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How to Apply Behavioral Theories to Modern-Day Cinema

Behavioral theories explain why people behave the way they do. In cinema, you can use these theories to explain the actions and ideas of your characters, demonstrating parts of their personality or culpability that are not implicit in your dialogue. You also can use these theories to direct the emotions of your audience, forcing them to show anger or appreciation toward elements of your story. These theories allow you to direct your audience at the same time that you are directing your actors.

Instructions

    • 1

      Establish a connection between your film and a classic book or film by sharing elements of it with your story. Include subtle dialogue hints that connect them. Use the classical conditioning theory to invoke the same emotions that your audience felt when they saw the original movie or read the book the first time. For instance, by adding scenes, along with a few careful lines, to a movie where your female lead grows from hating her love interest to falling in love with him, you can invoke the emotions in your audience that they have every time they watch or read "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen.

    • 2

      Deviate from the expected genre at focal moments to create a feeling of aggression in your audience. Use frustration aggression theory to connect those feelings of anger to a theme in your movie. Remember that your audience has a specific expectation for the conclusion of your movie based on its genre and other movies that the audience believes are similar. As an example, if your romantic movie is set against a backdrop of pollution, you can deviate from your audience's expectations and kill off one of your lovers at the end of your movie to connect their aggression to your antipollution theme.

    • 3

      Direct your actors to use nonverbal communication to add subtlety and additional information into your scenes. Use the nonverbal communication theory as your guide to establish a secondary dialogue with your audience. For instance, in your horror film, you can give clues during your movie about the real victim by directing one of your actors to express emotions that are different from the others, such as malice as she lets another actor walk through a doorway before her.

    • 4

      Suggest the existence of unknown information to your audience by using the realistic conflict theory. Direct a character to overreact to a specific conflict, giving your audience a reason to question why the character overreacted so severely and making your audience look for the reason in the rest of your movie. As an example, in your romantic movie, if a character spots his date with another man and reacts with an over-the-top violent reaction, your audience will begin questioning why he would respond in such a way and begin watching for that information in your film.

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