Lie, cheat, and steal | Paul Thompson | TEDxNYU

Thank you so much. I'm going to talk about U storytelling in general and screenwriting in particular and before I start this talk I'm going to make three assumptions: one is that some of you are writers, two is that some of you want to be writers and three is that you all have a story to tell I'm going to touch on three provocative thoughts for the screenwriter in this talk that I call lying,

cheat

ing and steel um and after the talk I'm going to ask each of you to do something really difficult. I'm going to set up an exercise for each of you to do.

Finally, I'll leave you with two valuable things to learn, so here's the talk called Li, trap and steel, and the first tease is. this art is a lie well, when I first came across this idea, it bothered me a lot, it was very disturbing, I was an actor, I took acting very seriously, I really liked Stanislavski and the sense of truth and the notion of art it's a lie. The lie made me feel very uncomfortable, but this is not the full quote, the full quote and it is from Picasso says that this art is a lie that allows us to see the truth more clearly.

Our task as artists is to convince others of the veracity of our lies, in other words, not all lies are art, but all art is a lie, so when I thought about this as an actor I thought well, what is the LIE of the actor? What is the actor's LIE? Well, the actor lives in a world of Make. Believe We Come Together uh, we're assigned roles. I'm the father, you're the son, I'm the husband, you're the wife, uh, and we only met a couple of hours ago, but we're going to work on this, we work. in this to make it believable to such a point that the audience will suspend their disbelief and accept us as three sisters as a family and uh essentially that's the actor's LIE and of course it's a very childish thing, there really is something very childish about it and Rod Stiger He said that acting is not a job for an adult and in many ways it is not because you notice to children how when the ease with which they pick up a stick it becomes a sword, they pick up a chair, it becomes a throne is something very easy for them uh and there's a wonderful anecdote about a little story about Picasso who um is in this exhibition of his own work and a woman is so outraged she's so outraged by what she sees on the walls that storms come across the gallery she's approaching Picasso confronts him looks him in the eyes and she says it's ridiculous that a six year old could do this and Picasso said well yeah probably a six year old could do this but if he could do it at my age he'd be a genius. , so I think what the actor is trying to do is recapture that childlike ability to believe and make his lies believable, but it's not just the actor who is the LIE. from the designer, the designer takes a door that leads to a study wall and makes that door look like it doesn't lead to a study wall, it leads to a bedroom, it leads to a bathroom and that lie is reinforced by a designer lighting by a scene painter and, of course, by an actor who will leave as if he were going to a bedroom and enter as if he had just left a bedroom, but what about live?

The accessory manufacturer, what is the accessory manufacturer doing well? The accessory maker takes a glass. of water and in that glass of water a little liquid brown sugar is poured and that water begins to change color and becomes a kind of amber it looks like whiskey and then the actor drinks it it looks like whiskey smells it smells like whiskey try it it's whiskey there is something magical about that type of transformation the LIE of the prop maker so the secret of a good production I think the secret of a good production is to get everyone involved to tell the same lie and if everyone tells the same lie it will stay in the court and by court I mean the court of public opinion and by court of public opinion I mean the audience, they will believe it Dustin Hoffman said The first time I knew I could act was when I knew I could lie Marlon Brando who had contempt for acting in many ways, but he led some workshops on acting at the end of his life and called those workshops lying for a living.

There is a wonderful documentary about Felini called I'm a Born Liar, so what is the writer's LIE? Well, the writer. knows that art is not the same as life art makes sense in a way that life doesn't and maybe because our lives don't make sense that's why we need art the writer knows that drama is not the same as life life is really Something complicated in the drama, although everything makes sense, there is a reason for something in the drama, why do you say this? My character wouldn't do that, there is a reason for everything in drama, but drama is actually using the materials of life that make up your life and what the playwright does is subject it to the laws of art. to reconfigure it, rearrange it distorted in many ways, lie in many ways, deceive in many ways and then act that out. return to the audience in a way that somehow manages to convey meaning.

I mean, for example, it's not uncommon in drama to condense 12 years of a man's life into two hours of screen time, which is a huge distortion, but the challenge is to make it seem like truthful characters are not the same as stories. people people are very unpredictable, they are really difficult to understand, you don't know what they are going to do next, but characters are a kind of condensed structured form of a person, there is a kind of coherence. to a character the actions of a character are united by the pursuit of a singular objective even the most complex characters are endowed with perhaps an attitude trait dialogue is not the same as conversation we all know what conversation is, but dialogue It's a sort of selected structure stylized version of the conversation is arranged in the form of units of action, but again your job is to make it seem real so that it seems truthful so that it is believable, in essence it would be if you saw the job ad in the newspaper I would read.

More or less like this, you know that you are a profession, you are professional. Liars, your job is to engage, charm, seduce and ultimately convince an audience while illuminating a truth. The second provocation has to do with anxiety. This is something I've been working on. for a long time and I find it really very interesting and I think it's one of the essential keys to drama and I first started thinking about this when I was looking at the work of Ern Fischer and in particular a book of his called The Necessity of Art where Ern Fischer looks at this question of why people go to the movies, why they went and sat among a group of strangers staring at a flickering screen and became immersed, lost in other people's problems, what is wrong in their lives and what they need. that kind of experience, well he's kind of looking at this, I started to develop this theory about anxiety and that the real connection had to do with the anxiety of the audience being addressed on screen and there are two types of anxiety, the first. is thematic anxiety the second is narrative anxiety so let's take a look at thematic anxiety first what does thematic anxiety mean what does it mean what's your movie about what it's really about when I first came to the United States I discovered that I wasn't the only person who I was thinking I went to a conference by a guy called Lodge Carrian and LOD Carrian is a writer and director who had a really interesting movie called Keing that he was releasing and this is how he released it, he said when I was thinking about this movie.

I asked myself this question what am I afraid of and he decided that I'm afraid of losing my daughter and losing my mind, so I thought I'd write a movie about a man who loses his daughter and loses his mind and this. It's actually a pretty interesting writing approach and Spielberg has written a lot about this. You've been interviewed a lot about how the films that come to mean are the films that help you address your fears and anxieties. look at some obvious, obvious, obvious examples, there is nothing smart about this, these are so obvious Home Alone, what is Home Alone?

What is Home Alone really about? A very successful film that connects with many people. Home Alone is about a child's anxiety, a child's anxiety about being abandoned, so kids are going to connect with this, but it's not just that it also addresses parental anxiety, the anxiety that all parents have. of leaving their children in danger, so this is pretty clever because it connects with two demographics here, the children and the parents. The Silence of the Lambs Well, what is The Silence of the Lambs? What is it about? What is it really about? Well, The Silence of the Lambs is a women's film.

It addresses there is something that women know, women know that there are monsters that live in society and they don't live long. from afar, they actually live in your neighborhood, pretty close to where you live, possibly on your block, and if I were you, I wouldn't run away to the suburbs because there are a lot of them living there and I definitely wouldn't go to the country, country, because they carry axes out there, so Home Alone addresses women's fear of monsters living in society. uh, I could give a lot of examples, but let's jump to Mean Girls, what is Mean Girls, what is Mean Girls, about well, me, Mean.

Girls is a type of movie that you've seen a lot of these movies, but who are they talking to? Who is connecting with this? What is the anxiety being addressed here? Well, this has to do with a teen movie, obviously, it addresses that period. in your life between being a child and being an adult those teenage years that are absolutely filled with anxiety about whether I will be accepted whether I will be excluded whether I will be included whether I am mature enough whether I am immature whether people will like me all these kinds of anxieties um, that and, of course, there are a lot of movies and every generation has to write their own teen movies, from Rebel Without a Cause, through all those John Hughes movies, 16 Candles, Pretty in Pink and Breakfast Club, until today. with things like Gossip Girl girl, all of these movies address the anxiety of that particular group of people who are uncomfortable.

Saving Private Ryan, well, save Private Ryan, what is Saving Private Ryan? What is really saving PR Ryan? Saving Private Ryan is in many ways a generic movie, it's a kind of war movie, World War II, and it's a particular kind of story, but what is it really about? Why am I watching it in the 21st century? What does it really say to me in the 21st century? Good good. Spielberg is really aware of what he's doing and what he does, which is very smart. He encounters some level of anxiety. This will connect thematically to his audience.

This is a film about moral anxiety. We're ok? So how do you do this? a little prologue at the beginning and he puts a little epic epilogue at the end and then he threads that uh uh that uh thread of meaning throughout the entire movie now let's see exactly what he does. The movie begins today on an anniversary of uh Normandy of the Normandy Landings and he has some veterans return to those fields uh fields of tombstones a veteran returns to visit his comrades who died so they can tell the whole story and at the end of In a very Shakespearian way Spielberg explains exactly what he wants you to think and tells you exactly why you are watching the movie.

The guy is now kneeling at the grave of his friend and his wife is with him and asks you the question that the movie asks you. To you, the current audience, I've led a good life, I've let these people down, and of course we have. I don't think I need to say much about the wolf of Wall Street because what anxiety is is this approach, I mean, we're walking on ice, brittle ice that's about to break at any moment, if the whole system collapses on Tuesday. , you won't be too surprised that there are a slew of films tackling this too-big-to-fail Boiler Room.

Arbitrage Margin Call I I mean there are some fantastic movies that address this recently and there's a reason why those movies come out because they know what's bothering you, what your anxiety is, so movies that tend to have some kind of of meaning to us and that over time have some value. in some way will enrich our lives are going to be those movies those stories that strike a chord that address our fears unlike those movies that you might go see you go see a movie it doesn't mean much to you go out afterwards and say, well, what has done that for my life, besides bringing me two hours closer to death, what have I gotten out of this and, um, but movies that really enrich your life, these are the movies that touch a nerve that help you address your fears. , narrative anxiety.

Now this is kind of strange because I live across the street from Clex and I can see the tribes going into those dark caves to look at a flashing screen. I can see teenagers walking into that Clex and I can see families walking into that one and women walking into that one to hear a story that addresses their anxiety. The really strange thing is that once they get in there and sit down, they want another form of anxiety.They're looking for an anxiety that's best expressed in two words, hope and fear, they want to hope the hero survives, and fury, won't they?

Hope fucks Foster, uh, catches the villain and they fear she doesn't want to, Hope Otis finds. Milo, but Fury won't because I don't know how many of you know this classic story, but it's about a little dog and a kitten. Milo notes that Milo is the slightly mischievous and mischievous kitty. Otis is a little dog who tries to be very, very adult Milo gets into a lot of trouble he gets into a box in a river the box takes him away and the children I took my son to see this is the first movie we saw he was 2 years old he is watching this movie and everyone is watching this movie and they're saying oh I hope Milo survives, I'm afraid he won't and then because this river is getting pretty rough now and Otis is running along the river barking and they're thinking.

Oh, I hope Otis helps Milo, but he's just a little dog so I'm afraid he won't and then there's a bear and a fox and there's Knight and everything and these kids are absolutely gripped by the anxiety of waiting and fearing. . They're sitting on the edge of their seats loving every minute of it and if you want to know what the audience looks like when they're having a good time, this is what they look like. I mean, you really wouldn't believe it. that, but that's what they look like, so I hope and I fear, Milo, but the strange thing about Maido Otis and we're talking about narrative now is that it's a kind of story, it's a kind of story that you've heard.

Before you had it and they repeat it to you now it's the same story that pal palanski is frantic his wife disappears he goes to look for her or she is missing Costa grais is missing the son disappears the father goes to look for him John FS the searchers, the bicycle thieves, saving to Private Ryan, someone goes missing, someone else goes looking for them, it's a particular kind of story and, as a writer, playwright and artist, you know that there are only a finite number of stories, that maybe they exist. seven, maybe there are 21, maybe, as George Py suggests, there are 36 dramatic situations, so you know that you are working within that realm and, consequently, you know that you are going to have to borrow, you are going to have to ask borrowed stories, but no?

There are a finite number of story structures that you have to borrow, but as Picasso says, all artists borrow, but great artists

steal

when you

steal

, you make it yours, you make it absolutely yours, you take The Taming of the Shw and you turn Break it down into 10 things I hate about you, you make it absolutely yours. He also said something else about stealing, which is great. He said you can, you should steal from anyone except yourself and there's a good reason why you shouldn't steal from yourself, so the audience then and no one will believe you if you tell this to anyone, they won't believe you what the audience they're looking for and they won't be happy unless they understand this, they're looking for an anxiety-ridden experience about a topic that worries them, I mean, if you went to someone and asked them if you wanted to go out to worry a little tonight, you'd probably say no. , thank you so much.

I'd rather stay and do that, but you're not really there. You're going to enjoy it unless you worry, from bedtime stories to creation myths to sitcoms and it's interesting about bedtime stories. I mean, you think about how weird it is with the bedtime stories you play, you put your child to bed alone, you turn off the light. Close the door, I mean, is there any wonder in those circumstances? You'd think any reasonable kid would say, Dad, can I have a gun? But they don't. They say: Dad, can I have a story? because they know that stories have power and they don't.

They don't want any old story, they want the story of the witch in The Closet, the monster under the bed, and it doesn't make sense to say there's no witch in the closet, there's no monster under the bed, because they know which there is in Bedtime Stories. to creation myths for a long time I lived in Australia I worked with Aboriginal people Aboriginal culture is a centuries-old storytelling culture and is about addressing the fears of the tribe Why is the desert like this? Why are the mountains there? Why is there night and everything? of their stories address these fears in sitcoms.

I can tell you that there is no more anxiety-inducing experience than an episode of Faulty Towers. uh, it's a fantastic anxiety experience. bedtime stories, myth-making, sitcoms, stories if they're going to work, if they're going to have meaning if they're going to enrich our lives, help us overcome our fears and lead our lives. The story tells the tribe. Now this is the third of these provocations and the story to the tribe. I think we all have a story that needs to be told, but the question is do we have an audience that needs to hear it. Someone who I think is pretty good at this is BAS Lurman.

Bas Lman. I only talk strictly about two films very briefly. Borum Romeo and Juliet strictly boram and I was the head of directing at the nation's drama school in Australia when he was there and he was working first on this play that became a film strictly Borum. I think Baz saw the Australians as his tribe, he thought. This is a story for Australians because it's about things like the Larin, the celebration of the Rebel, which is a very Australian thing, but it's also about that kind of totally unjustified insecurity complex, inferiority complex that Australians have, which is quite irrational. .

I think B was quite surprised to discover that this film had a broader audience and resonated with more people. Romeo Juliet now Romeo Juliet is really interesting. Who is the tribe here? Who is the audience? I watched this movie with 9 and 10 year olds. they loved it this is a story about teens young teens it's written in a way that connects teens with teens and tweens it's filmed in a way it's edited in such a quick way that you'll never thank me for saying this MTV approach, but it was uh uh, but he knew who he was talking to, he knew who the tribe was and I saw him like I say nine 10 year old kids and they love the fact that these two crazy, reckless young men love the fact. those who are doing something are going to make the world come crashing down around them and they really connected with that story of Romeo and Juliet.

I remember for myself that one of the first works I wrote was about young people, about Teena, well, teenager or something like that. and as I was working on it it became very clear to me that this was not for an audience of teenagers, the ideal audience, the ideal tribe was their parents because they were the ones who were most anxious about this topic and would connect the most. with its themes, so I think, as a writer, what you should do is ask yourself who is my tribe, could it be the Americans, could it be the women, could it be the families, who is my tribe, what is their anxiety, do they Do I share?

Do I connect with that? What story best addresses that anxiety? So what I am suggesting is that, as we conclude this talk, there is a connection between the flickering campfire and the flickering screen. You can see a direct line that connects you as a modern storyteller. to the ancient Storyteller who leads the tribe to the cave, a dark cave around a flickering fire, to tell them the story they need to hear here and that will be useful to them; to the modern Storyteller who brings together the scattered tribes or separates them separately. the darkness and aylex's cave around a flickering screen once again to address your anxieties and your fears, so in a sense that's the extent of my talk.

Now I come to the part where you might remember I said at the beginning of this. He says he would propose something really difficult to do and this is what it is. I want you to take 60 seconds to think about two stories about yourself two stories about yourself important moments in your life um maybe moments of triumph moments of tragedy uh exciting heroic moments whatever maybe the first time you got arrested or something like that it would be a good story or U or the second time would be even better maybe okay so that's the kind of story.

I want something that really has something to do with your recent recent life. I believe you are the world's leading authority on this topic. Nobody knows this better than you. You are the authority. However, I want one of these stories to be true and the other to be an absolute lie. I want it to be totally true and totally 100% a lie. true story told with conviction that we will believe 100% lie as far as possible 100% lie told with conviction that we will believe I want the kind of story where you tell me the story of that terrible thing you did to your brother when you went to Liverpool a yes you've never done that to anyone B if you don't have a brother and C if you've never been to Liverpool what I'm going to do is I'm going to choose someone from the audience, someone who seems to like the least do it and I'm going to come out here, sit in a chair that I'm going to put here and tell us these two stories now.

Your task is to make us believe that they are both true, so we will listen to these stories, you will tell both stories, then we will discuss them and then we will vote so that you have You must be prepared to tell us which is the truth. Everyone understood that 60 seconds starts now. Okay, there's a lot of danger. stripper, you know, tell me those kinds of stories, okay, you have six seconds to think about it, suddenly, everyone has to go to the Lo, okay, can you do this, can you, okay, come out here, what's your name?

Naf Naf, yes, it's a pleasure to meet you, a pleasure to meet you. You, I'm Paul, take a seat, this is the microphone. Now what I want you to do is make these stories about 60 seconds long, tell us these two stories and convince us that they are both true so that when we hear them I really can't tell which one is true and which one is a lie, okay, go away, okay, so King's speech was just published. I've watched the trailer now as someone who has stuttered my entire life. The trailer inspires me. not the movie The Trailer that's important and what would someone like me do someone who never speaks in class someone who doesn't even answer the phone or order their own food because they always stutter badly I do what any crazy kid would do I decide to join the debate team I decide participate in the annual school speech contest.

I'm going to go up on stage and speak in front of the entire student body and hope I don't make a fool of myself, so after practicing like crazy day and night every day. Rectifying my speech Choking my throat drinking water all the time making sure everything is absolutely fine I continue with the speech I go on stage and I'll be honest with you I can't feel my feet right now I don't know how it got on stage, but somehow I managed to get there. I take a deep breath and think and the theme here was optimism, so and I'm standing there.

I'm like, okay, okay, let's do this. Can. Don't think about this, I'm like the glass is half full or half empty, that's how I started my speech and without even a second I didn't stutter and then I forced myself to join the debate team of the parliamentary debates that are the same. much more aggressive and people are going to interrupt you and harass you and I joined that and ended up representing my school at Nationals and won the best speaker award and led my school to its first win in six years, that's fantastic. a really very good story, it's a really good story and you told it with absolute conviction tell us the second story here it is May 1999 my parents out of the blue take my brother and me to Barcelona and guess what my dad does. get your tickets for the UFA Champions League final football, but I'll call it football now because that's what it's actually called Manchester United versus Bayern Munich Manchester United just won the English Premier League and the FA Cup Ander is moving on Bayern Munich won the national league and the national cup and also won the treble.

The match starts, the crowd is going crazy, at this point people are lifting their shirts because that's what you do when you're going crazy, you have nothing else to do. 6 minutes. He gets a free throw. This SC had a damn goal. I mean, are you kidding me? It's six minutes and Mario Basil ends up scoring a goal and now the whole stadium is quiet. Minute 90 the game is about to end Sir Alex Ferguson makes two substitutions I will come out and sherington David Beckham takes a corner kick Corner Sharingon scores a goal one after 5 Seconds later David Beckham takes one more corner kick and Saul Shy ends up scoring a goal and In just 30 seconds the entire game is won and Manchester United win the first treble in God knows how long incredible so and you were there very excellent now I want you to disconnect completely do not give us more information do not respond to anything we say Let's say Well, now these are two, you did a great job, these are two really good stories, two really good stories, but one of them didn't happen, so the question is is this the kind of person who leads a wonderful life with a great start.

In the middle and the end he not only takes inspiration from a movie and overcomes his disability, he becomes this and actually wins now. It's true, if that happened, the kind of person who would do that doesn't let you vote because you know him. Well, or is he a guy who has an amazing father who somehow magically produces this ticket to Barcelona with twotickets for the European Cup final? Unbelievable, now one of these is true and I must say I feel very insecure about this because you told me both stories and they are extremely good, one is true, the other is a lie.

I really have to think very briefly about this thing that comes to your mind, which one do you believe and why might you change your mind? We're going to vote in a minute, I guess you don't think he could have seen that on TV. Don't know. um, let's vote on this and then don't give us information, okay, okay, then let's vote on this those who believe in the first story. it's true this is the story of uh uh speech therapy debate team those who think that's true stand up those who think the second story is true this is the story of Barcelona now this is fantastic you've divided us pretty evenly we are so insecure so now you have to tell us which one is true and the first one was true whoa that's fantastic, well look to finish this talk, I said I was going to leave you with two things to take away, two things of value to take away, here they are the two that were absolutely brilliant, you know, two things to take away, these are the two things. you're taking it away, I asked you to make up a true story and a lie, everyone has a true story and lies now while you leave here with that true story and Li enjoys telling it to other people, enjoys telling it other people enjoy trying to convince them of the veracity of your lies, but think at the same time that it is very possible that with these two stories you have the germ of a great idea for a short film, I mean, when I think about that speech therapy. story that is a really great story, um, if it's not an idea, maybe you have two great ideas for two short films or maybe the germ of a great idea for a feature film, but either way, enjoy your role as narrator, enjoy to convince. others of the truthfulness of their lives and take the responsibility very seriously because it is a noble noble tradition, thank you.