Say you have a story that picks up well into whatever the conflict is, but you also want to reveal how things got to where they are?

These are the most common methods, but I'm interested in different takes, if any:

-Straight up flashbacks between present day scenes (no trigger to flashback).

-A dream reveals backstory, then typically a VO of a present day character wakes them up, obviously signalling to the audience the character was dreaming.

-Have the character start talking about their past to another character, then "show not tell" what happened, accompanied by VO in the beginning and end of the sequence.

Are there any other methods? One could simply start at the beginning, but it's always good to "get in late and leave early" as far as I'm concerned.

Quoted from Steven Say you have a story that picks up well into whatever the conflict is, but you also want to reveal how things got to where they are? These are the most common methods, but I'm interested in different takes, if any: -Straight up flashbacks between present day scenes (no trigger to flashback). -A dream reveals backstory, then typically a VO of a present day character wakes them up, obviously signalling to the audience the character was dreaming. -Have the character start talking about their past to another character, then "show not tell" what happened, accompanied by VO in the beginning and end of the sequence. Are there any other methods? One could simply start at the beginning, but it's always good to "get in late and leave early" as far as I'm concerned.

A cute variation on the third one (usually used for comedic effect) is to have the VO be what the character says and the action describe what actually happened.

Quoted from FrankM A cute variation on the third one (usually used for comedic effect) is to have the VO be what the character says and the action describe what actually happened.

You mean like an "unreliable narrator" situation?

I rewatched The Walking Dead's first couple of seasons, because they're the best seasons, and Shane explains to the group how someone died. His VO is heard while we're shown a completely different story.

Quoted from Steven You mean like an "unreliable narrator" situation? I rewatched The Walking Dead's first couple of seasons, because they're the best seasons, and Shane explains to the group how someone died. His VO is heard while we're shown a completely different story.

Yes, the unreliable witness. The most logical place for an unreliable witness is a crime drama, but in that case you don’t want to reveal too much to the audience. In those cases, the unreliable witness’s story would generally be shown as described by the character (with some camera effect indicating this is a potentially fictional flashback). I recall CSI and Crossing Jordan doing that with hypothetical scenarios. Criminal Minds would just have the narration in most cases without any visuals, but that leads to huge heap of OTN dialogue (visuals do appear once the mystery is solved).

Awful hard to answer what is the best without the context. Everything you listed could work.

Quoted from eldave1 Awful hard to answer what is the best without the context. Everything you listed could work.

I'm not relating this to a project I'm working on, just trying to gather ideas of different methods to reveal backstory.

Quoted from Steven I'm not relating this to a project I'm working on, just trying to gather ideas of different methods to reveal backstory.

Yeah, I got that.

I’ve noticed that most TV shows simply tell. They have one character tell another some dark, disturbing, emotional memory from their past and this is supposed to be character growth. It’s pants, I hate that. It’s just the cheapest method of filling time and lazy writing.

For me, there’s no problem using any method but at least try to give it a new twist which is unique to your story, or give them something visual. For example, in a feature I’ve just written, I have a cyborg infected with a virus. Every so often he blacks out and relives a memory from his past before waking up to find the memory deleted and more of his software uninstalled. I’m using that to sneak in backstory.

Another method is when the protagonist works out who the antagonist is. As this is sci-fi, instead of just revealing his deductions (he’s a private detective) he goes into a virtual hyper version of the internet and shows them this character’s backstory from a series of historical clips in which they are all in the scenes as spectators.

A newspaper heading.  Usually followed by reading the pertaining detail why such and such is who they are or committed said act.

Quoted from jayrex A newspaper heading.  Usually followed by reading the pertaining detail why such and such is who they are or committed said act.

Point taken. However, given the current era - maybe go with internet or TV instead.  Folks don't read newspapers

There is the old standard As You Know Bob, which can occasionally be used with enough of a twist to make it palatable. One variation mentioned on that page is having a reporter interview/question/badger the character.

Quoted from FrankM There is the old standard As You Know Bob, which can occasionally be used with enough of a twist to make it palatable. One variation mentioned on that page is having a reporter interview/question/badger the character.

Good idea

Old photos, news articles (as Dave said, on the internet these days instead of print), visiting "the scene of the crime" and getting a memory flash (shorter than an actual flashback), these would all work in addition to the methods you laid out. I think the key is to mix them so that it doesn't look like you are spoon feeding the information.

AJR

Quoted from ajr so that it doesn't look like you are spoon feeding the information.

Dark Crystal tried to do this as a series of flashbacks when two characters' minds touched, but it didn't really work.

Valerian was much, much worse having the ship computer read the equivalent of a Wikipedia article (and this is after the movie started with a long exposition-heavy intro).

In some contexts, you can have the information appear on a screen. A character is only looking for one tidbit on that screen, but databases being databases a lot more will be displayed for the audience to rush through reading.

Thanks everyone for the feedback.