Monday, April 14, 2008

Q. How do you deal with FLASHBACKS that are more then one scene? In the scene heading for the first scene, you would write FLASHBACK. But when it transitions to the next scene, would you write FLASHBACK in the scene heading again?

It's all about the clarity.

In some screenplays, where I have only one or two flashbacks, I might just use the FLASHBACK TO: transitional, and not mess with the slugline.

I have a screenplay with five timelines, where the timelines are critical and complex. So I use two devices. I use FLASHBACK TO: and BACK TO: as transitions between scenes in different timelines; and I put the year into the header, in bold, e.g.:

EXT. JACKIE'S STREET - FORT POLK, LOUISIANA - DAY (1971)

Note that like most people these days, I don't use CUT TO:'s. So any transitional stands out.

The rule of thumb as always is: what makes your story clearest without slowing down the read?

Labels: craft

7:06 AM

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