Original subtitles

And now I'd

like to talk to you about character and point of view.

Who are the characters?

What are their motivations?

What are they trying to accomplish?

Whose eyes are we seeing the world through?

And why do we care?

Why are we emotionally invested?

I always think about the character,

and in the case of something like Whiplash,

I always think about Andrew, how can I cut it

in a way to

get into that character's head?

And so that's how I approach things.

So in terms of cutting silently, I, I like things to play

almost like a silent, the way a silent movie would play.

Sound is going to enhance it.

Sounds going to absolutely be a key ingredient.

First man is so much more powerful with the sound,

but I really try and like to have it play with the images

because again, I believe that if you have something play pictorially,

you can appeal to people in China and you can appeal to people in America.

You can appeal to a wider possible audience.

And so I always like to favor the pictorial instead of hearing a character say.

Oh, no, there's a gun.

I like to present that visually.

I'd rather have a character

see that and show that to the audience and then see a reaction.

And then here I'll know that character's gun.

Rather than merely be told that when I'm cutting things

silently, I look for things that will tell my story through pictures.

And often again,

that has to do with the character's face and that has to do with looks.

There are exceptions to this rules because people have different

storytelling styles and techniques.

A lot of direct.

They're not a lot, but there are a lot of directors that that favor long tableaus,

that favor the theatrical theatricality of composition,

and that can be amazing, beautiful and moving as well.

But in general, I favor

I think about how powerful the eyes are and the gaze.

I think about the movies of Alfred Hitchcock, which are all about

seeing and being seen in some of his movies.

Key moments are about being seen

in Alfred Hitchcock's classic movie, Psycho.

When the killer is

spying on a woman undressing about to get in the shower,

he takes a picture off a wall that reveals a hole in the wall

so that he can peek in and look at this woman undressing to go in the shower.

We show his eyes looking and then we see what he's looking at.

That's very potent.

That's very powerful

because the audience sees what exactly what the character sees.

And you have a direct connection to that character's

experience that has an enormous amount of power.

In his movie Rear Window.

The movie about a man who watches his neighbors

through his windows in the back of his apartment.

He sees all these little

stories play out in different apartments

until he sees a neighbor and realizes that the neighbor

has probably killed his wife, he spies on the killer.

And the key moment,

a pivotal moment in that story is when after an hour

and a half of this character spying on the killer and us being us

spying as well, that killer figures out that he's being watched.

And we see the killer then turn to the camera, look at the camera,

and then basically we instantly are afraid

because we know that that killer is not only looking at the character,

that that the killer

is looking at us, the audience, and that has an enormous amount of power.

And so I always look for things

that direct the audience in that way.

I look for moments that where I can, I can.

Get into the character either through

through literal subjective photography or if that doesn't exist,

because sometimes you don't shoot that way through the face.

And again, it's the face.

The face tells you so much.

The eyes in particular tell you so much.

So there's. It's such a powerful tool.

I don't feel like I can.

I can.

Overstated.

Any scene with a lot of characters

is challenging because you have to cut to them

to keep their characters alive, you know, unless you're trying to make a point of

of withholding them so that you can reveal something.

For the most part, it's challenging because you have to keep them alive.

You have to keep cutting to them to check in with them.

There are challenges

with geography, with looks in this person looking this way, in that way.

We had that with the dinner table scene in Whiplash.

The way it was shot, it was shot.

Great.

But we always had to try to be careful about the geography

around the table, because there's a way that

if you cut it with certain angles,

then one shot doesn't lead to the other shot.

This look, you know, doesn't match

with your other great expression because the screen direction is wrong.

And and so it can be hard.

But I would say that you have to read your reread your scene.

Think about your story and think about.

Who's seen it is what is you?

Is there is there a main character?

Is there is there a point of view that you want to get across?

You know, the way the scene begins, the way it ends.

What's the what's the change in the scene?

Is there is there something in the scene?

The changes, for example, in the whiplash

dinner scene in that scene, the beginning of the scene

starts at a

somewhat happy place where the is getting together and

everyone is going around the table

talking about all of their accomplishments.

There's the football star.

There's there's there's the dad with his writing.

And then there's Andrew with drumming.

And you start to see as the season progresses that the person

who changes is Andrew from the beginning of the scene, he's open.

He's open and willing to have a conversation.

He's trying to be included.

He's actually trying to impress his family.

He's trying to find his place in a way.

He's saying, actually,

you know, I've been chosen for this band and that has meaning to me.

He's trying to share that.

His family is not hearing that.

They're not understanding him.

And by the end of the scene, Andrew's character

is frustrated and angry because his family does not hear him.

And they don't they don't appreciate

what he's saying.

And so the person who's changing

is Andrew. It's not the family members.

They don't really change the way they react, but it's really.

Andrew.

So that tells you a character that you probably

want to focus on and you're going to want to focus on his face.

You're going to look for those pieces of the performance

that show you the progression from beginning to end.

And so I think you have to look at your story,

look at your scene and ask yourself

what is how does is that what's the change from the beginning to the end?

Is there any?

And if there is, who is it that's changing?

That's the person you want to focus on.

And if it's two characters, an interaction, my suggestion would be to

to edit the scene with only those characters.

First, focus on that, try that, get that interaction.

If this is what it is, get that interaction, the looks

and the best performance pieces that tell that story and then go back

and look for how you can incorporate the other people into the scene.

So you're using you're looking for something to use as the spine

of your scene and everything else can can be hung on top of that spine.