What We Don't See In Movies Is More Important Than What We Do
INTRODUCTION
What is it about this scene that makes it feel scary? It takes place in the middle of the day without any frightening, dark lighting. It’s set in a suburban kitchen, not a haunted house. Kitchen chairs aren’t all that terrifying.
What makes it scary isn’t because of what we do see, it’s because of what we don’t see.
Since cinema is not a 360 degree medium, well, not yet anyway, and our perspective is not omnipresent, the choice of what is included and what is excluded from the screen is a choice that is left up to the filmmakers.
It’s their job to create the perspective that the audience is presented with. So, let’s take a look at some examples of off screen action from well known films to uncover why this is done and why sometimes what we don’t see in movies is more important than what we do.
WRITING
The biggest decision that determines what we see in movies is made during the process of writing the script.
Just as the screenwriter wields control over what scenes they choose to include, they also control by extension what is not seen. Like in life, the world of fictional stories has an extensive timeline. It’s the job of the screenwriter to pick the moments from this imaginary timeline that best add to the telling of the story.
Quentin Tarantino’s first film, Reservoir Dogs is a classic example of not allowing us to see the full story timeline.
We open on a scene at a restaurant with a group of men conversing. The scene ends with them stepping out to perform a diamond heist. Cut to credits. Instead of the next scene opening on them performing the robbery, which would happen chronologically, we cut to chaos. One of the characters is critically injured. The robbery already happened.
Skipping over what would usually be the most important set piece in a heist movie is of course a very deliberate writing choice. Tarantino chooses not to show us that part of the story timeline. This sets up the tension and the key question in the entire film - what happened during the heist and why did it go wrong?
The cliched mistake that first time filmmakers make in their debut short film is not understanding that what you don’t show is as important as what you do. They’ll open on a character waking up, showering, getting in the car, driving to a restaurant and then having a conversation.
Something writers should always ask themselves is ‘what does this add’ and ‘is there a better way to present this information to the audience’? Does a character waking up add some crucial characterisation? Does it add to the core story or any themes?
Or, can we characterise characters in other scenes in other ways - by combining multiple facets of information into scenes and suggesting events rather than showing them.
By withholding extraneous scenes, filmmakers can actually be more deliberate about how they choose to deliver a story on screen.
SOUND
While the foundation of the story can be altered by what is left out of the script, the filmmaking decisions of what to exclude in scenes - which are made during the process of filmmaking or in the edit - can also shape how we emotionally interpret them.
Off screen sound can be used to supplement off screen images.
Rather than seeing the body as it drops down the well with a loud, revealing ‘clang’, we cut to reaction shots of the characters and empty shots of the location. Without needing to see the action, we can hear it and therefore tell how deep the well is. Seeing the characters react creates more tension than if we were to cut to the primary source of the sound and action.
Then, we begin to hear another off screen sound. The ominous drumming from an unknown, approaching threat. Again, this use of off screen action combined with off screen sound creates a tense mood and tone that would be diminished were we to merely cut to the source of the sound.
Not seeing the source of the approaching threat creates more suspense than if we were to show it.
This kind of sound is what we call diegetic sound - sound that comes from the setting of the world of the film. Non-diagetic sound - which comes from the world of the filmmakers, such as music, is another way of influencing the mood or tone in a movie.
TONES
So we know that music and off screen sound in movies can create a tone or mood, but we can also do this with the camera by choosing what images it captures and, more importantly, by choosing what we don’t see.
Off screen action can be used to build up tension and suspense, but it can also be used to draw out different emotional responses from an audience, such as comedy.
Edgar Wright has used this gag in a few different films. There’s something funny and unexpected about a random arm reaching into frame with an object. If he were to shoot this wider so that we see the person who the reaching arm belongs to it wouldn’t work as well comedically.
It would just be a regular action. He also uses this technique of shooting objects entering frame in extreme close ups during his snappy montage edits to advance the story forward in time. In this way framing is used so that the action of the object reaching in is unseen, unexpected, unpredictable and amusing.
Information can also be withheld in darker situations for a different effect. In No Country For Old Men, we cut from a conversation about the nature of choice and chance, and a woman's impending death, straight to a shot of the hitman leaving the house, checking his shoes for blood.
There’s something bone chilling, ambiguous and deeply affecting about this scene that comes from brushing over the assumed act of violence that we don’t see and rather sitting in quiet with Chigurh. Not seeing what happens is a more contemplative way of communicating violence and the themes that the movie deals with.
One of the genres that plays with off screen action the most is horror. I’ve used the analogy before of horror being like pulling off a plaster. It can be done with a quick yank, like a jump scare, or it can be pulled off slowly, with a gradual, prolonged, pain.
By filming scenes from the protagonists point of view and delaying putting the threat on screen for as long as possible, the tension and terror is cranked up to ten. What we don’t see is far more psychologically terrifying than what we do.
FINANCIAL LIMITATIONS
Coming back to the example of Reservoir Dogs, another reason why filmmakers may want to skip over showing certain things on screen may be influenced by financial limitations.
Certain scenes are more expensive than others to shoot. It’s pricey to effectively shoot action, car chases, crowds, or most kinds of traditional set pieces.
Whether that’s a massive car pile up, like in Red Rocket, or a bank heist, like in Reservoir Dogs. Excluding set pieces that need to access specific locations and contain lots of action is sometimes logistically necessary.
In these cases it’s either on the screenwriter or on the director to find creative ways to communicate that these moments in the story took place while not being able to show it.
This might be through presenting it off screen with sound from a news broadcast discussing the aftermath of the event in the background or by skipping the event in the story timeline and making how it is discussed by characters the source of the drama and suspense.
PERSPECTIVE
Finally, a movie like Rashomon uses what we’ve discussed as the entire premise of the film.
The movie is built around a narrator who conveys four different accounts of the same incident. Each is presented by a different witness, with different details, to question the nature of truth and how it is reported.
The entire premise of Rashomon relies on not showing the actual events as they unfold from an objective point of view. Eyewitnesses account for what is not seen to comment on how everyone has their own bias and subjective view of how life unfolds.
What we see and what we don’t see in a movie is defined by the filmmaker. By not showing certain information and by showing other information they are creating a perspective on how the story is told.
What is shown and what is not are inextricably linked. Both are conscious choices. So the next time you’re writing, shooting, editing or watching, remember that what you don’t see is at least as important as what you do.