ALEXANDER JOBLING
BTEC MEDIA
What is flashback?
What is flashback?
Flashback is a scene which is inserted between other scenes. This scene, goes back in time, to a point before the scene before. This means that flashbacks are often used to recall and show events that happened before the story's primary sequence of events to fill in backstory for the audiance.
In film and TV, flashback can be shown/indicated, by a number of editing techniques, such as the edges of the picture may be deliberately blurred, or photography may be unfocused, or choppy.
Flashback in film
D.W. Griffith, was the man who created flashback in film (cinema), but also in TV as the principals are the same for using flashback in film as it is in TV.
However the first use of flashback, was in Rouben Mamoulian's 1931 film City Streets, this was used to show the backstory of some of the characters in the movie.
Flashback in TV
Flashback, in TV is used on every day programs, for example, How I Met Your Mother, Grounded for Life and I Didn't Do It use flashbacks in every episode. This shows, how important flashback is to telling the narritive of storys in certain genres, like sitcome and comedies.
East Enders and Hollyoaks, even used flashback - in one episode each (Febuary and September 2015), but it shows how flashback can help you delve deeper into someones story line, or to help you remember someones story line that you already know.
