Suspense: The Anticipation of Action

Suspense is an essential element of 'good film', a key ingredient that many modern scriptwriters fail to include in their works, resorting to a formula that leaves out the element of surprise.  Even so, surprise and suspense are very different terms, and the essence of suspense stems just as much from the production aspect as it does the prewriting one.  So what exactly is suspense?  And furthermore, how does one produce the effects of suspense within film audiences solely through the process of scriptwriting?  "Keeping the audience on the edge of their seat is a function of suspense.  Suspense is not the same as action, nor is it the same as surprise.  Suspense is the anticipation of action.  The longer you draw out the anticipation, the greater the suspense."



The article that this information stems from provides three case studies of films that incorporate elements of suspense in a successful way, primarily through the use of a weapon that heightens audience's anticipation of action.



In the movie 'Unfaithful', starring revered actors Richard Gere and Diane Lane, there is a heightened scene of suspense when Gere's character confronts the man pursuing a sexual affair with his wife.  "This is a dramatic situation made volatile and dangerous just by showing us a very sharp butcher's knife sitting on the table near the two men.  A deadly weapon within easy reach."  Of course, the audience expects something fatal to occur involving the knife, yet the screenwriter and director surprise viewers when Gere kills his nemesis instead by smashing a snow-globe on his head: an object usually considered innocent and harmless.  This element of suspense is also achieved within scenes in movies such as "Kill Bill" starring Uma Thurman and "Murder My Sweet," the private eye film.

"Tension in unresolved conflict.  The conflict has to exist below the surface, and it has to threaten to erupt at any minute.  When you throw a gun or a knife into the scene, the tension escalates.  Want to add suspense to your dramatic conversation?  Just add a weapon!"  Well maybe a physical weapon doesn't exactly apply to the scene my production team is creating, but can an emotional and internal weapon such as a cognitive disorder serve as a substitute just as eerie and unsettling?  hmm.

http://www.scriptsecrets.net/tips/tip270.htm
Martell, W. (n.d.). Screenwriting Tip Of The Day by William C. Martell - Suspense. Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://www.scriptsecrets.net/tips/tip270.htm