In
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 ...
, a beat is a small amount of
action resulting in a pause in
dialogue
Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American and British English spelling differences, American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literature, literary and theatrical form that depicts suc ...
. Beats usually involve physical gestures like a
character walking to a window or removing their glasses and rubbing their eyes. Short passages of
internal monologue
Intrapersonal communication (also known as autocommunication or inner speech) is communication with oneself or self-to-self communication. Examples are thinking to oneself "I will do better next time" after having made a mistake or imagining a ...
can also be considered a sort of internal beat. Beats are also known as "stage business".
The word "beat" is industry slang that was derived from a famous Russian writer who told someone that writing the script was just a matter of putting all the bits together. In his heavy accent he pronounced bits as "beats".
A beat sheet is a document with all the events in a movie script to guide the writing of that script.
Beats as pacing elements
Beats are specific, measured, and spaced to create a pace that moves the progress of the story forward. Audiences feel uneven or erratic beats. Uneven beats are the most forgettable or sometimes tedious parts of a film. Erratic beats jolt the audience unnecessarily. Every cinematic
genre
Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...
has a beat that is specific to its development.
Action film
The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...
has significantly more beats (usually events);
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 ...
has fewer beats (usually protagonist decisions or discovery). Between each beat 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 ...
occurs. This sequence is often a series of scenes that relates to the last beat and leads up to the next beat.
Following is a beat example from ''
The Shawshank Redemption'':
*At 25 minutes: Andy talks to Red and asks for rock hammer. - Decision
*At 30 minutes: Andy gets rock hammer. - Event
*At 35 minutes: Andy risks his life to offer financial advice to Mr. Hadley. - Decision
*At 40 minutes: Andy notes ease of carving his name in the wall. - Discovery
After each beat listed above, a significant series of results takes place in the form of the sequence, but what most people remember are the beats, the moment something takes place with the protagonist.
McKee
Stories are divided into Acts, Acts into Sequences, Sequences into Scenes, and Scenes into Beats.
Robert McKee uses the word "beat" differently from that described above. He first defines a scene not as action occurring in one place but as action "that turns the value-charged condition of a character's life on at least one value with a degree of perceptible significance". He describes the Beat as "the smallest element of structure...(Not to be confused with...an indication...meaning 'short pause')". He defines a Beat as: "an exchange of behavior in action/reaction. Beat by Beat these changing behaviors shape the turning of a scene." Specifically, a scene will contain multiple beats, the clashes in the conflict, which build a scene to eventually turn the values of a character's life, called a "Story Event". He further describes beats as "distinctively different behaviors, . . . clear changes of action/reaction."
See also
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Unit of action, in acting
Notes
References
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Further reading
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* {{cite book, last1=Schreiber, first1=Terry, last2=Norton, first2=Edward, last3=Barber, first3=Mary Beth, pages=188–190, title=Acting: advanced techniques for the actor, director, and teacher, publisher=Allworth Communications, Inc., year=2005, isbn=978-1-58115-418-4
Cinematic techniques
Film and video terminology
Narratology