Over the 2 hour duration of the Lab Chat Lights Film School teachers and students discussed the role of tension in a screenplay  using examples from Munich as jumping off point for our larger discussion on tension.

As our students know, tension is essential in any film – whether it’s a thriller, romantic comedy, or anything in between. Without tension of some sort, a film runs the risk of being boring and uninspiring.

While that seems obvious, the actual craft of writing tension can be difficult. To successfully create tension, you must create conflict. This conflict can either be physical (between groups of people) or emotional (conflict between a person and his/her thoughts and emotions).

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Message by:  Lights Film School
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In the film Munich, the protagonist begins to wonder if their revenge is only going to be responsible for more violence. Violence after all, begets more violence, as history shows. The film’s protagonist is not your average 2 dimensional “gun for hire” who is unaware of the consequences of his job. Much of the film’s tension lays within Avner, who seems to increasingly know he’s a walking contradiction.

We opened our discussion by deconstructing particular tension building tactics used in the film. Keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list, but only as much as we could explore in our 2 hour online class.

1. Personal Doubts & Insecurities

The protagonist is a reluctant leader of a group of men. He is also living under his father’s hero shadow. This causes tension due to the fact that Avner is not presented as your typical “I have it all under control” leader. Tension is created because not only do others not believe in him, but he seems not to fully believe in himself.

2. Personal Identity vs. Professional Identity

The protagonist of the film (Avner), has two lives that constantly grate against each other. On the one hand he’s a family man with a pregnant wife at home. However, he’s also an assassin working for the Israeli government. This tension building technique is used in many films. Spend some time thinking of other examples of movies where the protagonist is developed as having two very conflicting lives that constantly work against one another.

In this identity clash arises the contradictions of Avner’s life. In fact, during the lab chat the instructor argued that Avner’s emotional conflict is the key to film’s tension. Over the course of the film, he begins to realize that killing for revenge is doing nothing but propagating more violence. The tension in Avner’s mind begins to overshadow the physical tension of their mission. This becomes further complicated when it is slowly revealed that the assassins aren’t working purely to avenge the Black September killings, but they’re also doing some other political dirty work as well.

3. Likability of the Antagonists / Targets:

The likeability of the antagonists and victims is usuallyplayed up in the film Munich. For example, during the scene of Anver in the adjoining hotel room from one of his “assignments” he sees the man as a realy likable person. He engages in a funny conversation with the man and then once they part Avner watches the final ordinary, but seemingly tender moments of the man’s life before he blows him up.

These scenes are always fantastic where an assassin comes face to face with his target or a criminal comes face to face with his pursuer (catch me if you can), the tension writes itself. He must push past his personal feelings…feelings that have suddenly become very real and intimate…and still complete the task. The tension writes itself.

4. Flashbacks

The filmmaker’s are able to juggle both the physical and emotional tension by implementing a specific film technique known as “flashbacks”. Through flashback, the audience is always reminded of what Avner’s team is fighting for.

Whenever we, the audience, – along with the characters in the film – start to forget the impetus for the mission, we are reminded through a series of brutal flashbacks.

Flashbacks, when used properly, can add context to tension without disrupting the flow of the narrative.

Many films use this technique. For instance, any war film of recent where the soldier has come home and flashes back to his memories overseas while struggling to cope with his return home (i.e. Jacobs Ladder). Another example (which is a little “on the nose”) is Memento.

At the same time, flashbacks should be used cautiously. They run the risk of cutting a lot of the inborn tension of the storyline.

5. Play on Innocence

Playing on vulnerability and innocence is a great way to build tension. Audience attach strongly to children because of our seemingly innate desire to protect them. Therefore the scene when the little girl picks up the phone with a built in explosive device the audience is forced to slide towards the edge of their seats.

And although the same level of vulnerability isn’t attached to adults, a similar emotional attachment is built in when innocent people stand to loose their lives. For instance, when the athletes in the Olympic village are taken hostage the audience can’t help but hope for their safety. There is a lot of “squirm factor” in these scenes.

Which leads me to the last point we discussed.

6. Ticking Time Bomb Strategy

Using the “ticking time bomb” technique to build tension always works well. There are many times this technique  is used in the film but one of the most memorable occasions was the initial hostage taking scene. During this scene the hostage takers make demands that have an expiry date.  Again, the tension writes itself.

To continue reading about tension building read part 2 of this blog post: Writing Tension: The Slow Reveal

Everybody’s style, of course, is different and part of the joy of filmmaking is putting your stamp on your projects. That being said, there are certain conventions that many documentary and narrative film trailers abide by. This blog post will help you organize your thoughts so you can storyboard for your documentary or film trailer knowing what rules you want to keep and what rules you want to break.

Your film trailer will often start out with the audience approval notification from the Motion Picture Association of America. If you haven’t put your film through the approval process, there is no need to worry. Most independent films and documentaries don’t get their film reviewed by this organization and it is by no means necessary, nor is it testament to a good film or documentary.

There is a trend amongst independent filmmakers to use similarly colored title cards, fonts and wording while leaving out the “Motion Picture Association of America” reference. You’ll sometimes see title cards that read “This preview has been approved for all audiences”. However, it doesn’t say by whom. Avoid this tactic as it serves only to try to instill a false sense of professionalism.

Next, include the name of the production company and / or distribution company. Feel free to experiment with this segment of the trailer. Some filmmakers like to use logos and creative fonts over black title cards. Others like to include the text information over the footage of the documentary or film. Some like to animate their text, others prefer static text. Your design approach to your opening sequence is only limited by your own imagination.

Next, you may want to include the title of your film. However, it should be noted that it’s not uncommon for filmmakers to choose not to include the title of the film or documentary at the beginning of the trailer, but instead include the title only at the end of the trailer.

After this point you’ll want to start introducing your footage. You should limit the length of your film trailer to less than two and a half minutes in length. This is the time cut off length in theaters and the standard length that audiences are accustomed to. You’ll notice most trailers fall within this time range.

Within this short period of time your trailer needs to accomplish a lot. It needs to immediately grab your audience’s attention, get them acquainted with the production value of your film and introduce your story.

Film trailers have structural arcs just as full length feature films and documentaries do. When you’re creating your trailer you should try to incorporate the following elements:

1: Establish what your documentary is about. Introduce your theme.
2: Introduce the conflict.
- You should give a general overview and provide at least 1 specific example
3: Introduce your protagonist.
4: Introduce your antagonist.
5: You need to provide your audience with a sense of your documentary’s tonal qualities. Audiences will look at your cinematography (movement, lighting, composition) and listen to your music to see if the artistry of the film is something they would be interested in seeing.
6: You should change your trailers music 3-5 times.

At the end of your trailer   you will want to include your film or documentary’s title (Even if you’ve already used it at the beginning) and then you’ll want to include an ending title card with the above the fold cast and crew as well as any website / contact information you want to include.

We’ve all seen the ending title cards at the end of films with the barely recognizable names of the director, producer, production designer, Director of Photography and so on. There are numerous fonts you can use to achieve this look but one of the most common is called “Steel Tong”.

Once you’ve completed your trailer you can upload it to online video sharing sites such as Youtube, DailyMotion, Vimeo. These sites assist independent filmmakers who may not be able to get their trailers shown in theaters on or on Apple’s movie trailer website.

Lights Film School Wishes you the best of luck creating your film and documentary trailers!