I got this email today:
Hello. How do you show flashbacks/dreams in teleplays – and transition out of?
I’m specifically referring to "Cold Case" – a show that’s full of scenes where
the characters relive stories from the past. Thank you very much.
I haven’t seen a COLD CASE script, so I don’t know how they do it, but there are many different ways. Here’s one approach:
EXT. HOUSE – DAY
Mark stood in front of the ramschakle house, the windows broken, the lawn choked with weeds. And as we PUSH IN on Mark’s eyes, we CUT TO:
EXT. HOUSE – DAY (FLASHBACK)
as it looked on the day he moved in, fresh paint, manicured lawn, flowers in bloom. The colors are so outrageously vivid, it’s a tough call whether what we’re seeing is the way it really was, or the past as romanticized in Mark’s mind. We END THE FLASHBACK and GO:
EXT. HOUSE – BACK TO SCENE
Mark shakes himself out of his reverie and goes inside the abandoned home.