So today let’s talk about something a film can do to hold the viewer’s attention. The film can… create suspense. Suspense is that feeling of anxiety and excitement viewers have when they’re engaged with the story, but they cannot predict what’s going to happen. Now, you may be thinking of scary movies. Actually, suspense is something that occurs in all kinds of films. Now, I wanna talk about two different kinds of suspense. The most familiar form of suspense is when you don’t know the end of the story; what the resolution will be. You might have a film about oh two characters searching for buried gold, each one is trying to reach the gold first. One will be ahead in one scene but uh in the next scene, uh the other will find an important clue. Who will end up with the gold? The audience is anxious to know. The suspense is about not knowing the end until it happens. But there is another kind of suspense; even IF the audience knows the resolution, uh the end of the story? A film CAN create suspense about HOW the film is going to get there! What will happen along the way? Think about a… romantic comedy, or a love story. When the film shows us the two main characters, we already know they’re going to meet and fall in love by the end of the movie, that’s what always happens in the movies, but here the question is, how will they move? Suspense is created when you see these two strangers pass each other on the street or, happen to eat in the same restaurant. We know they’ll get together. But the question of how it happens is - is exciting to watch develop! The suspense is not about what the ending will be, but, rather about, how the story will get there.
Using the examples of the lecture, explain how films create suspense to hold the viewer’s attention.
