Suspence and Shock

Suspense and shock are commonly confused, suspense...is...slowly...built, and SHOCK is BANG! just all of a sudden. there is a distinctive difference.

Imagine a scene in a film similar to this; (classroom, students, teacher) the camera reveals that there is a bomb under the table to the audience but we (the students, teacher) are unaware of it. This is a example of suspense.

An example of suspense in a film could be from Sabotage, when the boy is taking the bomb to Piccadilly Station Cloakrooml, and you know that the bomb will go off at 1:45, throughout his journey, it constantly changes to a view of a clock, this is what builds up the suspense.



Now imagine the same scene except that instead of the camera revealling  the bomb under the tableit, without any warning, explodes and kills all present. This is shock.

An example of shock in a film could be from Children of Men, when the man was in the coffee shop, got his coffee, went out, stopped to put sugar in it, and BANG! the coffee shop exploded.