All language subtitles for MasterClass Ron Howard Teaches Directing - 116 - Scene Deconstruction A Beautiful Mind

[Music]

the Beautiful Mind screenplay by AKA

goldsman is remarkable in that it has

one

Uber um you know

overriding objective that is to make you

understand what it feels like to be

mentally ill um and and then by

extension what does it feel like to love

someone who's living um you know within

those

delusions and what's what's so

remarkable about it is that it it it it

uses um you know a Convention of of

Cinema it basically creates a ghost

story it's it's playing closh handed

versus open-handed you don't know the

truth about the characters that you're

seeing and then you know the audience

gets the rug pulled out from under them

is something that we had to build to

very carefully

and

stylistically I tried to work with um

three different looks within the

framework of the movie the the first

period young John Nash is a rising

genius eccentric but um ultimately

brilliant um I shot that along with

Roger Deacon cinematographer in a very

straightforward um kind of Life magazine

way with with uh uh a sense of a of a of

nostalgia almost kind of an

organized um warmth and Congeniality the

only difference was that I played a lot

of it from John Nash's point of view in

fact I had actors looking right into the

lens sometimes and I played you know an

unusual amount of it uh in his literal

point of view and that was a way of I

hoped um drawing audiences into a kind

of a mystery like you know and and and

what would eventually prove to be his

paranoia um and but at this point it was

just a sort of um meant to make the

audience feel his discomfort that he

doesn't fit in and they must be looking

at me but later in the movie you you

would recognize that of course that was

it was the beginning of of a paranoid um

schizophrenic uh you know misperceiving

the world around

him then the middle

section was um shot in a very um Noir

kind of way like a cold war um Thriller

an Espionage movie you know lots of

Shadows lots of light and dark um um the

the color palette narrowed down Ed

Harris you know as a this uh um you know

powerful but mysterious figure but I

really wanted the audience to understand

it so of course it it can never go goes

to the point of being broad or extreme

although you know the script actually

takes you to a place where they're

inserting things you know chips into his

arm which you know I think we're all

pretty aware of that in the in the you

know in the 50s that the technology

didn't exist yet we were able to make

that slide by for the audience and

there's a moment where the rug is pulled

out from under the audience and we

dispense with the Noir and we go into

something else which is much more

personal and much more simple and this

you know I kept calling it The U you

know the cold clear light of day that

the the truth was was harsh it was

uninviting it was not it wasn't it

wasn't a warm place the the the the

truth of John Nash's life and his love

story with with his wife Alicia so those

are the three different

styles there's a sequence that's a

turning point and I build sequences

usually in sort of 10minute kinds of

increments or chapters I try to identify

that Rhythm within the script and I try

to make sure that uh in addition to the

overarching uh structure of the movie

that there are these chapters there are

these these they have their own

beginning middle and end that they carry

their own narrative questions you know

what will happen next uh and um of

course you're playing out the larger

plot all the time but on a specific

level you're you know you're concerned

about other particulars that create some

some tension some curiosity and have a

have a climax I actually developed this

way of working while refining the script

for Apollo 13 which really depended upon

these sequences to make you lose your

sense of your your overall understanding

of what the truth of that true story was

what the ultimate outcome was going to

be and made you focus on little details

where you you didn't necessarily know

the outcome you didn't know what the

emotional price or physical price might

be what you know what price may have

been paid I don't

know there's no good in keeping secrets

you know so at a certain point we were

always focused with John Nash and yet I

felt this is a love

story and at this point when we pull the

rug out from under the audience I

thought well who's the most important

person who's feeling this well it's his

wife Alicia

of

schizophrenia people with this disorder

are often paranoid and she is a pivotal

character Central to the movie and to

the themes of the story and I made a a

decision that required some rewriting

and some focusing and in a very subtle

way it informed the way I was going to

stage and shoot those scenes but in that

sequence in that 10

minutes from the time that Alicia visits

the hospital and is told the truth um

and doesn't necessarily trust it and has

to you know sort of become a detective

herself and come to terms with it and

confront her husband and then witness

this this you know this this ice shock

therapy I shifted the point of view of

the movie to her character for just that

just that 10

minutes just that sequence and I made it

a suspense sequence about her

Discovery and if you watch the scenes

unfold there's an air of mystery there's

an increased sort of tempo in the way

she's moving the way the camera presses

in and it builds to This Moment of Truth

where she confronts her husband

I shot that scene differently than I

shot any of the other two person

scenes I actually asked Roger deacons to

do something that was unusual for him

and challenging for

cinematographers and yet he really did

it I wanted to shoot both of their over

the shoulders at the same time I wanted

them to be in the scene together I

didn't want one actor off camera doing

the dialogue you have to find Willi part

he can help us he can help stop because

the lighting was very specific it's not

just general naturalism he worked very

hard to give us the actors and myself

that opportunity and I remember we did

about nine or 10 takes with a camera

move in and that was going to be the the

only the only coverage the only thing I

did was then a a wide shot and I didn't

even do the whole scene I only did a

couple of key lines that I needed after

they were already emotionally exhausted

because I wanted them to be B to play

together um this this horrifying moment

where she realized how ill he really was

it isn't

real and there was a hopelessness there

for her and he you know still at the

height of his illness feels so betrayed

by her it's in your mind and then

visually and and and of course the the

music really supported this again it's

James Herer a kind of emotional tumbling

to her witnessing what you know the hell

that he's living in in a physical way as

he's as is going through this very harsh

treatment this is an interesting scene

to choose in the movie because it in a

way it stands alone and it represents um

a lot of what I try to do that works in

hopefully very subtle ways but but also

um in significant ways and uh things

like

not just looking at one scene after the

other as as its own

discret um set of of creative ideas of

writing and and and acting problems but

trying to bundle things together and

creating a kind of a a flow and an

emotional connection uh that is building

and then um crashing down emotionally

and then you you know you begin again

with a new narrative question you know

what next what is she going to do next

now that he's in this situation and

those kinds of things create um you know

emotional investment for

audiences they often help you define

highlight

scenes um and most directors will tell

you that you know your your your movie

is is really built on a handful some

would say three some say five some say

seven but these these highlight scenes

well you know in thinking about them in

watching movies they're usually you know

payoffs to a sequence Billy Wilder said

you have to understand the five

important scenes and then you have to

know how to build to them well to me

it's about building a great sequence

stepen Spielberg is one of the great

sequence Builders um that I've ever I've

ever seen he naturally knows how to you

know create so much excitement tension

um um mystery whatever it is that he's

trying to a achieve emotion and then you

know and let it reach um you a kind of a

climax and so during the course of a

movie there's not just one at the end

there's supposed to be you know um I

think a lot of ups and downs a lot of

spikes and it's the director's job to

identify it and make sure that you don't

underplay uh and that also you in in the

in the aftermath of one of those moments

that you maybe give the audience a

breath you understand that you've just

completed uh one sequence with its own

Climax and now you know you just like it

just like coming to you know chapter 7

um you have just a moment as an audience

to collect yourself and you know wonder

what's going to happen next and then

move into it uh with the characters I'm

just going to grab the laundry okay I'll

draw his

bath it's okay

this sequence is um you know a metaphor

for any loved one who's coming to terms

with a spouse or a sibling who is facing

this kind of mental illness especially

when it's it comes as a

surprise similar with addiction and

other other kinds of diseases that you

can be in denial about and then there

comes a moment of Reckoning where you

just have to come to terms with the fact

that this person you care care about is

is is is damaged he's ill and so we were

able to use the metaphor of uncovering

the mystery of what John Nash was

doing compared to uh what he thought he

was doing and conveyed to everyone he

was doing so what what what was the

reality of his of his existence versus

um you know the one that he shared with

everyone and made everyone believe then

and that was that he was a he was he was

working as a spy he was cooperating with

the

government her opening the door and

walking in to that brilliantly art

directed and designed office

with that sort of jumbled collection of

of images and strings connecting ideas

and so forth which was in the script it

was described in the in the

screenplay that is a metaphor for

understanding the turmoil and the

illusion the hallucination that you know

a loved one with with with mental

illness of this sort is is coping

with director I was trying to treat it

literally like this sort of Mystery that

was unfolding but again the Brilliance

of the writing here is that it's it's

what every loved one goes through when

they have to finally come to terms with

it they want to be in denial they're not

sure in this case you know Alicia the

Jennifer Connelly character is

suspicious of what people are saying um

what the doctors are saying you know are

they are they spies she believes her

husband just as we always believe our

loved ones are you know are are are

healthy and can overcome this thing and

they don't really have a problem that's

that significant or that profound so uh

it it was really interesting to be able

to use this sort of

mystery um

grammar to to try to uh um parallel the

you know experience that all too many

people face when they they uh they have

to come to terms with uh the the illness

of a loved one