When writing non-linear, do I have to note time changes?
I’m writing a non linear drama and my question is: do I have to notate what will be seen literally in the film, like age differences and such because the film won’t require much if any scene cues like “seven years later” it will all be interpreted by the viewer but do I have to notate it in the scene or action lines in my screenplay?
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Yes you should. If it is truly non-linear, you should use years: 1997, 2020, 1983, etc. Do not count on your viewers/readers to be able to add and subtract from the current year being shown, in their head. By the end of the scene, they may not even remember the current year being shown.
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You may do it, you may not. Pulp Fiction didn't do it, neither Memento. When writing a small nonlinear section in my novel, I didn't do it.
However, in all of those instances there are several things that might have inspired the author not to use scene cues.
- In Pulp Fiction, there aren't many time jumps and, most of time, they are very self evident.
- In Memento, (and in my novel) the movie is intended to be confusing.
I would say the need for scene cues should be based on how many time-jumps there are (scene cues get tiring quickly), if you want the story to be confusing and if the time jumps are linear or not (Scenes A, B and C happen in the chronological order ABC, but are presented in the order BAC).
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/31682. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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How a time change is indicated in the finished film is up to the director. You just need to indicate to the director that the time has changed, not specify how this is shown.
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