Flashbacks

Screenwriters! Have you been warned: NEVER USE FLASHBACKS? This video tells you why it's OKAY to flash back! (Everybody does it! It's a normal, healthy human impulse :) )
I talk about the different types of flashbacks (character/audience, fast/slow) and how to use them. I give you the basic principle that makes flashbacks work, and some nifty flashback tricks.
- - -
This channel is here to help you learn to write for screens - ANY kind of screens, from Hollywood tentpole to streaming series to DIY indie.
Want to know more about me? Want to work with me, one-on-one? Script reading and consulting, project and process consulting: go to WRITINGFORSCREENS.COM.
Credits Motion Graphics: Xander Brennan, xanbrennan.com
Credits Music: musicfornothin...

[@michaelgerena5676]

The two big "DO NOT DO's" in screenwriting: flashbacks and voiceover. Problem is I'm a fan of both. Thanks for giving us your insight on this much debated topic.

[@tomlewis4748]

Good VO examples? Dexter and Mr. Robot.

[@joannkelly7994]

Thank you. Very helpful. Continue sharing this’d “food for thought”. Stay blessed,

[@writingforscreens]

Thank you!

[@joannkelly7994]

You’re welcome.

[@christinadtla2196]

I appreciate this very much. Thank you

[@writingforscreens]

So glad it's useful - thanks for telling me here, that helps me a lot!

[@AnyDayNow360]

Thanks for breaking down what's in our tool box, Glen! What I can summarize from what I learned is how to implement this in a screenplay for, as another video you shared, maximum effect (set-pieces). 😁🤙

[@writingforscreens]

Yay! That's how I hope this will work: you can put things you learn in little bits together to use as you need!! Thanks for telling me about it!

[@RebelKitty525]

This video was really helpful! The script I’m writing opens up with a flashback. This video is helping me structure the opening scene much better thank you!

[@writingforscreens]

Yay, so glad to hear it!

[@mikehess4494]

Thank you.

[@fabianjopia]

"Flashback responsably" ❤

[@writingforscreens]

Exactly!!

[@AnyDayNow360]

The Michael Bay comment 🤣☠️

[@Fooact]

Nice work thanks so much for taking your time to teach me

[@writingforscreens]

Thank YOU, for letting me know it's useful!

[@elixsg]

THANK YOU

[@writingforscreens]

So glad you find it useful!

[@hoepfnerhusselmann947]

Greetings from S.A. Ahh man writing is hard, I wrote this flashback to explain why the character is doing something... I think I should go the cowardly way and think of something else, flashbacks sound like it's for the big boys not a newbie like me. Thanks for complicating my life! P.s. I love these lessons, learnt a lot so far, only a year behind the rest of the class...

[@writingforscreens]

Sorry for the complications - over time, they get easier! Glad you're enjoying it. And flashbacks are not only for experienced writers - if it works in your story, then it works in your story!

[@vidithoro7175]

hahaha...Asia's top film school taught me no flashback and I am phobic to it while writing till date.

[@writingforscreens]

HAha! Yes, I do sometimes clash a bit with various Respected Teachers & Schools. And in this case, I'll stand by it: you don't HAVE to use flashbacks, but you certainly CAN. Thank you for the comment! Try not to be afraid - in fact in general, try to do creative things that scare you (when the stakes are low). It's often a path to exciting new abilities and ideas.

[@nas8856]

Lol damn Michael Bay caught a stray

[@writingforscreens]

Just a graze, I think!

[@kubolor1234]

Would love a video on voiceover too

[@writingforscreens]

This isn't a fully-crafted lesson on that topic, but at least it's a start: LIVE - SCREENWRITING AMA: “Can I Use Voice-Over?” - kzbin.info/www/bejne/gZ6teGuIlpaIb9U

[@kubolor1234]

@@writingforscreens thank you!

[@aaronholloway6060]

I'm elated to have found your content and I've benefitted immensely! Thank you for another superb video! I'm a novice screenwriter and I adpire to work with you one-one-one in the near future. I do have one question: does the same advice apply to flashforwards? I decided early on to open my screenplay with a flashforward sequence. I know that context also matters. Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

[@writingforscreens]

Yes, flash-forwards can be fine. They are often just "teasers" that the audience knows is being offered by the filmmakers to hook them in. No reason to avoid it, it's a standard tool of storytelling.

[@aaronholloway6060]

@@writingforscreens Thank you very much for the response! It sounds like I'm on the right track.

[@tomlewis4748]

IMHO, if you FB early, such as directly after introducing the character and their problem and expected path, this does not really 'stop' plot forward motion, because the story is hardly rolling at that point. You're on the access road going 45, and not yet on the onramp or the freeway going 90. So the early FB then BECOMES the story for that moment in time. It's simply one more expression of in medias res, which is probably resident in at least 40% of all successful, good stories. Every story is linear. Even Memento. How you tell it, doesn't have to be. A FB is still the story moving forward (if done right), it's just moving forward at an earlier time in the story.

[@writingforscreens]

There's certainly no absolute rule! It all depends on what you want to try to do with your script - and then you focus on making it work.