Latest / The Imperfect Impulse w/Bree O'Connor / S2 Ep 2: Action!

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S2 Ep 2: Action! · The Imperfect Impulse w/Bree O'Connor

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SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Imperfect Impulse with Brie O'Connor.
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I'm your host,
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Brie O'Connor,
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and I am going to try super hard not to get into the weeds
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today.
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SPEAKER_00: I have chosen the topic of action for today's podcast, and
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SPEAKER_00: I thought that would be a really simple thing to talk about.
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And I have started to record this like four or five times
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because I keep driving
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SPEAKER_00: the car into the ditch.
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SPEAKER_00: So we're going to hope that this is the one.
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SPEAKER_00: That this is the take that's going to take.
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SPEAKER_00: You know, just bear with me.
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SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of side streets on this topic.
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SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to try and drive down the main road.
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SPEAKER_00: So talking about action,
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I think it's really important to talk about the role that
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action plays with
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SPEAKER_00: different artists,
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SPEAKER_00: with different collaborators,
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SPEAKER_00: because there's a lot of crossover,
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SPEAKER_00: and the word basically means the same thing,
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but with shades of difference in concern for each member in the
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storytelling
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SPEAKER_00: process.
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Now first,
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I want to talk about what action means to the novelist,
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right?
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Because in the novelist world,
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yes,
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you will tell a story where people do things.
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SPEAKER_00: They do things frequently.
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SPEAKER_00: But the focus in the novel is a bit more tactile.
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SPEAKER_00: It's a bit more personal.
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You have this leeway to be so inside a person's mind or inside
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the plot itself that
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SPEAKER_00: You can spend a lot of time describing rooms,
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SPEAKER_00: what things feel like,
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SPEAKER_00: smell like,
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SPEAKER_00: look like,
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SPEAKER_00: taste like,
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and how that impacts the behavior and the thoughts and the
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feelings of the
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SPEAKER_00: characters that you are writing about.
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You have this wide open space where you have to define the
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world for the reader.
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SPEAKER_00: And the more you do so...
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SPEAKER_00: the more the reader interprets that in their own mind.
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SPEAKER_00: It's a lovely personal connection with the reader.
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SPEAKER_00: Of course,
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SPEAKER_00: the reader is going to interpret that in so many different ways,
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but it's going to get close enough to the writer's vision that
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part of the joy of
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SPEAKER_00: reading is that constructive process in your own brains.
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My way of saying this is that action is not as important to the
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novelist.
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SPEAKER_00: Yes,
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SPEAKER_00: things have to happen in your novel,
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SPEAKER_00: but sometimes it's just a luxury to be inside another human's experience.
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SPEAKER_00: The experience, it's a little bit more broad.
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SPEAKER_00: Now, in drama...
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SPEAKER_00: Everything is focused on action.
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SPEAKER_00: What are the characters doing?
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SPEAKER_00: How does what they are doing get them to their end goal?
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Because the story here is all about discovery,
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achievement,
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solving a problem.
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SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, why are we watching?
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SPEAKER_00: Now I'm going to break that down even further.
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So there's a difference between how the dramatist views action
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and how the actor
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SPEAKER_00: views action and also how the director views action.
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Now all of them are going to be looking at what are these
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characters trying to achieve?
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SPEAKER_00: What do they want?
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SPEAKER_00: Having a clear want is a building block of story, of drama.
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SPEAKER_00: If the character doesn't want something, nothing moves forward.
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SPEAKER_00: I'm going to take the actor first.
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We'll stick a pin in the changes to actor training because
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that's a topic for another day.
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SPEAKER_00: But for today,
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I'm going to focus in on the way that I looked at action and
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how I still look at
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SPEAKER_00: action to this day.
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Now,
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each character,
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each actor will have to determine what is my character's arc?
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SPEAKER_00: What do they want in this sequence of events?
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SPEAKER_00: What are they trying to achieve?
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SPEAKER_00: And then they will go,
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SPEAKER_00: that's my,
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SPEAKER_00: you know,
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SPEAKER_00: that's my overarching,
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SPEAKER_00: you know,
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SPEAKER_00: they'll say super objective.
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SPEAKER_00: They'll say what is, you know,
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SPEAKER_00: What is my prime motivation?
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SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of words for it.
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SPEAKER_00: But essentially, it all kind of boils down to the same thing.
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SPEAKER_00: What am I doing to achieve my goals?
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SPEAKER_00: Each scene is like a building block for that grander need.
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SPEAKER_00: And inside each scene,
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SPEAKER_00: everything they utter,
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SPEAKER_00: everything they do,
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SPEAKER_00: must be responding to that grander need.
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SPEAKER_00: So,
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SPEAKER_00: for example,
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SPEAKER_00: let's say there is,
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SPEAKER_00: you know,
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SPEAKER_00: you'll recognize this plot,
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SPEAKER_00: but let's say that there is a,
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SPEAKER_00: our protagonists are teenage friends,
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and they would like to be closer to the object of their
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affections that is not
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SPEAKER_00: quite solidified as a real relationship.
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And their overarching need is to be with this person,
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to get that chance for love.
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SPEAKER_00: Maybe not even get love, but to have that opportunity for love.
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And everything they do throughout the course of the story is to
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be in proximity to that person.
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SPEAKER_00: So, great.
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SPEAKER_00: Then what they have to do is how do they achieve that goal?
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SPEAKER_00: Well, that may be achieved by going on a quest
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a quest to find alcohol that's a pretty common teenage activity
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wait well at least
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it was in my day so in that quest to achieve alcohol to become
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a hero to the object
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of your affection and make their party the best party it can be
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then thereby
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winning their attention there are loads of steps toward getting
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the alcohol
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SPEAKER_00: There is finding money.
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SPEAKER_00: There is figuring out how to get past the age restriction.
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SPEAKER_00: There may be getting fake IDs or convincing older people
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SPEAKER_00: older friends or family members to buy it for you,
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SPEAKER_00: and maybe making a devil's bargain in the process.
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There's loads of things that you have to do,
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and each step along the way is another action.
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SPEAKER_00: I want to flatter my uncle.
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SPEAKER_00: into buying the beer for me.
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I want to blackmail my best friend's older brother so that he
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has to buy the beer for us.
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SPEAKER_00: You know, there's loads of different steps, right?
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SPEAKER_00: And so these will commonly be called actions.
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SPEAKER_00: You'll also hear them as
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objectives,
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motivations,
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intentions,
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but basically they all mean the same thing to an actor.
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Perhaps we'll have a longer discussion about shifts in acting
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training that have
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SPEAKER_00: gotten rid of actions altogether.
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SPEAKER_00: That's another deep dive for another day.
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SPEAKER_00: But now we're going to go and talk about from the writer's perspective.
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SPEAKER_00: The writer has to imagine,
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SPEAKER_00: you know,
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SPEAKER_00: they choose each particular scene,
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SPEAKER_00: each particular step along the way.
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SPEAKER_00: That is an active invention on their part.
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SPEAKER_00: So they are often thinking about, okay, how do these things happen?
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SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, they've got to...
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SPEAKER_00: We'll have a scene where they steal money from their mother's purse,
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SPEAKER_00: or we'll have a scene where they talk to the older brother.
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SPEAKER_00: And very similarly to the way an actor thinks about it,
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the writer thinks about it in terms of what are the steps they
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have to take to
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SPEAKER_00: achieve their goal.
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SPEAKER_00: However, oftentimes the writer will be so focused on the dialogue
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SPEAKER_00: that they will forget that they need to actually physically do things.
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Some of that can be a stumbling block in the rehearsal room if
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they don't visualize
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SPEAKER_00: what the characters are actually physically doing.
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SPEAKER_00: Now, a director will always be thinking about
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SPEAKER_00: What does this look like on stage or on screen?
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SPEAKER_00: Where is the action?
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SPEAKER_00: Where does my eye go?
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SPEAKER_00: Where do I want to direct the attention?
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SPEAKER_00: And so then the focus becomes rather minute.
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SPEAKER_00: And there's a challenge here in showing action on stage.
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SPEAKER_00: versus on screen on stage, we only get a wide shot.
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SPEAKER_00: We don't have close ups.
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So a director is going to have to maneuver bodies on stage in
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order to highlight
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SPEAKER_00: and direct the audience's attention toward what's happening.
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SPEAKER_00: So for them,
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being crystal clear about the action that's happening
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physically in the scene and
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how it supports the overall story structure is going to be how
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the director is
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SPEAKER_00: looking at action.
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SPEAKER_00: In a film, you'll find dialogue takes a back seat.
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SPEAKER_00: Things that fly on stage don't
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SPEAKER_00: work in film because the camera becomes our object of attention.
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It becomes our,
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not necessarily our object,
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it becomes our conduit for attention.
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SPEAKER_00: It can show us the tiniest detail.
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SPEAKER_00: It can show us a lip quiver.
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It can really use the framing to give us focus on the action
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that it wants us to
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SPEAKER_00: see more so than the dialogue.
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So you will frequently see playwrights who have written a
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screenplay and it gets
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torn apart because the actors talking about how they feel is
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really not as
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interesting as the close-up on the hand reaching into mom's
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purse while she is busy
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SPEAKER_00: in the bathroom.
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SPEAKER_00: The dialogue becomes sort of a background noise to what we're seeing.
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SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes,
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writers will be looking at a scene and knowing that they've
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just written a bunch of
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SPEAKER_00: dialogue,
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SPEAKER_00: but it's not grounded in the space that they're in.
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SPEAKER_00: The scene feels a little empty because it's people talking in a vacuum.
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So how do you bring behavior into the space as a playwright in
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particular in order to
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illuminate the character's relationships to one another and to
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help move the plot forward.
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And I think it's helpful to look at physical action in
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particular as either an
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activity that is a means to an end that helps the character get
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what they want or
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SPEAKER_00: it is an obstacle that the character has to navigate
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SPEAKER_00: to get to their goal.
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An obstacle,
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for example,
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I keep using teenagers because I kind of love them.
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They are so buoyant and full of energy,
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so they're easy to find actions for.
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Now,
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in the terms of a teenager who wants to go out on the town,
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having to do the dishes
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is a physical activity that they have to get through in order
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to get what they want.
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So doing the dishes is an obstacle,
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and their mother's pressure to get that done is an obstacle.
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SPEAKER_00: How do they navigate that physical task?
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Are they conscientious and thorough because they know they
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don't want to hear their
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SPEAKER_00: mother call them back?
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SPEAKER_00: To do it again because it wasn't right?
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SPEAKER_00: Or do they rush through it and fake it?
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However they solve that physical problem is the thing that
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we're going to watch.
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SPEAKER_00: Now let's talk about the director.
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SPEAKER_00: Because the director has a lot of blanks to fill in in terms of action.
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SPEAKER_00: when dealing with, here we go, Shakespeare and Chekhov.
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Chekhov is a lot of group scenes where people are hanging
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around talking about how
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SPEAKER_00: miserable they are.
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SPEAKER_00: So how do you use the stage space and the environment to show all of the
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the different relationships that are happening in this group
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dynamic all at once.
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And that's actually a lot of fun because this is where you have
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all of this
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SPEAKER_00: dialogue to tell you who is looking at who,
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SPEAKER_00: who's having a secret crush,
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SPEAKER_00: who's angry at someone else,
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SPEAKER_00: and you just have this bubbling social dynamic.
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SPEAKER_00: and you have them live in a very particular place,
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and the director's going to want to play with proximity because
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the dialogue is so
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SPEAKER_00: brimming with subtext.
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SPEAKER_00: Actors love playing with Chekhov because...
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He gives you just the slightest hints and he toys with social
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behavior in such a
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SPEAKER_00: beautiful way that everything means something.
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And so when you're in a group scene where everyone is adhering
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to some social norm and
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SPEAKER_00: suddenly you get someone sitting next to someone else on purpose.
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SPEAKER_00: The audience starts to pick up on those subtle cues of body proximity,
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SPEAKER_00: of how they might manage a fork and a dinner plate.
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SPEAKER_00: And
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SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful way in a wide shot,
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SPEAKER_00: like we were talking about before,
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SPEAKER_00: that all plays are nothing but a master shot.
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SPEAKER_00: That once the audience is trained for that world,
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SPEAKER_00: then the subtleties of how bodies move in space,
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SPEAKER_00: who's looking at one another,
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SPEAKER_00: that those things start to take on extra meaning.
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SPEAKER_00: So...
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SPEAKER_00: That's the rehearsal process right there,
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is to figure out what we're doing in this sort of social party
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scene and who do I
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SPEAKER_00: want to be next to,
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SPEAKER_00: who do I want to be far away from,
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that those things become a lovely puzzle for actors and
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directors to work on
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SPEAKER_00: together.
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SPEAKER_00: In comedy, the physicality, the action...
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becomes a little bit more important because often comedy is so
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frantic and is about
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SPEAKER_00: the awkwardness of being.
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SPEAKER_00: So the activity of being in a body in space means a lot more.
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SPEAKER_00: And the more props, the more things you can handle, the better.
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SPEAKER_00: It just gives an actor so much to work with when they can,
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SPEAKER_00: you know,
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SPEAKER_00: if you give them something that they can play with.
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SPEAKER_00: I mean,
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SPEAKER_00: if you look at some of the early film masters,
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SPEAKER_00: you know,
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SPEAKER_00: your Buster Keaton and your Charlie Chaplin,
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SPEAKER_00: the ideas of
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SPEAKER_00: of being a body in space and what you do with it,
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how you occupy your mind and your time where these characters
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direct their
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SPEAKER_00: attention,
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SPEAKER_00: these subtleties of physical response are exciting.
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So as a writer,
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if you can give them that specific playground,
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they will run with it.
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And that helps them so much if you can at least give them a
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working playground.
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SPEAKER_00: You say,
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SPEAKER_00: hey,
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SPEAKER_00: listen,
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SPEAKER_00: here in this scene,
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SPEAKER_00: there are two characters,
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SPEAKER_00: one who is pining after the other.
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SPEAKER_00: The other is completely unaware.
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SPEAKER_00: And now...
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SPEAKER_00: For some reason, they have to create a display of panties for sale.
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And that awkwardness of like,
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oh,
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I have all these things,
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you let the actor's mind wander.
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I particularly chose a rather salacious activity because it
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presents as much
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SPEAKER_00: embarrassment as possible and as much opportunity for
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the one who is pining after the other character to screw up and
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show their hand so
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once again here the physical action is either a means to an end
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or an obstacle that
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the character has to navigate setting out a bunch of panties in
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an attractive
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SPEAKER_00: manner for customers in the proximity of the person you desire is
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is a way you're going to try and hold off any indication of
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desire while navigating this task.
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SPEAKER_00: And that's off the top of my head.
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SPEAKER_00: I'm sure there's probably better ones that you could play with.
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SPEAKER_00: I do want to talk about quickly talking as a task.
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This is true in a lot of political or procedural drama where
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everything that every
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SPEAKER_00: scene is about gaining or withholding information.
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SPEAKER_00: And that is an action.
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SPEAKER_00: That is a task.
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I think one of the best examples of this is to go to Richard
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III because Richard...
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He is such an agile mind that every single moment is about,
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here's my circumstance.
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SPEAKER_00: Here's how I'm going to play it.
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SPEAKER_00: I'm going to tell you what I'm about to do.
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SPEAKER_00: And you're going to watch me do it.
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SPEAKER_00: And then you're going to see the result.
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SPEAKER_00: And then you're going to see, then we'll touch base again.
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SPEAKER_00: He does this for you over and over and over again throughout the play.
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SPEAKER_00: And you have this marvelous window inside his mind.
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SPEAKER_00: And in a weird way, you root for him until you don't.
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But in each scene,
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it's about him playing these other characters emotionally.
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SPEAKER_00: About him manipulating and
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and maneuvering through this social and political structure to
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get what he wants.
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SPEAKER_00: So talking is an activity,
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SPEAKER_00: but it has to have a direct purpose,
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SPEAKER_00: and then it is really fun for us to watch.
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SPEAKER_00: But if they are just a...
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SPEAKER_00: a mise-en-scene,
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SPEAKER_00: a little slice of life representing,
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SPEAKER_00: oh,
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SPEAKER_00: this is how this group of people talk.
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SPEAKER_00: This is how this group of people talk.
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SPEAKER_00: And not having a good container for that will make it hard to watch.
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SPEAKER_00: We want to follow solid action.
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SPEAKER_00: We want to follow plot and plot.
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SPEAKER_00: And we want to make sure that each moment we're being given something,
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given a new handhold for us to understand and project what
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might happen next.
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SPEAKER_00: That gives us a sense of dramatic tension.
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SPEAKER_00: It gives us, we're constantly guessing.
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SPEAKER_00: The more you have our brains as the audience, as the receiver of story,
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SPEAKER_00: Moving along with you, the more successful your story will be.
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SPEAKER_00: Okay, I think I did it.
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SPEAKER_00: I did steer into the weeds a little bit, but I think this is...
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SPEAKER_00: Hopefully this is understandable.
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It's hard to talk about these things in a general sense because
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there's a whole
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wide world of options and there's always a space where there's
24:23
the exception to the
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SPEAKER_00: rule,
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SPEAKER_00: but that's the fun of art is as soon as you know the rule,
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SPEAKER_00: then you can figure out a way to,
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SPEAKER_00: you know,
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SPEAKER_00: cheekily break it.
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SPEAKER_00: To the delight of your audience.
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Because whether your audience has studied the rules,
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they know them intrinsically.
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Like,
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they just know what they can expect,
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whether or not they've studied the structure.
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And when you disappoint them,
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you better be disappointing them on purpose.
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SPEAKER_00: All right.
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SPEAKER_00: That's it for today.
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SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining me on The Imperfect Impulse.
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And please,
25:08
consider sharing these episodes if you're finding them useful.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to be able to offer more things to more people.
25:17
SPEAKER_00: And sharing is really the only way we get this thing moving forward.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: All right.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: Until next week.
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SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining me on The Imperfect Impulse.