Emotional event isn’t necessarily a new idea in the acting world. A teacher by the name of Judith Weston, who’s method I have studied meticulously, introduced it into the world of directing.
It’s something that thickens stories or concepts with emotional context— it’s what gets viewers engaged with the people they see on screen.
To put it simply, emotional event is when characters change in front of us. It’s a direct alteration to the circumstance of their relationship with another person, themselves, or the world. In the case of our film, we are witnessing a change in our hero women’s relationship to their recovery. In order for us to invest in them having the courage to take control of their pain, or for someone who might be embarking on a similar surgery to relate to our subjects, we need to show a defining moment of change on screen that we can invest in.
For our spot, I really believe that to be our middle moment where we see them taking the chance to try something new in Exparel. When we see someone have a real change in perspective, especially around an experience as difficult as surgery, that means something. Even more so when our hero characters turn their recovery into something empowering and motivating through the help of altruistic and supportive doctors.
These are the types of moments that are going to stick with people— when we see that change in front of us, it allows us to connect with them.
That is what we need to capture to move our viewers.