Friday, June 4, 2010

Every Scene Is a Chase Scene

Right now I'm reading the excellent Notes On Directing by veteran British director Frank Hauser. Chapter Six has an interesting suggestion for structuring a scene:
"Every scene is a chase scene.

Character A wants something from Character B who doesn't want to give it. If he did, the scene would be over. Why does A want it? In order to...what? Why does B refuse?

Usually, when someone chases someone else they move toward their object, and the object, feeling the pressure, moves away. Blocking, that obscure mystery, is simply that. Lenin said 'Who? Whom?' That is, who is doing what to whom, and with what further aim? When the Ghost is hectoring Hamlet it is easy to see who is chasing whom, but look at the opening of The Cherry Orchard or King Lear and the answer is more problematic. Nevertheless, the chase underpins all dramatic structure. When you have learnt to see it, blocking becomes much more obvious and (still more important) a false move more glaringly apparent." (Hauser, Notes on Directing, p. 33)

While I disagree with Hauser's blanket assertion that the chase underpins "all dramatic structure", looking at a scene in this way can be immensely helpful in giving a jolt of life to otherwise tepid drama.

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