Hi, I'm Michael. And this episode of Lessons from the Screenplay
has been brought to you by Squarespace. It would be easy to think that a complex story
like Game of Thrones is told in a complex way, but in truth it’s exactly the opposite. Because of the vast number of characters,
locations, and storylines, each scene must lean heavily on the basic
fundamentals of storytelling. But what are these fundamentals? Why is it that an intimate dialogue scene
can be built on the same rules as one of the most epic battles ever created
for television? And how does occasionally breaking these rules
keep the show gripping and unpredictable? Today I want to look at how a scene is constructed. To show why it's important that a narrative
constantly transition between opposite emotions. And examine how The Battle of the Bastards
uses the audience's knowledge of how stories are told against them. Let’s take a look at Game of Thrones. A scene can be a bit tricky to define. Some scenes are a single, brief shot, others
are tens of minutes long. Some take place in a single location, others weave together events across various times and places. So rather than defining a scene by its externalities,
it’s best to define it by its internal elements. As Robert McKee writes in Story: “A scene is a story in miniature…" "No matter locations or length, a scene is
unified around desire, action, conflict, and change.” So let’s look at how these four elements
are used to create the structure of a scene. In the fourth episode of season six, Jon Snow
and Sansa Stark are finally reunited. And their first dialogue scene together begins with what I like to call, an "expositional prologue." "Do you remember those kidney pies Old Nan
used to make?" "With the peas and onions." "We never should have left Winterfell." The writers use this section for Jon Snow and Sansa
to reminisce and reconnect. "I was awful, just admit it." "You were occasionally awful." Then, the desire that drives the scene comes
in to play. "There’s only one place we can go." "Home." Sansa wants Jon to help her reclaim Winterfell, so she takes the action of directly trying to convince him. "I don’t have an army." "How many wildlings did you save?" "They didn’t come here to serve me." "They owe you their lives. You think they’ll be safe here if Roose
Bolton remains Warden of the North?" "Sansa." "Winterfell is our home." This leads to conflict. "It belongs to our family. We have to fight for it." "I’m tired of fighting." Finally, the scene ends with Sansa's most
powerful argument yet. "I want you to help me." "But I’ll do it myself if I have to." With this statement, change has been brought
to the story. Sansa's intentions are clear and there is
a new trajectory for the narrative. But this change isn't just about creating
a new direction for the plot. For it to be compelling, a scene has to have
a transition of emotional values. In Story, Robert McKee writes… "The understanding of how we create the audience’s
emotional experience begins with the realization that there are
only two emotions—pleasure and pain.” McKee assigns these emotions values: pleasure
being positive and pain being negative. And he goes on to say that... “As audience, we experience an emotion when
the telling takes us through a transition of values.” This is why some of the most memorable scenes in Game of Thrones are when things go from hopeless to victorious... ...or from success to failure. But while a single transition of values might
be enough to sustain a three-minute dialogue scene, many more are needed for something as epic
as The Battle of the Bastards. Despite its scale, this scene is based on
the same fundamentals as Jon and Sansa talking. In fact, the director of the episode, Miguel
Sapochnik, describes the battle in very intimate terms. "I always thought of this as a...it's a bar brawl." "It's: two guys in a pub get into a fight
and bring their mates." Jon Snow’s desire is to defeat Ramsay and
reclaim Winterfell. The action he takes is going into battle. The conflict is the clashing of the armies. And the change comes when Jon—with critical
help from Sansa— has taken Winterfell and defeated Ramsay. But because the scene is twenty-three minutes
long, it has to have multiple value transitions in order to remain exciting. Jon falls into Ramsay's trap when he tries
to save Rickon. This forces his army to attack prematurely. What's left of his army is surrounded and
faces certain demise. Until they're rescued at the last moment,
freeing Jon to go defeat Ramsay. But the filmmakers didn't stop there. "I was looking for the thread." "The thing that's going to take me through
the battle." "And what worked in Hardhome, and what I think
works in any battle, is following the characters." By following Jon Snow, the scene is made even
more compelling because within such a battle, a single soldier
can experience a ton of value transitions. This is partially why the "oner" shot is so
gripping. The camera follows Jon as he encounters constant
and unpredictable value changes. All of this demonstrates how critical it is
for a story to have an emotional ebb and flow. When the plot takes the audience through a
change in emotional values, we become engaged in the story and experience emotion. But the filmmakers didn't just rely on the
plot to create these emotional transitions. They managed to squeeze in even more by toying
with the audience's expectations. First, it helps to understand that film is
a language. Close-ups, Wide shots, rapid editing, long-takes,
push-ins, pre-laps, subjective sound design... ...this is all vocabulary that has evolved
over time. And whether or not we're aware of it, we are
all fluent in this language. We can read a close-up of a lingering glance
and get that it suggests romantic feelings. We know that when the sound effects become
muffled during a battle scene, it doesn't mean all the soldiers have suddenly
gotten really quiet, it means we're in a heightened version of
a character's perspective. And when the right music cue plays over the
right edit, we know exactly what it means without
a word being spoken. There are three ways The Battle of the Bastards
takes this knowledge of film language and turns it against us. The first is how it uses its musical score. There is a particular kind of score that has
become associated with the tragic, yet heroic death of a beloved character. So this same kind of score is used during moments
when Jon Snow is in danger, as a way of almost tricking us into thinking
that he may actually die. Like when he's about to be overrun by Ramsay's
charging army... And when he's being trampled by his own men. Another example of toying with our expectations
involves what I call a "farewell scene." Game of Thrones is not shy about killing its
characters, but first they're usually given a scene with
a sense of closure that ends on an abnormally positive note. "Don't you want to teach little Ned Stark
how to ride horses?" "I do." The night before the battle, Tormund and Davos
have a conversation with a sense of closure that ends on an abnormally positive note. "Maybe that was our mistake, believing in
kings." "Jon Snow’s not a king." "No, he’s not." This could easily be the farewell scene for
these characters, especially since their exchange doesn't contain
any relevant plot information. And by including this scene, it signals to
the audience on a meta level that it's possible for them to die, making us more worried when they're in danger... ...and more relieved when they survive. But my favorite example of the episode toying
with our expectations happens just before the battle starts. "Let's play a game." This sequence breaks “the rule of three.” Three is the smallest number required to create
a pattern, so it shows up frequently in both storytelling and in our everyday lives. Many popular sayings have three parts, our stories have a beginning, middle, and
end, and even lists of examples feel more balanced
when delivered in threes. So if your villain is about to kill someone
and you want to build suspense, he can’t kill him with the first shot. Or the second… To break the pattern, he must kill him with
third. But he doesn’t. The director even has the music build in anticipation
of this moment, preparing the audience for the third shot
to strike its target. And when it doesn’t, we're left unsettled. What does this mean? Maybe there is hope that Jon Snow can actually
save him? Maybe Rickon will actually surv— Rickon's death would have been emotional even
if it was the third arrow that struck him. But by breaking conventions, and using the audience's knowledge of film language against them, the filmmakers provide an extra moment of
false hope. One last transition of values. The Battle of the Bastards has all the fundamental
elements of a good scene. It is jam-packed with transitions of values that ensure it's not simply a monotonous war scene. And it goes even further, toying with our expectations of how a scene
should play out so that we feel as hopeful, devasted, or worried
as Jon Snow. This demonstrates, once again, that how you tell your story is as important as the content within it. That mastering the basic rules can allow you
to then break them with powerful results, furthering the evolution of film language
in the process. And it shows how six seasons later, the audience can still be on the edge of their
seat knowing that anything can happen in a game of thrones. While doing research for this video, I ended
up finding a bunch of fascinating Game of Thrones fan sites. Some about news, an interactive map of Westeros,
even a blog for recipes inspired by the show. Which got me thinking how much fun it would
be to make my own Game of Thrones site. If I did, I would absolutely use Squarespace because it was so easy to build the Lessons from the Screenplay website with their beautiful, award-winning set of
templates. Squarespace is an all-in-one platform with
nothing to install or patch or upgrade... ever. It's perfect for your fan site, blog, or even
for your business. Visit squarespace.com/LFTS to save 10% on
your first order. I hope you guys enjoyed this video. I want to say a big thank you to all my patrons
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The part where he mentions with the right music over the right edit can speak for the scene without saying anything is a lesson that Ramin Djawadi knew from the very first episode. That dude knows how to tell a story just through music. I can't imagine Game of Thrones without the composition it has had.
"Maybe Rickon will actually survi-"
Nice one.
Edit: Also I like how sneaky he was in mentioning his sponsor at the end.
Does anyone else get chills when they hear the music from when it transitions from baby Jon to adult Jon in The Winds of Winter?
This might be the best LFTS yet. Excellent demonstration of the subject matter.
LFTS is a seriously great channel.
LFTS is my favourite youtube channel. I'm so happy that he made a video of game of thrones!
That Rickon scene in the video was beautiful piece of editing. Subbed immediately.
He misappropriated the stark theme as a death leitmotif. If he's gonna talk about score, he should have went more in depth as to the different leitmotifs for house themes and how the themes can be manipulated to convene what is showing on screen at the time.
This is great