Flashbacks
Screenwriters! Have you been warned: NEVER USE FLASHBACKS? This video tells you why it's OKAY to flash back! (Everybody does it! It's a normal, healthy human impulse :) )
I talk about the different types of flashbacks (character/audience, fast/slow) and how to use them. I give you the basic principle that makes flashbacks work, and some nifty flashback tricks.
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This channel is here to help you learn to write for screens - ANY kind of screens, from Hollywood tentpole to streaming series to DIY indie.
Want to know more about me? Want to work with me, one-on-one? Script reading and consulting, project and process consulting: go to WRITINGFORSCREENS.COM.
Credits Motion Graphics: Xander Brennan, xanbrennan.com
Credits Music: musicfornothing.com
Пікірлер: 31
The two big "DO NOT DO's" in screenwriting: flashbacks and voiceover. Problem is I'm a fan of both. Thanks for giving us your insight on this much debated topic.
@tomlewis4748
2 жыл бұрын
Good VO examples? Dexter and Mr. Robot.
Thanks for breaking down what's in our tool box, Glen! What I can summarize from what I learned is how to implement this in a screenplay for, as another video you shared, maximum effect (set-pieces). 😁🤙
@writingforscreens
2 жыл бұрын
Yay! That's how I hope this will work: you can put things you learn in little bits together to use as you need!! Thanks for telling me about it!
I appreciate this very much. Thank you
@writingforscreens
3 жыл бұрын
So glad it's useful - thanks for telling me here, that helps me a lot!
"Flashback responsably" ❤
@writingforscreens
Жыл бұрын
Exactly!!
This video was really helpful! The script I’m writing opens up with a flashback. This video is helping me structure the opening scene much better thank you!
@writingforscreens
9 ай бұрын
Yay, so glad to hear it!
The Michael Bay comment 🤣☠️
Nice work thanks so much for taking your time to teach me
@writingforscreens
3 жыл бұрын
Thank YOU, for letting me know it's useful!
Thank you. Very helpful. Continue sharing this’d “food for thought”. Stay blessed,
@writingforscreens
Жыл бұрын
Thank you!
@joannkelly7994
Жыл бұрын
You’re welcome.
Greetings from S.A. Ahh man writing is hard, I wrote this flashback to explain why the character is doing something... I think I should go the cowardly way and think of something else, flashbacks sound like it's for the big boys not a newbie like me. Thanks for complicating my life! P.s. I love these lessons, learnt a lot so far, only a year behind the rest of the class...
@writingforscreens
Жыл бұрын
Sorry for the complications - over time, they get easier! Glad you're enjoying it. And flashbacks are not only for experienced writers - if it works in your story, then it works in your story!
Thank you.
THANK YOU
@writingforscreens
2 жыл бұрын
So glad you find it useful!
I'm elated to have found your content and I've benefitted immensely! Thank you for another superb video! I'm a novice screenwriter and I adpire to work with you one-one-one in the near future. I do have one question: does the same advice apply to flashforwards? I decided early on to open my screenplay with a flashforward sequence. I know that context also matters. Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
@writingforscreens
Жыл бұрын
Yes, flash-forwards can be fine. They are often just "teasers" that the audience knows is being offered by the filmmakers to hook them in. No reason to avoid it, it's a standard tool of storytelling.
@aaronholloway6060
Жыл бұрын
@@writingforscreens Thank you very much for the response! It sounds like I'm on the right track.
Would love a video on voiceover too
@writingforscreens
7 ай бұрын
This isn't a fully-crafted lesson on that topic, but at least it's a start: LIVE - SCREENWRITING AMA: “Can I Use Voice-Over?” - kzread.info/dash/bejne/faF-qZqLkZS7adY.html
@kubolor1234
7 ай бұрын
@@writingforscreens thank you!
Lol damn Michael Bay caught a stray
@writingforscreens
Жыл бұрын
Just a graze, I think!
IMHO, if you FB early, such as directly after introducing the character and their problem and expected path, this does not really 'stop' plot forward motion, because the story is hardly rolling at that point. You're on the access road going 45, and not yet on the onramp or the freeway going 90. So the early FB then BECOMES the story for that moment in time. It's simply one more expression of in medias res, which is probably resident in at least 40% of all successful, good stories. Every story is linear. Even Memento. How you tell it, doesn't have to be. A FB is still the story moving forward (if done right), it's just moving forward at an earlier time in the story.
@writingforscreens
2 жыл бұрын
There's certainly no absolute rule! It all depends on what you want to try to do with your script - and then you focus on making it work.