: How to show a flashback in a screenplay? I’ve searched the questions and couldn’t find this. I don’t quite understand how to notate/show a flashback in a screenplay. Not just the format,
I’ve searched the questions and couldn’t find this. I don’t quite understand how to notate/show a flashback in a screenplay. Not just the format, but also the actual text and tense.
I don’t know if you create a new scene heading with (flashback) or something or if it stands alone. And how do you show that it has ended, etc.?
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According to www.storysense.com/format/flashbacks.htm, you should bookend it with "BEGIN FLASHBACK" and "END FLASHBACK" as action lines, and then treat it as any other new scene, even if it is the same location. Changing tense is not necessary.
BEGIN FLASHBACK
INT - ROGER'S HOUSE (1980) - NIGHT
[flashback scene]
END FLASHBACK
INT - ROGER'S HOUSE (2017) - DAY
You can include dates or other indications of time in the slugline, as above --you'll especially need those if it is the same location at different periods of time. If it's your first visit to that time, you might also include some time specific details in the scene description. You can also indicate that the date should be flashed onscreen:
INT - ROGER'S HOUSE (1980) - NIGHT
The same room, but with an 8-track cassette player instead of Amazon Echo.
SUBTITLE FADES IN: June 1st, 1980
www.scriptologist.com/Magazine/Formatting/Time/time.html The main thing to remember is that your script should have ALL and ONLY what is needed for a director to turn it into a film. Everything that is important for the final audience needs to be on the screen. They will never see anything (from you) except what you tell the director to show them.
SHOW NOT TELL is not necessarily great advice for novels, but it was tailor-made for movies. It's neither necessary nor desirable to include a lot of explanation about what is really going on. Instead make it visible in the script. Here's a great example of how it was handled in a big budget movie with complex timeframes and levels of reality: www.raindance.co.uk/site/scripts/Inception.pdf
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