Flashbacks/Forwards in film

In a film opening, flashbacks/forwards can be used to make the audience aware of time or events that have happened. For example, there may be a flashback to a time in the characters childhood that is relevant to the current scene, or there may be a flash forwards showing an event in the future, or even a montage of future events so that the film opened in the past but by the end of the montage they are well into the future and the films narrative remains in that time.

Mean Girls

In this film there is a brief flashback as Cady tells us about her time in africa. Rather than inserting clips of the time Cady lived in africa, there are photos and at the transitions between these photos there is a flash which i think is very original and different. The voiceover also matches with what the pictures show, for example when she says she had a "great life" she is smiling, but when she talks about her mum getting offered a job she looks confused and worried.

The use of flashbacks here are to inform us and give us insight into what her life was like, but there are different ways of using flashbacks/forwards to portray meaning, as you will see below.



Up

In this film there you can the little boy taking a picture and at the flash of the camera, there is a flash forwards to the day of their wedding, both characters are young and in the montage we see them grow older until the mans wife dies. The montage isn't really a flash forward as such its just like a fast forward of their lives, however the camera flashing with the wedding scene after it definitely is.

The use of flash forwards here is very touching because we see that the two characters were childhood friends that grew up together and fell in love, the gap of what happened between then and their wedding day doesn't need to be filled. The montage is also very touching as it is portraying a message that the love these characters have for each other is timeless.

As you can see from the two examples, flashbacks/forwards can be used for different purposes, showing time and change or showing how someones life used to be. There are also many different and unique ways they can be used but the two above are my favourites.