Suspense and Anticipation

Question

"Mysti Berry"[nq:1]If you break dramatic tension down into twin engines of Suspense and Anticipation(snip) there's very little suspense because I know ... won't be fooled by lies. there's very little anticipation because I know the liar of the piece will be exposed.[/nq]Do you mind enlarging on the "twin engines?" I thought Suspense and Anticipation were pretty much the same thing.Suspense You expect that something bad will happen (e.g. A car with blacked-out windows drives up behind you; you have reason to suppose, with evil intent.)Anticipation You expect that something good will happen (e.g. You install a turbocharger; now you can outrun any damn car with blacked- out windows driving up behind you.)In both cases there has to be some sort of setup. The viewer has to be alerted that something will happen. And you have to care about the outcome.For instance, say a movie starts with a young guy getting a letter from a college. We expect that it will be an acceptance or rejection of his application, but that is merely information, because we don't know what the stakes are, so we don't know which outcome we want.But if we know that acceptance means he will be sent to a miserable military college to "make a man of him," as his cruel father wishes, while rejection means he will be a cheerful broom jockey at Wal-Mart and marry the shelf-packer of his dreams, why, then we have Suspense all the way from licking the stamp until he opens the envelope (or Anticipation, depending on what moves us more the awfulness of the military college, or the joy of being with his One True Love).Martin

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]"Mysti Berry"[/nq]
I'm thinking she meant suspense is where you don't know what will happen next, and anticipation is where you DO know what will happen and you're waiting for when. Now when you don't know and don't care, or even if you do and don't, that's when there are problems.

Usenet · Answer

@ Alan Brooks
I posted this in a new thread using Outlook Express twelve hours ago. It didn't show up on Google Groups, but it did show up on my Outlook Express newsreader.
I have now re-posted it. If it comes up as a double thread, my apologies, but Google is to blame.
Bill Martell posted twice on this thread. I'm copying his posts below.

Martin
FROM THE ORIGINAL POST
Path: border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border2.nntp.dca.giganews.com! nntp.giganews.com!cyclone1.gnilink.net!gnilink.net! newsfeed.news2me.com!headwall.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!bloom- beacon.mit.edu!panix!not-for-mail

Newsgroups: misc.writing.screenplays.moderated
Subject: Suspense and Anticipation
Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2009 18:18:34 +00 (UTC)
Organization: Ye 'Ol Disorganized NNTPCache groupie Lines: 42
Approved: MWSM Moderators (Email Removed)
Message-ID:
References: NNTP-Posting-Host: panix2.panix.com
X-Trace: reader1.panix.com 1233944314 29140 166.84.1.2 (6 Feb 2009 18:18:34 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: (Email Removed)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2009 18:18:34 +00 (UTC) X-MWSM-Policy: http://www.panix.com/~mwsm/moderation.html X-MWSM-Info-1: Send submissions to (Email Removed)
X-MSWM-Orig-Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2009 13:18:36 CST
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.5 (2008-06-10) on mailcrunch1.panix.com
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.5 required=5.0
tests=RCVD IN DNSWL MED,SARE RAND 2
autolearn=disabled version=3.2.5
X-Original-To: (Email Removed)
Delivered-To: (Email Removed)
X-Authentication-Warning: serv2.gc.dca.giganews.com: news set sender to (Email Removed) using -f
X-MSWM-Orig-NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:15:30 -0600 X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.3138 X-RFC2646: Format=Flowed; Original
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3350 X-DF-Seen-By: ms
X-MSWM-Orig-Message-ID: (Email Removed) Cache-Post-Path: svr04.isisp.net!(Email Removed) X-Cache: nntpcache 3.0.2 (see http://www.nntpcache.com/) X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com
X-MSWM-Orig-Trace: sv3-jyy1cPNATxO6T4nUZBB
+qOIsABYF2Ja7pZu3KN440NHP8pB2mJPsZnMCxMKGhBRYyAuBkJpkR3VvOzN!RmXd5LqFv +aiKfLDV7rABbeZmIZkbH742nIYAXqK+E0LwJtXH677LwtdP6KxReVUIbk= X-MSWM-X-Complaints-To: (Email Removed)
X-DMCA-Complaints-To: (Email Removed)
X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly
X-Postfilter: 1.3.39
Bytes: 4237
X-Original-Bytes: 4194
Xref: number1.nntp.dca.giganews.com misc.writing.screenplays.moderated: 101319
X-Cache: nntpcache 3.0.2 (see /)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Martin[/nq]
What Martin said.
To add to that - play with your food. Once you've set it, don't forget it. In this scenario, you want to keep the cruel father and the romance active until that letter arrives - give us scenes with each to put the pressure on that letter. I call this watering your plants. You want to build up that letter's importance, which also pushes emotional buttons in all of these scenes. The more we see that he loves the girl, the more we fear what the letter might say. The more his father, I don't know, buys uniforms for him or runs in how he won't be able to do that in military school, the more we can hope what the letter might say. And vice versa.
It's the same as if we have two trains on the same track roaring toward each other. That creates suspense, but only if we keep showing the two trains getting closer and closer to each other. If we show the two trains when they are miles and miles away, then show them when they impact, we've robbed ourselves of suspense because we alow the audience to forget the situation.
http://www.scriptsecrets.net/articles/Independents-tension.pdf

- Bill

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]The more we see that he loves the girl, the more we fear what the letter might say. The more ... able to do that in military school, the more we can hope what the letter might say. And vice versa.[/nq]
Oy! What happened to going to military school to become a stone cold killing machine and coming back for revenge and the girl?

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]@ Alan Brooks I posted this in a new thread using Outlook Express twelve hours ago. It didn't show up ... thread, my apologies, but Google is to blame. Bill Martell posted twice on this thread. I'm copying his posts below.[/nq]
Martin,
The times, they are unpredictable, as Bob Dylan could have but didn't say.

Any post you make goes to your news service which forwards it onto other news servers until it has, in theory propagated to all of them. Doesn't mean that any particular one will make it available at a specific point in time. Google has massive news service capability, but they have bugs too as we saw a couple weeks ago when they had to re-index their entire history of usenet system.
Anyway, I can give you an InterWeb Problem Tracking Number. Here you go: IPTN/020709rt987gnvp4re356310wtnv/bvw211bffg8q2mng.

It's case sensitive, and you will receive no reply to your problem unless you include in all communications both this number and a time stamp formatted as the difference between the current time and 12pm January 1,
1980 in 300ths of a second.

Alan Brooks

A with an Underwood
Registered: Software Hardware Internet Technician

MWSM FAQ: http://www.panix.com/~mwsm/faq.html
Filtering Trolls: http://www.panix.com/~mwsm/trolls.html

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]"Mysti Berry"[/nq]
It's a set of terms I picked up from Kirk Ellis, apologies for not elaborating.
Suspense you are afraid something specific is going to happen the bomb under the table.
Anticpation you are expecting something to happen, but you aren't sure what.
So, in Casablanca, we anticipate that Rick will have trouble with the German army, though we have no idea what form that will take. We are in suspense about whether someone will find the letters of transit.

I think of it as a viewer in a movie theatre, they grin and lean forward with that "oh boy!" feeling for anticipation, and they might gasp or cover their eyes from suspense (I don't want to see the body parts fly when that bomb goes off!"
Of course, you often subvert an audiences expectations from suspense, the bad version being the camera and music set you up to expect the psycho killer to jump the co-ed, but oops, it's just the cat.

In some really fun screenplays, anticipation and suspense grab each others' tails and roll through the story like a great big hoop. None of my screenplays, I'm not that good yet

I can try again if this doesn't make sense.
Mysti

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Suspense you are afraid something specific is going to happen the bomb under the table. Anticpation you ... hoop. None of my screenplays, I'm not that good yet

I can try again if this doesn't make sense.[/nq]
Makes perfect sense to me - great explanation, and very useful to me as that was something I was looking to use.

Usenet · Answer

"Mysti Berry"
[nq:2]Do you mind enlarging on the "twin engines?" I thought Suspense and Anticipation were pretty much the same thing.[/nq]
[nq:1]It's a set of terms I picked up from Kirk Ellis, apologies for not elaborating. Suspense you are afraid ... hoop. None of my screenplays, I'm not that good yet

I can try again if this doesn't make sense.[/nq]
Thanks for replying. That's pretty clear.

Martin

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]"Mysti Berry" (snip) Do you mind enlarging on the "twin engines?" I thought Suspense and Anticipation were pretty much the same thing.[/nq]
[nq:1]It's a set of terms I picked up from Kirk Ellis, apologies for not elaborating. Suspense you are afraid ... None of my screenplays, I'm not that good yet

I can try again if this doesn't make sense. Mysti[/nq]
This doesn't seem quite right as the words are generally used. "Anticipation" doesn't imply uncertainty, but rather a desire for a particular outcome, whereas it is "suspense" that implies uncertainty, along with misgivings as to the outcome of an event.

We "anticipate" a holiday, the end of the week, a good meal - because we look forward to an expected good thing.
We are in suspense as to the outcome of an operation because maybe the outcome will be good, or maybe it will be bad.

Likewise, we are in suspense in respect to a ticking time bomb because maybe it will go off or maybe it won't.
Certainly, we wouldn't be likely to describe our feelings about the time bomb or the operation as feelings of "anticipation."

Suspense always carries with it this sense that the outcome could be good or could be bad. Maybe the news from the doctor is that you're fine or maybe not.
You're in suspense, waiting for the news. But you are hardly "anticipating" getting the news because it could be bad news.

You just have to look to the root of the word to be in suspense is literally to be "suspended" as if we are held in the air, unable to move waiting for an outcome over which we have no control. And the the outcome could be devastating.
That is what is so terrible about that feeling of suspense.

With anticipation, it's rather different. It implies an eagerness for something to happen. We're waiting for something that's on the way and can hardly wait for it to come. It lacks that sense of impending doom over which we have no control.
NMS

Suspense and Anticipation

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions