How do I show simultaneity?
My script involves a “spirit” or “ghost” character. He can appear to people on a whim, and he says typical meta-clever, wise stuff. The thing is, he’s beyond all time and space, so, for example, he can be in two places at once.
I want to create a scene where this spirit character is talking to two different characters at the same time, but in different places. In other words, the spirit is talking to both Alan in Cleveland and Betsy in Los Angeles, but it occurs at 2:00PM at the same time (ignoring the time zone changes). What would be the most effective way to do that?
– Kevin
Neptune, NJ
You’re confusing what happens inside the world of the movie with what the audience experiences. When we’re watching a movie, or reading a script, we don’t know or care what the clock says — unless you tell us that it is important.
If for story purposes two scenes need to be happening simultaneously, you’ll generally be cutting between them. Max runs up the stairs while Lisa sits down at her desk. Max reaches the fourth floor while Lisa wakes her computer. Max reaches Lisa’s door just as she’s about to open the email message. That’s six short scenes which play together as a sequence.
Alternately, you might sync up time after the fact by replaying a moment or giving some other signal to the audience about a shift in time. GO does this twice, repeating the scene in the break room to let the story fork in different directions. 1
Split-screen is another possibility, though on the page you’d almost certainly write it as typical cross-cutting.
- Go also features two sides of a phone conversation separated by half a movie, but it’s not crucial to line up those moments. ↩
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January 15th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
John, this blog is amazing. Reading it over the last few months has really stepped up my screenwriting game. To the point where I now can finish a readable first draft of a 100 page screenplay in 7 days. Just signed with my first agent a few weeks ago, too.
Reading this post reminded me essentially about what John tries to get across in pretty much all the “How do I handle this type of situation?” question. And that is: It’s never as complicated as the writer thinks it is. At least, that’s what I’ve taken away from all the posts.
Situations with time and space jumps may seem difficult as a concept, but since a film is just a sequence of scenes, there’s really no difference between having three consecutive scenes take place in 1986, then 2006, then 2036, as it is having three consecutive scenes follow a real-time chronological order.
So long as the story is good and flows well, the rest sort of just falls into place.
January 15th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
There’s a dual-dialog function in Final Draft that places the dialog of two separate characters in parallel time, and while some people run and hide, I find it to be ninjesque. The suggested use is in arguments, where a man and a woman are yelling at the same time, but I’ve used it to great acclaim well beyond that gig. I last used it to illustrate a woman, on trial, speaking into an alien language translating machine. – With the character’s native language SHOUTING on one side, and then the calm female translating computer in English on the other. – People got eerieness from it. It was cool. Point is, it can be used to write an omnipresence like Q from Star Trek by saying: He whispers into the ears of the Admirals on both planets simultaneously. Q – PLANET EARTH: You must never hesitate. / Q – ON TARA: Tick, tock, tick, tock. We all understand it on the first pass… but it’ll give your director a big ol’ hard one thinking of the cool ways it can be shot. My last suggestion is that… IF Ye Olde Omnipresent Being is actually saying the SAME THING to both parties… you could easily cross-fade the audio, finishing the sentence in the second location and we’d all get it like whoa.
January 15th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
in weeds season four, there is an episode called little boats (episode 9) where they do a really funny scene where it seems like nancy is saying the same thing to her sons at different times. but it’s funny and it works.
i think it would be cool to show him back to back with himself showing the two poeple sitting/standing facing him in a wide shot. and then the camera moving around him and it combines to one shot… and then you can do some close ups and normal stuff like that… shrug it’s probably been done before but it was a cool visual in my head.
January 16th, 2009 at 8:31 am
There are entire films based on the unravelling of simultaneous. Vantage Point and 11:14 being two that come to mind.