It’s about time. Time spans the past, the now, and the future. It can be very specific, with clock references, or approximate, in terms of periods.
New screenwriters often worry about setting the period, and if they should slap huge letters across the screen to divulge the year.
There is the option of introductory text or the use of supers (superimposed text) in a screenplay, but they can come across as unnecessary or lazy. Many viewers would argue that they didn’t go to the cinema to read.
From an art of screenwriting point of view, although a challenge, I would argue that it is more seamless and professional to get across any backstory or superimposed dates through action.
Having said that, there are always exceptions. Imagine how the TV series “24” would have come across without that ticking digital clock? Furthermore, if a story passes vast passages of time or multiple locations, then it can be imperative to clarify with supers.
Many screenplays waste time with dictating that it is “Monday” or that a scene takes place “13 hours later.” If these stories rely on a diary form of revelation or that the ticking clock aspect is pertinent, then fair enough. However, most instances of time revelation are unnecessary to the story.
If you look through your screenplay and realize that it really doesn’t matter what hour, day, week, or month it is, then leave out the specifics.
The moment you mention time, you tie yourself down and reduce flexibility. If you screw up later on, the audience may pick up on a time point and realize that your events are unrealistic in terms of the passage of time.
A typical example is the concern of showing time in a situation like this:
Story wise, you see that it isn’t really significant. From a filming perspective, since it is light outside the windows when Mitch leaves and then returns when it is dark is enough to show the passage of time. The audience will get that without being told.
Similarly, if you have a sunrise scene, as depicted in this blog’s photo, you do not need to call out the time and certainly don’t need the following:
Simply stick to the DAY or NIGHT suffix in your scene heading and mention what the camera sees in the action description. That way you kill two birds with one stone by getting across that it is a sunrise, thus dictating the time of day, and we have something to look at.
The mention of time is only necessary if it is important to the plot. An example would be a murder mystery or thriller, where time is pertinent to the chain of events. If you are going to jump back and forth, to be able to show simultaneous events and link them to hours of a specific day, then this would necessitate superimposed timestamps.
Period Writing
A story might only need to show that it is set in the distant past.
For example, it might be the pioneering time of settles in the wild west. The dressing of actors and town sets would be enough to show this era. You would not need to worry about a cue for the date, unless you are charting the rise of a historical figure.
How important is the year 1874? Might the audience start wracking their brains for significant historical events of that time and miss the story?
Employ Props
As covered in this post here, you can use many items or expositions to show time without having to call it out in supers or dialogue. Newspapers, clocks, sunrises, sunsets, and technology of the era can all point to the necessary moments if required.
From the early days of Charlie Chaplin, to the films “Citizen Kane,” and even “Harry Potter,” the spinning newspaper effects have helped show time.
Looking forward in time, many props can come into play to show a distant era.
A Future?
If you recall the great movie “Back to the Future,” time needed referencing as a point in the story and destination for the time machine. However, this was covered in the dialogue and plot, along with the punching in of the date in the DeLorean.
In could be that your future story only needs a setting ahead of us now. Have a think as to the importance of us knowing what specific year it is. It might not be necessary and the action description will be enough to show that the story takes place in years to come.
Whilst not a massive consideration, be aware that time specifics will date your movie. If you think about how many films in the past decades have shown a future that now we have caught up with. The technological predictions are often spot on, but many wildly off. Could this perhaps ruin the viewing of a movie decades later?
Keep in mind that these are not rules and only guidelines. Use time notation to your advantage only when useful or necessary.