TED Talk (Part 6): J.J. Abrams

In 2007, J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost, Super 8) gave a TED Talk. I’m sure many of you have seen it. However, like many great presentations, much of what could be valuable as a writer drifts away into the ether. So for two weeks, I will be posting the entire transcript of Abrams’ ‘mystery box’ TED Talk.

Part 6: Picking up where Abrams has stated that for a writer “the blank page is a mystery box”.

Then there’s where you think what you’re getting and what you’re really getting. And it’s true so many movies and stories. Look at E.T. for example. E.T. is a story about an alien who meets a kid, right. It’s not. E.T. is about divorce. It’s about a heartbroken, divorced crippled family and ultimately this kid who can’t find his way.

Die Hard, crazy, great fun action-adventure movie in a building. It’s about a guy who’s on a verge of divorce. Guy shows up in L.A. with his tail between his legs. There are some pretty great scenes, about a half-hour of investment character before you get to the stuff you’re expecting.

Takeaway: A huge screenwriting lesson here and if you weren’t paying attention, it would fly right by you:

• Think what you’re getting and what you’re really getting: Here we may consider that Abrams is referring to the two realms of a screenplay universe. There is the External World [Action and Dialogue] and the Internal World [Intention and Subtext]. The External World is where the physical story plays out. The Internal World is where the psychological story plays out. So E.T. is about a boy and an alien? It is by and large in the External World. But what plays out on a psychological level is divorce: The separation of Elliot’s family, E.T. separated from his family, the scientists separated and searching for E.T., E.T. as a Fish-Out-Of-Water separated from human culture, through all of these there is this underlying dynamic of Disunity, setting up a resolution around the dynamic of Unity. And it’s all that which gives the story emotional resonance… which makes all the events mean something… which is why divorce can be considered the Central Theme of the movie.
• Investment in character: There are many reasons why filmmakers like Spielberg and Abrams are successful at what they do, but ‘investment in character’ has got to be near the top of the list. They know that priority number one is to make the moviegoer care about the characters. Because if I as a filmmaker can make you care about my movie’s characters, I buy freedom to stretch what I can do with the plot. I buy myself time in the story and not have to rush from action to action to action. I can build toward a deeply satisfying ending rich with emotional layers. How about this? If I as a screenwriter can make you, the script reader, care about my story’s characters, you’re that much more likely to give that script a consider. As a producer, you’re that much more likely to summon up passion for that project. As a manager or agent, you’re much more likely to sign me as a client. As a studio executive, you’re much more likely to buy my script. As an actor, you’re much more likely to take that role. Not exclusively, but in large part because you are invested in my story’s characters, found their core essence, what their psychological drama is, and made you care about them.

For Part 1 of Abrams’ TED Talk, go here.

For Part 2, go here.

For Part 3, go here.

For Part 4, go here.

For Part 5, go here.

To watch the entire video, go here.