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
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