Tension Arc

[Edirlei]

Hi,

There is a way to measure how much a story event or actions will affect the tension arc of a film?

I know that this probably depend of the film genre. For example, in a suspense film the audience will feel an increased measure of tension as the number of options for the protagonist’s successful outcomes decreases.

But in the other genres? how I measure this tension caused by the events? There is some kind of pattern?

Sorry if I said something wrong or if I posted in wrong forum section. I am new in this cinematography world.

 

[Tinalera]

Hi,

There is a way to measure how much a story event or actions will affect the tension arc of a film?

I know that this probably depend of the film genre. For example, in a suspense film the audience will feel an increased measure of tension as the number of options for the protagonist’s successful outcomes decreases.

But in the other genres? how I measure this tension caused by the events? There is some kind of pattern?

Sorry if I said something wrong or if I posted in wrong forum section. I am new in this cinematography world.

Any new questions can go into this forum-we are all or were(and maybe still closet) new to the world of film making.


IObviously musical score affects tension greatly(its fun to watch a horror or thriller when muted-amazing how much less impactful it is). But what if you don't have a musical score? It can still be done, though can get trickier.

I don't know if comedy has a lot suspense(although I could be wrong).

I think you nailed part of it though-how the protagonist acts and lessening options, regardless of drama, horror, I guess even comedy to an extent.


I think the first part is simply getting people to care about what happens to the character-there's no suspense if you don't care about it(an example-I recently watched G.I Joe: Rise of Cobra. Instinctively I was rooting for Cobra(always liked the Baroness ). I felt no suspense when the Joe team were in trouble, because I couldn't care less, and I hoped they failed. I was more interested in seeing Cobra get away with their dastardly plan, and the only suspense was hoping they would make it(which they didn't, and the film left a sour taste in my mouth) If you get people to care about the character, then it comes down to the options. As I said earlier, music is so helpful-but we may not be able to afford it off the cuff.)


So, to sum up: Get people caring about character, build with music(if you have it), work with Camera angles, and pace the amount of information you give about plot, other characters, situation ect. I don't know if that's a "pattern", but I hope it helps out a bit.

Get people caring, and you can take it from there.

 

[Edirlei]

Thank you for the answer! I am a researcher of interactive storytelling and what I am trying to do is define this "pattern" of tension measurement. My objective is proposes a method to automatic generate consistent and interesting stories that follow a tension arc.

 

[Tinalera]

Thank you for the answer! I am a researcher of interactive storytelling and what I am trying to do is define this "pattern" of tension measurement. My objective is proposes a method to automatic generate consistent and interesting stories that follow a tension arc.

Interesting! So, with what you are doing, pacing amount of information is even more imporant: If the person is interacting with the story, then one can't give away all the "secrets" of the story at once-there has to be a reason to "turn the page" as it were(click the mouse key? ). With interactive storytelling, are you talking about things like computer games, or maybe DVD extras on a movie disc? Just wonder if there is a certain type of storytelling telling device you are focusing on? It sounds interesting!

 

[Edirlei]

Interesting! So, with what you are doing, pacing amount of information is even more imporant: If the person is interacting with the story, then one can't give away all the "secrets" of the story at once-there has to be a reason to "turn the page" as it were(click the mouse key? ). With interactive storytelling, are you talking about things like computer games, or maybe DVD extras on a movie disc? Just wonder if there is a certain type of storytelling telling device you are focusing on? It sounds interesting!

It's like a computer game, but focusing in digital television. The users interact with the story voting in which should happen in the next chapters. We already have a planning system to ensure the generation of consistent stories, however it's generate only high level events. For example: villain attacks the princess castle; villain kidnap princess; hero go to villain castle... The system has a 3D scenario to the dramatization; however only with these high level events the story became much simple and boring. What I am trying to do is enhance the story creating other events between the high level events, however without change the main story. My first idea is use some kind of tension arc to define when the story is becoming boring (with an inappropriate tension arc). But before I do this I need to define how much an action will affect this tension arc

The dramatization system also incorporates other cinematography inspired ideas, for example an editor agent that uses artificial intelligence to choose what is the best camera angle to film the scenes. Recently I also create an autonomous director of photography and music director to express the emotions of the scenes manipulating the audio and visual aspect of the scenes.

I would be very grateful if someone here has some ideas to help me and improve my research.

I guess that I am a little different film maker

 

[Tinalera]

This sounds fascinating. Nothing wrong with thinking outside the box. What might be worrying from a film making standpoint is taking the "human" element out of it(the AI).

Humans are flawed(except me ), but those flaws I would think carry over into ideas. I've shot footage I made a complete mistake on, yet it actually worked better than I hoped.

Not knocking the idea though, I'd be interested to know how you would tally the idea. For example. Say hero goes to castle. Would people send in any idea? Or would it be like: Hero A)knocks on the gate, B) throws a grappling rope over, or C)searches for a secret entrance.


The possiblities are certainly there, not to mention the idea as far as getting story writers in on it, with say 3 writers submitting an idea for the next chapter, with lots of opportunities.


I guess this is like "choose your own adventure" for TV