Build Characters and your Theme Flashbacks beyond story & into themeĪrrival weaves flashbacks and flash-forwards into its story. That should also be the goal for your own flashbacks. The Irishman script doesn’t even use the word “flashback.” It’s supposed to feel like a single seamless and flowing story. The car, presence of wives, Carrie’s cigarette and smoking, Frank’s voiceover about Carrie as mob royalty, sunny daylight exteriors in nature. Formal attire and manners, lush restaurant interiors, noticeable absence of wives when the men are together, music, Frank’s voiceover about Russell 1950s - When Russell and Frank begin their relationship.Voiceover segue, uniform, rifle, soldiers
Notice some of the elements unique to each era that help to identify it:
But rather good old-fashioned low-tech ingenuity from director Martin Scorsese and his Oscar-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker. What allows the film and this sequence to deftly slip between several eras? Not the high-tech digital de-aging process. The Irishman also uses a car like a timestamp during the 1975-set road trip where Russell and Frank drive to Florida with their wives. The charming 1967 Stanley Donen film Two for the Road used the couple’s four distinctive cars to track them throughout the story’s four time periods. Use Recurring Visual, Locations and Props Anchor your flashbacks In Greta Gerwig’s recent adaptation of Little Women, she wrote the flashbacks in red font for the sake of clarity for the reader. The style of The Bourne Supremacy announces its flashbacks with a sudden surge in its rhythm, pace and prose style: The look of Memento with its alternating color and black-and-white film stock differentiates the present (forward-moving) and past (backward-moving) timelines. Modern moviegoers have developed a sophisticated understanding of film language, so they don’t need much. Make sure flashbacks aren’t disorienting or distracting. You want to avoid overused clichés yet understand their essential function.
You are familiar with the common transitions that lead us in and out of a flashback, which include editing transitions like dissolves, clever wipes, blur effects, white flashes, leading dialogue, and ominous music. Orient the Audience Distinguish your flashbacks
We will show you when, why, where, and how to write flashbacks in a screenplay. Will they focus on merely mystery, plot, and story? Will they deepen insight into the protagonist? Will they make us ponder meaning and theme? When using multiple flashbacks, devise an overall strategy that lets them be more than the sum of their parts. On the flip side, they can create doubt, suspense, and mystery. They can clarify and accentuate a fact or feeling. Individually, flashbacks can deepen our connection with a character. Is this flashback the best way to move the story forward? To determine if a flashback is necessary ask this ironic question A bad one slows the story momentum with boring information, or worse case, makes it feel like it’s moving backward. You can take some creative liberties if you honor the maxim: “Thou shalt not confuse the audience.” Why Do Writers Use Flashbacks The power and purpose of flashbacksĪ good flashback can create mystery, raise the stakes, and clarify meaning and significance. Others bounce back and forth strategically to tell a more nuanced narrative.Īt the end of this article, check out our detailed blog that covers technical formatting for flashbacks in your screenplay.īut as we go along, our examples will help you adapt a style of your own. Some simply start in the present and tell the entire story through one giant flashback. In other words, flashback scenes in movies are more common that "flashback movies." That being said, there have been a number of fantastic screenplays that use a flashback structure to weave in and out of a story's chronology.īelow are just a few classic examples, each brings a distinct flair and personality to writing flashbacks. Many time when a screenplay takes a trip to the past, it is an isolated deviation. Flashback Examples in Movies Scripts that use flashbacks as structure