now we're going to talk about another term and that's staks and no it's not steaks like you put on the barbecue I'm a vegetarian and I'm not going to talk to you about that it's Stakes like a high stakes card game look at my little picture that I found there on the internets for you it's some person playing what looks like I don't know kind of looks like poker I think I think it's poker I'm going to assume it's poker he's got an Ace and he's got two deuces and he's got a whole stack of chips there that sure looks like some high stakes card game to me look at what he look at the pictures look at what he stands to lose he stands to lose all of that potential money that's high stakes if he loses that round he's going to be crushed his world is going to be rocked that's what has to happen in a play it has to be that important so the stakes are what's at risk for the character at the in the play at any given moment if they don't get what they want think about what whatever TV show you're watching whatever movie you just watched it is so important that your character achieves their objective think about I always go back to action movies back to Marvel movies if the hero doesn't get what they need in a particular scene there's going to be some major consequences people are going to die cities are going to be destroyed planet Earth may not exist as we know it these are high Stak situations so even if it's not on that level of the action movie of the mar Marvel movie even if it's like a romantic encounter or a family drama the stakes are still really high they're still really important so ask yourself in the scene what does my character stand to lose what is going to be the consequence of losing the higher the stakes are the more interesting and electric the scene is going to be we're riveted by action movies where the stakes are life or death it needs to be so important for your character to succeed in their objective in in order for us to care so when scenes don't work we've already talked about it's because the objectives aren't really concrete the objectives aren't generating enough of a conflict it also could be that the stakes aren't high enough it's not that important so uh I was coaching a scene with some actors about a year ago and it just wasn't working and it was they they were on a blind date and I said to the actor what's going to happen if he is not not the guy and the actor said to me well um I don't know I'll just go on another date next week I said well then there's no reason to do the scene then the scene isn't important enough you have to make it a life or death thing I said so what's going to happen if he's not the guy and she said I'm going to grow old alone with uh cats and uh and and you know and die on my own I'm like okay that's high stakes how does that change things that means that she goes into the scene with a different kind of energy and a greater need so the consequences of not getting what you want need to be very high for your scene to be interesting and for us to want to watch it