In my first feature posted here, The Burnout, I used seven flashbacks, two of which were from the same moment in time but told through different perspectives.


Phil

I have seen these done two ways now.

1) dates in the scene taglines  
2) flashbacks written as such

I am seeing the dates more and more.  Is this the preferred way to handle them?

Unless an exact date is needed (like a time traveller going back to the day Kennedy was assassinated), I would just include FLASHBACK in the header.  If you can slip the date into the scene or dialogue, all the better.


Phil

What if you don't initially want the viewer to be aware it's a flashback, unless they work it out of course?

Like you don't realise it's a younger version of a main character and it only becomes obvious at the end of the flashback.  Would you still include FLASHBACK in the Slug?

Then just write it as a scene, but leave some indication somewhere that it was a flashback.  Otherwise, it'll confuse people.


Phil

Cheers Phil, that's how it is at the moment so i'll leave it be.

I've been looking through this thread for some info about Dream Sequences, but most of this thread seems to be focused on Flashbacks.

Anyway, my question is this: Is it okay to write a dream sequence without telling the reader that they are about to read a dream sequence? I wanna pull a fast one on the reader and I will, of course, make it very clear later that it was a dream sequence.

Of course.

You can do anything you want.

That particular technique is fairly common I would say.

Man Without a Face had a great dream sequence that didn't let on it was a dream sequence until after it was over.


Phil

Thanks a lot guys.

Say if you were writing a script where a substantial amount of your main characters ended up dying, but then you wrote a few more pages from a time where days were better...kinda like The Godfather II....is that done anymore?

Like Reservoir Dogs?

Flashbacks are a little difficult to write.  Keep them to a minimum if you need to use them.


Phil

No, Dogs wouldn't be it....imo, its completely different from what I'm thinking.

Say if Godfather II didn't jump back and forth from the past to the present, but only kept the Christmas dinner scene at the end.  That's what I mean.  I'm toying around with something like that.