Video: “The Objective Correlative”
Another in the excellent screenwriting series Raising the Stakes.
Jonathan W. Stokes is a screenwriter with a unique credit to his name: Five of his original screenplays have been named to the annual Black List. That alone should get your attention, but there’s also this: Over the last few years, he has produced an excellent video series called Raising the Stakes.
In the Season One, Episode 1 video (“The Objective Correlative”), Jonathan explores how an object can represent something beyond itself. For instance, consider the Ferrari in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is Cameron’s father.
The house in Forrest Gump is Jenny’s father.
Jonathan uses objective correlative. I use the term talisman: “Any physical object which takes on symbolic meaning to a character or characters.”
You can read an extensive article I wrote on the subject here.
The point is the same: Objects which take on symbolic meaning plays to the essential nature of movies and television which are primarily visual media.
Movies Jonathan references in this video:
Check out all of Jonathan’s Raising the Stakes videos.They offer an excellent foundation in grasping the essence of screenplay structure.
For more background on Jonathan W. Stokes, you can go here.
By the way, I recently interviewed Jonathan. Look for that chat later on this summer.
