6/16/14 5:09 PM A Study of Suspense: Strategies

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Introduction
the whodunit is a question of what you simply wait to find out who committed the murder while suspense is a question of how
(Truffaut, p40).
A sudden breakthrough occurred when I read this quote by Francois Truffaut in his interview with Alfred Hitchcock. In a simple sentence
he summed up the relevance of suspense to anyone dealing with the creation of narrative. Suspense is method. Suspense is how one
uses the frame. Suspense is how one reveals and conceals information/action. Suspense is how one plays with the interaction between
the narrative, and the audience. It prescribes methods to control the narrative machine, all of them relating to the use of framing. When
applying these methods, the ensuing tension is born NOT from the nature of the story or the plot, but entirely from the way this story is
structured, paced, framed, and perceived. These are the ultimate consideration of the graphic designer, of the author, or the filmmaker.
Due to my analyses of detective stories and suspenseful films (Hitchcock, Kubrick, Lang, etc) I initially and erroneously felt my thesis
was becoming a study of how one generates suspenseful content matter. Thinking this way, suspense had become a result I was trying to
achieve, a state I was trying to create, ultimately an end point. This switch in my perception of suspense was eye-opening. Suspense
could now work by providing control over wielding the tool of the frame a controlled way of creating internal tensions in a narrative. This
is not necessarily an outcome a result I am aiming for, but a working method that might lead to any number of outcomes. Suspense is
ultimately all about audience involvement so no matter what the tonal/visual outcome of the final piece, using methods of suspense
guarantees active audience participation, and therefore a deeper intellectual and emotional connection to the narrative.

SUSPENSE; as method and outcome
A man leaves his home, hails a cab and drives to the station to catch a train. This is a normal scene in an average picture. Now,
should that man happen to look at his watch just as he is getting into the cab and exclaim, Good God, I shall never make that
train! that entire ride automatically becomes a sequence of pure suspense. Every red light, traffic signal, shift of the gears or
touch on the brake, and every cop on the way to the station will intensify its emotional impact. (Thrillers, p.30)

Suspense has emerged as a strategy, a way of using the literal and metaphorical frame to create narrative. In understanding adaptation
as a process I defined two aspects one must consider; the narrative and the narration, the story and its enunciation. I then looked to
what is really involved in re-shaping and re-enacting a source narrative into a visual language, and identified framing as a means by which
this is done. The practitioners I observed dealt with framing both conventionally (to reveal, to show) and unconventionally (to obscure, to
delay story). This unconventional use is what I see as a suspenseful use of the frame it uses the frame in a manner that draws attention
to itself, that creates a tension between what is inside the frame and what is not. Such a use the frame, therefore, works to suspend the
viewer between contradictory states. This is not about creating a clichd sense of fear, nor a confusing state of ambiguity. Such use of the
frame above all creates an intense relationship between the viewer and the narrative. As Truffaut explained, the art of creating suspense
is also the art of involving the audience. (p40)

a. Fleshing out my own Understanding

Defining and Contextualising my understanding
I realize there are various ways one can interpret this loaded and complex notion of suspense. While my understanding of it is gained
from its use in removed models in film, literature, and theory the notion is constantly morphing in my own mind when I consider its
application in my own world, and my own work. This is an integral part of the designers adaptation process the mental consideration of
how this thing can be re-shaped and re-applied to a new form possibly a form it was never intended for. There is not just a morphing of a
story from one form to another in adaptation there is a need for a morphing of the methodology itself. How does this theory become my
own? How does it tempered by my own aesthetic concerns and by the new parameters of graphic design?
sus!pense n
1. the state or condition of being unsure or in doubt about something
2. a feeling of tense excitement about how something such as a mystery novel or movie will end.
From the beginning I realized that there are two dimension to suspense to consider stemming from the most basic form of the word,
whether it functions as a noun or as a verb. I first considered suspense as verb.

b. Two Faces; as a means

All narratives are built around the structuring and then release of information. The method of suspense pays special attention to how one
controls audiences access to narrative information. This could be the most fundamental definition of suspense as a strategy and how
this strategy works in the construction of narrative. Suspense becomes a part of the narrative process; essentially by its stalling of that

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process. It is about using methods of concealing and delaying to make a visual sequence more engaging. This view is about the
designer/filmmaker/authors handling of the suspense tool. It is a mechanism used not only to build the narrative, but used as an in-built
navigational device for the audience to control ones path through a narrative flow of events.
Lars Ole Sauerbergs discussion of suspense picks up on these more quantifiable aspects of suspense as strategy
issue of How much? rather than either/or. The basic elements of suspense are inherent in virtually all storytelling
also defines what he sees as the two pivotal dynamics of the suspense mechanism the factors of concealment and protraction
Whereas concealment is the authors deliberate withholding of information, protraction is a matter of stretching an issue
This definition is valuable in that it poses suspense as a working method and the designers ability to control the viewing frame (be it
the frame of the page or the frame of the screen) in order to affect an audiences reading of any given narrative, is the underlying focus of
all my studies. But to leave the definition there is to underestimate the potential of suspense. Suspense goes beyond the simple structural
constraints of how much and at what pace information is released. I looked at the word then as a state rather than a process. Suspense
can be more than a mechanism used by the designer to adapt structure - it becomes a response or experience the designer is trying to
create for the viewer.

b. Suspense; as an end
Suspense centrally involves the idea of suspension. We are suspended between question and answer, between anticipation and
resolution, between alternative answers to the questions posed, and sometimes between ambivalent emotions and sympathies that are
aroused by a suspenseful situationa heightened state of suspension between the mundane and the marvelous, the modern world and
the heroic past, the seen and the unseen, pain and pleasure, concealment and revelation. (p35-36).
Suspense is therefore the designers ability to suspend their audience between two states be it two visual tones, two visual languages,
or two meanings. This is not ambiguity, rather the careful creation of contradictory states/meanings in a piece that the audience is shifted
between. This varies, from the tension created between two elements interacting on the screen, to the potential tension between two
narrators presenting a story. There is a wonderful suspense that can be derived from playing with shifting the viewer between two states.
The method of suspending an audience between two narrational modes two ways of seeing is of prime interest. This technique
bridges the notion of suspense as a means and an end. This is first a strategy used by the designer, and then becomes an experience for
the viewer of being suspended between different points of view. This can transform the entire narrative structure imbue it with a whole
new meaning and a new dimension. This becomes a play with the revealing and concealing of the narrative frame, the tension for the
audience between believing/sharing the frame of reference (see Vertigo) and then doubting that frame of reference. This can render a
whole new reading of the narrative. Suspense therefore can be enfolded by the designer as a strategy, and unfolded by the viewer in their
own experience.

c. Two Faces; structural and emotional
Another fundamental dichotomy at the core of suspense was gleaned from a comment by Hitchcock-Mystery is an intellectual process,
like in a whodunit. But suspense is essentially an emotional process. You can only get suspense going by giving the audience
information.(p17; Suspense, Humour and Tone) This statement contains a few pivotal ideas that have built my own understanding. While
Hitchcock refers to the importance of the more structural view of suspense that giving the audience information and how this is done is
key there is another aspect to consider. There is an awareness of suspenses ability to provoke both an intellectual and affective
response. This ability to determine how we feel by controlling what we know is fundamental.
This addresses my original contentions about the challenge of adaptation dealing with transposing both the structure (form) of the
narrative, and also considering the tonal qualities of narrative. Hitchcock seems to suggest that suspense deals with both and creates a
symbiotic relationship between the two. That is to say the formal structuring/patterning of the narrative affects the tonal qualities, and the
tonal qualities affect the way we experience the structure of the narrative. Above all, it confirms that these aspects of adaptation, of visual
narration, are interconnected and must both be considered when applied to projects.

d. Terminology
I have tracked suspense from other forms and media observed it, defined it, broken it into its working parts, and named those as
generalized concepts that can then be used. This is the point where I form my own theory and create my own methodology.
It made sense at this point to embed this thesis enquiry within a terminology that reflects its hybrid and fluid nature. The lens through
which projects and texts are read and adapted is informed by film and literary theory. This thesis involves a constant interplay between
narrative structures in different media, and the language used to describe this progress must reflect this hybridity.
Part of defining my own terminology is going beyond the simple naming of terms but fleshing out these terms to ensure they function as
true working methodology. These terms were born out of removed narrative models (film and literature) and now must be contextualized
in order to be useful to my own work.
The methodologies for creating narrative have emerged from all my visual and theoretical research. These methods are derived from
sometimes complex and diverse sources (both from theory and the work of practitioners). Above all, they are seemingly removed from
graphic design I needed to find a way to crystallise precise strategies from this tangled web of filmic and literary narrative devices.
Naming these strategies is a key point in my thesis progress they are now both specific and generalized - which is necessary if they are
to be pragmatically applied. They have become my own.
The notion of the frame was the first and most fundamental tool to create narrative and suspense. I have added to my growing terminology
stalling action, narrative gaps/pauses, juxtaposing point of view and visual clues have all crystallised as key mechanisms for creating
visual narrative. Derived from literary and film narrative models, these can now be applied to my own projects and tested out. These
concepts now function as nexus points between fields, sites of overlap that allow me to synthesise making and theorising. These function
as terms applicable to film, literature, and through my own application, graphic design.
The really interesting part of this whole process is when adaptation kicks in when observed mechanisms are translated into my own
language. Finding ways to apply these strategies to projects is the unknown part of this process. It involves shifting the strategy from its
original application (in film or novel narrative structure) and allowing it to live within a graphic design context. Each project (each
application of a technique) has involved the entire process of adaptation, informed by case studies, interpretation of content, application of
technique, and new outcomes each time.

FRAME ; exposing the frame; using to reveal and conceal content
JUXTAPOSITION: formal tensions, transitions, tonal contrasts.
PAUSE/GAP ; omission of content, condensation, protraction
ECHO mirror/repetition
CLUE/CATAPHOR; foreshadowing, fragmentation; relationship between parts and whole.

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