A few days ago I posted a response to Michael Hauge’s article on flashbacks. I also e-mailed him that post and invited him to respond, and he was kind enough to do so. Here is his answer:
I appreciate David’s kind words about my article on using flashbacks in your screenplay. But since he challenged some of my statements, I thought I’d better clarify what I said.
My intent with the article was to identify the various forms flashbacks can take, in order to give writers a better understanding of this device, and when it might be appropriate. When, at the conclusion of the article, I advise writers not to use flashbacks, I perhaps should have worded it differently and said use flashbacks only as a last resort. My goal was (and remains) to discourage writers from automatically creating a flashback as soon as they want to reveal something from the past.
The “bad” examples of flashbacks David would like to see occur mostly in screenplays that never got produced, or in early drafts of scripts written before I began coaching the writers. The good examples are from films where the screenwriters clearly pondered many other ways of revealing the past, and wisely concluded that some form of flashback worked best.
I also should perhaps have omitted the Prologue from the list, since technically it doesn’t flash “back” from anything; it’s the opening sequence of the script. But since it occurs in the past, prior to the main body of the story, and since it serves many of the same functions (anticipation, curiosity, foreshadowing, echoing and exposition), I included it.
But my point remains: flashbacks are overused devices in the majority of scripts I read (not in the majority of produced films). I looked at the top 25 box office hits of all time listed on www.boxofficemojo.com. Of those 20, I couldn’t identify a single one that used a simple flashback. Finding Nemo has a prologue, Titanic tells two parallel stories, and Iron Man has a big action teaser (all of these are explained in the article). But unless I’ve forgotten something about the others, none of them contains any form of flashback. And three out of twenty-five hardly indicates a commonly used device.
Even referring to the IMDb movie list David cites, I don’t recall a flashback of any kind in The Godfather, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Schindler’s List, 12 Angry Men, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Empire Strikes Back or The Dark Knight – and only the Parallel Story device in The Godfather Part II and Pulp Fiction – leaving only The Shawshank Redemption, which opens with a combination Prologue and Single Past Incident. Again, three out of their top ten films hardly indicates frequent usage.
As for contradicting that old maxim “show, don’t tell,” I wanted to point out that once in awhile the most powerful way of eliciting emotion is through a character telling us something from their past, and allowing the audience’s own imagination to create the images – especially when the past event is particularly painful. This is how we learn of the death of Neytiri’s sister in Avatar, for example – and seems to me a far more moving revelation than if we had to flash back to actually see her slaughtered by mercenaries.
I hope that clarifies any confusion about my article – or at least stimulates more discussion, and makes you think twice before resorting to a flashback in your own screenplay.
- Michael Hauge
Thanks, Michael, for your response to a humble peon like myself. I agree that the prologue was an odd inclusion, but didn’t challenge that, for the same reasons you cited. And having been a reader for Austin Film Festival’s Screenwriting Competition, I certainly agree that flashbacks are often used poorly in bad scripts – but then again, so are dialogue, exposition, and chase scenes. I can’t tell you how many awful chase scenes I’ve read. Certainly, though, the simple flashback is a dull device that should be used sparingly, although I don’t remember the scene you’re referring to in Avatar, so it obviously didn’t make much of an impression on me. Far more effective for me was V for Vendetta, which I remember being incredibly moving, as he told the story while we watched it on screen also something that needs to be done well or not at all).
I’d still like to think of some examples of poor flashback use in well-known movies. Enough bad movies have been made over the years, there’s gotta be something.
As far as the IMDb list, you’re right on. I was counting 12 Angry Men as having a prologue, though perhaps I shouldn’t have under the terms of this discussion, since it happens immediately before the story, and not significantly beforehand. It is, in the classical sense, a prologue, though, which is why I counted it. Schindler’s List, was my mistake – I was thinking of the epilogue, which takes place in present day, and The Dark Knight and The Godfather I was confusing with their prequel and sequel, respectively, both of which do employ flashbacks.
It bears pointing out, though, that The Shawshank Redemption, in addition to the Prologue, also contains a Single Past Incident flashback to Tommy’s former cellmate, as well as The Explanation at the end.
So at least I can claim the best movie of all time.
I appreciate David’s kind words about my article on using flashbacks in your screenplay. But since he challenged some of my statements, I thought I’d better clarify what I said.
My intent with the article was to identify the various forms flashbacks can take, in order to give writers a better understanding of this device, and when it might be appropriate. When, at the conclusion of the article, I advise writers not to use flashbacks, I perhaps should have worded it differently and said use flashbacks only as a last resort. My goal was (and remains) to discourage writers from automatically creating a flashback as soon as they want to reveal something from the past.
The “bad” examples of flashbacks David would like to see occur mostly in screenplays that never got produced, or in early drafts of scripts written before I began coaching the writers. The good examples are from films where the screenwriters clearly pondered many other ways of revealing the past, and wisely concluded that some form of flashback worked best.
I also should perhaps have omitted the Prologue from the list, since technically it doesn’t flash “back” from anything; it’s the opening sequence of the script. But since it occurs in the past, prior to the main body of the story, and since it serves many of the same functions (anticipation, curiosity, foreshadowing, echoing and exposition), I included it.
But my point remains: flashbacks are overused devices in the majority of scripts I read (not in the majority of produced films). I looked at the top 25 box office hits of all time listed on www.boxofficemojo.com. Of those 20, I couldn’t identify a single one that used a simple flashback. Finding Nemo has a prologue, Titanic tells two parallel stories, and Iron Man has a big action teaser (all of these are explained in the article). But unless I’ve forgotten something about the others, none of them contains any form of flashback. And three out of twenty-five hardly indicates a commonly used device.
Even referring to the IMDb movie list David cites, I don’t recall a flashback of any kind in The Godfather, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Schindler’s List, 12 Angry Men, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Empire Strikes Back or The Dark Knight – and only the Parallel Story device in The Godfather Part II and Pulp Fiction – leaving only The Shawshank Redemption, which opens with a combination Prologue and Single Past Incident. Again, three out of their top ten films hardly indicates frequent usage.
As for contradicting that old maxim “show, don’t tell,” I wanted to point out that once in awhile the most powerful way of eliciting emotion is through a character telling us something from their past, and allowing the audience’s own imagination to create the images – especially when the past event is particularly painful. This is how we learn of the death of Neytiri’s sister in Avatar, for example – and seems to me a far more moving revelation than if we had to flash back to actually see her slaughtered by mercenaries.
I hope that clarifies any confusion about my article – or at least stimulates more discussion, and makes you think twice before resorting to a flashback in your own screenplay.
- Michael Hauge
Flashbacks in prose should also be discouraged! As well as dream sequences….
When a character talks about something that happened to him, revealing his character and connecting with the audience through his emotion, that’s powerful. The other example that comes to mind is the very famous USS Indianapolis scene in “Jaws.” Scared the bejeezus out of us, foreshadowed what was coming, and revealed a lot about Quinn.
Cinda
http://ccyager.wordpress.com
Dear David,
I’m writing to you about your views on flashback,to say I think you’re right, and if you look below, I’ve provided a breakdown of Slumdog Millionaire, written in the present, with no flashbacks and telling the story in the past with backstory. You’ll see how much less rich this version without flashbacks is than the original .
I should introduce myself by saying that my name is Linda Aronson, my day job is as a scriptwriter and novelist , but I have written two books on practical guidelines for writing ensemble and time jump films, Screenwriting Updated (widely in use around the world, endorsed by Christopher Vogler required reading at NYU etc) and The 21st Century Screenplay (endorsed by Linda Seger among others), just published in North America by Silman James Los Angeles and in the rest of the world by Allen Unwin. I lecture and consult internationally on parallel narrative showing how successful ensembl e and time jump films conform to patterns, and I provide practical templates for constructing them. For example, double narrative flashbacks (jumping between past and present as in Slumdog or Citizen Kane) are best planned as consecutive circles linked at a crucial scene (usually second act turning point or climax of the story of the past, which is simultaneously the disturbance of the story in the present), jumping then back to the disturbance in the past and jumping to and fro henceforth between specific cliffhangers in past and present.
Where people go wrong with flashbacks is to jump when the film is flagging – you get energy, but when you jump back to the present the audience has forgotten where it is, and your problem is compounded. Yes, I would advise doing flashbacks only after careful thought and planning, but if an old writer whose forgotten how many scripts she’s had produced may be cruel to be kind, if a writer is looking to compete in a multi-million dollar industry and not prepared to think carefully and plan, well, that writer is in for many, many disappointments’. We all love writing quickly – it’s a tremendous buzz – but being a successful scriptwriter is like being an Olympic athlete. You must give 120%. You cannot coast on your natural talent.
To conclude, you are not alone in believing flashbacks are a vital part of modern screenwriting (although Homer used them in the Odyssey, as did many ancient writers – to grab the audience with material that is slow to start). In fact, there are many many writers around the world who, like you, are fascinated with writing outside of the one hero on a single chronological journey towards redemption, and who want to use time jumps and group stories. Indeed, there is huge frustration internationally among writers about the dictum that one must always use the linear three act template. Fine structure as this is, it only works for a certain kind of story. Films that don’t use that structure have always existed. Like Michael Hauge, in my work as a script consultant I have come across many weak flashback films (and yes, often they should never have been done as flashback, but sometimes they have just gone a bit off course and I can put them on the right track). However, what also is of huge concern is the many films that I come across that have been irreparably damaged by being forced into a linear three act journey towards redemption when they are inherently films about groups and should be constructed as such, using one of a number of group story structures depending on content.
Anyway, in 21st Century Screenplay I have isolated six major categories of film, with subcategories of time jump and multiple protagonist films, with subcategories, that do not conform to the conventional template, explaining how to construct each. After I gave a lecture on non linear and multiple protagonist scriptwriting late last year at the London Screenwriters’ Festival, members of the audience were so excited about the prospect of practical guidelines for writing in these forms that they kept me discussing the topic for hours after the lecture had finished
By the way, since in your post you mention The Usual Suspects and Julie and Julia, I should perhaps mention that I have in book extensive comments on The Usual Suspects (which I feel belongs to a family of double narrative flashback I have called ‘Case History’ flashback, that jumps between stories in a specific way and deals with specific subject matter). I have also mentioned Julie and Julia, which I feel belongs to a sub category of what I call ‘Multiple Protagonist group stories’, namely what I term a ‘double journey’ film. It’ s in the same family as Brokeback Mountain, The Queen, Vicki Christina Barcelona, The Lemon Tree and more recently The King’s Speech. These are films which follow The ‘Double Journey’ film is a version of multiple protagonist form. It’s always about two characters journeying either towards each other, or in parallel or apart (emotionally or physically or both). Examples of double journey films are Brokeback Mountain, Finding Nemo, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Lives of Others, The Departed, The Proposition, The Lemon Tree and The Queen. The motto is: ‘two lives in parallel’.
Because the action follows two characters in separate lives, each of the pair is a protagonist who must have an action line and and a separate range of companions.
The idea of these films being multiple protagonist films will puzzle many people, who will feel that since, in many of these films, we know one traveller better than the other, the person we see most is the protagonist,with the other the antagonist in a one-hero film. I’d say these films spend too much time alone with the second traveller for that: furthermore, their central concerns are not one person’s emotional growth and one person’s point of view. They are films about two individuals in a social context, and they make their point through an exploration, often critical, of how society moulds and restricts these two individuals.
The danger of thinking of these films as single protagonist stories is that you can easily forget to follow the second protagonist (which is what happens with Ada in Cold Mountain) with the result that one character has nothing to do.
Below my signature is my rendering of Slumdog Millionaire as a conventional linear story, which appears in The 21st Century Screenplay (pp.252-3)
With best wishes,
Linda Aronson
Slumdog Millionaire told as a conventional linear story
To see just how much flashback can enrich a film, let’s look at a conventional linear version of Slumdog Millionaire. It would either tell Slumdog as an episodic three act story starting at its chronological start in Jamal’s childhood, or as a three act story beginning with Jamal as an adult working as chai waller. The past would be told as backstory through dialogue, typically, in conflict situations like arguments (where the past can be credibly brought up) or explanations to an interrogator. This version would have run something along the following lines.
Slumdog Millionaire structured in conventional linear form
Open in the present. Jamal is working as a chai waller (normality). He finds his lost brother, then Latika (disturbance), with the backstory of the three told briefly in dialogue (e.g. via recriminations). His plan is to rescue Latika, but he has no money to successfully evade her gangster captor. His first act turning point (surprise/obstacle) is getting on the show ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ (which might give him the chance to get the money). The second act shows him progressing successfully through the show, increasingly suspected of cheating. Between show episodes, as part of his relationship line, he seeks out Latika and Salim, as in the existing film. His second act turning point (moment closest to death) is the police interrogation scenes, during which, in an impassioned but brief speech to his interrogator, he reveals how he knew all the answers to the questions (decision to fight back). As his third act battle to win, he returns to the show to answer the final question. Winning (as per the existing film, with, in the relationship line, Latika freed by Salim’s self sacrificing suicide), provides both action and relationship line climaxes.
Needless to say, this version doesn’t begin to approach the richness and depth of the real movie, which actually shows us Salim’s past. Of course, the committed conventional narrative supporter would respond that Slumdog is indeed brilliant, but flashback wrongly used is a recipe for disaster—which is absolutely right. Jumping from a story in the present to the past is always dangerous—partly because the story in the present stops for the flashback, which can cause slowing, and partly because the audience might forget where they jumped from.
So, can we set down any rules or patterns at all to identify why and how best to use flashback? Fascinatingly, and very usefully, there are definite patterns and rules underlying all successful flashback films, and these are directly related to the conventional three act narrative. At present, flashback ranges from simple, self–contained chunks of backstory in otherwise linear one–hero films, to complex structures like the eleven stories in nine different time frames we see in The Sweet Hereafter. Excitingly, flashback forms are developing and hybridising all the time, encouraged by audiences highly–receptive to non–linear forms and well–used to flashback from TV and online drama.
Thanks, Linda, for thoughtful reply, which is actually quite timely for me. Although the screenplay I’m writing doesn’t use flashbacks, it is a multi-character story, with the protagonist really being the town in which the story takes place (which bears the name of the movie). So your book might be a useful one for me. Also, I like your point about three-act structure fitting only a certain type of film – I composed a lengthy reply to that, but I’m going to use that as its own blog post.
Of course, I do think it’s a bit disingenuous to use Slumdog Millionaire as an example of effective use of flashbacks, since it is really a parallel storyline. But your point still stands.
[...] morning, I woke up to a reply from Linda Aronson on my Flashbacks discussion with Michael Hauge (scroll to the comments at the bottom). One of the things she brings up is the fact that not all scripts have to follow the three-act [...]
Dear David
I hope your script is going well. I’ve been meaning to get back to you on this interesting stuff about flashbacks. Just a quick response to clarify my views on flashback vis a vis “Slumdog Millionaire”. There is no disingenousness on my part. Yes, completely agree that “Slumdog Millionaire” is indeed a parallel story. But I would say that in being so it’s a complex form of flashback, an actual narrative form in itself that I call ‘double narrative flashback’.
I think what’s probably lhappening here is that we differ on a fundamental matter, namely our take on film structure generally.
I think you’re taking ‘flashback’ to mean merely a bit of dramatised backstory inserted into a linear one hero model, with the one hero model being what structure ‘is’. I have a very different view of flashback and of film structure generally.
I think film structure consists of the conventional linear one-hero chronological Hollywood model plus many clearly very different kinds of autonomous non-linear and/or ensemble storytelling structures. I think that as well as the one hero model there are six quite different structural paradigms we can use, with hybrids appearing all the time.
Regarding flashback, I think there are also six different sorts of flashback – some that are very simple, being essentially just bits of dramatised backstory inserted into a linear three act model, and some that are much more complex. There are two main forms are narrative structures in themselves, involving two or more stories in different time frames, with the action of the film jumping between the narratives. Clearly, in those, one has to structure each story separately. Also, and crucially, one has to jump at precisely the right moment to make sure a) the audience knows where it is b) one maintains pace and connection and ) one provides meaning and closure. Fascinatingly, double narrative flashback structures (my name for these form) have been jumping stories at the the same spots across cultures for thousands of years. The same mechanics have been used. For example, Homer in the Odyssey uses double narrative flashback and jumps at the same points in the narrative structure of Odysseus’ story as Slumdog Millionaire. (He also uses multiple protagonists).
Can I suggest that you check out my new updated website http://www.lindaaronson.com and my blog http://blog.lindaaronson.info ? I’ve explained a lot about parallel narrative in these places.
Flashback is an amazing tool – very hard, but capable of brilliant narrative. Thanks for the interesting discussion
Linda Aronson
[...] while back I exchanged a few blog posts with Michael Hauge on the subject of flashbacks, and two and a half years later those continue to be some of my most popular articles on this site. [...]
[...] while back I exchanged a few blog posts with Michael Hauge on the subject of flashbacks, and two and a half years later those continue to be some of my most popular articles on this site. [...]