How to Make Your Audience Feel — Emotion Theory in Movies

Emotions, how we feel them, and how we perceive them are the backbone of the human experience. For a film to be effective, it must move an audience emotionally. If a viewer leaves a theater feeling nothing, they'll likely consider the movie a failure.

- That movie sucked. - Using emotional theories developed by psychologists, filmmakers can understand why and how they can affect their audience's psyches. This is how to create emotion in film.

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- Maybe in a while when I'm not so emotional. Give you a week or two to change your attitude. - Modern psychology has long been preoccupied with understanding emotion.

In particular, psychologists have sought to answer two questions. Where do emotions come from? And how can they be categorized?

For our purposes, we'll be focusing on the first question. Evolutionary psychologists argue that basic emotions come from natural selection. Emotions help with decision making and motivation.

Socializing and memory all are crucial to survival. According to psychologist Klaus Scherer, there are five different components of emotion. Cognitive appraisal, where the brain identifies an emotion.

Bodily symptoms of emotion. Action tendencies, or how we react to emotion. Expression.

And feelings, how the emotion is experienced. How psychologists understand the way humans come to feel an emotion has evolved over time. Early emotional theorists, William James and Carl Lang, argued that emotions are a result of physiological reactions to events.

For example, I'm sweaty, so I must be nervous. Later, psychologists started to argue that the process was a bit more complex. - I'm afraid things are a little more complicated than that.

- Richard Lazarus introduced the cognitive appraisal theory. He argued that thinking must occur first, and then both physiological and emotional reactions would arise. For example, one person might see a rat and identify it as scary.

A heart will start pounding and they will feel fear. Another person might see the same rat and and identify it as cute. They will then feel joy.

Emotion is critical to film. - I'm so happy for you. - Sergei Eisenstein famously wrote that emotion is completely identical with the primary phenomenon of cinema.

In cinema, movement is created out of two motionless cells. A movement of the soul, and i. e.

emotion, is created out of the performance of a series of incidents. Or, as David Fincher put it. .

. - It takes titanium and aluminum and steel and glass and lasers to do one thing, impart feeling. We're trying to make strangers feel something at the same time.

- Today, we'll look at the many strategies filmmakers use to create emotion using the famously emotional flashback from 'Toy Story 2' as a framework. Let's begin with writing emotions. - Ron, where are you?

- I'm in a glass case of emotion! - While feelings can be augmented using a variety of filmmaking techniques, the heart of a movie begins in its script. - Have you read the script?

- For a film to have an emotional impact, the audience must care about the story and its characters so that when a character feels something, the viewer will feel something. - Hey. - What?

- I just wanted to take another look at you. - Particularly emotional moments don't come out of nowhere. - Superman.

- They are typically set up throughout the movie. - I'm Superman. - One technique is recontextualized repetition.

- Ted! Don't forget to wind your watch! - Putting a line, object, or person in a new setting that gives it a more profound significance.

- Ted! Don't forget to wind your watch! - That conversation made more sense this time.

- In 'Jojo Rabbit', Taika Waititi emphasizes Rosie's shoes throughout the script. Making the reveal at the end all the more heartbreaking. For more on Jojo Rabbit's emotional gut punch, our full video breakdown is linked in the description.

The song, Remember Me, is played multiple times throughout the film. But it is when Miguel plays it for Coco that he packs an emotional wallop, since we now fully understand the context of its lyrics. Emotion can also come from especially well-written dialogue.

As we can see in this monologue from 'Steel Magnolias'. - Shelby, as you know, wouldn't want us to get mired down and wallow in this. We should handle it the best way we know how and get on with it.

- Screenwriter Robert Harling doesn't let the speech sit in one emotion. It builds from a resigned sadness. - And finally, we realized there was no hope.

- To a devastated rage, encapsulating the different forms of hopelessness one can feel after a tragic loss. - I just want to hit somebody till they feel as bad as I do. I just want to hit something.

I want to hit it hard. - Here! Hit this!

Go ahead, Malin! - Slopper! - Are you crazy?

- Jesse's flashback in 'Toy Story 2' uses many of these writing techniques. First is Jesse's dialogue that bolsters the emotion of the sequence. She introduces the flashback by describing her relationship with Emily and how it made her feel.

- Let me guess. Andy's a real special kid. And to him, you're his buddy, his best friend.

And when Andy plays with you, it's like, even though you're not moving, you feel like you're alive. Because that's how he sees you. - How did you know that?

- Because Emily was just the same. - She was my whole world. - To show the passage of time and how much has changed in Jesse and Emily's relationship, the writers use repetition.

They take two trips to the country. The first is pure joy. Which makes the second trip, when Jesse believes that Emily loves her again, so devastating.

After the flashback, Jesse delivers a heartbreaking line that sums up the sequence's emotional impact. - You never forget kids like Emily or Andy. But they forget you.

- Once feeling is written into a script, it can be deepened with emotional imagery. Let's look at how to shoot emotions. How you depict a scene visually can have a deep impact on how the audience feels.

Lighting, for example, can inform the emotion of a scene. In this scene from 'Alien', the low-key lighting puts the audience on edge. Afraid of what lurks in the shadows.

In 'The Lord of the Rings', bright light is used to create a feeling of relief, piercing an increasingly desperate situation. The beams of life shine over the dark battle scene. Shot choice two can affect what an audience feels.

In this scene from 'Manchester by the Sea', director Kenneth Lonergan places the camera at a high angle. Emphasizing the guilt bearing down on Lee. The camera then pushes forward into a medium close up.

Bringing the audience closer to Lee's headspace. - I figure it's okay. So I just keep going to the store.

And that's this. - Filmmakers will often use close ups for this purpose. This scene from 'Interstellar' relies primarily on a close up of Cooper.

Letting the audience feel his pain intimately. - And today I'm the age you were when you left. - But wide shots, too, can create emotions.

In this sequence from 'La La Land', wide shots underscore the expansiveness of Sebastian and Mia's love for each other and sweeps the audience up in it. Of course, the most powerful visual conveyor of emotion is the human face. Camera movements and lighting will always be secondary to an actor's performance.

Colour can also subconsciously affect how an audience feels. A scene bathed in red may put us on edge. While pale, cool tones may encourage melancholia.

In 'Toy Story 2', visuals play a pivotal role in how the sequence is perceived. The lighting for most of the montage is soft and golden, evoking a sense of sweet nostalgia. Available Now But when the montage turns from happy to mournful, Jessie falls under the bed, removing the warm, bright light and underscoring the sadness she feels.

Deliberate framing, too, adds to the emotion of the scene. We never really see Emily's face. This keeps the focus on Jessie and how she is feeling.

While also highlighting that who Emily is doesn't really matter. This is a well-worn story of a child growing up that can apply to any audience member. Camera movement is also utilized.

In the beginning, when Jessie is happy, we push toward her. In the second half, the camera pulls back from Jessie, emphasizing her abandonment and loneliness. The emotions cultivated in writing and filming can be further honed in post-production.

The post-production process is the final step in creating emotion in film. And a filmmaker can utilize a variety of techniques to ensure these emotions come through. A simple cut can greatly affect the emotion of a scene.

- Rachel, please. - I saw her face. Choosing not to cut can force an audience to sit with a feeling.

Cutting can also create a powerful juxtaposition. In 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind', Joel's memory of Clem is intercut with his memories as a child, giving the scene a wistful, nostalgic feeling. Music is also a crucial component to how we feel, arguably the most powerful tool a filmmaker has.

Music can make us cry. Or make us terrified. But sound design beyond music can affect how an audience feels.

In 'Boogie Nights', the loud fry cracker noise heightens the viewer's anxiety. 'Toy Story 2' utilizes multiple post-production tools to pack an emotional punch. Editors Edie Ichioka, David Ian Salter, and Lee Unkrich use dissolves to make the montage feel more like a memory.

These transitions are also used for match dissolves that emphasize Emily growing up and time passing. At the end of the montage, the editors opt for hard cuts. Underscoring the cruel abruptness of Jessie's realization.

Randy Newman's song, 'When She Loved Me', plays an outsized role in the emotion of the sequence. Performed by Sarah McLachlan, it is somber and wistful, and its lyrics hit at the heart of the montage. No one movie is alike.

But for most filmmakers, the goal is the same. To move an audience. Whatever the method, great films make us feel something.

Get started on your own emotional masterpiece with StudioBinder screenwriting and storyboard software. That's the end of our video. Don't be sad it's over.

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