Film Courage: What is an emotional event?
Judith Weston, Coach, Teacher and Author: An emotional event is something that happens,
it's something that happens that changes the temperature the emotional temperature of the scene
so it could be a turning point or it could but it doesn't have to be a single moment it
can be the what happens in the whole in the whole scene so so the whole scene could be an argument
or well let me mention Mike Nichols who I quote a lot in my book directing actors 25th anniversary
edition I quote Mike Nichols a lot in the chapter on emotional event because he really really got
it he was a teacher himself and in addition to being a brilliant director and he said at one
time and I'm going to preface this by saying that I make some adjustments to this victim of Mike
Nichols I take the Liberty he said every scene is either a fight a negotiation or a seduction
and that's a useful way for directors to kind of get introduced to the idea
of emotional event is it's something that big and they're that different from each
other a fight a negotiation seduction they're different from each other
and that's a helpful way for people to think about I actually think that it can be refined and I was
using the example before an argument between best friends oh who have never argued before is
different from an argument between people who have had many arguments in in the past right
those are two different kinds of arguments but it's something that it's something that happens
between the the two people the two characters in the scene that that changes their relationship so
and I in this I'm very proud of this chapter five in in this book very proud of the chapter five
because I finally really really addressed this question of emotional event I in the first book
the original directing actors which came out in 1996 I mentioned emotional event and I mentioned
how important it was but I didn't really describe it and over the years that I was teaching after
that and people would have they were asked to read that book before they came to any of my workshops
and the directors would always say I love the book but I'm still this one thing I'm confused about
and it's emotional event so I so I kept trying to be clearer and clearer about it and it's a very
slippery topic it's one of those things I was in class I would finally be reduced to saying
if you keep watching me men talk watch scenes and talk about emotional event you'll eventually
be able to do it yourself and I thought well that's a cop-out I have to be able to to really
describe it for them more clearly and then I TR then I did another book in 2003 called the film
director's intuition and I made a stronger attempt to describe what emotional event is in that book
but I still wasn't satisfied and people still had the kept asking about it so in this book the 25th
anniversary edition of directing actors I really went all out I spent a lot a lot of time trying
to explain it from a lot of different points of view because it's it's it's slippery and so I
came at it from different points of view like you could think of it does it is the it at the end of
the scene is the relationship closer than it was at the beginning or is it more alienated than it
was at the beginning that's a simple way to look at emotional event and some other simple ways are
one character hurts the other person's feelings that's an emotional event or one character
asks for forgiveness and receives it that's another emotional event or one person
try tries to pick a fight and the other person engages they pick a fight with each other
so that's a that so there are different ways of of looking at it but and it takes a lot of practice
to to think about that what is the event of the scene and that it's something underneath the plot
event and so Mike Nichols said there's three sort of wants in every scene it's one to argue no no
no that it's either one of the that is seen as either a fight sure or negotiation or seduction
right so it's it's one of three yeah I mean it's a it's a I think he was
it's it's a very broad thing to say I mean one thing that that it makes me realize is that
you can play fast and loose that that a lot of you would think any love scene
is a seduction right that would seem automatic but actually most love scenes are negotiations
so that's an interesting way to do it I would think that the scenes in Fight Club where they're
having the fights you would think that those are fights right but they're really seductions
so you can I don't know you're looking for what's underneath it what if a scene does not
have an emotional event you're going to end up taking it out in the editing room if it doesn't
have an emotional event it stops this it stops the story so that even scenes that look like a
connector scene or an exposition scene still need to have an emotional event there's no such thing
as a scene that that that's an exposition scene so I was very lucky with with this 25th anniversary
edition of directing actors I was I was very lucky to get permission to use a seed from The Matrix
for to do my script analysis example and it's a it's a very short scene it's like a page and
a half and I think most people would look at it and think it's a connector scene they're they're
they're in a car they've just derived back to the Matrix and it's Neo first visit back to the Matrix
I think they're on the way to see the oracle and so it's a connector scene between this
very amazing trip from the Nebuchadnezzar back to the Matrix and then and then this amazing scene
at the at the oracle's uh office and but I it's because it's an excellently written script and I
just found so much in it and so so I was really I really felt good about being able to show how
something that most people might think of as a connector scene had lots and lots of event in
it even if the most simplest exposition scene Shakespeare is full of them a messenger comes
up and tell gives information to the to the king and then goes off that you could say
that the emotional event is that the messenger the Chiefs achieves their message that it raises their
stature in the eyes of the king or it cements their low stature when they're when they're
dismissed you you can find emotional event in any so-called Exposition scene and you must you must
what are the questions that a director should ask to uncover the emotional event
great question okay I go into that a lot and one way that and any question that occurs to
you like why are they here why is this you can always start with why is this scene in
the in the script why why do the characters do what they do why do they say what they do
I like to always start with mysterious lines mysterious lines very helpful place to start
when I'm doing script analysis so well first I look at just my my my first impressions
what I honor my first impressions where I say and even if it's oh this is a scene that looks like a
torture scene one person is is beating down the other person so that would be something I don't
like I don't care for torture scenes so I would say well I gotta find something else then and
say oh so I so I honor that I for I have that first impression or I have the first impression
that that that's a love scene that these people are are falling in love it's one of those little
steps along the way to Falling in Love so that's so I honor my first impressions but then I start
looking for mysterious lines and I make myself find at least three in every scene and first
I look at mysterious lines the ones that bother me the ones that it's my tenants that I my first
impression my first tendency is to say I don't like this line it shouldn't be here it should
be rewritten I don't like it and then make myself come up with three different ways of understanding
it make myself and by the time I've done that I'm fine with the line I don't I don't I no longer
want it to be taken out which is very very good thing to use for if you're directing television
if you're directing television you don't get to change lines or take them out if you don't
like them not without permission certainly and you're very unlikely to get it so it's
very very useful to to be able to find a way to justify any line that at first you don't like
of course I have a theater background so that's how I learned that because you didn't if you're
doing a Tennessee Williams play you didn't say well I don't like this line can we change it no
you don't you don't get to change it so so so you have to find a way to justify it so finding a way
to justify the line so I start with the lines I don't like and then I start with the lines that
I love sometimes there are lines that I love and then I make myself still look for subtext to them
instead of saying this line is so good I just have to say it and it's going to be wonderful
I still make myself look for what are three different realities that could be behind it
now I should probably give you an example huh yeah I would just just real quick what would make
you not like a line well I was thinking about this this morning and I was thinking about because like
I decided to think of something from Shakespeare because we don't have to worry about copyright if
I use some lines from Shakespeare right so when I was thinking about to be or not to be speech which
goes to be or not to be that is the question whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the
slings and arrows of Outrageous Fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles and
by opposing end them well this is a line that I both love and hate the the line about take arms
against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them I mean I love this line it seems to so perfectly
say something about the State of Mind of a of suicide ideation that that the only there's
nothing I have nothing I could do I can't and powerless to change anything any and
even my efforts to change I'm powerless powerless powerless but if I look at it in a very word by
word kind of way take arms against a sea of troubles that's a mixed metaphor right
why did he do that this is Shakespeare he doesn't have to mix his metaphors he he he can do anything
so why did he do that you don't like the idea of shooting bow and arrow into the into the
waves that's the image that comes up when I think about it the Sea of troubles it's like the waves
crashing over the shore you take a bow and arrow and well actually as soon as I say that I say
yes everything that we do in life is as futile as shooting bows and arrows into the into the waves
so we'll automatically I like the line better but then I say to myself
well make myself come up with two more and the another one that of course comes to me
is that the mixing of the metaphors is a product of his disordered mind
that I mean sometimes I think I think about how that a lot actually and sometimes especially in
the last week because I went to see that movie The Northman which is based on the same Legend
the same story as the Shakespeare used to based to base the story of Hamlet and anyway
sometimes I think that Hamlet Shakespeare's Hamlet
was had early onset schizophrenia brought on by trauma and that his mind really is and that
this speech which it's so beautiful that you think it all makes sense but it really doesn't
and it's not meant that it doesn't make sense because his mind is going from image to image
anyway that that's I just did too I'm gonna stop because sometimes I talk too long about Hamlet so
I'll just I'll just stop there to come up with at least at least
two three if you can different ways to understand a line that that bothers you.