Quote: Dolly Dagger @ October 9 2008, 3:07 PM BST

Ah, but is it enough of a story

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No. It's pap.

I think flashbacks are a bit passe. I'm experimenting more with flash-forwards nowadays.

No. It's pap.

Very droll.

Quote: Marc P @ October 9 2008, 3:44 PM BST

No. It's pap.

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Yeah, I thought it was scraping the barrel...

If it's any help, flashbacks, like montages, can be more expensive and complex to achieve than their worth on screen. For example, they will call for costume and make-up changes, and possibly wigs. They will need different or re-dressed sets. They obviously need to be designed, lit and rehearsed. So for a significant financial outlay, and perhaps half a day of location time, you end up with 90 seconds of screen time. Given that budgets everywhere are under the cosh, my advice would be to think very carefully about using them in a half hour show. If it's a big budget American drama, then maybe.

Also, on the original question, and as Marc says, people like to be told stories, and expect to be told one in a narrative sitcom. It can be a slight story, or interwoven slight stories, but if people don't know very early on the story they're being asked to follow, or think it's going to be a story-free half hour, they may well move elsewhere in the digital universe.

Thanks for the advice Mr J.

As the main action all takes place in one location and the flashbacks are in very recent history only and involve only two interior sets, I presume it wouldn't affect budget greatly? So, in effect, it's the same as shooting a script with three different scene locations. Maybe the flashbacks also offer visual relief from the main set.

I'll have to wait and see if anyone finds it holds their interest when I've finished tinkering. And get the script done too. Boom boom. Whatever, I've enjoyed writing and it's really making me laugh. But then I'm sleep-deprived to the point of mania.

That might work. As you say, the script will tell. Best of luck with it anyway.

Quote: willie garvin @ October 9 2008, 2:39 PM BST

On a tangent, I was just wondering how you make it clear when you are in flashback, and when you're in the present day?

Anyway, how do YOU do flashbacks?

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I always do it like this....

Firstly, instead of CUT TO: in the previous scene, you type MIX TO:

Then you indicate in the slugline that it's a flashback:

INT. PUB. NIGHT. (FLASHBACK)

Sometimes I type how far the flashback goes back in the scene action below the slugline.

Then I write the scene.

Finally you need to indicate the end of the flashback by simply typing:

END OF FLASHBACK.

With MIX TO: under it.

Oh, I didn't mean, how do you technically lay out a flashback, I just meant are there more interesting ways to show you're in different time periods than just changing the filter or putting up a caption. Or having a character look up and off to the side 'remembering' over some harp music.

Like Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion - there's a flash and they're both dressed like Like a Virgin era Madonna. Boom, we know it's the 80s. Goddamn, Romy and Michelle is a good film. In Dolly's case, I don't think it really matters if it's the same set and only a few weeks difference, though it might be confusing if the characters look exactly the same.

Willie - I was thinking along the lines of fast cutting - like in Spaced I suppose. One minute we're mid-scene, then it cuts to a flashback (different location, same character) and then back. I think audiences would understand what was happening.

However in different cases I wouldn't be opposed to using subs.