TIME

"There are three kinds of time in a film: real time, screen time and timeframe." (from "The Tools of Screenwriting."; all of the quotes and most of the ideas in this post are from this book)

Real time is the time that ticks off on your watch as you sit in the theater munching popcorn.

Screen time is the time the depiction of an action takes on screen. For example, someone offers "The Matrix's" Neo a cookie. A second of real time later, the cookie is half eaten. There was no need to show Neo walking over to the cookie tray, scoping which cookie had the most chips, tasting it, mouthing "mmmm, good."

Cutting out all those dull bits while still maintaining audience rapport is called ellipsis. Most ellipsis is done between scenes. For example, Neo sees the white rabbit in his apartment and in the next scene, he's in the bar. But ellipsis can also be done within a scene. A good technique for within-a-scene ellipsis is to cut to another piece of action, then cut back to the main action.

The inverse of ellipsis is elaboration: when screen time is longer than real time. A classic example is the film, "High Noon," where real time for the film was actually less than screen time. But it's often more effective within a scene, where slow motion or cuts to other action elongate the suspense. If you're a Sopranos fan, re-watch Season 6, Episode 1 and see how much time there is between Junior shooting Tony and Tony dialing 911. Elongate suspenseful moments.

"Timeframe is a deadline or an end to an action that the audience can anticipate." It's often called a timelock. Think "Back to the Future", where Marty and the Delorean must hit the wire by the clock tower at EXACTLY 10:04 PM or be stranded in 1955. Or think, "The Silence of the Lambs," and Clarice with only three days to find poor Catherine.

Timeframe can be made even more exciting by compressing it. That is, establish the timeframe, then late in the story bring the timeframe forward. For example, assume the timelock is a meeting with your lawyer in three days. At the second plot point, have the protagonist realize that he miscalculated and the meeting is actually in TWO days.

Timeframe works well for the film as a whole, but it can also be used in a scene. For example, check out "The Sting," the scene where they take over a Western Union office to fool Lonigan. Or the first ten minutes of "The Matrix," as in, "Who will make it to the phone booth first - Trinity or the garbage truck?"

Why Do I Care? How does this help me tell my story well?
1. Ellipsis keeps the pace of a film snappy.
2. Elaboration squeezes every last drop out of a suspenseful scene.
3. Timelocks in either scenes or stories add suspense and keep the audience engaged.