Character Agency

"I think these films have got really strong control over the questions and that's how they get us to follow, compelling us to follow characters who are doing terrible things. And sometimes it's removing the mystery. We know who did it in Woman of the Hour."

"One of my favorite parts of the cycle part of terms is the lingering effects on the characters. Even if they managed to survive. Maybe they've also solved some part of the mystery. They're still left, you know, devastated with these scars uh or left permanently altered [...] the final girl laughing on the truck at the end of Texas Chainsaw Massacre it's like she survived but at what cost."

"when you use those structures that are out there, they tend to be around plot and they tend to think primarily from the protagonist's point of view. And using this system, we can actually look at the forces of antagonism in a story."

"The transgression is the act that awakens the slumber and that leads into the omen."

"A melodrama story in contrast to the hero's journey story is about ordinary people going through massive life-changing events in the face of which they are either powerless or there is a massive cost to taking action and equally a massive cost to endurance."

"He doesn't solve the plot until he has an emotional event with his son. The emotional event is that his son's disconnected from him. We get this sense that they're distant from each other. Well, we don't even get a sense. We see it. And it's only later on when him and his son are in a room and he basically learns that he needs to listen to these kids that he's able to, quote unquote, solve the plot."

"It's an almost a kind of aggressive waiting, if that makes sense. So whoever has the kind of nerve to live with that tension long enough will be the one who wins. It's a great character beat to have someone who is impatient, foolhardy, furious, angry, slighted, to show them really wanting to act. Just, they have to just do something, but what they actually have to do is wait. And they hate it. And that's a nice little -- yeah. That's a nice way to develop character."

"The point about it being a plot character sequence is, you know, you couldn't do this kind of character work if Jason had the responsibility of driving the plot of the story. You have to give as it were the agency of the action to the opposition to allow Jason the space to start unfolding these questions about himself."

"Dark Night of the Soul is less a formula beat and more a question every writer should be able to answer for their character. What is the lowest point? What does it take to get out of it?"

"The mirror image is her on land, back on Earth, standing up and being surrounded by sound. And that's something that they've done a very good job of in the film. It's not as written as much on the script, but the sound plays a particularly important role in creating that contrast."