Screenwriting : Time jumps by Les Collins

I'm pretty sure you could use DISSOLVE TO: or simply use SUPERIMPOSE: 3 weeks later.

Think of how you want to do it visually.

If you want to Supers or white text over a black screen. There is no format as such. Just visual clues you leave.

Flashbacks and Flash-forward all depend on how your story is connected and who(character, author) is telling a story in the film, and does it have a visual flow, so that audience can see through the layers. If there is no character in it then it might feel disconnected and that's what many have issues watching flashbacks or flash-forwards. There are two movies which I can recommend to check out. One Kannada language Indian movie is called "KGF Chapter 1". It's an action movie that might be a trip to watch, where a journalist narrates a story to the Editor of a news channel. In that, there are multiple storylines that go back and forth and it might trip people off, but the director does it well with characters in the story who are doing that connection and gives a visual flow and reasons.

Another movie is a recent one called "Sardar Udham" which is on Netflix I guess. This story got a slight issue as it doesn't have those characters to help with the connection to give a flow to the story and you can see the jumps but it might have that slight disconnecting feeling for a larger audience. But worth a movie as it was supposed to be sent to the Oscars for this year but political correctness stupidity ruined the chances. Do check it, you will get the whole idea of how to go about it.

There are a few more movies that do that quite brilliantly, "Maanagaram", "Nenokkadine" (2014) and another movie is "Dhuruvangal Pathinaaru" (2016). Do watch them, they are fine examples, fantastic movies of how you can write, connect and give a visual appeal, presentation of time jumps

Later, on the script level, you can figure out how to write it using "FLASHBACKS" etc.

What do you want your audience to know and when. An audience can't read your script, so what you make clear for a reader, make equally clear for the audience.

Take a look at the information that is being communicated to the audience in the time jumps and ask yourself if the jumping around is necessary to convey this. If there is a lot of jumping around in the movie it could just become confusing.

I would use "SUPERIMPOSE: _______ (one year later, two weeks after, etc.)" to show the time jumps.

I would limit the use of time jumps. A lot of jumping around could confuse readers/the audience (like Ewan said).

Thanks for the feedback everyone. The specifics are these: I open with a scene to grab the audience. From there I switch the tone with a prologue of the main character. At the end of the prologue a super of 13 months later. Shortly after another character references the opening scene as being 3 weeks ago. I’m thinking the only clarification I need is the 13 months later. What do you guys think ?