You Won’t Be Replaced by AI as Long as You Think out of the Box

A Handbook for Directors, Screenwriters and Producers

Introduction

In movies lies charm unparalleled for other forms art in that a film could convey, influence and control the audiences’ senses and emotions in a more direct, delicate and congruent manner, whereby there is minimum distinction among different audiences regarding how they perceive and understand the film and how they are emotionally connected. The “minimum distinction” is based on shared experience and cultural background between the art creators and the audience.

There is no denying that movies exert excellent emotional appeal and yet there are still many film creators care to talk to themselves so that it is challenging for one to get the feelings they meant to express.

It is natural for any film creator, whether commercial or art films, to have the longing to express and convey something, of course, for others instead of only oneself. The difference between commercial art lies in the range of target audience. It is never proper to claim a widely popular film is nowhere near art.

To my understanding, any original film derived from the creator’s perceptions that stirs emotion and reflection in audience could be regarded as a successful art film. I’ll further explain it in the following paragraphs/chapters.

Then how can one create an original film that brings out resonance among the audience? The key is to analyze the essence of films, with which we could develop a clearer understanding of— how to appreciate, learn and create a film beyond routine limitations so as to make a novel and moving film of art.

Part 1: Grasp Audience’s Attention

Films are formed in audience’s perception rather than on screen. A movie, with no none watched, would be a mechanical form of static pictures constantly played. Only when watched would films exist in the form of dynamic pictures.

Therefore, a film is ended for you when you are too sleepy to watch a movie in the cinema or turn off the player.

In this sense, it is vital for a film to catch the audience’s attention at the beginning no matter how intriguing the following part is, that is, the most important thing for a film is being appealing.

There are three steps to grasp attention: catching, maintaining and directing.

①?Catching Attention

What can catch audience’s attention? Shocks of colors, perspective deformation and light, sounds, actions of sex and violence, novel, amusing, shocking, surprising, cute or healing plots, emotions or concepts, popular stars, film price or titles of maters… The?last?three?would be out of reach for most creators. And the rest could be divided into two categories: sensory stimuli and content.

In terms of the efficiency to catch audience’s attention, the former is more influential than the latter. In other words, it?is the fastest method to catch audience’s attention by audiovisual shock, which is also the most common way to exert stimulation without knowledge or experience.

That is why photography and art are so significant in movies for they are the first to be perceived as appealing. In this sense, it is not difficult to understand why such a huge quantity of movies begin with sensory stimuli and why so many domestic commercials take sensory stimulation as the core not only because it is the most effective manner but also because it is the most convenient to form a pattern, that is, to model after.

It is not wise for a green-hand director to adopt rashly unaesthetic scenes to embody the protagonist’s inner world at the very beginning without master title, famous starring, ticket price threshold or mandatory viewing policy. The reason is that there is not enough portraying or foreshadowing ?for the characters so that it would be impossible to echo with the emotions. One could still be touched immediately by a documentary with rough pictures in that it is for sure that everything and feelings are authentic in the documentary rather than faked so it?could strike a chord. And yet the audience would be distracted from the movie at the beginning of a drama once a character fails to show real emotions or state, or a close-up shot focuses on a character’s expressions. Then their attention is driven to the actors’ “faking” rather than concentrated on what the director intended to express.

Let’s go back to the comparison between the two types, sensory stimuli and content. Although sensory stimuli?would be more efficient and more common, this type of stimuli is much less durable. That is, pure physiological/sensory stimuli are likely to give rise to boredom, which means long-term use of strong sensory stimuli makes the magic wear off. It is quite familiar for everyone in real life.

Among the manners to catch attention via content, the ones with strong, short and explosive stimuli last less long. And the ones that take more time to shape and foreshadow enjoy the advantages of being more durable, more powerful, more affecting and more impressive despite that the degree how the?audience relate depends on whether they have similar experience or mindset (that is, we need consider our target audience). The influence could be so strong that even a second or third viewing would stir intense feelings even after decades or centuries.

There are two dimensions of the “l(fā)asting power”. One is the micro scope, as has been mentioned before, clips of a single film. The other is macro scope, i.e., history.?

78/52（2017） clip

Therefore, even classic works could not exert eternal stimulation on our perception or emotion, some even quite?transient through the history, since people’s perception keeps renewing and social background alters all the time.

The classics has a pioneering influence on future inspired works. The?idea to get rid of routines is aimed to better explore and innovate for how people perceive is constantly evolving, which is accelerated by the development of Internet and popularity of clips.

Because of the length and features of the platform users, clips tend to use highly efficient stimulation. They are everchanging and spread quite widely. It is easy to form a pattern, which leads to, with low threshold, plenty of copycats so that it is soon for a clip to get phased out (after all, longevity is never the priority for a clip).

Choice of approaches to catch attention relies on your work’s length, platforms, and the viewing habits of the audience.

?②?Maintaining Attention

Since it requires time to shape and foreshadow deep emotions while human attention span is limited. Hence, the next level of need arises: maintaining attention. The core lies in change.

Change means alternated stimuli in different senses, sensory stimulation plugged in plot progress, or continuous suspense that has varied?rhythms.

The essence of shooting?a conversation from different angles lies in the alternation of sensory stimuli. Likewise, so-called “Lewton?Bus Technique” in Hollywood also emphasizes the insertion of sensory stimuli in plot progression. In All That Jazz, the scene of the protagonist and the Goddess of Death acts?as a tool of sensory stimuli to maintain attention, a clue to progress the plot and even an element that constitutes the film’s rhythm.??

????The suspense within the plot constantly appears and progresses. The Godfather?is a convincing case. Before analysis, let’s have a quick review of the film’s structure:

00:00~00:27 the image of the first generation of Godfather (so that the audience would know what kind of person he is); 00:27~00:34 is the first?interlude, where a single instance manifests how the old Godfather behaves; 00:34~00:46 depicts the cause and course?of his assassin; 00:46~01:29 is?the key progression where Michael prepares for the revenge from being excluded?after that; ?01:29~01:31 is the second interlude, showing how the family changes since the revenge; 01:31~02:01 depicts the first Godfather, although in recovery, concerned?about Michael and his eldest son, Sonny’s demise; 02:01~02:33 is the phase of power transition and the passing of the first Godfather; 02:33~ Michael officially becomes the second Godfather.

Let’s focus on the attention of the first 27 minutes: 1. Who?is he talking to? 2. He seems to be a kind and calm person. 3. What does he look like? 4. Would he help? 5. He is not for money but for brotherhood and protection of his family. 5. What is going on outside with all the cheering? 6. He is a man of measure. 7. Who on the earth is Michael? 8. What are the hat men here for? 9. The family is well-loaded. 10. Refusing to shoot photos, so are the men outside paparazzi? 11. They are not from journalism, but FBI!?12. Indeed, the Godfather is the backing for everyone. 13. Michael finally turns up, but he and his girlfriend just don’t fit in. 14. Unlike former visitors, Luca hasn’t received much attention but the Godfather still shows him respect. ?15. Why is Sonny’s wife upset? 16. The singer is really popular. 17. What Michael refers to as the Godfather way is a bit appealing for Kay (who has not been involved in the gang yet). 18. It turns out that Sonny is screwing around! 19. And the singer is a real wimp. 20. The men from the family have the tradition and discipline of caring for family.

The wedding takes up 27 minutes with all the suspense, reversals and continuous progression. The scene carries rich information and has clear core to shape orderly the image of the first Godfather. With the analysis, it is not difficult to understand why the three-hour masterpiece never bores its audience.

If the change is seen as a fixed rhythm, there would not be any if the timeline is stretched. Then it would be difficult to stir the audience’s attention and emotions

The highest point of emotions could be regarded as climax, the one and only chance. At the rest of the time, the zing is quite weaker unless the audience is offered enough intermission time.??

A qualified story contains more than one emotion and focuses on distinct feelings in each stage so as to maintain the audience’s attention until they recognize the characters, plots and emotions you shape and foreshadow. It requires us to further reflect on a deeper level of change—?rhythm. It?will be discussed in the future chapter for in movies rhythm means more than grasping attention.

③?Directing Attention

After recording a video with our phone, we could find when replaying it that there are varied sounds neither coarse nor clear which we did not notice until replaying it.

In human perceptual experience, one does not receive all audible sounds but merely notice?where his or her attention is directed while the rest is automatically “blocked” because it is nowhere relevant to the focus we are concentrated on. Here, “notice” and “block” mean “highlighting the subject” and “eliminating interference”. The audio design in the films also follow the mindset to direct the audience’s attention and avoid possible distraction of irrelevant sounds.

It is the same with the visual, from colors, light or shade, layout and motion, to identification of characters, are all designed to “highlight the subject” and “eliminate interference”. Or else, the audience would either be disturbed by impertinent subjects and themes, or get confused by the pictures.

Ruling out interfering elements, the environment, props, action or lines are all concentrated around your subject and theme so that the whole levels get thickened and ultimately the subject is formed whereupon the audience would relate with the characters.

??????Of course, the “thickened levels” could be interpreted as the required amount of efficient information, which not only exists in the overall picture but also in single shots. Hence, this requires the representation of three-dimensional space, which will be discussed in the following part.

Part?2:?Narrate in the Right Way to Grasp the Audience’s Attention

①Characters and Relationship

If?you intend to direct the audience to strike a chord with the characters you shape, you can look back on how we know a person in life. We tend to form the initial impression based on his or her costumes and accessories. Then we get to know his or her career, living state, past life and family background. Only when you develop enough understanding will you fully understand his or her position, stand in his or her shoes and get involved in the emotions. Also, bear in mind that your understanding is built on his or her time and ethnic background. All these should be manifested in the scenes, costumes, make-up, props, lines, action and plots, which altogether shape the characters’ feelings in an authentic manner so that the audience would accept and believe them before they get immersed and moved.

Unless?you are shooting a monologue, the participants in the story include characters other than the protagonists and relationships among them make a difference. It is because of relationships with other participants that the things?go the very way. Their personalities and relationships lead to the certain ending. If you have a protagonist with more than one connection with others and you intend to make the story attracting, the multiple relationships (clues) would be in different hierarchies. Distinction with regard to genders, time and space, as well as rhythms give rise to character state and relationships. With varied changes, there would be abundant information, appealing stories and multiple-faceted emotions. Then your theme would become profound with deep meaning. In real life, we feel?things from multiple levels with complicated reasons and emotions, which could not be summed up with a single sentence.

Let’s look at Pushing Hands?from the perspective of character shaping and relationships. You then can sense the key of an attractive story lies in how complicated, tortuous or reversing it is but in the shaping of characters and relationships, the two essential factors.

It could be boiled down as follows: you need to concretely lay the foundation for characters and character relationships, the shaping of which is based on perceptual experience of life rather than wild imagination. Otherwise, the?audience would fail to relate. On?the basis, the storyline continues in progression where the process of portraying and shaping also become a part of the plot.

As?an essential element in story, character develops the idea of the story, or the both parts appear at the same time. Is it possible to have story idea before characters? Possible. But the reason why the mindset is emphasized is that domestic screenwriters are likely to neglect the shaping of characters and start their creation from “clips” or “creativity” rather than design three-dimensional characters with detailed depicting. Consequently, the characters are reduced to “papermen” and it is impossible for the audience to get involved in the story, whose plot is untenable and emotions are blocked. You tend to shoot a film until you come up with an idea. But the most important issue is whether you have shaped characters and foreshadowed character relationships in an appropriate manner instead of creative storyline.

②The Real “God”

No matter what structure your story is and how your story develops, your work will still finally face the audience: first, have expectation; second, achieve the unexpected.??

A screenwriter plays the role of God dictating the story so that the audience could not see where the story is heading and still have expectation of the story. In other words, emotions cannot hang all the time, but require in-time comfort. Isn’t it how our life always turns out to be? We can never tell what is around the corner or how the things develop. However, the reality can always manage to give us a hint of hope whenever you break down. The hint of hope can provide you with something to hold on to so that we can keep living. It is also about restoring sensory experience in life.

Being a God means that the screenwriter needs to understand life and have real experience and feelings so that they could develop qualified ability to sympathize. Only then can the emotions be conveyed to the audience. When we design characters that ?we are not familiar with, we need to do more background research to collect more information and get prepared for shaping characters for the aim of the story.

The structure could be varied in forms. The time and space could go beyond limitation, that is, the structure could take all possible approaches. The key is to follow the principle of grasping attention and alter the angle of the audience to sense if the work could catch, maintain and direct audience’s attention and lead the audience to fail to expect the suspense yet feel curious about the following storyline. Meanwhile, it is vital to build the characters and character relationships. Psychological gap is worth attention, i.e., conflict points, which lead to the ups and downs of emotions. At this phase, you still need to turn to the perspective of the audience in order to feel if the audience’s emotions are centered around your work. With the mindset, you can re-examine and promote your story idea. Now feel free to compose your story.

③?Implication and Catalysis

Audience’s emotions are built on perceptual experience in real life. In the three-dimensional world, the audience would not need to feel the emotions in a holographic setting but a three-dimensional space embodied on a two-dimensional plane. The perceptions are restored except for audio and visual senses whilst in real life there are multiple senses from audio, visual, olfactory, touch to taste. When some sensory channels are blocked, the rest would be strengthened as compensation of the incompleteness, which is why three-dimensional light is rather stronger than big flat light.

We have been discussing that it is “sense of reality” that influences emotions. Restoring and strengthening perception from three-dimensional world on two-dimensional plane mean an implication of sense of reality. On top of the sense of space, restoration includes sense of quality, which is quite akin to “synesthesia” in writing. Although it is visual presentation, the audience still could sense the smell, touch and taste.

Quality could be shaped through forms, textures, colors, highlights, reflections and sounds; sense of space could be formed via light and shadow, perspectives, occultation, arrangement and sounds. The sense of reality is implied via texture strengthening and sense of space whereupon the emotions could penetrate.

Another catalyst of emotions is music. As a form of condensed art, films, within the limited 90 minutes, present a course and outcome a story, a person’s life or vicissitudes of eras… One can sense the joy and bitterness within, which is quite distinct from what we experience in real life. Music could magnify the feelings we sense in a movie and could convey the feelings we intend to express to the audience while altering emotions in the picture whereby unique effects arise. Vivid and memorable theme music could act as an efficient vehicle for the audience to enjoy the art.

It is worth noting that music, because of the essence of realism of movies, the soundtracks could embody conflicts with the real life (for in reality there is no music accompanying the ups and downs of the event). When there is no match between the visual and music, or the soundtracks are too dense, the music would hinder the audience from relating.

Through the analysis of “Directing Attention” and the discussion of “Implication and Catalysis”, we can further understand that movies are built on reality, but not exactly the same. For instance, when the pseudo-documentary includes all on-scene distractions and attempts to create “sense of reality”, the audience could be affected even if the characters act in a quite real manner. The audience’s own political emotions and stance would work as a catalyst in affecting the audience’s emotions.

④?Rhythms

It is time to talk about rhythms. There are two types of ?rhythms. One is aimed to serve audience’s attention—?rhythm of form. The other is aimed to serve audience’s emotions—?rhythm of feelings.

An instance of rhythm of form in All That Jazz:

1.the whole movie interspersed with the dialogue between the protagonist and the Goddess of Death;? 2.00:01:58～00:06:30???The clip of selecting actors

Let’s draw an instance of characters, character relationships, attention and rhythms via the comparison between Getting?Home?and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.

I watched Getting Home?first. The initial impression was that there was no rhythm but beats. The emotions in different stages seem flat. The protagonist met varied persons one by one. They talked about things one by one. There appeared a connecting part. The protagonist had his difficulties and determination. Yet there is no moving part regarding the friendship between the protagonist and the deceased. (The only shining part is its photography, where the passion has gradually worn off. A quite qualified shooting is 30th minute when in?a distant view, the protagonist pushed the vehicle for the driver who refused to give them a life as had promised and left.)

As has been mentioned before, it is a consequence of putting “clips” and “creativity” over characters and character relationships. After analyzing the whole film, it is easy to find that the protagonist is all alone. Although the time and space are coherent, the film is divided into separately independent parts. The protagonist met all varieties of people, who, except for the beekeeper’s family, have little profound influence on the protagonist. He remained single-minded all through the way to finish the “mission”. It is challenging for the audience to relate with the desperate emotion to commit suicide and consolation from the beekeeper in that there is lack of concrete portraying of the relationship between the protagonist and the deceased. Their past and deep bond all relied on the narration of the protagonist. It turns out to be a conversation after one without clear connection.

Let’s take another part for analysis. The protagonist bid farewell to the cycling young man. His cart then crashed. Then he met a van scrapped?from?an accident and got a wheel. All the plot serves for the idea of “wheel for the corpse”. The thing did not work out so he carried the corpse. He was so exhausted that he “bargained” with the deceased about borrowing the money from the deceased to rent a car. As a result, he was taken in at the meal before setting off, only to find that the money the contractor had given him was fake. All?the plots before serve?for the “finding the money fake” part. It is a typical part?of the film where every part follows similar patterns to serve independent “ultimate ideas”, which respectively have no connection with each other. This constitutes the “beat” of the film. That is also why the film does not have clear “rhythm”.

Noticing that there were comments about Getting Home?(2007) copying?The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, I watched the latter. My impression is that if the former copied the latter, it could be stated that the modeling part was quite a failure. But considering that the film was adapted from a real case in China around 2005 Spring Festival, plagiarism would be overstated. It is more probable that the idea that the deceased’s home was in ruins was borrowed.

There are three storylines in the movie The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, present (The protagonist is hunting for clues of the murderer, who gradually appears as Melquiades achieves his dream), past (The border patroller comes up who acts as the key figure to provide clues for the protagonist), and the past of past (the past between the protagonist and Melquiades).

There are multiple relationships between the protagonist and Melquiades, the protagonist and the patroller, the protagonist and his lover (a key figure to provide clues), the protagonist and the murderer, the murderer and his girlfriend, his girlfriend and her lovers… All the relationships intertwine with the time, space and complicated clues, leading to the ultimate end. Such minor characters as the stowaway manifests underlying social conflicts, which also helps to portray the state and personality of the protagonist as well as Melquiades and the national background. Another instance would be the blind cowboy who lived alone, who not only reflects the profound issues in reality but also helps to make sure the journey of the protagonist undisturbed.

The?disruption of space-time and clues serves the purpose of maintaining attention and leading to the unexpected. The decay of the corpse carries more realistic sense than that in Going Home. With the disturbed space, time and clues, the audience would be slow to realize that the cowboy from Mexico should be the deceased, whereupon a sense of surprise arises.

Just like the protagonist in Getting Home, the protagonist in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada??has always been as determined but much more introverted so he composed himself quite well. When being rejected by his lover, ?he found himself quite lonely. Combing the hair of the deceased, he does not say a word but the feelings of frustration and despair still come across in a profound way.?

Let’s go back to the real story of Going Home, Li Shao’s and the deceased’s family background and the promise Li had made for the deceased’s family before setting off. The clues of their frugal and risky journey and the shabby environment at construction?site, as well as the course and outcome of the event could highlight the characters, character relationships and emotional clues as ample and three-dimensional elements. Throughout the major storyline, there have been numerous social issues reflected, but it is the most hurtful that before setting off, Li confirmed that he would be responsible for the deceased’s death. He has always abided by his conscience and principles as a victim of the tragedy. In the end, the family of the deceased questioned him in the face, “How come you’re still alive!” In this sense, it is clear what should be laid for foundation for the audience to figure out the characters, relationships and emotional climax.

If you have a good sense of music, it would be as natural as breathing for you to manage the rhythm of a film. It has nothing to do with the use of music in this clip. It is unnecessary to measure the rhythm like music. We only need to put in our perception and emotions to experience if it is consistent with the ups and downs of human feelings so as to maintain the audience’s attention and get the emotions in position (that is, it is important to find out beforehand what needs clarifying so that the audience could relate) in the aim that the audience’s emotions would explored as planned.

Conclusion

It is sometimes the case that we cannot strike a chord with some films but due to the famed titles of masters or awards at film festivals, we have to endure watching them. As critics and literary young trumpet, we have to follow the public trend and act as if we understood the implicit philosophy despite our insensitivity. The contradiction blocks our intuitive judgement of the film so much so that it seems impossible for us to tell which is a good movie without guiding of awards.

Bear in mind that any film is based on the perception of its creator and always serves the perception of target audience for the creator. It is a process of non-linear communication in intellect and feelings between the creator and his or her target audience. There is nothing to be ashamed of if you could feel nothing about a film for the target audience could not be everyone. Therefore, you can just follow your emotional intuition. If you remain curious about masterpieces although no resonated feelings could be brought out, you can still learn how to shape characters, relationships, manifest space and quality, and master the audience’s attention… Just rely on your human intuition. As long as you think out of the box as?a person who has complete emotions, AI could never take your place.