DZ-04: Catharsis and the Post-Coital Cigarette

How does the end of certain films make your soul shudder?

Stu and Chas are joined by their first guest – illustrious script developer and producer Stephen Cleary – to explore how certain films can trigger an outpouring of emotion from the audience. Turns out that Aristotle may have figured it out a few thousand years ago and called it Catharsis.

To examine how Catharsis can be triggered by a sequence of fixed beats, Stu, Chas and Stephen zone in on the last few pages of FIELD OF DREAMS, TOY STORY 3 and SE7EN. And Stu brings up FROZEN. Again.

LINKS

• Stephen Cleary's Website: http://www.stephenclearyfilm.com
• Stephen Cleary's Lecture on Catharsis and Aristotle for Screenwriters
• SAFC Filmlab on Low Budget Filmmaking
• FIELD OF DREAMS by Phil Alden Robinson -- Last 5 pages. For educational purposes only.
  • Field of Dreams -- “You’re not invited” (Youtube)
  • Field of Dreams -- “Ray meets his father” (Youtube)
• TOY STORY 3 by Michael Arndt -- Last 11 pages. For educational purposes only.
• SE7EN by Andrew Kevin Walker -- Last 18 pages. For educational purposes only.
  • Se7en – “The Box” (Youtube)
• FROZEN by Jennifer Lee – Last 10 pages. For educational purposes only.
• Stereofilm: "Defining TV Comedy One Word at a Time" blog by Leo Astudillo on Greg Daniels, writer on THE SIMPSONS and creator of the US version of THE OFFICE.
• Diary of a Screenwriter: Paul Schrader on the American existentialist protagonist
  
• #Scriptchat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23scriptchat
• #Scriptchat Archives: http://scriptchat.blogspot.com
• Done Deal Pro: http://www.donedealpro.com/
• The Blackboard: http://theblackboard.blcklst.com
• Reddit /r/Screenwriting Subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/Screenwriting/
• Line by Line Melbourne: http://linebyline-melbourne.blogspot.com.au

Thanks to Noisepig Productions for location recording and producing this episode.

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