A scene is a dramatic part of a story, at a specific time and place, between specific characters. The term is used in both filmmaking and theatre, with some distinctions between the two.

Theatre

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

, a scene is a unit of action, often a subdivision of an act.

French scene

A "French scene" is a scene in which the beginning and end are marked by a change in the presence of characters onstage, rather than by the lights going up or down or the set being changed.

Obligatory scene

From the French ''scène à faire'', an obligatory scene is a scene (usually highly charged with emotion) which is anticipated by the audience and provided by an obliging playwright. An example is ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

'' 3.4, when Hamlet confronts his mother.

Film

filmmaking Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

and

video production Video production is the process of producing video content. It is the equivalent of filmmaking, but with video recorded either as analog signals on videotape, digitally in video tape or as computer files stored on optical discs, hard drives, SSDs, ...

, a scene is generally thought of as a section of a motion picture in a single

location In geography, location or place is used to denote a region (point, line, or area) on Earth's surface. The term ''location'' generally implies a higher degree of certainty than ''place'', the latter often indicating an entity with an ambiguous bou ...

and continuous time made up of a series of shots, which are each a set of contiguous frames from individual cameras from varying angles. A scene is a part of a film, as well as an act, a

sequence In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is cal ...

(longer or shorter than a scene), and a setting (usually shorter than a scene). While the terms refer to a set sequence and continuity of observation, resulting from the handling of the camera or by the editor, the term "scene" refers to the continuity of the observed action: an association of time, place, or characters. The term may refer to the division of the film from the screenplay, from the finished film, or it may only occur in the mind of the spectator who is trying to close on a logic of action. For example, parts of an action film at the same location, that play at different times can also consist of several scenes. Likewise, there can be parallel action scenes at different locations usually in separate scenes, except that they would be connected by media such as telephone, video, etc. Due to the ability to

edit Edward Ma, known professionally as edIT, is an American electronic music producer and DJ based in Los Angeles. He is a member of the Glitch Mob. History After growing up in Boston, Edward Ma began his career as a DJ and got into music produ ...

recorded visual works, a movie scene is much shorter than a

stage play A play is a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather than mere reading. The creator of a play is known as a playwright. Plays are staged at various levels, ranging ...

scene. Because of their frequent appearance in films, some types of scenes have acquired names, such as love scene, sex scene,

nude scene In film, nudity may be either graphic or suggestive, such as when a person appears to be naked but is covered by a sheet. Since the birth of film, depictions of any form of sexuality have been controversial, and in the case of most nude scenes, ...

, dream scene, action scene, car chase scene, crash scene, emotional scene,

fight scene Stage combat, fight craft or fight choreography is a specialised technique in theatre designed to create the illusion of physical combat without causing harm to the performers. It is employed in live stage plays as well as operatic and ballet ...

, tragedy scene, or

post-credits scene A post-credits scene (also known as a stinger, end tag, or credit cookie) is a short teaser clip that appears after the closing credits have rolled and sometimes after a production logo of a film, TV show, or video game has run. It is usually ...

. There is usually an opening scene and a closing scene. In contrast, the traditional movie script is divided into acts, but those categories are less frequently used in the digital technology. The scene is important for the unity of the action of the film, while a stage drama is typically divided into acts. The division of a movie into scenes is usually done in the script. Some action scenes need to be planned very carefully.

Scene-writing techniques

In his 2008 book ''The Anatomy of Story'',

John Truby John Truby (born 1952) is an American screenwriter, director, screenwriting teacher and author. He has served as a consultant on over 1,000 film scripts over the past three decades, and is also known for the screenwriting software program Block ...

suggests that the beginning of a scene should frame what the whole scene will be about, and that the scene should then funnel down to a single point, with the most important word or line of dialogue stated last. Tension (also known as suspense) within a scene can be created in any of the ways discussed below: * Anything that is unresolved creates tension. More specifically, conflict, dissonance, and instability. * Uncertainty creates tension. Whenever the audience cannot confidently predict the outcome of events, uncertainty is present. * Expectation, prediction, and anticipation create tension within a scene. Give the audience a sense that if they just stay engaged for a very short time, they will see or know that which they desire. * Emotional significance of anticipated events increases tension. The intensity of the tension is proportional to the emotional audience's (or character's) investment in the outcome. * Lack of control creates tension. A character or audience lacks control whenever they are in an unfamiliar environment, or within the power of something or somebody. Urgency is a common example of when lack of control creates tension.

Show, don't tell Show, don't tell is a narrative technique used in various kinds of texts to allow the reader to experience the story through actions, words, subtext, thoughts, senses, and feelings rather than through the author's exposition, summarization, a ...

is another common technique to make a scene more engaging by implying information rather than saying it directly. Each scene should have a significant purpose within the overall story by having clear answers to the following questions: *Why are your characters here? *What does each character want? *What will happen here that turns the story? *What or who is standing in the character's way?

References