Here is a technique that (almost) guarantees you will have an interesting, powerful scene in your next film! Character objectives and turning points are fundamental in screenwriting and they can be utilized perfectly when directing a scene!
Transcript from the episode:
Hello crew. Welcome to the film look. Rob & Rich here with another filmmaking knowledge bomb!
Today we want to share with you a technique that will pretty much guarantee you have a really entertaining scene during the writing and directing process of your next film.
So what makes a compelling scene? Is it action, drama, violence, sex? Not quite. Every great scene in a film has something called a turning point AKA a power shift AKA conflict resolution. So what does this all mean?
Well, just like a film has a beginning, middle, and end, every scene should have a beginning, middle, and end.
We’ve got 3 films to break down with you today, and we are gonna go through all of the elements which make these scenes compelling and entertaining.
Firstly we are going to look at a film called Logan Lucky.
But before we get into it, subscribe for more filmmaking knowledge bombs just like this one!
So in this scene, we have 2 characters. Mellie and Moody. Their relationship to each other is a bit complicated but basically, Mellie is Sadie’s Auntie, and Moody is Sadie’s stepfather. So they are tenuously related.
Let’s build up this scene, starting with something called character objectives.
Mellie’s objective in this scene is to simply escape this situation. She wants to ignore Moody, and leave. She wants nothing to do with him. She wants to get her bags and go.
Moody, on the other hand, wants to assert dominance. He wants to impress Mellie. You get the impression he has low self-esteem, and if he charms this good-looking woman, he can give himself a pat on the back that he’s a confident, good-looking chap.
You’ll notice that their objectives in the scene are designed to stop the other’s objective from being successful. This creates conflict. Both characters want something, but both characters are also getting in the way of the other person achieving their goal.
This gives us a scene to work with. The actors can play on these objectives and get in each other’s way. We’ve wound up the toys, and now we are making them battle.
The next thing we can build on is the turning point, and in order to have a turning point, we need to decide who has the power at the beginning of the scene. In screenwriting, this is usually symbolized by a plus and a minus, and this will swap in the midst of the scene.
In this scene, Moody has the power. He enters the scene with confidence. He’s overbearing. He stands tall. Mellie avoids eye contact. She wants to leave. She has no power.
Let’s play out the scene until we hit the turning point…
Bang! There. They are crashing into each other. Mellie can’t leave because he won’t shut up. Moody won’t shut up because he needs to impress her. Conflict.
Mellie finds another way to leave. This time, by taking the power away from Moody. She finds her moment to snipe him. Let’s play out the rest of the scene…
Moody is left with his tail between his legs. Mellie’s comment about how he can’t drive a manual car, aka a stick, makes Moody backtrack. He’s thinking, “How do I impress her now? Quickly! Say you love stick! Make an excuse!”.
Mellie begins the scene with a negative charge. She’s “losing”. But she leaves the scene with all the power. She wins.
Every great scene in a film uses these techniques. Character objectives should be designed to make them butt heads. A turning point should provide a change in power for each character. From losing to winning, or winning to losing. Plus to minus. Minus to plus.
We break down the entirety of Logan Lucky on an episode of our podcast!
https://open.spotify.com/episode/61oeVI7344N7jXBeITuhJV
Let’s look at another example. This time from Billy Elliot.
The quick backstory for this scene. Billy is a young lad who discovers he wants to be a ballet dancer. His Dad, a coal miner who is currently on strike, refuses to let him join the class. So Billy sneakily goes to the dance teacher’s house to persuade her to speak to his Dad about joining the ballet class.
The characters with conflicting objectives are Billy and the dance teacher’s husband, Mr. Wilkinson. Notice they are also on opposite sides of the frame. That’s a deliberate choice of direction and cinematography right there. Very well crafted.
Billy’s objective in the scene is to survive the interrogation. He doesn’t speak much. He’s just finished arguing with his Dad. He doesn’t want to argue with a stranger as well, especially an adult. He’s got the minus symbol.
Mr. Wilkinson, on the other hand, is using this scene as an opportunity to rant about the miner’s strike in a way to lift himself up. Again, it’s a matter of self-esteem.
He’s not a miner. And he thinks the miner’s strike is pointless. He uses Billy as a way to vent these opinions. He has the power. Let’s watch…
Our turning point is when Billy asks “What do you do Mr. Wilkinson?” and his daughter reveals that he’s been made redundant. He doesn’t have a job anymore. This guy has no leg to stand on. He’s a hypocrite!
Then you get a little smile from Billy. And THAT means so much to the audience. We are rooting for Billy, and he just won. This is how you write and direct characters which we care for.
This win from Billy seems like it didn’t take much fighting, but if you’ve seen Billy Elliot, you’ll know he isn’t the type of kid to shut up and listen, so him sitting there and taking the rant from Mr. Wilkinson is a new tactic for Billy, and it paid off.
Speaking of new tactics: we’re on Patreon! If you wanna support the channel and join this lovely bunch of people here, there’s a link down below. On there you can find; a community discord server, bonus filmmaking videos, and 1-on-1 feedback sessions.
Lastly, we are going to break down our film Sixty Seconds. We certainly tried to apply these techniques when making the film, but did they work? Let us know in the comments below.
Sixty Seconds is also a short film, not a feature like the other examples, and it happens in one location as one big scene, so the tricks aren’t like-for-like, but we applied them where we thought they worked best.
First of all, we have Stu. His goal throughout the film is to try to make Daniel his friend. His objective is to provide a fun working environment and impress Daniel as much as possible.
He tries to do this through humor and imitating Daniel’s bomb lingo. The irony of the film is that a fun working environment is impossible when trying to defuse a bomb!
Daniel’s goal is to simply defuse the bomb. He tries to do this by ignoring Stu and working alone. He’s a bit of a stuck-up workaholic.
These objectives conflict with each other, stopping the other person from being successful.
The turning point is when there is a page missing from the bomb manual and Stu finally helps Daniel by providing a good idea; find a YouTube tutorial. But because Daniel is stuck up and selfish, he rushes through the next step to defuse the bomb, he pushes the bomb over, and Stu has to catch it.
This is when the power switches to Stu. But this is also the point in the film when they both begin to realize that their objectives in the film are actually getting in the way of their goals.
Stu wants to impress Daniel and become friends. So after the turning point, he knuckles down. He gets serious. He provides Daniel with everything he needs. That’s a much better way to impress him!
Daniel realizes that he can’t defuse the bomb on his own. He needs Stu. So he invites him in. That’s a much better way to defuse a bomb and not die!
After the turning point, their new objectives line up with their overall goals, and after more humorous scenes, they are successful.
But did we pull off this technique? Let us know in the comments below.
And if you want to see more about Sixty Seconds, we have a video here that covers the entire production process from start to finish.
Thanks for watching and we’ll catch you in the next one! Bye!
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