The Thing's the Thing
Sorry, not a post about The Thing. Maybe some other time.
Instead, a post about a great example of an objective correlative. By which I mean the "thing" that carries with it a specific emotion or meaning throughout a story.
An example of a great objective correlative is the toy compass in Contact. This little Cracker Jack prize is the perfect object through which we can understand Jodie Foster's character. It's also a small enough symbol that Jodie could reasonably carry it around with her, and playful enough to be a cute symbol instead of a groaner. So, what does the compass mean? The compass is:
...Jodie's got to grab hold of her faith. Her faith in the science, her faith in what she's doing, and her faith in her lover. And of course, grabbing on to the compass actually saves her life to boot (she's reaching for faith while abandoning the chair the aliens didn't have in their plans in the first place).
Now here's something interesting. This little symbol (and the great moment of reaching) isn't in either of the 1995 drafts of the script I've seen. I don't know the full story on who's responsible for the compass or at what stage of development or shooting, but I do know this: writers, it's our responsibility to find these objects and exploit them in the script stage. Why?
Well, why not?
Let's have 'em saying: "So beautiful... should've... sent... a screenwriter..."
Instead, a post about a great example of an objective correlative. By which I mean the "thing" that carries with it a specific emotion or meaning throughout a story.
An example of a great objective correlative is the toy compass in Contact. This little Cracker Jack prize is the perfect object through which we can understand Jodie Foster's character. It's also a small enough symbol that Jodie could reasonably carry it around with her, and playful enough to be a cute symbol instead of a groaner. So, what does the compass mean? The compass is:
- a metaphor for direction, searching, navigation: exactly what Jodie's devoted her life to
- a memento of her lover, Matthew McConaughey
- a metaphor for faith, which Matthew has brought into her life
...Jodie's got to grab hold of her faith. Her faith in the science, her faith in what she's doing, and her faith in her lover. And of course, grabbing on to the compass actually saves her life to boot (she's reaching for faith while abandoning the chair the aliens didn't have in their plans in the first place).
Now here's something interesting. This little symbol (and the great moment of reaching) isn't in either of the 1995 drafts of the script I've seen. I don't know the full story on who's responsible for the compass or at what stage of development or shooting, but I do know this: writers, it's our responsibility to find these objects and exploit them in the script stage. Why?
Well, why not?
Let's have 'em saying: "So beautiful... should've... sent... a screenwriter..."
posted by Jennica at 11:44 a.m.
4 Comments:
interesting that it isn't in the original drafts. contact is one of my favorite films.
I know it's not cool to make a comment about a movie that I haven't seen, but I'm not cool so it doesn't really matter.
Could the compas have been an acting choice? Or is there dialogue about the compas?
Jennica, you keep writing posts which are not only extremely well informed and truthful on the craft of screenwriting, but also address things in the script I'm writing.
Maybe you can tell me why my houseplants aren't looking so perky. I think it's because my apartment is too small for them not to get sunlight, but you could probably give me more insight.
One of my favourites too, DS.
M, I don't think this can be an acting choice... it's in a number of scenes, and that moment where she's reaching for it is a fairly big plot point (the scene involves specific visual effects and everything). To me, this smacks of either a) a late addition by a rewriter, or b) a director's vision incorporated into a rewrite.
Joe, I assure you that any abilities I have do *not* extend to the care of (or even the keeping-alive-of) houseplants!
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