[PDF] Studying suspense. 28 Days Later (2002, Danny Boyle) 00:41:51-00:45:13. Duel (Steven Spielberg, 1971) 00:09:11-00:09:59 - Free Download PDF (2024)

Studying suspense Many of these films are rated MA15+ and contain scenes that may be inappropriate for your school or classroom. That said, there are some terrific individual scenes in these films that can be analysed in isolation by your senior classes. Always make sure you check the classification before screening material for your class.

Film

Scene

28 Days Later (2002, Danny Boyle)

00:41:51 - 00:45:13

Duel (Steven Spielberg, 1971)

00:09:11 - 00:09:59

Disturbia (DJ Caruson, 2007)

00:59:34 - 01:04:49

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (David Fincher, 2011)

01:45:35 - 01:49:35

The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow, 2008)

00:20:52 - 00:25:12

The Lovely Bones (Peter Jackson, 2009)

01:35:01 - 01:41:42

Misery (Rob Reiner, 1990)

00:44:38 - 00:53:02

Munich (Steven Spielberg, 2005)

00:48:13 - 00:50:53

Mystery, Alaska (Jay Roach, 1999)

01:41:10 - 01:41:46

No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007)

00:56:36 - 01:00:57

Psycho (Alfred Hitchco*ck, 1960)

00:10:37 - 00:13:17

Rear Window (Alfred Hitchco*ck, 1954)

01:40:25 - 01:45:12

Scream (Wes Craven, 1996)

00:00:00 - 00:03:53 00:21:03 - 00:23:42 00:43:45 - 00:46:27

Signs (M Night Shyamalan, 2002)

01:12:01 - 01:19:03

The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991)

01:33:57 - 01:35:57

The Sixth Sense (M Night Shyamalan, 1999)

00:19:03 - 00:19:25 01:17:30 - 01:18:33

The Strangers (Bryan Bertino, 2008)

00:17:31 - 00:20:19

The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)

01:15:39 - 01:19:33

Unbreakable (M Night Shyamalan, 2000)

00:40:07 - 00:41:30

Valkyrie (Bryan Singer, 2008)

01:23:16 - 01:25:18

The Village (M Night Shyamalan, 2004)

00:31:19 - 00:32:48

Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007)

02:05:53 - 02:11:07

Dial S for Suspense Watch a suspenseful scene from a film carefully. As you’re watching, jot down notes about how camera techniques, acting, mise en scène, editing, lighting and sound are used to make the audience feel a sense of anxiety or concern about the outcome of a scene.

camera

sound

acting

lighting

mise en scène

editing

Directors use a number of techniques to create suspense, including:

mise

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www.lessonbucket.com

Analysing suspense Select one of the scenes you have studied in class and explain how suspense is created using a range of techniques including camera techniques, acting, mise en scène, editing, lighting and sound.

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Checklist

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© Brett Lamb

www.lessonbucket.com

Watch the scene several times, and make notes about how various techniques have been used to create suspense. Watch the scene without sound to focus on the use of visual and editing, watch it again with sound to focus on how the use of sound effects and music create suspense. Begin with a topic sentence directly answering the question. Give specific, detailed examples from the scene to illustrate understanding. Consistently make links with the question. Use appropriate terminology. Concluded briefly, linking back to the question.

Sample response Select one of the scenes you have studied in class and explain how suspense is created using a range of techniques including camera techniques, acting, mise en scène, editing, lighting and sound.

In 'Misery', director Rob Reiner uses editing to create suspense and increase audience engagement when Paul Sheldon sneaks out of the room that he has been imprisoned in. The suspense in this scene is largely achieved through the use of parallel editing. After Paul discovers that the telephone doesn't work, Reiner cuts to a shot of Annie as she is leaving the store in town. The pace of editing increases as the scene progresses. By showing the parallel action, Reiner plays on the audience's anxiety that Paul is going to be caught out of his room by Annie, increasing the suspense and audience engagement. In the kitchen, James Caan winces in pain as he climbs out of the wheel chair. Reiner cuts to a shot of Annie driving home. He cuts back to a shot of James Caan as he claws his way across the kitchen floor. Here, the use of sound editing is particularly important as Paul, and the audience, hear the sound of Annie's pick up truck pulling onto the gravel driveway. Reiner cuts to a shot of the car as it approaches the house. Here, the pace of the parallel editing increases significantly. The dramatic score by Marc Shaiman dominates the audio mix. Reiner cuts back and forth between James Caan, who desperately claws his way back into the wheelchair, and the approaching car. The pace of the editing increases as Annie starts walking up the footpath and Paul desperately wheels himself back into the bedroom, Reiner cutting back and forth between the wheels of the wheelchair and Annie's approaching feet. Throughout this sequence, both parallel editing and audio editing, contribute significantly to the suspense in this scene.

© Brett Lamb

www.lessonbucket.com

Dial S for Suspense Ideas

There's a suspicious noise downstairs. Trees scratch against the window ominously and thunder rumbles in the distance. Low key lighting, eerie music and point of view shots will help to make this scene suspenseful. Don't forget to establish your character as likeable so that your audience cares about their fate!

Attempting to steal files from a computer is a classic suspense scenario that provides an excellent opportunity for rising tension. Use parallel editing to cut from the progress bar, the anxiety on your protagonist's face and the footsteps as someone returns to the room.

Your main character is late for school. Another great scenario with the possibility of rising tension - missing the bus, waiting at the traffic lights, dropping school books. Frequent point of view shots of a wristwatch will help increase suspense. Towards the end, the ticking hands of a classroom clock will help to build further suspense.

Your main character is alone, walking home quickly, when they feel an overwhelming sense that they're being followed…Use close ups of the anxiety on your protagonist's face and make them seem closer to the threat. Parallel editing can be used to show the approaching stalker. Use point of view shots to increase anxiety.

Pre-Production

Casting and location. Select age appropriate actors that will be available for shooting and potentially reshoots as well. Select a location that is accessible and safe. Visit the location before shooting and discuss ideas about how best to use it. Treatment. Write a treatment outlining what will happen in your story. As you’re developing your story, think of opportunities to encourage the audience to identify with your character. You might connect with the audience using universal emotions such as fear, love, injustice or embarrassment. Make your character familiar, likeable or intriguing to the audience. Encourage the audience to identify with them using techniques like point of view shots. Whatever idea you pick first, remember to use rising tension to make the suspense unbearable. Think about opportunities to create suspense using: handheld camera movement, framing, extreme close ups, close ups, point of view shots, canting, low angles, high angles, parallel editing, pace of editing, cutaways, slow motion, low key lighting, back lighting, diegetic sound, music, silence, non-diegetic sound.

Principal Photography

Post Production

Composition. Always check your use of headroom, look room and the composition of your shot before pressing record.

Diegetic sound. Think about your use of real world sounds and how they can contribute to tension - if necessary rerecord poorly captured sounds or download them from a sound library like www.freesound.org.

Lighting. Make sure your shots are lit correctly, if necessary close/open blinds, turn on lights and use desk lamps. Always set the white balance of your camera correctly before shooting. Sound. Whether you’re using a camera or dedicated audio recorder for sound, always listen to the audio levels through a pair of headphones and eliminate noises like air conditioners and refrigerators that may ruin your audio. When recording dialogue get your audio recorder, or camera, as close to the subject as possible. Record a few minutes of ambient noise while on location. Use a slate. When you press record, hold a slate in front of the camera with the scene and shot number. You don’t need a proper film slate, a small whiteboard or piece of paper will do fine!

Shotlist. Create a detailed shotlist for your film so you don’t miss out on any important shots during principal photography.

Coverage. Think like an editor. Once you’ve captured your shotlist, think about other opportunities to film the scene from different angles. Shoot more than you think you'll need. Doing this means you'll have greater scope in the editing suite to manipulate the pace of your scene and, consequently, the audience reaction.

Further information: http://lessonbucket.com/filmmaking

Cut! Playback shots to check they worked to avoid reshoots.

Screenplay. Write a screenplay for your film using Celtx.

Non-diegetic sound. Equipped with a digital recorder and a microphone, you can create some wonderfully eerie and suspenseful sounds by rubbing a superball across the surface of a timpani or gong, sawing a cello blade down the side of a cymbal and scraping objects across steel stringed guitars and piano strings. For the less adventurous sound designers www.freesound.org is a terrific source of non-diegetic sounds that can help increase the suspense of your short film. Searching for keywords like 'suspense' and 'tension' is a great way to find sounds. Music. Find creative commons or royalty free music for your film at websites like Open Music Archive, Incomptech, Vimeo Music Store, Audio Jungle and Sound Cloud. Editing. Don’t overuse effects and transitions, most of the time this takes your audience out of the moment. A simple cut works just fine! Colour correction. When you're making a suspense film, editing programs allow you to tweak the colour of your film to increase audience anxiety. Make it look gritty and dark.

Release

DVD. Author a DVD complete with behind-the-scenes photos, interviews and a director’s commentary. DVD Cover. Create a DVD cover for your film by following this tutorial: http://lessonbucket.com/filmmaking /horror-dvd-cover/ Distribution. Consider putting your masterpiece on video sharing websites like YouTube and Vimeo. Festivals. Entering short film festivals is a great way to draw attention to your work.

Resources and bibliography Blain Brown, Cinematography: Theory and Practice : Imagemaking for Cinematographers, Directors & Videographers, Focal Press, Amsterdam, 2002. Sara C. Caldwell, Splatter Flicks: How to Make Low Budget Horror Films, Allworth Press, New York, 2006. David Howard, How to Build a Great Screenplay, St. Martin's, New York, 2003. John Rosenberg, The Healthy Edit Creative Editing Techniques for Perfecting Your Movie, Focal Press, Burlington, 2011. Thomas M. Sipos, Horror Film Aesthetics: Creating the Visual Language of Fear, McFarland & Company, Jefferson, 2010.