Let’s explore a few Hollywood storytelling examples that exemplify how to use pacing to create tension throughout a narrative.
If you’ve ever binge-watched a full season of a TV show in one sitting, or read an entire book in a day, you’ve experienced firsthand the power of pacing and tension. Great stories draw us in, commanding our attention and leaving us wanting more.
PACING & TENSION
STORYTELLING LESSONS FROM HOLLYWOOD:
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FIRST FILM: PULP FICTION
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Quentin Tarantino is extremely skilled at both pacing and tension, and Pulp Fiction is his masterwork. Even during the “slow” parts of the movie, he manages to create tension using delayed conflict resolution. One of the most famous sequences in the film is when Mia overdoses on heroin. After a harrowing drive to a drug dealer’s house, Vincent, Lance, and Lance’s wife exchange nervous banter for a couple minutes. In the moments before Vincent stabs the needle filled with adrenaline into Mia’s heart, there are several cut shots that further delay the action, driving tension through the roof.
Delayed Conflict Resolution
TENSION TECHNIQUE:
COVER STORY
SECOND FILM: THE PRINCESS BRIDE
The narratives continue to fragment toward the end of the film, when Westley is recovering from being “mostly dead”, Buttercup is locked up awaiting her wedding to Prince Humperdinck, and Inigo is on the hunt for the 6-fingered man. Jumping back and forth between these multiple threads builds tension and keeps the audience’s attention.
While The Princess Bride involves a relatively small cast of characters, the film keeps the pacing brisk and interest high by using split narratives. Buttercup and Westley are separated early on in the film, and their two narratives weave back and forth, sometimes converging, other times diverging.
Split Narratives
PACING TECHNIQUE:
THIRD FILM: JURASSIC PARK
One of the most memorable scenes is when two velociraptors corner Tim and Lex in the kitchen. Throughout the scene, the camera shifts back and forth from the children’s perspective to the perspective of the dinosaurs. The effect heightens the sense of terror in the scene by showing it from the view of both predator and prey.
Jurassic Park remains one of the most gripping movies of the 1990s—and not just because of its stunning setting and special effects. The techniques used in the film provide a highly effective visual counterpart to the narrative as a whole.
Shifts in Perspective
FORTH FILM: PSYCHO
Alfred Hitchcock’s films are iconic examples of using pacing to drive tension. Many of his movies use extremely slow, deliberate scenes that focus on small details to create suspense. Psycho is a masterpiece in terms of pacing. The infamous shower scene takes place almost in slow motion, lingering on the initial act of showering, the shadows of the killer behind the curtain, and the struggle between Marion and her attacker. After she’s stabbed, details take on even greater significance, lingering in the camera’s eye as her life flows down the drain.
Strategic Slowness
FIFTH FILM: SOME LIKE IT HOT
Whether it’s a secret that only the audience knows, an unexpected plot twist, or a surprise ending, concealed information can be a great way to create and sustain tension. Some Like It Hot cultivates ongoing tension by letting the audience in on the secret that Josephine and Daphne are, in fact, men instead of women. Since this knowledge isn’t revealed until the end of the movie, it creates ample opportunities for potential discovery, irony, and humor throughout the film.
Concealed Information
FOURTH FILM: PSYCHO
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