Point of view in flashback sequence help.

[Angelshare1]

I'm writing a sceenplay which involves a lot of flashbacks. About 95% of it takes place in the past with the other 5% being two characters recalling the events over a drink in a bar.

Anyways, I have certain plot elements and character development I need to get done and I'm having trouble with point of view. If a character is recalling their past and it's told from their point of view is it okay to have other characters chat about things away from the character that is recalling?

ie, lets say in Forrest Gump, Forrest is recalling his time with Lt Dan and all of the sudden Lt. Dan steps away from Gump with his superior officer and discusses a secret about Forrest that Forrest is unaware of. (Never appeared in the film, just citing an example.) Since Forrest is the one doing the recalling from his famous bench, how could we be seeing a meeting with Lt Dan and his superior that Forrest was unaware of?

A real examples is Lone Star which takes place about 50% in the past and events happen that the fellows in the present are recalling which they won't talk about. (See Lone Star if you haven't, it's an amazing movie!) Also characters talk who are not part of the guys recalling the past over a couple of beers.

Just need some guidence on something like this. Thanks guys!

 

[clang]

It does seem like a POV violation. It could perhaps be avoided if the flashbacks also involve a voiceover in strategic places to explain to the current-time listeners (and the audience) things that the POV character only later knew, e.g. 'what i didn't know at the time was...'. But of course voiceovers can be horrible when done badly, and some people hate them on principle.

Or just ignore the POV violation. At a certain percentage of story length, flashback turns into 'told in the past with some current-time framing', and so POVis less important. E.g. the historic parts of Titanic are initially told as if from Rose's remembered POV, but that's quickly abandoned and we see plenty of stuff she didn't, we pretty much forget we were in a giant flashback until the very end.

 

[Eric Boellner]

It's not a POV violation if the character knows what happened after-the-fact. And like Clang said, sometimes if there are a lot of flashbacks, it becomes more of a non-linear storyline than necessarily one character relating what he remembers about something.

I think the more important thing to think about is whether it feels right with the tone of the script. For instance, in The Good Shepherd, the story is told through (I believe) three different specific time periods. It's mostly from the MC's perspective, but throughout the movie, there are instances where it follows another character. These aren't necessarily "flashbacks," but more of a non-linear storyline.

Still, I think audiences are willing to forgo any complaints about any apparent POV violation during flashbacks. I've seen numerous films (can't recall any specifically) that do the exact thing you're talking about. It's often used when someone is recalling their childhood. For instance, say a guy's mother died when he was 10. We flashback to him as a boy, standing outside his mother's room, waiting as the doctor examines her.

The doctor comes out and walks into the kitchen with the father, while the boy goes in to see the mother (therefore, he's out of earshot and this can't just be an example of "I remember hearing..."). We cut between the doctor in the kitchen explaining to the father that the mother isn't going to make it, and the boy in his mother's room, talking to her as she tries to hide her cough and pretend she's okay.

While that's technically a POV violation, most audiences won't really even notice (I don't, unless I'm studying it).

 

[Angelshare1]

Good responses. I was kind of thinking that the rule of thumb for violating POV is not to do it right away in the flashback. So perhaps the doctor's conversation with the father should be shown a few scenes into the flashback, not just the second scene.

I haven't seen Titanic. Is it one giant flashback or do they go back and forth between present and past?

 

[Eric Boellner]

I haven't seen Titanic in ages, but IIRC, it starts and ends in present time, but other than that, it's all in the past.

 

[rauljocson]

Don't know if this helps, but you can also think of it as if the actual storytelling perspective is you, the writer. You're showing the audience what you need to tell the story. So, part of that is showing the main character recounting his story. Another is showing the actual flashback bits that he knows. But you can also show the audience stuff so that they get a better idea of what's going on. Imagine if Little Red Riding Hood was telling a friend about what happened to her in the woods. In flashback, you could show her entering the woods. But you could show that a wolf had already attacked her granny and how gory it actually looked in the process.

Just don't show Red Riding Hood telling her friend any info that she wouldn't actually know, and that's fine. Because then that's a story logic problem.