Chapter 7: Manipulating Time

The manipulation of time is one handy tool that screenwriters can use to span hours, days, years or even decades in a screenplay. The run-time of the movie might be 10 min or 2 hours, but the plot-duration can take place over any amount of time imaginable.

When writing a short screenplay, it’s best to limit the plot duration to a shorter amount of time. I recommend no more than a few days, or even better, see if you can get your story to take place over a few hours or less. This will keep your story compact and energized.

Narrative devices to manipulate time:

Flashback

The flashback is a device to give the audience information to clarify a character’s motives and actions and move the story along. Nonlinear screenplays, such a Charlie Kaufman’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) or Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994) use flashbacks to either reflect the mental and emotional state of a character or to reveal details of clever set-ups and payoffs that keep the audience guessing.

Flashforward

Similar to a flashback, a flashforward gives us a glimpse of “what is to come” for a character. It hooks the audience, by showing us a scene from later in the movie – and of course, we’re along for the ride to figure out how she gets there.

Set-Up/Payoff

This device introduces a subtle character trait, line of dialogue, object, clue, or story point that later returns with an “ah-ha” moment or reveal for the audience that has a significance to the storyline. It’s a great tool to add mystery, suspense, humor, and intrigue to your screenplay. It’s the moment when the audience says “I didn’t see that coming” but upon further reflection (and usually after rewinding or re-watching the movie) realizes that this “clue” was there in plain sight all along.

Montage

A montage is a series of short scenes, with no dialogue, that play out over a musical background. It’s a useful device to span a period of time in a matter of seconds or minutes on the screen.

Typically, a montage expresses a single concept or idea, such as falling in love, getting a new job, searching for a missing person, training for the big fight, etc.

Series of Shots

Typically, you want to limit camera direction in your screenplay and leave that to the director and cinematographer, using a Series of Shots, similar to Montage, can relay a great deal of exposition (necessary information to move the story along) in a very short amount of time.

It differs from a Montage in that it is a rapid series of shots – usually much shorter in duration – meant to quickly inform the audience with some new information so they can get on with the story.