6. Need To Up The Tension? Add A Ticking Clock
Here's an age old, welcomed screenwriting trick that you can employ into just about any script, given you've got the right set of circumstances. The good thing is, it's simple and effective, and it gives your screenplay an added sense of urgency and tension without you having to do much. In the case of
The Dark Knight Rises, the ticking clock is literally a ticking bomb, and one which will detonate at a specific time should Bruce Wayne/Batman not get there in time to stop it. And that's about as simple as this technique gets. Here, though, it's not quite as effective as it should be, granted that the ticking bomb doesn't need to be a ticking bomb. Bane and Talia might as well have detonated the bomb from the straight off. Still, it works in the sense that there's another layer of tension atop an already volatile situation. The ticking clock works for a number of reasons, but it's mainly so effective because - from the moment you set up the idea that there's a "race against time" - you imbue every moment from then on with an extra dose of drama. What else is a screenplay but a drama machine? It also gives you more to work with when it comes to getting your characters to talk to one another, and therefore allows you to build conversations and situations you might not have had reason. The ticking clock are creates conflict, and that's where you really want to have two characters bickering or arguing with one another. Simple, useful, tried and tested, it's an extremely effective way to give your script that added oomph factor. It also, by association, makes a script somewhat easier to write, because you're constantly under the weight on your own frantic plot device.