All language subtitles for MasterClass - James Cameron Teaches Filmmaking 03.Toying With The Audience Building And Releasing Tension Eng

[MUSIC PLAYING]

JAMES CAMERON: When
we buy a movie ticket,

we're putting our--
we're creating

a little bit of
a social contract

with a bunch of people we never
met to go into a dark room

and experience something and
be quiet and be passive and be

submissive and not stop,
not stop the experience.

The experience is in
a dominant position

relative to our consciousness.

And we do it
willingly because it's

one of the few times in
our lives where we do that,

and where we stop our
phone from ringing,

and we give ourselves
that respite,

and we give ourselves a moment,
might be a two-hour moment,

might be a three-hour moment,
to experience something

uninterrupted and unbroken.

And if we have to get up
and go to the bathroom,

you run because you don't
want to miss something.

And that's a unique experience.

I think as a filmmaker,
you know that you

have a dominant or
authoritative position

relative to the
audience's consciousness.

And you have to
honor them, which

is, I'm not going
to do something

that-- that's so obvious you
can figure it out exactly.

And you get to the end.

And it's been predictable.

But I also don't want to do
something that's intentionally

obscure to where I'm just sort
of pirouetting how smart I am

and all the big words I
can use, and you're lost.

And we've all seen the ones
that strike that perfect balance

where you're rewarded
for having paid attention

and picking up the clues.

And you go, aha.

And I think there's one thing
that a lot of filmmakers

take a while to
figure out, which

is it's okay for the
audience to be ahead of you.

It's okay because
the tension that

goes before a reveal
or a cathartic moment

is so much more delicious when
it's actually paid off in a way

that you hope for than
some utter surprise that's

not satisfying at all.

Sometimes, filmmakers
create too much importance

around the idea of
surprise versus paying off

in a satisfying, satisfying way.

It's all about this contract.

It's about this dance
with the audience

and honoring them and
encouraging them to participate

and pay attention.

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

Well, I can drive that loader.

I have a class 2 rating.

Be my guest.

[LOADER WHIRRING]

JAMES CAMERON: And
part of the way you

do that is you plant something,
and then you pay it off.

And you say, see how it works?

I want to put something here.

And you're going
to think about it,

and then-- and then it's
going to be satisfying here.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[SCREAMING]

Get away from her, you bitch.

[END PLAYBACK]

JAMES CAMERON: So that
creates a bit of a promise

that we're going to
continue to do that.

We're going to do that right
through to the end of the film.

The plant might be something
that only the audience knows,

that that character needs
and wants and can't express.

And you feel that I wish I
could just walk into the screen

and shake that other person
and say, look at what

this character's going through.

You know, you want to
create that tension.

You want to create that-- that
sense of wanting to be involved

and playing and participating.

It's participatory.

People say that that
film is not interactive,

that only games are--

are an interactive medium.

I don't think
that's true at all.

I think films are
highly interactive.

You can't change
the outcome, but you

can imagine various outcomes in
real time as you're going on.

You're playing out
those possibilities.

It could go this way.

It could go that way.

It could be this, could be that.

And if you play against
the audience's expectation

in a satisfying
way, that's good.

Keeps them playing the game.

If you play to the
audience's expectation

in a satisfying way, something
that they want to see

happen, and then it happens--

maybe it doesn't
happen the way they

thought it was going to happen.

Maybe it has to be earned
in a difficult way that's

hard for the characters,
or maybe the character

has to make the
sacrifice that you

didn't see coming to get
that result that you wanted,

you know.

But this is all
part of the dance.

They know all the gags.

So the question is, how do
you play against it slightly?

Or how do you use a little
bit of sleight of hand

to disguise what you're doing?

Or how do you lead
them on thinking

that it's going to be one
thing and then switch track

into something else?

You know, you're doing
it at the writing stage.

You should be going through the
script and saying, you know,

what--

what am I giving
the audience here?

What expectation
does that create?

How am I paying that off?

Or how am I working against
that expectation later?

It's very important
for filmmakers

to ask themselves
these questions.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Well, I think one of the first
principles of building tension

is you have to care
about the character.

And you have to
understand the jeopardy

or at least that there is
jeopardy for that character.

That might be anything from
a free-floating anxiety

that something is
going to happen.

And you don't know what it is.

Because you've just walked
into an alien spacecraft.

Or you just walked
into a haunted house.

Or there's some kind of
really bad, negative outcome

that's tied to a ticking clock.

You know, the classic example
is the bomb under the table.

Because I think time is a
factor on building tension.

You have to believe
that it's not

going to happen in two
weeks or in an hour.

It's going to happen in the
next few seconds or maybe

the next minute.

So you have to be
invested in the outcome.

You have to care
about the character.

You have to be brought
in subjectively enough

into the moment that
you're moving through the--

the world, the space, the
journey with that character.

And you have to have
enough outside information

to know that that character is
going into increasing jeopardy.

So crosscutting is a
good way to do that--

cutting away to the
adversary or the train

coming or whatever, whatever
the thing is that escalates,

creating a constant
sense of escalation,

creating a sense of frustration.

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

Don't make me
bust you up, man.

[GROANING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[GLASS BREAKING]

[GROANING]

JAMES CAMERON: You're cutting
to a very mundane scene.

But in the context of it
being a attention crosscutting

scenario, it's a solution
that might happen but isn't

gonna happen.

And they could
have been saved but

for had they just
answered the phone,

or something has happened.

The ringer got turned off.

And you've established that.

You're building tension
in all these ways.

You have to be led to
believe as the audience

that something is
going to happen soon,

and then you prolong it.

You don't just make it happen.

You prolong it.

So you've informed the audience
in some way stylistically

that something bad is going to
happen, or something very bad

could happen to your character,
and then you prolong.

So you've told them
to be in that state,

and then you suspend that
state and then hold them

in that state.

So they don't feel like it's
getting just snatched away

from them before they've had a
chance to experience and feel

it.

Now, that might be a happy--
a state of happiness,

might be a state of wonder.

You don't want to give them
a little taste of wonder

and then take it away.

You want to stay in it.

So tension is the same thing.

So there's a
prolongation of tension,

and that's usually done with
crosscutting two narratives

that you feel are
converging to each other.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

There are entire films
that build tension

across the arc of
the film, or there

are films that build
tension across an entire act

of the film, let's say.

So "Titanic" would be an
example where tension slowly

builds over time.

Here's a clue.

They got the iceberg warning.

Captain puts it in his
pocket, doesn't do anything,

tells them to speed up.

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

Oh, not to worry.

Quite normal for
this time of year.

In fact, we're speeding up.

I've just ordered
the last boilers lit.

[END PLAYBACK]

JAMES CAMERON: It's like,
well, wait a minute.

There's an iceberg ahead.

So you're building tension
at a relatively mild level.

Once they hit the
iceberg, now you're

building tension for
your main characters.

Who's going to get off?

How are they going to be saved?

What are the obstacles that
are going to be in their path?

Bad stuff is coming, and we
move relentlessly toward that.

And we even, you know, release
the tension for a while.

You know, Rose gets in the
lifeboat, and it's very sad.

But you know at least
she's going to get away.

Then she jumps back on the ship.

Now you've just
ratcheted it up again.

It's important to understand
the sort of the meta tension

that can rise across an
entire section of a movie

until it has some kind of
cathartic or pivotal ending.

In that case, the ship
plunges, the scene on the raft.

And Jack dies, and then
you get into the kind

of series of codas
that kind of resolve

the film emotionally
and thematically.

But-- and the tension is
released at that point.

And a great example, recent
example, is "Dunkirk."

That's two hours-plus
of just rising tension.

And it's very skillfully done.

And the score is a
major component of that.

It just builds and
builds and builds.

And there's just this
feeling of dread and anxiety

that builds across
that entire film

until those characters
finally get pulled off

that beach at the end.

And they're on those
boats going home.

And you feel like you've won.

You've earned this feeling
of-- of delivery, of transport.

And so, you know, that's
a case where it just

was unrelenting across the
entire movie on a-- on a rising

curve.

And that's an
incredible thing to be

able to modulate
that-- that way.

So tension is an art,
and it's a discipline.

And it can come
in small amounts.

It can come in longer sections.

And it come-- and it can
come across an entire--

entire story arc.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[CHEERING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]