandwich?]
When the agent expresses a preference
[Do you have tuna?]
[The egg salad's better.]
we understand that this mechanism
is a sly act of dominance.
In the words of David Fincher, who directs
4 episodes of the first season:
"For me the conversations are obviously
the lifeblood of the work they're doing...
...but it's also a power struggle,
it's an elaborate...
game of chess."
Then look what happens when Ford
interrupts him later in the episode:
[Just... sorry guys.]
Ford manages to make the killer loosen up
and talk about himself a bit,
[I watch all the cop shows on TV.]
[Do you know Joseph Wambaugh?
A Police Story?
Ever watch that?]
[Huge fan!]
but then Kemper takes charge again,
wanting to hear about Ford's job.
[So, you had this idea?]
[Yes...
I... yes.]
[Research?]
[Just a series of interviews.
Chatting with individuals not unlike yourself]
So the agent tries to get to
the heart of the matter,
asking Kemper about
[Your...behavior, I guess.
If you want to, that is.
I mean we don't have to talk about
anything at all,
if you don't want to.]
But Ford quickly backs away from his advance,
and Kemper -- almost like an animal --
smells the agent's insecurity.
[Why are you so tense?]
[Hmm?]
[You're tense right now.]
[No, I'm not tense.]
So he's like a predator who likes to feel
the fear in other people
and feed off of that fear.
In the second part of the interview,
the two are framed more closely,
as a way to visualize their
psychological involvement.
Here, Kemper is shot eye level
while Ford is seen from above,
with the back of the killer
taking up most of the frame --
this makes Ford appear powerless
and it conveys Kemper's intention
to corner the agent and unmask him.
[It's difficult for me to square you
with what you're in prison for.]
Kemper understands how gullible
and genuinely motivated Ford is.
[Oh... well sure.]
So it's in this moment
that he really starts playing
by giving him what he came for,
through a reveal.
[You know, there's a lot more like me.]
[Do you think so?]
He's a walking mystery inviting interpretation --
and the best way to decipher him
is by reading between the lines
of his non-verbal behavior.
What can we learn from the way he moves
compared to what he's saying with words?
It's in the little things, like gestures
and changes in postures,
but mostly it's in the eyes.
[People that kill in sequence like you do?]
[Sequence?]
[One right after another.]
Did you see that?
[People that kill in sequence like you do?]
[Sequence?]
[One right after another.]
Or look at the way the killer conveys his feelings
about his mother through his mouth.
[Did your mother humiliate you?]
[Maybe tell him the thing that you told me,
the other day, about your mother...
Your mom.]
The directors of Mindhunter have designed
a wide angel aesthetic that uses closeups
only sparingly.
This way the characters have space
to physically express themselves
and relate to each other in single long shots.
We view them through a dispassionate vehicle
from a critical distance,
and with this view we try our best
to make our own insights into
the characters' hidden minds.
The show isn't just shot with
the kind of wide shots
we're used to seeing on TV --
It's shot in an ultra wide 2.20:1 70mm format,
very unusual for television,
it's a format where movement is amplified,
and feels more dynamic and alive.
That's why even the most subtle facial expressions
And physical movements are perceived
as poignant, loaded events.
Meanwhile, the show conveys its
most vivid violent images
not through visuals, but through words.
[So I got a claw hammer, and I beat her to death.
Then I cut her head off.
Then I humiliated her.]
Most crime shows will supplement
any extended narration of a graphic incident
with gruesome or suggestive pictures,
over a voiceover.
But here the restraint of telling us the horrors
only through the dialogue
evokes a mental image.
[When you slit a person's throat,
you need to cut it ear to ear
in order to sever the wind pipe and the jugular
so that they bleed and suffocate at the same time.]
The technique lets your imagination do the work.
It works more like theater than
a traditional movie or show.
So, when we're observing these dialogue scenes,
what we're experiencing is much more
than the surface level informational transaction.
The words on the page are like
the foundations of a building,
and on top of that,
the show adds many invisible floors
and rooms and ornate architecture
that can't be explicitly seen
but can certainly be perceived, felt.
This show, that's full of talking,
works because we're drawn in
by all that's not said-- all the complexity
that surrounds that talking.
[I visited there to be near her because
I loved her and wanted her.]
[At the murder site?]
[I've never been much to look at myself,
but I've always gone after the pretty girls,
bet you're the same.]
In the director's own words,
[Is there another idea that can be dove-tailed into?
Is there something that's happening
when this character turns their back
on the other character,
and is sure that the conversation is over?
Is there a moment where a character who's
been sort of left behind,
do they attempt to rekindle
the conversation?
You know?
I like to explore those things.]
Mindhunter shows that words are tools
representing only the outermost level
of connection both in narrative and in life.
If we start to pick up on all of the communication
that goes on beyond the words,
we can finally start to understand more
of that mysterious space between
what people say and what they really mean.
[I invited you many times to visit,
but even with this, I never thought you'd actually come.
Why are you here Holden?]
[I don't know.]
[Well now...]
It's Debra.
And Susannah.
You're watching ScreenPrism.
Thank you guys so much for watching.
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