Here's a question--let's see how good everyone is :P I'm working on a concept for a script that takes place in two time periods separated by 20 years and includes all the same characters in each time period... however... I want to write the script linear, using the same actors & actresses to play their respective characters in both time periods. The idea is to write a linear film which is actually made up of two time periods simultaneously. For a bit of clarity, let's say in 1990 there was a group of people that 'robbed' something but one betrays the others and makes off with the 'goods', then twenty years later, for reasons unimportant, they re-unite to find out which one had betrayed them. But the trick is to write it as a linear film in which the audience doesn't differentiate the 'past' from the 'present' and it looks as if it all takes place in the 'now'. (This is vital to the 'hook' at the end of the film btw) So, all that being said, does anyone know of any films in which this has been done? I'm looking for something similar to see how writers have tackled this dilemma in the past--no pun intended. Danke!
Screenwriting : Looking for 'advice' or something... by J.Damian Walker
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I'm not sure I've ever seen anything that has tried this concept as you seem to by trying to do. It seems very complex to try and carry off, and if I tried I'm sure I would get a nose bleed. However, I am curious. Does your hook involve time travel, cryostasis, or some kind of Matrix type computer world? Because it seems to me that 20 years is too long a time for an audience not to notice that the characters have aged. However, if I were to try it I might focus on the background of the "past" settings versus the "future" settings. Obviously the past setting would have newer things. The future would be dustier, things more battered, ect.
The film is set in Berlin, the idea is that the audience sees the older versions and ounger versions of characters as two seperate characters in the film. No sci-fi, more of a 'Usual Suspects' mets Kaufman film
@stephanie Palmer -- I did see the Debt, 'kinda' what I'm looking for but not quite. I guess if you found out at the end of The Debt that the hunt for the Nazi was 'in the past', that's more what I'm going for. Thanks! Feel like Kaufman would've written something like this... closest I've come is more along the lines of Jacob's Ladder? Possibly...
... exactly what came to mind... The Usual Suspects! ... there was another film set in Europe, France or Belgium... a WWII flashback of a current day hitwoman. Can't place the title, but it will come to me (I think?)
... that it... "The Debt"... if, I have read all the postings. Sorry!
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The movie "Scrooge"or The Christmas Carol. Doesn't the older person continually see the younger version of himself. It was a very simple way of having oneself watch oneself. Anyway, I would imagine that the trick to have both/same character interact in separate timelines might involve a narrative and a third person voice speaking at the same time. Hahaha writing that made me dizzy, hahaha peace
You mean, like "Cloud Atlas?" "Looper?"
I've never seen anything like that, but the question has come up before. It will be easy to use something as simple as a flashback. Maybe one sole character thinks back, before he reunites with the group of vigilantes. It will be better to use 5 flashback scenes throughout the movie or it will be titled flashback.
Not like Cloud or Looper. Both are sci-fi. This is not. The idea is for the 'present' to be the A-story, the past the B-story and play them out as if they were happening in the now. btw.. thank you everyone for the input.
And the Debt is close, but it does differentiate the past from the present. I don't want it to feel like I'm using a flashback at all--there in lies the challenge.
There was that Tom Stoppard play Arcadia that did a similar thing. the characters are not all the same as there is a gap of centuries and the later included an historian but conceptually similar. There was an Excellent production of it here in Perth recently.
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... A-story (present), the B-story (past), play them out as if they were happening in the now! Now don't take offense to this, kinda' off the wall... how 'bout... SPLIT SCREENS... with Start/Stop action on one screen at a time, or sometimes playing at the same time? Naw, too confusing... but, look at it this way the movie goers get two flicks for the price of one! :)
Argenis--- That's the idea... RockaRolla was all in the present though-- Butler's romantic storyline with the girl was the B-story. Curt--- 'off the wall'... no offense at all. More ambitious than anything, I think. split screens i think would drive the audience nuts.
Take a look at Christopher Nolan's debut "Following" - it cuts back and forth across three or four different timelines. It makes a point of the timelines being different (bruises and so on) but the audience is kept guessing which timeline comes first, until it ends. You could also check out "The Nines" (John August), which has three different stories all using the same set of actors (I haven't seen it, just read about it).
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... so, might what you're attempting to do as well... :)
Two movies come to mind. The Notebook: I'm guessing this isn't what you're looking for, as James Garner is essentially the narrator, but similar concept. Once Upon a Time in America: This may be more what you're looking for, although I'm not sure you could call it linear. Also, there are 3 timelines to keep straight and the viewer is well aware that they are different timelines. (also note it's a 3.5 hour movie.) Hope this helps. Your concept sounds interesting and I look forward to any updates. Good Luck!
If you are not distinguishing the "past" from the "present", or, in essence, you are making everything in the film the "present"; the real problem is re-introducing the characters to the audience since they are different actors. Incidentally, I grew up in Berlin.
Silke-- that is a challenge, but I've found a way around that. Ah, you grew up in Berlin--best city in Europe in my opinion, a wonderful up-and-coming film town as well, so much talent. Can't wait to get back.
Tip as a writer. Don't think of it as 2 different time periods but just 2 separate locations. By simply giving your character titles as Young Jack and Jack. it breaks it up and helps what you should of set up in the script earlier. I often do this technique in my writing. Here is an example of the 2 separate times of an action in one of my scripts in the first 10 pages. Hope it helps its not as drastic as you want to make it but should give you an idea how to execute it. http://www.stage32.com/profile/63689/screenplay/rise-kings
Not that this helps, but I'm currently writing something along the same vein. You think the characters are all part of the same world until the twists comes. I think as long as the reveal is clear enough, audiences will put it together and understand.
parrallel universe....same person living in same timeline but in different universes....or there is a movie i really enjoyed called the thirteenth floor made in 1999 about virtual worlds within worlds all different versions of the same people from different planes or reality. I think it is on netflix...here is the synopsis... THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR 1999 Two scientists have created a virtual reality 1930s Los Angeles so true-to-life that the occupants don't know they exist only in a computer chip -- until a homicide connects the parallel worlds of the simulated and the creators.
@ Victoria-- great flick, 13th Floor-- but this isn't sci-fi. Just trying to 'hide' that the past is in the past.
ohhhh i see well maybe the main character has to kinda be a loner so there arent to many telling elements to when anything took place .... liiike aging.... he or she maybe doesnt have any children or not really a social butterfly ....kinda like a clint eastwood character tha keeps to himself going about his life trying to keep his baggage or secrets to himself and maybe the reveal could be him or her meeting someone that brings it all to the surface making this person face themselves....or you could do a film about a person with mutiple persoalites ...same person different personalities...like the film from john carpenter the ward! i absolutely loved that movie! but ill stop with ranting on the ideas lol but you really got me thinking on this one! thanks for the deep thought today!
I can't seem to remember the name of the movie but Sandra B was the star. She would wake up one day and her husband was dead and the next her husband was alive. It wasn't sci-fi but seemed to be explained as mentall issues mixing everything up. But it was written as linear past and present coexisting. And she was also in another one like that about a house but that one was a little more sci-fi. Did I mention I am terrible at remembering titles and names? lol
Premonition (2007)
Gavin Hood's "Rendition" (2007): Two threads of time being shown simultaneously with no differentiation between the two. The twist at the end depends on the audience being in the dark until the final "reveal".
I have a couple of comments. Have you seen "Somewhere in Time" with Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve? My specialties are music and sound design. So much can be done with these tools to help you get the affect you want using the effects you want ;)
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The Lake House does it. Good pick Lyse.
@ Samuel-- I'm going to use the same actress to play both the daughter and mother (both of which the respective A&B stories follow, one having to do with the mother and her involvement in the past and the daughter and her involvement in the fallout 20 years later. Pulp Fiction might be a good example of intertwined stories, as is Babel to a lesser extent. Danke!
It sounds similar to Italian job. You may have to restructure.
definitely not like the Italian Job or he Lake House.
Find a film with a similar storyline and downloa the original screenplay :)
Sounds like Lake a House did that tho!
If no one can come up with a movie that does this, is there a reason for that?