Don't Drink That Tea, Savvy!

This week's episode of MEG-A-RAE is chock full of mystery and suspense. Maybe a little too much for our hosts, Savvy and Programma Mama.  Let's just say that Savvy should definitely NOT drink that tea!

(Miss Miranda, who played the maid, was truly terrific, by the way.)  Miss Meg and Miss Rae (to use their vlog names) scripted the video along the lines of Alfred Hitchcock's formula for suspense:  namely, let the audience know the danger, but keep the characters oblivious.  There our heroes are, doing their regular readers' advisory thing, and they have NO IDEA that the maid has spiked Savvy's tea.  But WE, the audience, are fully aware of the peril, but there is no way we can warn her!  Now that's suspenseful.

Savvy did a fabulous job doing the "collapsing scene," and Programma Mama was excellent as the "bystander facing danger."  All told, it was the perfect mystery reading vlog.

I Especially Liked the Shout-Out to Broadway Gal,

Cauli Le Chat

MPL Roving Reporter

Mystery Reading News Beat

P.S.  In this video clip from a film-makers' workshop (1970), legendary motion picture director Alfred Hitchcock explains how to create suspense in a five-minute film scene--by allowing the audience to know the danger (e.g., a hidden bomb) to which the film's characters are oblivious--provided the director allows an emotional relief at the end of the scene.  In his example of a bomb hidden beneath a table, which the audience sees but the characters know nothing about, the relief comes in their last-second escape before the bomb explodes.  The suspense is created by the characters' matter-of-fact dialog, while the audience watches the timer on the bomb approach zero.  The audience is powerless to assist but must watch and wait to see if the characters escape the threat in time.