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.

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→ Read the transcript for this episode.

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"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

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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

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