How to Make a Suspenseful Scene
Determine the big moment the scene is building up towards., Figure out what is going to make your scene surprising or unique., Remember that suspense, in any scene, requires audience empathy., Storyboard out the scene with pictures, text, and...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Determine the big moment the scene is building up towards.
The best way to create suspense is to work backward
-- you know what needs to happen, so you need to build towards that moment with suspense, patience, and tension.
A basic tenet of film suspense is the idea of tension and release.
The audience is convinced something bad is going to happen, even if they don't know what, and the suspense comes from wanting and waiting for that release (or hoping to avoid it).
Some common moments include:
A difficult or impossible challenge
-- see Game of Thrones, especially battle episodes like "Hearthorn" and "Battle of the Bastards," which put characters up against long odds and then watches them to near death.
An approaching villain or enemy.
From every slasher movie ever made to the ridiculously intense No Country for Old Men, the cat-and-mouse chase scene is a classic suspense trope.
A moment the audience understands but the characters don't.
Known as dramatic irony, we naturally start to squirm when we know a character is making a mistake but are powerless to stop them.
The classic Romeo and Juliet, where Romeo commits suicide because he thought Juliet had died (she was only faking), is one of the best examples. -
Step 2: Figure out what is going to make your scene surprising or unique.
This doesn't have to be huge, but a little originality goes a long way towards making a scene suspenseful.
If the audience can predict what is going to happen, or has seen it before, the suspense is immediately sucked out.
Remember, however, that even little things matter:
Stanley Kubrick made history with completely silent scenes of suspense in 2001:
A Space Odyssey (among other tricks).Hitchcock's Psycho changed movie history forever by killing the lead actress first
-- not last.
The death scene itself wasn't revolutionary, but he masterfully subverted audience expectations to create shock and suspense.
The Departed created suspense simply, but effectively, by showing both sides of the story.
By making you see the cop's perspective and the mafia's, you understand before anyone else in the movie that everyone is royally screwed., Otherwise said, the more the viewer can place themselves in the viewers shoes, the more suspenseful the scene will be.
In many ways, this is the job of the rest of the movie
-- creating believable characters and scenes so that you buy into the suspense without thinking.
However, there are some big tips that you must remember to prevent ripping the viewer out of the scene:
Characters must make believable decisions.
Everyone's seen the horror movie where the idiot "hero" walks out into the dark night to confront the villain and gets promptly cut down.
When characters do things no real person would ever do, audiences tend to laugh.
All characters need some personality.
Again, look to slashers to see what not to do.
When your characters have no backstory, goals, or personality, you could care less what happens to them.
The easiest way to do this is to give them a dream or goal in the scene
-- something they are striving to (escape, victory, food, etc.), so they are active participants, not just your next victims.
Both success and failure must be plausible:
If it is obvious the character is going to die or going to win, you lose all-important the suspense of wondering what happens next., When filming a suspenseful scene, you are rarely going to be able to shoot everything at once.
Even if you do, you'll need a game plan before you get started
-- a comic book-like version of the movie that lets you effectively plan each shot out.
This is the time to test out all of the ideas in the steps above, "shooting" the scene before you even turn a camera on.
Some filmmakers like to write out the scene in paragraph form first, as this is a good way to "tell" the story and figure out the pacing.
You can print out free storyboard sheets online with a simple search.
The more detailed this plan is, the better you will be when it comes time to shoot. -
Step 3: Remember that suspense
-
Step 4: in any scene
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Step 5: requires audience empathy.
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Step 6: Storyboard out the scene with pictures
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Step 7: and dialogue.
Detailed Guide
The best way to create suspense is to work backward
-- you know what needs to happen, so you need to build towards that moment with suspense, patience, and tension.
A basic tenet of film suspense is the idea of tension and release.
The audience is convinced something bad is going to happen, even if they don't know what, and the suspense comes from wanting and waiting for that release (or hoping to avoid it).
Some common moments include:
A difficult or impossible challenge
-- see Game of Thrones, especially battle episodes like "Hearthorn" and "Battle of the Bastards," which put characters up against long odds and then watches them to near death.
An approaching villain or enemy.
From every slasher movie ever made to the ridiculously intense No Country for Old Men, the cat-and-mouse chase scene is a classic suspense trope.
A moment the audience understands but the characters don't.
Known as dramatic irony, we naturally start to squirm when we know a character is making a mistake but are powerless to stop them.
The classic Romeo and Juliet, where Romeo commits suicide because he thought Juliet had died (she was only faking), is one of the best examples.
This doesn't have to be huge, but a little originality goes a long way towards making a scene suspenseful.
If the audience can predict what is going to happen, or has seen it before, the suspense is immediately sucked out.
Remember, however, that even little things matter:
Stanley Kubrick made history with completely silent scenes of suspense in 2001:
A Space Odyssey (among other tricks).Hitchcock's Psycho changed movie history forever by killing the lead actress first
-- not last.
The death scene itself wasn't revolutionary, but he masterfully subverted audience expectations to create shock and suspense.
The Departed created suspense simply, but effectively, by showing both sides of the story.
By making you see the cop's perspective and the mafia's, you understand before anyone else in the movie that everyone is royally screwed., Otherwise said, the more the viewer can place themselves in the viewers shoes, the more suspenseful the scene will be.
In many ways, this is the job of the rest of the movie
-- creating believable characters and scenes so that you buy into the suspense without thinking.
However, there are some big tips that you must remember to prevent ripping the viewer out of the scene:
Characters must make believable decisions.
Everyone's seen the horror movie where the idiot "hero" walks out into the dark night to confront the villain and gets promptly cut down.
When characters do things no real person would ever do, audiences tend to laugh.
All characters need some personality.
Again, look to slashers to see what not to do.
When your characters have no backstory, goals, or personality, you could care less what happens to them.
The easiest way to do this is to give them a dream or goal in the scene
-- something they are striving to (escape, victory, food, etc.), so they are active participants, not just your next victims.
Both success and failure must be plausible:
If it is obvious the character is going to die or going to win, you lose all-important the suspense of wondering what happens next., When filming a suspenseful scene, you are rarely going to be able to shoot everything at once.
Even if you do, you'll need a game plan before you get started
-- a comic book-like version of the movie that lets you effectively plan each shot out.
This is the time to test out all of the ideas in the steps above, "shooting" the scene before you even turn a camera on.
Some filmmakers like to write out the scene in paragraph form first, as this is a good way to "tell" the story and figure out the pacing.
You can print out free storyboard sheets online with a simple search.
The more detailed this plan is, the better you will be when it comes time to shoot.
About the Author
Henry Mitchell
Specializes in breaking down complex lifestyle topics into simple steps.
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