Emotional Event

"I think the key learning will be the relationship of the goal and the arc will have an impact on the emotional impact of the ending. That only came out through your revelation. I think Widows kind of hits really hard emotionally. I think it's more emotional than Barbie because that is aligned. All of Us Strangers is not a plot-driven film, but all the actual plotting, all the events that actually happen are absolutely connected to what Adam needs to do to understand."

"[What has] the biggest impact on this character journey thing [is] the additive and subtractive rewards, I think... And Widows it feels emotional throughout because they're doing this emotional handoff between the characters... My main thing [is to look] through these journeys, not just about the relationship questions, where the characters are going from and to, but also how the world is giving and taking away from them, both externally, right? Are they gaining money or not gaining money, but also the internal value changes that's seen as additive or subtractive."

"I think in terms of contrast and affinity, what we're talking about, there's a contrast in infinity with his relationship to physical touch that's expressed through the film. Like it literally goes through him being isolated to him, not just being cuddled, but him cuddling Harry. And the relationship between Harry, it's sex, but he talks about like, you know, we've talked about it. They fuck or whatever, but it's not as physically intimate as these kinds of little moments after."

"If you never have any doubts ad you never sort of falter: you're a psychopath, you're not steadfast. If you have a character who is steadfast, obviously there's doubting and there's wobbling and that's part of what makes it interesting. But also that also tripping you up, that stubbornness, that determination, that steadfastness being the thing that trips you up, like the dramatic irony there is really juicy."

"What makes this work story-wise and keeps compelled is that it has emotional events regardless. And I think Apollo 13 has emotional events between the characters. If anything, the only thing that changes is the relationship between characters. I don't think they change the world. They don't come back and be like, we found water on Mars. You know, it's kind of, and maybe that's true of all survival stories, or maybe they don't, they're just compelling because the external stakes are so high."

"I think you need internal and external challenges and I think the external challenges should be both friendly and non-friendly; which you get in Moana. Like you need a multitude of challenges to, not just prove the steadfastness but to show it in in a dynamic and interesting way and you get that in this you have the fact that her, right at the start her dad's like no you're not going to do this right and then she goes off and she finds a frenemy... who also challenges her ability to do that... and then she finds agiant crab that is like aha you know and then she finds a range of different friends, frenemies, and enemies who challenge it, and that keeps it interesting and shows the resilience and steadfastness while also keeping it dynamic."

"It is the movement that releases emotion. That's part of my theory. It is seeing the character go from A to B. That is actually the releasing of the emotion, not the B, whatever B is."

"I think, very, very explicitly, and I can point to a couple of specific shows and movies and whatever, that when I was young, that film and television were my way out of a very bad situation. And it wasn't a conscious thing, but it was very much that through learning about these outside experiences, these experiences completely outside of my own even conception, you know, as a child and a teenager, I was able then to finally manage to A, see that the situation I was in was sub-ideal, and B, see an alternative and see characters that I didn't. Idealized or even aspects of them, if not specific, oh, I want to be like them. Oh, but I want that stubbornness or I want that, you know, zest for the truth, or I want that fight or I want that whatever specific aspect of this character to follow."

"I do think it's here. We can resist it. And I think we should think about the ways and we resist it, but all that stuff. I actually think the stuff that's going to become more valuable as both a consumer and a creator is stuff that's more emotionally authentic. The stuff that actually I think on a quote unquote business, not quote unquote, like the stuff that is going to be affected on a business level is spectacle. That's the stuff that's kind of becoming easier to reproduce. The stuff that I think is going to become more precious is the stuff that breaks your heart."

"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."

"If you think the scene is just there to give the audience information, then you need to look into it further and find out what the emotional event is."

"Almost every line feels like an emotional event. Like, every exchange feels like them negotiating their relationship, and their relationship is shifting."

"Thinking of every scene and looking for the emotional event. I mean, that's what I came into this and going, looking for what the emotional events are is really useful and challenging yourself."

"The initial section of the scene is like you said, the sparring, this back and forth, establishing of bona fides. And now they're actually going to talk. It comes out of subtext into text. We're now going to talk about why we're here."