I want to open a movie with a dude in a handcuffs with two goons above him- FREEZE FRAME: "This is me. You're probably wondering how I got into this situation?" Cut to two seconds earlier of him being pulled into room. HIM: "Yup, dragged in through that door and shoved down."
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Might as well talk about story function! The reason people try to use flash-forwards is because it puts a feeling of intensity at the start, a way of saying "don't worry audience, this WILL get exciting!" But not only is that artificial conflict, it often hurts you.
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Because what it does is set an expectation in the audiences mind of what to expect. Rather than emotionally being involved in the action of the story, they sit there thinking "Huh I wonder how we'll get back here? It makes it a cerebral experience instead of a dramatic one.
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More over, it often puts a stamp on the fact that you can't actually come up with a story that has conflict at the start, so you just hide and tease and hint at, and are probably hiding a lack of function in your story in general.
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Can it work sometimes? Yeah sure, of course. It works in Iron Man because it's a way of emotionally telling the audience "don't worry, this cocksure jack ass is going to pay for his behavior soon" and it ONLY lasts like twenty minutes of screen time.
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Again, everything has to be ingrained in dramatic story function. Don't hide under artifice. HULK OUT.
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Oh because people already bringing up Breaking Bad. They were probably better at playing with it that anyone. Sometimes it was poetic, sometimes functional, sometimes total misdirect... but the thing to notice most of all is how they mostly phased it out as the series went on :)
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Replying to @FilmCritHULK
They didn't phase it out as the series went on. The final season starts with a flash forward. And then there's Better Call Saul which is all about the flash forwards (and people who've seen BB know what will inevitably happen to Jimmy)
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Yes, they brought it back exactly twice in the final season, but absolutely phased out over the course of the show, going from every episode, to almost no episodes.
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