All the great stories have a theme.
"- Good versus evil. Love versus hate.
- Revenge. - Justice."
- It is a concept that is extremely important in storytelling
but can also be difficult to understand.
"- What is the theme? - Wow, the..."
- In this video, we're going to run through a simple and practical explanation of theme.
How to find it?
How to write it?
And why it matters.
"- That's all you had to say."
- This is "What is Theme".
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Ready?
"- I was born ready."
- A theme is the central and unifying idea
or principle in a story.
If the plot is what happens on a surface level,
the theme is what the story is ultimately about at its core.
In "Jurassic Park" the plot is about people surviving on an island with dinosaurs.
"- Must go faster."
- But the theme centers on the dangers of playing God.
"- Genetic power is the most awesome force the planet's ever seen
but you wielded like a kid that's found his dad's gun."
- Theme comes from the Latin meaning subject or thesis.
Though they are related, the theme and the moral of the story are not the same thing.
Themes are often presented as questions
that the story will investigate
like the relationship between man versus nature.
Morals are the message or lesson we are meant to take away from the story
like money can't buy happiness.
Navigating between the theme and the moral can be tricky.
Audiences don't usually want to be preached to.
So it is up to the writer to provide a perspective on the central idea
while leaving the ultimate message up to the audience to decipher themselves.
Theme is often the entire reason for the story to be told.
When a writer has a perspective on a certain topic
they use a story to express it.
As John Truby says,
'Theme is the author's view of how to act in the world.
It is your moral vision...
totally original to you...
and expressing it to an audience is one of the main purposes of telling a story."
Themes are often universal ideas.
Questions that we all have about the world.
Different stories can tackle the same central idea from different perspectives.
Movies like "Blade Runner", "Pinocchio"
and "Her" all explore what it means to be human in entirely different genres.
A single story can contain multiple themes
which can be broken down into major and minor themes.
A major theme in "Avatar" is centered on environmentalism.
"- The wealth of this world isn't in the ground, it's all around us."
- But there are also minor themes that speak to colonialism.
And greed.
"- I mean, look at all that cheddar."
- As a writer once you've identified the central idea,
it becomes the anchor for everything else in the story.
The plot.
The characters.
The dialogue.
"- I drink your milkshake."
- All connect to the theme in some way.
As Robert McKee notes,
'I prefer the phrase 'Controlling Idea', for like theme,
it names a story's root or central idea,
but it also implies function:
the Controlling Idea shapes the writer's strategic choices'.
Although it is common to start with a theme,
some writers only consider it after they've written the story.
As Paul Thomas Anderson notes,
'Often I figure out the theme much later.
I have to get the plot, characters, and lots of other stuff down
before I can see what it really means.
You can always go back to the theme and layer it in...
When starting out, just let yourself be open to where it will take you.'
No matter your process, theme can be generated
and expressed a number of ways in cinema.
Let's look at these individually starting with how it can be presented
through characters and dialogue.
Characters are the mouthpiece for the writer.
The vessels through which the author's perspectives and opinions are delivered.
"- Poetry. Beauty.
Romance. Love.
These are what we stay alive for."
- And so when it comes time to write your story the question becomes
which characters are best suited for this task.
John Truby shares a technique called a character web.
This means that the characters shouldn't be created in isolation
but how they work together and define each other.
If you place the theme in the center of this web
you can better understand how the characters relate to the theme
and how they relate to each other.
Having oppositional characters on the issue
is a fantastic way to create conversation around it.
Like family members who each have a different perspective on the central theme
the value of success.
"- It's about wanting to win. Willing yourself to win.
You gotta want it better than anybody else.
- I do. - Then you're gonna be a winner.
- Richard... - It's the truth.
- If I want to fly I'll find a way to fly.
You do what you love and f*ck the rest.
- A real loser is somebody that's so afraid of not winning
they don't even try."
- Consider "The Dark Knight" with two clearly delivered themes
centered on faith in humanity...
"- I believe in Harvey Dent."
- And the balance between order and chaos.
"-...upset the established order and everything becomes chaos."
- In the character web, we have representatives for both sides.
And these positions are expressed through the dialogue.
"- I'm talking about the kind of city that idolizes a masked vigilante.
- Gotham City is proud of an ordinary citizen standing up for what's right."
- Harvey represents order along with Gordon and the mayor.
Joker is obviously chaos along with the rest of the Gotham underworld.
Batman is somewhere in the middle
fighting for good but going outside the bounds of the law to do it.
"- The interesting thing about Batman as a figure is that he's working outside the law,
he's doing all kinds of very questionable things
but in the service of good.
And so what we do in "The Dark Knight" is we just sort of test that
using the character of The Joker who's this extraordinary force of anarchy.
Somebody who just delights in taking people's rule sets and turning them,
you know, against themselves.
It's sort of the ideal way to get to the core of Batman and the paradox of Batman."
- In the ferry sequence, the citizens of Gotham represent order
and the prisoners represent chaos.
They are given the ultimate test.
Will faith in humanity be restored or will it crumble?
"- We're still here.
That means they haven't killed us yet either."
- As you can see, the character web in "The Dark Knight" is purposefully designed
with these themes in mind.
Now, let's look at another opportunity to explore theme through the setting.
Setting is the time and place where a story unfolds.
This sets the stage as it were for the themes to be played out.
Some themes work best with obvious settings
like a movie about justice set in a courtroom.
"- You want answers! - I want the truth!
- You can't handle the truth."
- Or a coming-of-age story set in a high school.
But there are universal themes that can work in a variety of settings.
Redemption stories can be set in a jail.
The old west.
Or on a baseball diamond.
"- Today, I'm throwing hard, guys.
- You and me?
One more time?
- Why not?"
- "Parasite" is a great example of using setting to express its ideas.
The major themes concern the divide between rich and poor
and the illusion of upward mobility.
So let's see how that is visualized in the settings.
Pay close attention to how the upper and lower classes
are represented quite literally like in this poster.
The Kims are cramped in a near subterranean hovel
where they are fumigated like cockroaches.
And drowned like rats.
As director Bong Joon-ho explains,
'This was intentional.
They still want to believe that they're over ground,
but carry this fear that they could fall completely below.
It's that limbo state that reflects their economic status.'
While the Park's thrive in a clean modern and spacious home
positioned high above the street.
But underneath is a dark and unwelcoming basement
where another destitute family hides.
And how do the characters travel between these two worlds?
With stairs.
As you watch "Parasite", notice how many scenes involve walking up or down stairs.
Dialogue isn't the only option to present this idea of upward mobility.
Sometimes set design and blocking is all you need to communicate a theme.
Other than characters, dialogue, and settings another way
to reinforce the theme is through motifs and symbols.
Motifs are elements that gain meaning through repetition.
Symbols are things that are meant to represent something else.
Both are excellent methods to echo and support a film's theme.
One symbol can speak to many different themes.
Take the American flag.
It can be used towards patriotic themes.
Or in films that satirize patriotism.
It's all about the context around them.
"Everything Everywhere All at Once" is a film about everything.
From the concept of infinite universes
down to the mundanity of doing taxes.
And so the symbol of choice to represent everything is the circle.
The two main variations of which are the googly eyes and 'The Everything Bagel'.
In fact, those two symbols represent oppositional forces.
Empathy and kindness.
Versus nihilism and despair.
Nothing matters.
This Yin and Yang relationship is represented in the design of these symbols.
One is a dark circle surrounded by a white circle.
The other is a white circle surrounded by a dark circle.
And we can see this circular motif throughout the film.
In mirrors.
Washing machines.
Doodles.
An umbrella.
A hairstyle.
And more.
Evelyn's goal is to find balance between these oppositional forces.
Within her marriage.
With her daughter.
With her business.
Therefore the yin and yang of these circular
symbols becomes precisely aligned with a theme.
Now that we've seen the elements of theme,
let's do a deep dive on a film that exhibits an expert-level application of it.
On the surface, Jordan Peele's "Nope" is a fun Hollywood blockbuster.
But underneath it is a film with multiple themes expressed in multiple layers.
Peele has explained in interviews
that the major theme deals with our addiction to spectacle.
"- "Nope" is a spectacle.
And it's about spectacle.
And it's about how we view and digest spectacle.
It's a horror version of that."
- A spectacle is defined as a visually striking display.
And as we'll see vision, looking, and capturing images are all important
motifs in how this theme is explored.
First, there is the pervasive use of cameras.
Everything from cell phone cameras and the winking well.
Up to IMAX cameras representing the pinnacle of Hollywood spectacle.
Then we have eyes and the act of looking.
Otis Sr. dies while looking up as a nickel penetrates his eye.
Antlers edits a montage of animal eyes.
Angel and M use VR headsets - a form of individualized spectacle.
The song 'Sunglasses at Night' also fits into this motif of vision.
Finally, OJ realizes that looking at Jean Jacket is what gets you killed.
"- I don't think it eats you if you don't look it in the eye..."
- To survive they have to look away from the
spectacle which is perhaps the moral of Peele's film.
"- Don't look. Don't look."
- All of these characters have a vested interest in capturing the spectacle.
In fact, they're willing to give everything for that chance.
OJ and M put their lives on the line to grab their Oprah shot
Antler's sacrifices himself for the chance
to film something deemed impossible to shoot.
Jupe puts himself, his family, and his unwitting guests
into harm's way for the sake of entertainment.
The TMZ reporter doesn't ask for help.
He asks for his camera.
"- We got to get you out of here.
- Eyes on me. - Where's my camera?
- Hey! - Do you see it?"
- All of these characters manifest this idea
of our unhealthy relationship with spectacle.
Another related theme is the exploitation of animals in the pursuit of spectacle.
The Haywood's entire business is supplying horses for film and TV productions.
Jupe offers up horses as bait to use Jean Jacket
as a source of spectacle for his live show.
Of course, this minor theme is best illustrated by Gordy the Chimp
who is exploited as a prop for mass entertainment.
And underneath all of that is yet another minor theme
about the neglected history of black people in Hollywood.
"- I wanted to create a film that sort of indicted the process and indicted
the industry that has sort of kept us out of that conversation in a way.
This idea begins with the Eadweard Muybridge clip of the black jockey riding a horse.
What many people regard as the first film ever made.
In 1878, this was the impossible shot
which is echoed in their plan to also capture something never before seen.
"- According to American Cinema magazine you
make the cinematically impossible possible.
Well we're looking for the impossible shot."
- We later learned that the jockey is an ancestor of the Haywood family
but that history and their legacy has been forgotten.
As Emerald explains it is the filmmaker who captured
the images who we remember, not the subject.
"- Now, I know you guys know Eadweard Muybridge the grandfather of Motion Pictures
who took the pictures that created that clip
but does anybody know the name of the black jockey that rode the horse?
- No.
- Nope.
"- And so when OJ appears at the end of the film
as the heroic cowboy
he brings his family legacy full circle
and reclaims the image of a black man on a horse
from the forgotten depths of film history.
Jordan Peele is a filmmaker who understands how to lay a theme into his work.
Through props, motifs,
dialogue,
"- Hi, horsey. - Hey, hey, don't look him in the eyes, please."
...setting,
characters.
He gives us a lot to think about which is what a successful theme does.
"- Yeah.
It's legendary.
- Okay, so I need to establish the themes."
- If you're a writer struggling with theme
consider the following tips.
Choose the characters that are best suited to represent and engage with the theme.
Find the ideal setting.
Perfect arena to explore these big ideas.
And consider the motifs and symbols that can enrich the story
and challenge the audience to think.
"- Lionel, use your science brain. - I'm working on it."
- If you want to explore how other screenwriters deal with theme
visit StudioBinder's script library
where you can download hundreds of screenplays.
And when you're ready to write,
get started with StudioBinder screenwriting software.
Until next time keep an eye out for theme.