Timing pauses between lines

[Gohanto]

In a recent short I was working on I felt that a character should have pauses at certain points in a conversation (working with non-actors). However, the question that they kept asking was how long of a pause it should be. There wasn't any camera move I was doing so there wasn't any requirement of pace, but I couldn't think of a motivated answer to the question so I just estimated in seconds how long a pause should be.

It worked out decent in the end, but I know it could've been better. My question is, how do you get actors to judge the pauses for themselves (or for the characters) keeping them "in the moment" instead of just giving them time estimates?

 

[emotepix]

It's called a "beat" in the acting trade, as in:
"Just take a couple of beats here, after this line and before you look at him".

The exact duration of a beat is malleable, and is usually interpreted by the actor. Specifically, the actor just counts, in silence, to him or herself "one... two..." and then continues.

However, it's also usually a pretty precise measurement, since the rhythm of the speech or action that precedes the beat usually determines the length of the beat(s) that follow(s). In other words, if the speech or action that comes just ahead of the pause is quick, then the actor will usually count off the beats at an equally quick rhythm.

If slow, then slow.

How does the director know how much? Doesn't have to. Just invite the actor to insert a couple of beats, feel out how long that is, and make an adjustment accordingly.
"Now let's try another, and feel free to take longer. Say, five beats this time..."

 

[rsbush]

Beat is the right terminology, but you'll get a much more natural moment if you give the actor something to consider rather than numbers to count. "Take a couple of beats to consider if you should really walk through that door or not".

 

[Holosynthetic]

there's a reason they say "timing is everything", there's no reason to to count to yourself for a pause. Good actors can add a beat between words naturally without having to think about it...it just happens.

 

[mrWr0ng]

It's all practice. When I direct my actors, I work with them to figure out the beats inbetween. Normally I try to work the dialogue to be as natural as possible, so that the beats are natural as well - there are different kinds of sentences and statements that naturally have beats trailing or preceding them. Who's talking, when, and what rhythm and pitch they have all depends on what the conversation is about, who's in control, who isn't, so forth.

If you have a character that is typically in control but finds himself out of control, there will be more beats and stammering as he tries to figure out how to regain control of the situation. However, if you have a character who typically isn't in control and then suddenly finds himself in control, there may be fewer beats as they would go into a more stream-of-consciousness flow where their mind is racing and they blurt out everything that enters their thoughts.

There's far more involved, but it's really a matter of feeling it out, both in individual lines and in the bigger picture of the conversation and the actions involved.

 

[seandelgado]

In acting method styles a beat would be a change or shift in intension as dictated by the script, as above, deciding to go out the door would be a beat in the scene, `hello, how are you?’ the answer, `I’m fine’ would be a beat. So when the director says lets go back a few beats they don’t mean a few words, they mean a few `changes’.

When beats are referred to in the style of speaking, what they are talking about is the meter of the diction. Most English language is based on the pentameter see the link below for a good description. English tends to flow in a da DUM da DUM da DUM rhythm or `beat’, the beat being a basic 4/4 rhythm. For a non-actor without training you could equate the beat to a heartbeat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iambic_pentameter

 

[ericyoung]

...Most English language is based on the pentameter see the link below for a good description. English tends to flow in a da DUM da DUM da DUM rhythm or `beat’, the beat being a basic 4/4 rhythm. For a non-actor without training you could equate the beat to a heartbeat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iambic_pentameter

I think the Wikipedia entry actually says it is "Iambic pentameter is among the most common metrical forms in English poetry", not in general English.

Much of modern colloquial written and spoken English would seem to disobey Iambic pentameter! :beer:

 

[Jason Ramsey]

Iambic pentameter is a fairly normal way of speaking, though. The way the beats fall, are the way we *generally* speak. But, that's a different kind of beat.

Pauses have to be motivated, or the life just goes out of the scene/moment like air out of a balloon.

Inexperienced actors have a tendency to take overly long dramatic pauses as it is. Pauses read almost immediately for an audience. If you make them too long, you can kill the scene. Usually shorter is better than you think.

If you don't have subtext in the pause, there ain't a point in doing it though. I guess you can tell an inexperienced actor to pause here, and make it work, kind of, but.... That's probably something better reserved for telling someone more experienced.

A good excercise is to write the script/scene without any punctuation at all. Then let them find the breaks and pauses in the delivery themselves as they figure it all out. It kind of forces them to figure out what they are saying, instead of relying on grammar and punctuation to dictate the flow of their delivery, etc. We used to do it for shakespeare plays. Helped me a lot. I did it when I played Orgon in Tartuffe, which is a rhyming (at least the translation we did) Molliere piece. Helped a ton.

Anyways, kind of getting off the point. If you can't explain to them why you think they should pause there, then don't expect them to give you a *meaningful* pause.

 

[Jen Bright]

Pauses have to be motivated, or the life just goes out of the scene/moment like air out of a balloon.

Inexperienced actors have a tendency to take overly long dramatic pauses as it is. Pauses read almost immediately for an audience. If you make them too long, you can kill the scene. Usually shorter is better than you think.

If you don't have subtext in the pause, there ain't a point in doing it though. I guess you can tell an inexperienced actor to pause here, and make it work, kind of, but.... That's probably something better reserved for telling someone more experienced.

Hallelujah! Truer words could not have been spoken.

For your non-experienced actors, give them something to think about during their pause. Don't let them think of the pause as a stop in the dramatic action. Its a continuation of it, but it just doesn't have words.

 

[A Messenger]

I think a couple examples of what not to do may help.

Sit your actors down to watch an episode of "Gilmore Girls" and ask them how real they think that dialog sounds. If their response is "that sounds real!" or something to that effect I think you're going to have to find some new actors.

If they pass that test get out the movie "Star Wars - Attack of the Clones" and go to the scene between Anakin and Padme after he killed all the Sand People. After the line "I'm going to be the most powerful Jedi . . . EVER" pause the video and get their opinions. If they like this scene they're probably hopeless.

Seriously, the length of a pause should be as long as seems natural. As for whether it's natural or not, you should know it when you hear it, if you don't you won't make it far as a director.

 

[IBEJohnson]

I think a couple examples of what not to do may help.

Sit your actors down to watch an episode of "Gilmore Girls" and ask them how real they think that dialog sounds. If their response is "that sounds real!" or something to that effect I think you're going to have to find some new actors.

This may be the BEST advice I've ever heard. How did Gilmore Girls ever make it past the pilot?

 

[Knoxworth]

Sit them down to watch Gilmore Girls and THEN sit them down to watch the British Office. Can't speak for anyone else but Gervais & Merchant are who I look up to for natural sounding dialogue.

 

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

Acting for camera is almost more about what goes on between the actors ears than what comes out of their mouths.

They should be really thinking and lost in the scene. In other words there should be real psychology going on. The camera loves to see you think. It should be about their internal journey, their inner monolouge, not if the beat or pause is 2 seconds or 4 seconds. In closeups especially, your answer should be "as long as you need". Worry about pacing in wide shots and two shots and moments that are going to be shot with little coverage. Worry about HONESTY and TRUTH above pace in closeups and mediums where there is plenty of coverage.

Now maybe you say "as long as you need" and they say "but I don't need to pause there" Now you have to direct their insides "I think the next line would be hard for your character to say because she loves him and doesn't want to upset him. But she also has to tell him that this toupee is making him look like a fool. So just let that sink in before you go on."

Now you are actually telling part of the story with the pause and you are communicating to actors in a language they can understand.

Ideally a director should only have to say to actors, a little faster, a little slower, go further with this, let's try a take where you pull back on that. This presupposes a couple of things though.
1 - you have actors that can really act
2 - you are not trying to jam their honest and believable performances into your preconceived idea about the performance ... if what they bring tells the story and is appropriate to the character and the moment then at least develop that and get a good take of it before you muck around with it too, too much.

But there are two ways to direct an actor. From the inside out, or from the outside in. "Take a pause here" is from the outside in. So is "Pick your teeth here" "Comb your hair when he says that line". While "Think about the consequences of what you are about to say" is from the outside in. There are times when either is appropriate and there one or the other may resonate more for different actors. But again "film is truth at 24 fps" and "the camera loves to see you think" so for film I think most of the time you will be served going that route - especially with green or non pro actors. Most of the time you are just trying to get them out of their own way and one way to do that is to give them so much internal stuff to think about it becomes impossible to act. With green actors "pause this long" or "say it like this" or "be angrier" can be disastrous because it takes them out of the scene and gets them worrying about how they are saying it - which is self consciousness, which is DEATH on camera. But if you can get them to REALLY worry about not hurting their boyfriend's feelings when they tell him his toupee is a disaster ... then you have won the battle and a good chunk of the war as well.

A pro actor knows how to take external direction and internalize it. "The direcrtor wants me to pause here ... why ... maybe my character hates her boyfriend and wants to relish the moment when she tells him that his toupee is awful. Great I will think about that." The LAST thing a professional actor would be thinking is whether the pause would be 2 seconds or 4.

This brings us to "inner monologue". Some anthropological behaviorists theorize that you cannot have thought without language. We can probably agree that it would be hard at least without some sort of symbology ... but whether you agree or not that there can be no thought without words we do in fact think in words most of the time. You may not even be aware of it as it is so second nature but it is true. This is a useful tool for the actor ... the inner monoluge. One thing that might determine the length of the pause would be the inner monologue. Thinking, "I really don't wan't to hurt him." Would be one kind of pause. THinking "I really don't want to hurt him ... maybe I shouldn't say anything ... I mean he doesn't seem to know everyone is making fun of his toupee and they say ignorance is bliss .... should I let him go on being ignorant ... I mean he well definitley be less happy after I tell him ... damnit I've been putting this off forever and I have to tell him ... I'm going to tell him ... ok!" The second one would be a much longer pause which you could cut out in editing. Unless you have a specific storytelling need to stay on her shot before the pause, after the pause and during, you can cut to him at the beginning of the pause and back to her for just the end of it, or you can cut to him during her pause which we will read as him thinking "what's she gonna say ... the suspense is killing me ... spit it out already". Probably you will want to use the part of her take where she decides to go on and tell him. Which brings us to breath.

Look at the word INSPIRATION. Look at the word RESPIRATION. A new thought or beat or unit of action comes on the breath. This is useful information for ACTORS, DIRECTORS, and EDITORS. Think about it. Somebody has been badgering you to do something or other forever. You keep putting it off. Finally they come to you and harass, beg, intice, seduce you into doing it. You really don't want to. You try to stick to your guns, but finally you cave in. Pay attention to the breath at the cave in moment. Maybe you inhale, and tense up holding it for a second "Damnit I really didn't want to do this but I can't get around it" you think, and then at the moment you decide to do it you LET GO, and breath out the new intention, as you exhale you say "OK ... fine let's do it" your whole body relaxes, your whole demeanor changes (if you have happily accepted what you have to do). This is a unit change for an actor, you have breathed out the old action and breathed in a new one.

THis is useful to know on set when the actor is having problems or something is not quite right. THough it is part of our natural behavior we forget to do it when we act just like we forget to do it when we are lifting weights or doing yoga sometime. So it may be that the answer is ... the pause needs to be long enough to take breath. If it is a big huge change it may be a big breath. If it is a small change then maybe it will be barely noticable, but it has to happen. This is useful for editors to know so they don't cut out the most important part of a pivotal change without good reason.

So the answer is as long as they need to pause there to act like a normal human being in that situation. As long as they need to pause to be honest and fill the moment before, the current moment, and the next moment with honesty. As long as they happen to pause while they are fully in the scene. At least that should be the answer at first until the pause is the wrong length, until it needs to be a different length for some technical reason or because it makes editing the scene impossible or somehow kills your vision. Then you can take it from there.

OK enough rambling from me for now.

 

[Knoxworth]

But there are two ways to direct an actor. From the inside out, or from the outside in. "Take a pause here" is from the outside in. So is "Pick your teeth here" "Comb your hair when he says that line". While "Think about the consequences of what you are about to say" is from the outside in.

Jack's summed up my first impressions of this thread. So many people hopped onboard "how long should a beat be?" that it scared me. I'm sure using "beats" is useful sometimes but how long should a woman wait to cry after hearing that her child has died? How long should a man wait to react to being slapped in the face? It's all subjective and if you as a director cannot entrust your actors with the judgement call, there is little you can add to help the performance they are about to give.

I was the villain in a feature film that had two co-directors. One of them was really good with preparing me for the scene & helping me find myself internally. the other one would just show up on the day and tell me where to place my hand or hold my cup. He would offer me the "correct emphasis" for how to deliver a line. I had to ignore him altogether just to find the character's natural reaction. His sort of advice is helpful when you're blocking the scene or during rehearsals but completely USELESS in the moment. It just clutters your mind as an actor and steals away any organic thoughts you have given to the character.

Great example from "I Heart Huckabees":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F86s4Vq59Ks

 

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

meant to tack this on but the site froze up on me ...

take all that stuff I said with a grain of salt ... that advice prioritizes "truthiness" above all else. and while film is "truth at 24 frames per second" it is also a technical medium and those elements along with your vision of the scene always in need of balancing.

ideally you should be able to tackle both. so it is not wrong to say "this opening really needs to be tight and dynamic I really need you guys to turn on the energy and pickup the cues here we want this part to really zing" and again a good actor will find a way into that state in a way that looks believable on camera

you should also be able to say, "I think the scene can relax a bit and you can take your time with it".

you can say pause longer or shorter as well, but when they want a specific time to pause, that is a red flag question, or even thinking about it that way is a bit of a red flag to me

 

[Mark Harris]

Which brings us to breath.

Look at the word INSPIRATION. Look at the word RESPIRATION. A new thought or beat or unit of action comes on the breath. This is useful information for ACTORS, DIRECTORS, and EDITORS. Think about it. Somebody has been badgering you to do something or other forever. You keep putting it off. Finally they come to you and harass, beg, intice, seduce you into doing it. You really don't want to. You try to stick to your guns, but finally you cave in. Pay attention to the breath at the cave in moment. Maybe you inhale, and tense up holding it for a second "Damnit I really didn't want to do this but I can't get around it" you think, and then at the moment you decide to do it you LET GO, and breath out the new intention, as you exhale you say "OK ... fine let's do it" your whole body relaxes, your whole demeanor changes (if you have happily accepted what you have to do). This is a unit change for an actor, you have breathed out the old action and breathed in a new one.

THis is useful to know on set when the actor is having problems or something is not quite right. THough it is part of our natural behavior we forget to do it when we act just like we forget to do it when we are lifting weights or doing yoga sometime. So it may be that the answer is ... the pause needs to be long enough to take breath. If it is a big huge change it may be a big breath. If it is a small change then maybe it will be barely noticable, but it has to happen. This is useful for editors to know so they don't cut out the most important part of a pivotal change without good reason.

I actually think this is a little dangerous, and one of the things they really, REALLY tried to beat out of us when I was being trained. A lot of actors fall into the sighing trap, which generally indicates they don't know what they are doing with themselves. I see it EVERYWHERE too. Robert Sean Leonard is guilty in HOUSE.

Anyway, I am working on a short now that is very actor intensive and what I am working on now, is creating the environment where they can just get lost in the scene - as you said. If they know what they are doing - what they want and what their actions are - and know these things so well that they no longer have to think about it, then anything they do in the scene will be right. The main thing I am working on now, is getting my actors to BE in the scene instead of acting in the scene. So I am avoiding stuff like how long to pause, like the plague.

Another thought is, very often I find that if there are problems in the acting, there are usually problems in the script. A perfectly written script will kind of act itself, inasmuch as the actions written for the the characters make so much sense, that there is nothing ELSE they could do in those moments.

Also, to go back to your technical comment, pauses can be created and formed in the editing as well.

 

[Mark Harris]

Who's rambling now, biotch?

 

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

Sighing yeah

my point was not that you should or shouldn't sigh ... but that unit changes happen on breathe in real life and in acting - always

and if something is off it's another place to look to pinpoint why it seems off - either just as a diagnostic or as a symptom.

The example I gave was of a big sigh but it can just as easily be, and more often than not should be, a breath that goes right into speech or action. In fact I meant in my example that with the exhale, speech would start rather than a sigh.

But breath is VERY important. It can be a way into an emotional state for example and it can also belie false psychology and put up a wall that alienates an audience. It can also keep an actor from connecting if it's off.

I've never directed an actor on the breath and not gotten a better performance.

It's hard to write about these things.

Ramble.

Ramble.

Agree about the material.

Ramble.

 

[Knoxworth]

But you're absolutely right. If a character is supposed to be confident or calm, and he/she's breathing in short nervous pants... how's he/she going to sell those lines?

Likewise if a character just ran 6 miles down the road in the last shot and runs into the shot without matching their breath accordingly... it won't feel right to the audience even if they can't sense what's off.

 

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

But you're absolutely right. If a character is supposed to be confident or calm, and he/she's breathing in short nervous pants... how's he/she going to sell those lines?

Likewise if a character just ran 6 miles down the road in the last shot and runs into the shot without matching their breath accordingly... it won't feel right to the audience even if they can't sense what's off.

Well there are two different things here breath as it relates to thought –old idea out, new idea in, inspiration, respiration – and breath as it relates to emotion. Because it is normally involuntary, some actors can get to an honest emotional state by manipulating the breath.

Listen to Morgan Freeman’s commentary on this on the "Seven" DVD in the scene where he’s interviewing the guy that had to wear the phallic knife thingy. He says it’s for some actors but not for him – that he is much more understated and doesn’t usually get to that extreme.

...

OK here's more than you will ever want to know about iambic pentameter ...

.... When beats are referred to in the style of speaking, what they are talking about is the meter of the diction. Most English language is based on the pentameter see the link below for a good description. English tends to flow in a da DUM da DUM da DUM rhythm or `beat’, the beat being a basic 4/4 rhythm. For a non-actor without training you could equate the beat to a heartbeat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iambic_pentameter

I think the Wikipedia entry actually says it is "Iambic pentameter is among the most common metrical forms in English poetry", not in general English.

Much of modern colloquial written and spoken English would seem to disobey Iambic pentameter!

You are both a little right and a little wrong.

First let's clarify what iambic pentameter is. Let's look at the second word first "Pentameter".

Penta = 5
Meter = a unit ... in verse the unit is actually a "foot", a foot consists of 2 syllables

So Penta - Meter = 5 feet or beats ... five feet of what? Five units of two syllables.

An iamb is the type of foot. It means unstressed-STRESSED, so it is exactly right that an iamb is unstressed STRESSED or
ba Dum
as prevoiusly stated

So iambic pentameter means 5 iambs or 5 ba Dums per LINE

Her is a line of iambic penatmeter
ba Dum l ba Dum l ba Dum l ba Dum l ba Dum

So iambic pentameter would litterally translate into 5/2, not 4/4
(top number tells you how many beats in a measure; bottom number tells you what note gets the beat)
- how many beats/feet (notes) in the measure (line)? 5
- what "note" gets the beat? the iamb, a 2 syllable "note"

Penta -- 5
iambic --2

5/2

So the basic form of Shakespeare's VERSE is iambic pentameter (remember he uses prose as well)

There are other kind of feet besides iambs as well.
IAMB
unstressed STRESSED - ba DUM

TROCHE (pronounced TROkee)
STRESSED unstressed - BA dum

STROPHE (pronounced STRO-FEE)
STRESSED STRESSED - BA DUM

ANTISTROPHE
unstressed unstressed

While the bases of verse is Iambic Pentameter ... it is Shakespears variation on this that makes his verse famous to this day over that of any other playwright.

Lines of strict Iambic pentameter are in fact the RARITY in Shakespeare. You will find lines of 8 syllables and 12 syllables and 9 and 11 as well.

There are shorter lines but they are usually shared lines ... meaning

CHARACTER A: ba Dum l ba Dum?

CHARACTER A: ______________ba Dum l ba Dum l ba Dum!

Also at the heart of his genius is his use of the non iambic feet ... when he uses a troche or strophe or antistrophe the theory is that the irregularity is a window into character .... why does this line "scan" differently at this point in the line.
ba Dum l ba Dum l Dum ba l ba Dum l ba Dum

So it is the way he broke up the verse AND tied character and story to his variations while sounding pleasing to the ear that earn his place in literary history. You will find lesser poets of the day that write in strict iambs.

... Iambic pentameter is a fairly normal way of speaking, though. The way the beats fall, are the way we *generally* speak. But, that's a different kind of beat ...

And yes it is not only the prevalent rythm of verse but ALSO the way we naturally speak. At leas the iamb part, the pentameter part to a lesser extent. But we allide and cheat things to achieve this.

"I'd like to go to the store."

I'd like l to go l to the l store to l day

at first glance a 5 foot line with nine syllables and most of the feet probably iambs.

But try to say that in iambs
i'd LIKE l to GO _- l to THE l store TO l day
ba Dum l ba Dum l ba Dum l ba Dum l ba
It doesn't work.

What we would do is something more like the following
I'd LIKE l to GO l _-to the STORE l to DAY
ba Dum l ba Dum l ba da DUM__-l ba Dum
We'd likely allide "to the" into two quick unstressed syllables so that the over all iambic feel - the heartbeat like feel - is maintained

Actors doing Shakespeare are met with the line by line choice in their interpretation to either lean into irregularities or conform them to a more iambic feel. They might for example choose to embrace the irregularity based on character and story - as if Shakespeare were highlighting a pivotal thought or moment with the irregularity. They may choose to conform to a more standard rythm for the sake of clarity - especially for the sake of a modern audience if they feel the line looses to much sense when read as strictly scanned - again for example.