Building Tension and Suspense

There is a famous Alfred Hitchcock aphorism: “Let us suppose that there is a bomb underneath this table between us. Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, “Boom!” There is an explosion. The public is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it has seen an absolutely ordinary scene, of no special consequence. Now, let us take a suspense situation. The bomb is underneath the table and the public knows it…In these conditions this same innocuous conversation becomes fascinating because the public is participating in the secret.”

He concludes: “In the first case, we have given the public fifteen seconds of surprise at the moment of the explosion. In the second we have provided them with fifteen minutes of suspense. The conclusion is that whenever possible the public must be informed.”

The thing about tension is the audience must be participants in it. They must understand the stakes if the tension is to be effective. I chose Hitchcock specifically because he is the mast of this. Last night I saw his 1946 masterpiece Notorious for the first time and I was blown away (not only by Ingrid Bergman’s magnetic presence, though, wow!) by the way in which tension builds slowly and subtly. The shots of the diminishing champagne bottles, the shadows in the stairs, the gentle yet pointed inquiries. It’s so perfect. I am still learning to find the right balance for these things. Giving enough away but not too much. But I know it is so important that every storyteller understands this. We at Nsibidi Fables are doing our best to understand it too.