Here's an interesting question I got a while ago about preview flashbacks in a short film.

So what is preview flashback structure? Preview flashback structure is when  a scene taken from the end of the film is placed at the start, after which  the film then jumps back to its disturbance (how the story started) and continues uninterrupted until its end. So the opening scene acts like a teaser, or preview.   The scene chosen to be seen first (the 'preview' scene)  is usually the climax or second act turning point of the story (because these are so inherently dramatic they easily grab the audience), but sometimes other dramatic high points are used (you'll need to check out my book The 21st Century Screenplay for details  - no room here).  The movie Michael Clayton uses a preview flashback, by the way.

The Question

Dear Linda, I wanted to ask you a quick question about preview flashbacks. Do I need to continue the preview scene which I start the film with at the end or could I finish the story right after I connect it to what I have shown in the beginning?

My answer
It’s very hard to give an answer about a script that I haven’t seen and unfortunately I don’t have the time to read your script.  However, there’s no reason why your short film shouldn’t end right after the return of the opening scene,.  However, be careful that the ending is striking enough to end the film with impact.  You may have to add an ironic twist – a ‘Rosebud’ twist, as I explained in the seminar.  This is to avoid an anticlimax or ‘fizzer’ when you repeat the scene.  Mostly, when the opening scene of a film is actually the climax, people do insert an ironic twist.   So think carefully about whether you need an ironic twist or not.

I'd add here that, obviously,  the preview scene would need to be from the last part of the film for this to work. The return of the opening scene would need to provide pleasing closure. 

Pitches: don't bore your listener before you've even started When they pitch, lots of writers, even very experienced ones, start describing the film from the beginning.  Don’t do that because, by definition, the beginning of your film shows the characters before the adventure starts, which is boring. 


Instead, grab your listeners attention by giving them the gem of the story, THEN go back and start at the beginning. 


For example, for Twins, the pitch (and it's said that it was the shortest pitch in history, since the writers got the money as soon as the words left their mouths) was:   ‘Danny de Vito and Arnold Schwartnegger are twins’.   


It wasn’t: ‘Well.  Arnold Schwarzenegger is living on this island where he’s lived all his life because he was part of an experiment to produce a kind of superman by combining the sperm of many high achieving men across many professions, and the scientist who created him is there as well and ...yadda yadda ...yawn.'

See what I mean?  Whack 'em with your solid gold idea,  then tell the story.