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The amazing thing about
screenwriting is that the screenwriter
does not, like the stage
dramatist, hear his dialogue spoken until
it's too late for him} to know
whether it plays or not.
-ERNEST LEHMAN
Most people think screenwriting
is only dialogue, and that we 're
those people who write those
dreadful lines that all those nice,
wonderful actors have to say.
And the reality is that the single
most important thing
contributed by the screenwriter is the
structure.
-WILLIAM
GOLDMAN
Although
surprise can create a very powerful moment, and most assuredly
has its
place in any narrative film, it is a less effective tool overall
than suspense,
which is created through irony. The famous example that
Alfred H
itchcock gave concerns a bomb that is placed under a table. If a
group of
characters are sitting around a table and there i s a bomb under
it, but we
don't know it's there and neither do the characters, there i s one
major
moment of surprise-when the bomb goes off. If we know the bomb
is there
and the characters don't, we can sustain the audience's participation
i n hoping
and feari ng for a con s iderable time, solely because of the
audience's
knowledge and the characters' ignorance. In the case of surprise,
the
audience will lose i nterest in the scene i n very short order, but
in the
case of suspense, it will sit through otherwise bori ng details with
bated
breath, waiti ng for the characters to di scover the bomb or perish for
failing
to. Clearly, suspense is the stronger tool, and it is based on revealing
some
things to the audience before they are revealed to one or more of the
c haracters
on screen.
Frequently
the screenwriter must choose between the device of dramatic
irony and
the use of surprise; that is, between letting the spectators in on
the secret
and startli ng them with it later. Surprise can be very effective
dramatically.
سيد فيلد ..السيناريو by allal
