Defeated Expectation is way of thinking about tension or conflict in a scene. When one character explicitly or implicitly wants or needs something of another character and doesn't get it, they have a new problem to solve or a reason to keep striving for what they haven't quite achieved. It's a bit like watching a tennis match to see how each player responds to what the other is serving up. Story tellers know that inherent tension in a scene is a result of conflict. Conflict tends to propel the story. It keeps the audience wanting to know what happens next. It keeps the characters fighting for something. Conflict exists in three places in Story Telling: between two or more characters, in the internal life of the character and between the character/s and the environment. An actor should always know what they are fighting for as their character. And when a character's expectation is defeated - it should matter. For example: in the scene DR CHARLES IS LATE the character of Melissa arrives at the doctor's surgery in a state of anxiety and panic. Her first expectation is that Karin the receptionist be at her desk. She's not there and Melissa finds this hard to deal with. The character of Philip is quietly waiting to see Dr Charles and has the expectation that he continue to wait quietly. This expectation is also defeated as now he has to deal with semi-neurotic actress invading his personal space. The tension between the characters and their own inner tensions are fuelled because their expectations have been defeated. The ensuing scene becomes a negotiation (see A Scene is a Negotiation) or a series of negotiations, where the two characters deal with a new problem. As it happens, by the end of the scene most of the conflict or tension is resolved - which signal the end of the scene. Conflict tends to propel the story - resolution ends it.
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