Scene evaluation is hard. Understanding the phrases of a scene is simple, however figuring out what’s taking place dramatically – below the floor is robust. Most actors received’t admit it however scenes scare the shit out of them. They might improvise a break up scene, however once they have to make use of another person’s phrases, it will get considerably more durable as a result of we don’t share the intention behind the phrases, and we’re left paddling round in the 7% of human communication that’s verbal, as a substitute of completely inhabiting it.
We now have analysed quite a lot of scenes. Hundreds. For ourselves, for colleagues, for shoppers and with 1000’s of scholars. we accomplish that many analyses as of late that we regularly don’t take into consideration what we’re doing after we’re doing it. It’s change into unconscious.
The difficulty with that’s that it might make instructing it troublesome. The extra unconscious the method, the extra ‘magic’ it feels. And it isn’t straightforward to show magic.
Just lately we stumbled upon a secret that you simply received’t actually consider, however we guarantee you that comes out of watching lots of of shoppers wrestle.
The easiest way to analyse a scene, is to not learn it an excessive amount of. After we learn a scene lots, we get misplaced within the phrases. We begin to think about the significance and symbolisation of the phrases, and we change into distracted from what’s actually occurring. Our minds grasp on to the unintentional, changing into fascinated by references with private join, and never the dramatic underpinning of the scene.
So, don’t learn the scene an excessive amount of. Folks studying the scene lots had been second guessing themselves. Folks studying the scene lots had been getting it improper. So don’t learn the scene an excessive amount of.
To be trustworthy, this time final yr, if somebody would say that, we’d be prepared to provide them an ear-bashing. Nevertheless it works.
So, that is what we do now:
Learn the primary line or strains of the primary beat of the scene to set up the start level. Then learn the final strains of the beat. Then get curious. Ask your self ‘so what do I have to know.’
As an illustration. The primary line of the beat is RAY: Can I borrow a tenner. The final line of the scene is RAY: I do know I may depend on you buddy. Okay. So we go from needing a tenner to perhaps getting it. What am I lacking? What do I have to know?
I have to understand how we from needing the cash to praising the particular person (probably for giving them the cash).
Now scan the beat solely in search of the place the author has instructed us how we get from A to B. Don’t get caught up in particulars, solely search for the place you possibly can study that journey.
If you perceive how the journey is made you perceive the dramatic journey of the scene’s beat. Now you possibly can ask extra particular scene evaluation questions.
If this story is about borrowing cash on the floor… what’s it about beneath? What’s the essential human battle on the coronary heart of the scene?
You might even return to studying the script a bit extra if that helped, however actually, attempt to learn a scene as few occasions as attainable.
From there we are able to ask extra particular questions nonetheless. What are they doing within the scene? Why are they doing it? What’s stopping them and what do they do to beat that? Why not? What in the event that they don’t?
However the secret is to learn it as few occasions as attainable.
