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WRITING THE SCREEN PLAY 191
Tempo and rhythm
There has been a great deal of loose talk thrown around about the factors of tempo and rhythm. Both are subjects of an evanescent nature, and have never been postulated, clarified, or standardized. More often than not, the terms are erroneously used interchangeably. Like the word "showmanship," which theatrical entrepreneurs love to bandy about, "tempo" and "rhythm" are resorted to when the speaker intends to be as vague as possible, to avoid having his idea backfire on him. If he says, "There are fifty frames in every foot of film," his ignorance can be thrown into his face simply by referring to any standard book on the subject. But he can take refuge in generalization by saying, "It's the tempo of that scene I don't like," and rest assured that nobody can contradict him.
Tempo is one thing, as has been shown. Rhythm is still another. Both are indispensable to the fashioning of a screen play and to the eventual making of the resultant picture.
Tempo is timing. Tempo is— as its accepted meaning should indicate—timing. It is governed by the length of time— and hence the number of frames or feet— a shot, a scene, and a sequence should require in order to present an idea or mood as well as possible.
Certain mood effects can be achieved by certain timing factors. The illusion of excitement in short-time shots is enhanced, naturally, by short sections of film, by quick camera movements, by character movement, by short spurts of dialogue and the like.
Conversely, a sense of calm can be obtained with longer-length shots, with static or slow camera movements, and so on.
If the tempi in all the shots are so integrated that the combined tempi can, in turn, be integrated within the sequence, and so that the combined tempi of the sequences can be integrated into a complete picture, the over-all tempo of the picture can be regulated so that what finally emerges is exactly what the screen writer put into the screen play, and what he intended to produce.
Rhythm is flow. Rhythm, on the other hand, is a modulated flow of filmic and sound patterns that results from following certain basic principles.