DZ-108: The Emotional Event with Judith Weston

Listen to understand why a scene's power lives in what shifts between characters, not what happens to them. How and why should every scene have an emotional event? For the first episode of our tenth anniversary year, we are joined by Judith Weston to talk about Emotional Events. What is an emotional event? Well, it’s a way of thinking about scenes through relationships rather than plot. Instead of asking how a scene moves the plot forward, ask how the scene alters the relationship between characters. While emotional events are ostensibly a tool for directors to interpret scenes, we believe that the emotional event starts with the writer(s). But it is an idea better illustrated through examples and discussion rather than sound bites. To that end, we breakdown scene from OPPENHEIMER, CASINO ROYALE (the Daniel Craig one), and PAST LIVES and explore how the emotional event is written (and not written) on the page. Through a close reading of each scene, we talk about subtext, power dynamics, status transactions, tactics, beats and much much more. Because Chas, Stu and Judith are also reading the scripts there lot of discussion about table reads and how to get the most out of them. For those unfamiliar with Judith, she is a famed teacher of writers, directors and actors with a focus on the directing or actors. Her books Directing Actors and The Film Director’s Intuition are basically industry standards. You can find Judith Weston (and her books!) at her website: https://judithweston.com/web/ Thanks to Chris Walker for his excellent editing this episode. As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes. LIKE THIS EPISODE? Discuss with our Patrons on Patreon. Watch and comment on YouTube. Send us feedback. Thanks to our Patrons, especially Lily, Alexandre, Malay, Jennifer, Thomas, Randy, Jesse, Sandra, Theis and Khrob. → Read the transcript for this episode. ——— "I think they're both testing each other. I think, you know, Oppenheimer wants the job, but he knows that Groves wants somebody who will test him. They want the friction. They like the friction. They both work best with friction." — Judith Weston @ 00:30:37 ——— CHAPTERS 00:00:00 – Cold Open 00:00:30 – What is an emotional event? 00:05:18 – › How the relationship changes defines the scene 00:10:49 – › Reading aloud to let the words live unprepared 00:13:48 – OPPENHEIMER 00:19:01 – › Breaking a scene into beats and emotional wins 00:28:54 – › How beat shifts are physicalized and marked on screen 00:39:53 – › Exposition works when buried in relationship dynamics 00:44:09 – › Core relationships as structural delivery systems for acts 00:46:16 – CASINO ROYALE 00:49:07 – › How actors overrode the script's male gaze 00:52:38 – › Shared vulnerability as the scene's emotional event 00:55:57 – › How stage directions can direct actors from the page 00:59:35 – PAST LIVES 01:06:49 – › Emotional beat changes and the language of scaffolding 01:11:22 – › How each line negotiates a relationship shift 01:27:28 – › Arthur's final act of kindness closes the triangle 01:30:20 – Key Learnings & Wrap Up 01:36:05 – Thanks to our Patreons! FILMS OPPENHEIMER (2023) — (w) Christopher Nolan CASINO ROYALE (2006) — (w) Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Paul Haggis, Ian Fleming (d) Martin Campbell PAST LIVES (2023) — (w) Celine Song SCRIPTS Study the script: OPPENHEIMER (2023) — Christopher Nolan Study the script: CASINO ROYALE (2006) — Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Paul Haggis, Ian Fleming Study the script: PAST LIVES (2023) — Celine Song LINKS Website: Judith Weston RELATED EPISODES DZ-08: Status Transactions DZ-40: Tactics and Scenes ——— More Draft Zero is brought to you by our awesome Patreons. If you enjoy the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, a rating on Spotify, or a review on Podchaser. We are @stuwillis, @mehlsbells and @chasffisher on Twitter. You can find @draft_zero and @_shotzero on Instagram and Twitter. Full show notes at: https://draft-zero.com/2024/dz-108/