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Top-Down Versus Bottom-Up Thinking

It's a challenge to think about choosing a motor vehicle that will keep you happy for years, especially for a full time RVer who pulls a trailer. Last post I inserted a quote from Tocqueville about a historian needing to flip back and forth between top-down and bottom-up thinking. 

I ran across another illustration of this same principle, this time in the milieu of movie-making. The director's job is to make sure the actor understands his character's situation and motivation. But too much talk of that type is not helpful. For instance, in "The Count of Monte Cristo" (circa 2000), director Kevin Reynolds talks about this issue, in his commentary track:

I've been fortunate. I haven't had too many actors that are like that. The main thing I try to do if they start wanting to talk about [a scene] in great generalities is to cut the conversation off.  I say, "We've gotta roll."
And I'll give them a specific note. Somehow they'll process that.  A lot of times, if they want to start talking in generalities, it's because they're terrified. Talking in huge generalities is not going to help. All it's going to do is help them stall for time, which you don't have...
I guess if I had to pick a film-maker who influenced me most, it's probably David Lean. What I loved about his pictures is his ability to take a small personal story and put it against a big panorama.
It seems that this same principle applies to thinking and writing about many topics.

Comments

XXXXX said…
I've read that most actors are introverts, which surprised me at the time, thinking they must be extroverts to enjoy being in front of a camera. As introverts though they can FEEL their character and they act from the inside out. I suppose this would be bottom-up thinking. Trying to act, top-down, might happen if you talk too much about the character, analyze it too much, as this would cause you to act from your head instead of from the inside out.
I don't think the director was distinguishing feeling from thinking. He was distinguishing thinking on a tangible level from thinking on a general, platitudinous level.