Hmm, that's a bit tougher. There's got to be a clear question about the outcome of the scene - will she get the information, will he save the girl? - with something at stake. Someone has to be taking action, and something, or preferably someone, has to be opposing that action. The action, and the question, must be resolved by the end of the scene - though they then feed into the next scene/action/question. Urm, what else...?

Is a 'scene' per se a sequence of the events as they unfold in the story? Or is it a sequence of scenes that somehow tie all of the story together? I'm officially confused. I've seen plenty a film where the 'scene' does not appear to "move the story forward". Maybe that is the difference between a good film and a great film? As far as narrative elements, I'm still stuck on 'what is a scene?' Help us out here!!

Primarily we use scenes to engage the reader in the business of the characters, and resort as little as possible to the 'history' contained in the narrative. A scene needs to be dramatic, therefore it needs rising conflict (or, in the case of tension release, negatively rising conflict). A scene's conflict will contribute to the core conflict of the story, it will be revealed through dialogue -- it is relevant action containing conflict. A scene's staging needs to be such that the piece of business has utmost clarity, that it is not clouded by unnecessary and superfluous business. This means understanding the story point contained within the scene, what is changing? It means understanding whose point of view, whose perspective the audience gets, what can be seen and what is left out. Scenes employ symbol to invoke the mood: symbols used visually, in dialogue, aurally, musically, within lighting, timing, location and time of day ... the writing needs to play action as close up as possible, horror as darkly as possible, humour so that the all attention is focussed on the payoff ... all the time leaving room for surprise.

I'm in the middle of reading an interview with David Hare (both the video and the interview transcript are available here*), where he talks about "bell jar scenes": > "Life isn’t concentrated on one thing at one time. So I avoid what are called ‘bell jar scenes’ in my mind, scenes which are only about themselves. They are the most incredibly boring scenes in all movies, where the subject of the scene, the sole subject of discussion, the sole subject of illustration is simply the scene itself and the themes of the scene. Unless something is going on in the scene which has been lent to the scene by what’s happened before and which predicts what may happen after, the scene is just going to lie there like a dead slab." *Scott, there are a number of great interviews about screenwriting on the BAFTA site. I'll send you the links when I've finished reading. The Hare interview is outstanding.