Stepping back: yes, lengthening the scene, so awe has a little room to breathe. That courtesy. – Lia Purpura’s “Sugar Eggs: A Reverie”
It’s tempting to rush through a scene. Everything on the table. All the characters on set. The chaos as one disturbs the scene and everyone else reacts. It isn’t a wrong method, but some scenarios require a lengthier scene. The characters need room to breathe. The setting itself has something to say.
In those instances, the writer describes the physical surroundings, not to delay the action but to create a physical force with which the characters interact. This is a menacing scene, a peaceful scene, a sorrowful one. To depict that weight, the scene has to be lengthened. Awe, as Lia Purpura says, has to have a little room to breathe.
Such lengthening can occur via the written word, but it’s often complemented visually – either within the reader’s mind or in a film adaptation. The scenery in Lord of the Rings awes because of how it is shot. No close-ups here; the scene is filmed in panoramic. The Rohirrim crest the hill, and the viewer at once feels the immensity of hooves pounding upon turf, the smallness of the characters waiting for the men and horses to arrive. That awe. That courtesy.
Consider, too, the effect of color. Some poets such as Paul Celan or Jean Valentine focus on color to an almost obsessive degree. Blue everywhere. Red hues, possibly magenta.
In film, the color or absence of it is more immediately felt. Joss Whedon’s As You Like It is shot in black and white. Why? Perhaps to emphasize that the world in As You Like It is one where grey reigns supreme. Hero is at the mercy of a conspiracy as are Beatrice and Benedict. Why not allow that reality to be felt not only in the lines said but also in the scene presented? Yes, that courtesy. That consideration.
Image: Marjan Lazarevski (Creative Commons)