I'm about to expose all the secrets of the movie "The Sixth Sense" - please go and watch it if you haven't and don't read this until you have.



Okay you were warned.


I was watching this movie again a few weeks ago and while I didn't really feel like I noticed too many subtleties I hadn't rememered the first time - there was one thing I was noticing which reminded me of a relatively common though probably underused acting and directing technique - the secret. And it made me realize how powerful this is for characters.

The scenes between Bruce Willis and the Boy - The boy has a secret - Bruce is dead. Only the boy knows this. But when you watch the film and YOU don't know this, you can sense this added intensity in the scene and it's riviting - because usually - people are like this - especially in dramatic situations.

Just something to ask yourself about your characters. What do they fear about eachother? How could they hurt eachother? People carry these fears with them. Quite often we, as writers, get lost in the idea of what people want from eachother. That's good too - but asking more questions can add more dynamics. What do we not want said? What do we wish would be said? What do we know about the other person that they don't know?

So when I was watching the Sixth Sense for a second time I was watching the scenes play out with the Boy and Bruce and was thinking how much intensity there was and that many more movies should have this sort of intensity. You see it now and then in good non supernatural movies as well - and it works.