Emotional Structure (Part 3)

“Doesn’t everyone feel in the same language? Emotion, which equals great writing, transcends genres, ages, economic classes, and political boundaries.”
Karl Iglesias

“The story is the journey for truth. The plot is the road it takes to get there.”
Peter Dunne 

I have yet to find a nice, neat, and concise definition of emotional structure—but I think I can unpack it a little and give you a few solid examples.

Yesterday, I read my first Kindle book—and it wasn’t easy. I don’t have a Kindle Tablet so I had to download the Kindle app on my iPhone. Then I purchased and downloaded the book Emotional Structure:Creating the Story Beneath the Plot by Peter Dunne. Ever try to read a 400 page book on a cell phone—in one day? It comes down to 3,759 iPhone pages. I’m definitetly putting an iPad or Kindle Fire on my Christmas wish list.

Blame it on reading a book on an iPhone, but here’s my take on the core of Dunne’s book:

“Your script must always be building emotions. 

The reasons for this are critical. As the first scene’s set of emotions give rise to the second scene’s set, the audience rides with them. Your goal in doing this is to have them make a visceral connection between scenes, not an intellectual one. As they follow the plot they will intuitively relate to the deeper meaning in your story. And the meaning of your story, that is to say the whole reason you are writing this in the first place, is always found in the emotional architecture of your film, not in the action plot structure.”
Peter Dunne  (Emmy-winner & UCLA screenwriting instructor)

Another way of saying that is your hero’s goal is not really what the film is about, but the emotional transformation of the hero is what the film is really about. I believe that’s where emotional structure intersects with theme making this the prime 1-2 reason people cling to certain movies. Here’s a quick overview of how this has played out in film history:

1960s: The Apartment is about more than the plot of Jack Lemmon’s character getting his apartment back, but about him standing up for himself and becoming a man with a backbone. He becomes a more complete person.

1970s: Rocky is about more than the plot of him becoming a champion boxer, but about him becoming a better person–a more complete person.

1980s: The plot of Die Hard is a cop who want to stop terrorists, but emotionally it’s about reconciling with his estranged wife.

1990s: The plot of Schnidler’s List is about an imperfect man trying to save people from being sent to concentration camps during the Holocaust, but as we watch him stand up to evil the emotional connection to the viewer is they too can stand up to evil. And we watch Oscar Schindler become a more complete person.

2000s: The plot of Erin Brockovich is a woman leading a legal crusade against  a corporate giant, but emotionally and thematically it’s about a woman overcoming tremendous odds to provide for her family—and be a more complete person. (That tag is starting to sound like Sandra Bullock’s tagline in Miss Congeniality…”and world peace.” A character, who by the way, went undercover and stopped a crime…and became a more complete person.)

2010s: The plot of Toy 3 is basically the gang of toys trying to physically survive destruction after being accidentily being put in the trash, but emotionally and thematcially it’s about surviving change and finding new purpose in life. And, of course, they become more complete toys.

One of the key illustrations that Dunne goes into detail about in his book is the 1985 film Witness and we’ll look at that movie more tomorrow and look at its emotional structure.

But for now notice the short list of films above are not only strong on emotional structure, and were made decades apart, but span several genres. They are primal and universal stories and widely accepted by audiences and critics, on top of having won more than their share of Academy Awards.

They are films in which characters are transformed by difficult situations who come through the film with a sense of completeness and harmony that they didn’t have at the start of the movie. It’s not hard to understand why that connects with moviegoers, because overcoming our own flaws and becoming better people who live in a world of peace and harmony is a universal concept for all people, throughout history, and throughout all cultures.

P.S. Not all stories end with peace and harmony (The Wrestler, Death of a Salesman), but movies that end with a man, woman, animal, toy, robot, alien or whatever becoming a more complete being are by far more accepted by audiences. It’s hard enough getting any movie made, why not increase your odds by writing in the most widely embraced type of movies. Unless you’re an established writer, save your Magnolia/Crash/The Day of the Locust-type script for down the road.

Scott W. Smith