Hello all!

I am unsure of how to write this out properly. I'll briefly describe what I am trying to do

The scene shows a man standing outside a building (In this case a young dictator just after a successful coup) - In this scene, it's bright, the crowd are jubilant, happy feeling.

I then wan't the scene to age - So the man is standing in the same place, not moving. He ages by 50 years, the scene is now dull, the crowd sparse and miserable.

At the moment I have it written in an action line, general idea below:

EXT. STEPS OF PARLIAMENT - DAY

TERENCE JUNE (40's) happy man happy scene description

Scene Ages

Terence June (90's) stern man, miserable scene, sad description

Is there a better way of doing this?

Many thanks

Matt

You may need a “dissolve to”.

Or

Add a “super: years later” and then add the dictator old.

Gabe

It sounds like you want to use a MATCH CUT transition (which, despite the name, is usually implemented as a dissolve). Some object or character ties the two scenes together, in your case the location and dictator and crowd are all constant. One example was the Ahnold Stands Guard scene in Terminator 2.

Another method would be to use time lapse, but that would be fantastically expensive and not work any better than the MATCH CUT.

Thank you so much for the replies.

Mr.Ripley - The dissolve to, from my understanding anyway, distorts the image and then refocuses with a new one - In my head i want the scene to be more seamless (Like in Titanic when we see a shot of the old ship wreck at the bottom of the ocean which turns into the sailing bustling alive Titanic)

I've looked up the match cut, as I haven't used it before - Looks like the sort of thing I need. So from my example above, would it be like this?:

EXT. STEPS OF PARLIAMENT - DAY

TERENCE JUNE (40's) happy man happy scene description

MATCH CUT:

Terence June (90's) stern man, miserable scene description

That sounds right to me. Just to be extra clear with your writing, I would make a point of mentioning the tying items at the very end of the first scene, then the transition, then the tying items first in the second scene.

EXT. STEPS OF PARLIMENT - DAY

TERENCE JUNE (42) ... (proper description of scene)

Terence, the crowd, and the even the gleaming marble steps seem electric with enthusiasm.

MATCH CUT TO:

EXT. STEPS OF PARLIMENT - DAY

Terence (92) looks sternly at a sparse gathering of miserable citizens gathered on the dingy steps ... (proper description of scene)

Thank you very much for taking the time to help

Will make the adjustments accordingly