Thursday, 10 December 2009

Research on Flashbacks By Matthew Helliwell

I have decided to do some research on flashbacks to give our group some inspiration or ideas on how to do our penultimate flashback scene.
I have found that flashback scenes need to be noticably different so the audience can understand that it is different like shot in black and white for example.

In this clip from the film [Out Cold]



The man is driving and while he is talking the scene cuts to a different location, the audience know that this is a flashback because he is describing it in the script and because the lighting changes dramaticly. In his car the lighting is just natural for a night, but in the flashback scene the lighting is very high, enhancing colour and making the audience notice a difference which is important. It also gives the impression that maybe he is remembering happier times.

There we saw a good example of bright lighting used in a flashback.

In this clip from the film [Twilight]



A flashback is used as he is telling Bella the story of his family. The scene changes and his story continues over the top of the flashback again but this time the lighting is dimmed creating an orange glow. The actors faces are lit but nothing else is, making the audience look at what the director wanted them to look at. The shots also seam to fade out around the edges of the camera. I thought i would use this example as it differs from the first example that i used.

In the film [Citizen Kane]



Flashbacks are used excessively, as news reporter Jerry Thompson delves into Charles Foster Kanes private life and tries to figure out the meaning of Kanes dieing word "Rosebud." The flashbacks occur as Jerry Thompson interrogates the people who were close to him, and they tell him their account of events throughout Kanes life. The flashbacks have no effects to change the appearence of the scenes, so the only way the viewer can tell it is a flashback is that previously the man who was being interrogated started a story and then the flashback starts. Another way which defines the flashbacks (as they are not allways chronological) is the age of Kane as in some stories he is young and in others he is considerably older, this gives us some indication to what time range this story is being told. Nevertheless flashbacks have a very important role in telling this story.

In this clip from [The Shawshank Redemption]



There is a flashback as Tommy is telling a story. At 07:16 the scene goes into the flashback and into Tommy's recolation of the story. The change is made distinguishable by the contrasting change of lighting, Tommy was telling the story in a well lit library, where as when the scene changes to the flashback it seams to be set in a dark cell. The mans face is half hidden by darkness. The flashback is effective i think because of the continuous dialogue between the scenes.

In our film I think we have to indicate some kind of effect which will distinguish the change between real time and flashback in Lucy's mind, although I dont want to change the image to black and white. I liked how Catherine Hardwicke did the Twilight flasback as it was a similar situation to what we want to do, a short scene that reveals something. I particulary liked the effect on the film as it created the feeling of dark, and sadness. which is what we would like to produce.

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