|
|
David Freeman's Techniques for Adding Emotional Depth to Scripts
by Sylvia Cary
(February 2003) |
Depth in an action movie? Come on! Hey, it can happen. And on February 15, at our CBS/Radford meeting site, screenwriter, producer and teacher David S. Freeman, creator of the "must-take" workshop called Beyond Structure (www.beyondstructure.com), proved it.
In a fascinating workshop, complete with film clips, Freeman instructed us on how emotional depth can be injected into scripts. He focused specifically on how it was done in The Lord of the Rings, starting with The Fellowship of the Ring and then moving on to The Two Towers.
According to Freeman, these "Deepening Techniques" can be applied to the five main areas of a script: Dialogue; Characters; Relationships Between Characters; Scenes; and Plots. Freeman comments, "There are well over 1000 techniques to make the above five components of scripts both interesting and deep."
In his presentation, Freeman zeroed in on approximately fifteen of the most important of these 1000 deepening techniques, using the film clips to make his points. "Making things ‘deep’ -- that is, giving characters, scenes, plots, etc. emotional layers, complexity, and poignancy -- has always fascinated me," says Freeman. "I don’t even find other teachers talking about them -- and yet how can you write an emotionally complex and rich film like The Two Towers if you have no idea exactly what techniques to artfully employ to create that richness?" He adds: "These techniques are usually not intuitive. They need to be distilled, studied, and practiced. Freeman says that when something "works" in a movie, what he does is he "reverse engineers" it. That is, he goes back to try to figure out how and why it works.
Here, thanks to his reverse engineering, are a few of the "Deepening Techniques" used in The Lord of the Rings. He spent a great deal of his time in his presentation dealing with the all-important topic of Theme:
Theme is one way to "deepen" plot and character. In The Fellowship of the Ring, which traces the history of the ring and Frodo from the beginning of his journey to the Kingdom of Mordor, the theme is "Power". This power theme is explored by looking at it from different points of view through several of the characters. We first see the ring when Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit, finds it, puts it on, and disappears. Bilbo now has incredible power, "But he didn’t use it with much consequence -- just to do parlor tricks," Freeman states. "It’s like a writer who uses his or her talent for composing birthday ditties for friends instead of using it for the good of the world."
The next time we see this power theme is when Gandalf and Frodo discuss the temptation and the ring. Gandalf knows that he himself is not so pure that he couldn’t be corrupted by the ring, so he has sense enough not to take possession of it. That is, he exercises the power of self-restraint. Next, we see "the power of evil" when Saruman and Gandalf have a knock-down fight. This is followed by a clip about the "power of innocence" (when it becomes clear that Frodo is the only one pure enough to carry the ring). What I’ve recounted here isn’t exhaustive; Freeman pointed out many other ways power is explored in the film as well.
The theme of The Two Towers is different, says Freeman. "It’s not power; it’s duty and responsibility. In the movie, as the members of the Fellowship get closer to Mordor and the dangers increase, various groups say, ‘It’s not my problem.’ But again and again, the characters end up being pushed to duty, reluctant as they are. It’s like Oskar Schindler in Schindler’s List who finds himself pushed into doing the right thing, just like the Ents in The Two Towers. At first, the Ents feel that their duty is only to the forest. They don’t realize that what happens around the forest affects them. But that point comes home to them when they discover that ‘some of their own’ have fallen victim to evil.
Freeman points out that these various groups who initially try to avoid duty and responsibility have their various justifications for doing so. For instance, the elves at first avoid taking any responsibility, for they blame humans for the fact that the ring still exists. But they too eventually step up to the plate called "duty."
But Frodo is different. He answers the call to duty because he believes that you respond no matter what justifications you come up with for not doing so. "A person who responds to duty and responsibility is deep, and our hearts leap to be with them at that level," says Freeman.
Other deepening techniques:
Freeman pointed out a number of other writing techniques which were used to bring emotional depth to "The Lord of the Rings." Here are just a few:
The Upper Strata of Emotion: Emotions go in a linear progression from apathy and grief all the way up to enthusiasm -- and higher. Way up there one finds the emotional band occupied by the heroes of The Two Towers. "It’s not that they don’t have fear, sorrow, and all the emotions of the rest of us," says Freeman. "It’s just, underlying all that, is a high emotional state characterized trust, pride, the ability to create beautiful effects, certainly of oneself, and unshakable integrity." Freeman pointed out that a character who embodies these traits, if they are written in a way so that we can still identify with them, helps us connect with the best in ourselves and thus uplifts us.
Symbols: Using symbols to deepen a script should be done only in subtle ways, says Freeman, "Symbols should be something that perhaps only 25% of people notice." Freeman said that there are many ways symbols can be used to bring depth to a character, scene, or plot. He pointed out quite a number which were used in The Lord of the Rings. One was a Symbol of a Concept. Symbols associated with the concept of "good" are trees, animals (like Gandalf’s "Shadowfax," water, and the color white. Symbols associated with the concept of "evil" are metal, machines, fire and darkness. Another Symbol of a Concept is the beautiful pendant carried by Aragorn which symbolizes the love that the elf, Arwen, has for him.
Spirituality & Psychic Powers: These are "Character Deepening Techniques," even for evil characters. "You want to weave these things in and out of your script and not hit people over the head with them because you will only alienate people," says Freeman. Aragorn has an almost mystical ability to track; the elves have the ability to see the future, to a limited escape…
Aesthetics: Again, this adds depth if woven into your story in subtle ways. When we see a character respond to something at an aesthetic level, we, too, respond. This is evident in the clean, elegant, and almost poetic way the elves walk as a group, or take aim together with their bows.
Wisdom: This is another "Character Deepening Technique. The wizard/mentor character, Gandalf, offers his wisdom to keep Frodo sane and on course. When Frodo tells him, "I wish the ring had never come to me," Gandalf says, "That is not for you to decide. All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you." Gandalf’s wisdom gives him depth.
The Ability to See the Humanity in Another When No One Else Will: We see this technique applied in The Two Towers when Frodo sees the pain in Gollum/Smeagol and protects him from Sam’s wrath. Says Freeman: "Frodo exhibits an almost Mother Teresa quality. When the lowly or the guilty are treated with dignity and humanity for the first time, it’s a scene-deepening technique."
Pain and Suffering: When characters have pain (that’s either held in or expressed), it’s another "Character Deepening Technique." In The Two Towers, the burden of being the ring-bearer gets to be almost too much for Frodo and he is drawn, perhaps unconsciously, to commit suicide by allowing himself to fall into the marshy waters, and has to be rescued by Gollum/Smeagol.
The above list is hardly complete. In his jam-packed talk, Freeman pointed out many other techniques used to emotional layers and depth to the characters, scenes, and the plot itself of The Two Towers.
The Duty of Artists
Getting back to The Two Towers theme of duty and responsibility, Freeman ended his presentation by pointing out the relevance of The Two Towers to writers.
"Though the issues of what is good and what is evil aren’t as clear in our world as they are in Frodo’s, one doesn’t need to look far to see there are people out there who are working against the good of mankind. The newscaster who wants to shock, terrify, or depress his or her audience every night -- the social leader who tells his or her followers that they’re all victims and have no power over their destinies -- the psychiatrist who proclaims that man is merely a stimulus-response animal, without a spirit, without freedom of choice, and without beauty and dignity -- the arms dealer who gets rich selling guns to a dictator who then uses them against his own people and even us -- all of them would be more than content to see man degraded into ruin.
"The artist is the one who can raise people’s morale, proclaim their dignity, fill us with insight, and invigorate us with courage. I think The Two Towers has truths we can all learn from. And let’s not forget -- it radiates this power only because it was created by artists."
- Previous Network Meetings:
|
