Misleading the Audience to Build Tension

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  • Misleading the Audience to Build Tension

    I have been working on a scene in which two characters (Guy & Girl) are in an apartment while a SWAT team is hunting them down. I have been playing with the idea of having the two characters talking while inter cutting the SWAT team converging on the apartment. The inter cutting would (hopefully) add a sense of tension. However, the reveal would not be that they get away, or are caught, but that the SWAT team has gone to the wrong apartment (the girl instead of the guy's apt).

    However, I wasn't sure if this was playing with the audience too much.

    I was struggling to think of another film in which this is done and the only instance I came up with was in THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. In that sequence Scott Glenn is leading his FBI agents to a house to assault it. They inter cut that with scenes of Ted Levine inside the house. You clearly believe that they're about to take him down. Then, when they break down the door they find an empty house. CUT TO; Ted Levine opeing the door to find Jodie Foster all alone.

    I like the reveal. But I can see how it could be too much of a fake out by the writer. Or does the success of this idea depend on the weight of the reveal? In SILENCE there's a sense that it's going to be all over. But then when you see Jodie Foster alone at the killer's house you're expectations of what could happen are thrown into the air.

    I dunno, what do you guys think?

  • #2
    Re: Misleading the Audience to Build Tension

    That would work. But if you've seen it done before, maybe make yours different somehow?

    Corona
    Last edited by Jcorona; 01-16-2009, 08:57 AM. Reason: I spelled bad
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    • #3
      Re: Misleading the Audience to Build Tension

      It's out of context so it's hard to tell how effective it is within the full story framework, but I don't think there's any problem with it all.

      At it's very core, fiction story telling is all about manipulating an audience.

      In this case, you're manipulating the audience with a cinematic approach. The visuals play on the reader/audience's expectations, and then pulls the rug out. I love that stuff.

      Agree with corona, though. If you can find a clever way to approach it that plays out in a fresh manner, then it will be really effective.

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      • #4
        Re: Misleading the Audience to Build Tension

        just make sure to take something from that unsuccessful bust.


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        • #5
          Building Tension

          Originally posted by TheMonkeyofSpec View Post
          I was struggling to think of another film in which this is done....
          It's done quite effectively in RENDITION.
          JEKYLL & CANADA (free .mp4 download @ Vimeo.com)

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          • #6
            Re: Misleading the Audience to Build Tension

            They did this in THE FUGITIVE... but it was logical.

            Instead of going to the wrong apartment there was the second guy who escaped with Kimble... that we forget about. So when they break down the door, we think it's Kimble they are going after but it is the other escapee. So the "fake out" makes perfect sense.

            I would worry about the wrong address thing - how did that happen? Does it makes sense? Do the police look like idiots?

            - Bill
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            • #7
              Re: Misleading the Audience to Build Tension

              The "wrong room" thing was done briefly in the Fellowship of the Ring. The Dark Riders stab the hobbit's beds with their swords, but then we find out that the hobbits are tucked away safely in another room.
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              • #8
                Re: Misleading the Audience to Build Tension

                The intercutting is a good idea, and there's nothing wrong with "misleading" your audience like that, but honestly that idea has been done so much it is almost expected. I would try and find a fresh angle.
                For more of my thoughts on screenwriting, check out my blog.
                Jonny Atlas Writes!

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                • #9
                  Re: Misleading the Audience to Build Tension

                  The misdirection in SOTL works great because it's logical and makes the situation much, much worse. I think that's the key.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Misleading the Audience to Build Tension

                    I've seen this done in a few screenplays, movies and TV shows recently.

                    Unfortunately, I can't remember which.

                    I *do* remember thinking, "Fool me once, shame on you. Try to fool me a dozen or so times... shame on you."
                    "Tone is now engaged in a furious Google search for Leighton Meester's keester." -- A friend of mine

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                    • #11
                      Re: Misleading the Audience to Build Tension

                      The scene I like, that does this, is in Payback, with Mel Gibson.

                      To me. What really makes this work is that the stakes are really raisded right before the huge surprise. We see the bomb in the beginning and sorta forget it, and you really think after they hammer his toes off that he might really tell them where she's hiding.

                      Through this dramatization, leading up to the scene, I really believed that they were going to the right place.

                      Funny how you get a great movie like this from an old Lee Marvin movie like Point Blank... I think Get Carter too
                      But this wily god never discloses even to the skillful questioner the whole content of his wisdom.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Misleading the Audience to Build Tension

                        The false alarm is a tried and true device in screenwriting, but it's become a bit cliched. Most audience members can spot it in advance nowadays, though it can still work if set up properly. But with false alarms it's best not to string the audience along too far, because that is an investment in time and emotion. You don't want the audience to feel betrayed.

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                        • #13
                          Re: Misleading the Audience to Build Tension

                          Focus on the PAYOFF. When this sequence resolves itself and we realize SWAT went to the wrong apartment, how has the narrative been progressed? How's the tension been stepped up? What's the new development?

                          Intercutting of any kind is a means to an end. What is your end?

                          I don't think just faking out the audience is a worthy enough end, so I hope you've got more in mind.

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                          • #14
                            Re: Misleading the Audience to Build Tension

                            Silence of the Lamb worked because the SWAT team was supposed to help save her. Unfortunately, they have the wrong house so now she's even in greater danger. It builds even more tension...

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                            • #15
                              Re: Misleading the Audience to Build Tension

                              I have been working on a scene in which two characters (Guy & Girl) are in an apartment while a SWAT team is hunting them down. I have been playing with the idea of having the two characters talking while inter cutting the SWAT team converging on the apartment. The inter cutting would (hopefully) add a sense of tension. However, the reveal would not be that they get away, or are caught, but that the SWAT team has gone to the wrong apartment (the girl instead of the guy's apt).
                              maybe they do go the wrong apartment but somebody else is in there and they kill them or do a rodney king on them before they realize it's the wrong person.
                              or maybe they go to the right apartment but the couple are clever enough to escape somehow - that scene in The Professional when they enter and he's hanging on the ceiling was too cool.

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