Scenes are the building block of all cinema. In their most basic form, a scene depicts two characters speaking, advancing the plot through dialogue. Moviegoer breaks films into scenes, each of which are an example of an average human conversation: authentic word choice, speaking tone, volume, body language, behavioral tics, and more.
Spoken language isn’t literal. It’s filled with euphemisms, idioms, and irony. To really understand how we use specific phrases, we can compile examples of every time they’ve been spoken. What are we really asking when we offer to buy someone a drink?
Spoken words are the primary substance of a conversation, but context also matters. Not just what is being spoken, but who is speaking? Where are they speaking? For example, we may be a little more defensive when speaking to a police officer.
Moviegoer provides hundreds of examples of normal conversations in different locations. We may not find ourselves in a hospital, or a cemetery, or a library, on a regular basis, but by studying enough of these scenes, we can understand their purpose.
How do we act when we’re holding a glass of wine?
It’s certainly different from how we act when caffeinated.
By breaking a film into scenes, we can treat each as its own, self-contained conversation. Then by aggregating on a specific context, like location or held object, we can piece together an authentic representation of how we live and interact with one another.