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Week 3 Day 1: Suspense — JAWS
1. Please watch this scene and provide your insights into what makes this scene great from a writing perspective.
2. Read the other writers comments and make notes of how you will build suspense into your script.
3. Rethink or create a Suspense scene for your script using your new insights and rewrite the scene.
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WATCH 1ST FOR:
BASIC SCENE COMPONENTS — SCENE ARC, SITUATION, CONFLICT, ENTERTAINMENT VALUE, MOVING THE STORY FORWARD, AND SETUP/PAYOFFS.
– Brody doesn’t like throwing the chum, wants to trade driving the boat with Hooper, but when Quint insists he throw it, Brody does so with disgust, facing the men, throwing it back… and that’s when he gets a first CU of Jaws, looks like about to eat him. He goes scared stiff, unable even to tell the others until they also see it. Quint says he’s never seen on that big. They are intrigued, excited, terrified. That’s the one. They try to get him, rushing to get their stuff in place just in time. But they don’t kill him this time and it’s all calm again, but there’s a terrible suspense the shark could surface again and ? destroy the boat (ref. need for a bigger boat) and eat the people. Note that “You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat” is not in the script, but as a spec writer I’ll need some dialogue like that.
WATCH 2ND FOR:
WHAT MAKES THIS SCENE GREAT?
– a lot of suspense intermingled with seafaring stuff.
WHAT SETS UP THE SUSPENSE AND CAUSES US TO WORRY?
– there’s suspense all along in the movie because they’re hunting a killer shark, but when they see it — bigger than they’ve ever seen before — the suspense is amped up a lot more. It could destroy the boat.
HOW IS THE SUSPENSE DRAWN OUT?
– waiting, fiddling around. When they step on the edge of the boat, it looks like they might fall in the water and ?? get eaten?? They don’t kill him this time, but now they know what they’re up against. A giant man-eating shark.
WHAT INCREASES THE SUSPENSE?
– first sighting.
WHAT IS THE PAYOFF IN THE END?
– they’ve found what they’re looking for and the waiting is suspenseful because we know it’ll be a really tough fight to kill that shark… and they may get killed in the process.
WHAT MAKES THIS SCENE GREAT FROM A WRITING PERSPECTIVE
– they finally see that they’re hunting and it’s terrifying to them — Brody (even afraid of water) is totally terrified (he says they need a bigger boat), the scientist and the old shark hunter are both excited (for different reasons), and terrified. This serves to terrify the audience.
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