Beat (filmmaking)

In filmmaking, a beat is a small amount of action resulting in a pause in dialogue. 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 can also be considered a sort of internal beat. Beats are also known as "stage business".[1]

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".[citation needed]

A beat sheet is a document with all the events in a movie script to guide the writing of that script.[citation needed]

## Contents

* 1 Beats as pacing elements
* 1.1 McKee
* 2 See also
* 3 Notes
* 4 References
* 5 Further reading

## 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 has a beat that is specific to its development. Action film has significantly more beats (usually events); drama has fewer beats (usually protagonist decisions or discovery). Between each beat a sequence 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".[2] He further describes beats as "distinctively different behaviors, . . . clear changes of action/reaction."[3]

## See also

* Unit of action, in acting

## Notes

1. ↑ (Browne King)
2. ↑ (McKee 1997)
3. ↑ (McKee 1997)

## References

* Browne, Renni; King, Dave (1993), Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, New York: Harper Perennial, ISBN 0-06-272046-5
* Decker, Dan (1988). Anatomy of a Screenplay. Screenwriters. ISBN 0-9665732-0-X.
* McKee, Robert (1997). Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 0-06-039168-5.

## Further reading

* Block, Bruce A. (2001). The visual story: seeing the structure of film, TV, and new media. Focal Press. pp. 220-221,248-252. ISBN 978-0-240-80467-5.
* Bloom, Michael (2001). Thinking like a director: a practical handbook. Macmillan. pp. 35-36. ISBN 978-0-571-19994-5. https://archive.org/details/thinkinglikedire0000bloo/page/35.
* Rabiger, Michael (2008). Directing: film techniques and aesthetics. Screencraft Series (4th ed.). Focal Press. pp. 31-32. ISBN 978-0-240-80882-6. https://archive.org/details/directingfilmtec00rabi_325.
* Schreiber, Terry; Norton, Edward; Barber, Mary Beth (2005). Acting: advanced techniques for the actor, director, and teacher. Allworth Communications, Inc.. pp. 188-190. ISBN 978-1-58115-418-4.

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