Flashback Special Effects

Flashback Special Effects

Portraying a past point in time in films can be done in several different ways and using different effects to show the audience the difference in the scene they are watching. This can be done in several different ways:

• Blurring the image
• Showing it deliberately monochrome
• Add a misty border around the edge of the screen
• Apply an echo or other sound effect to everyone's voice

Examples:

In Big Fish, all of the flashbacks have shots with more brightly-colored objects in them and a slight glowing effect on the characters' faces.

In Ciao! Manhattan when Susan Superstar tells stories of her time in New York, the flashbacks appear in cool, glamorous black and white.

At the beginning of Kill Bill Vol. 1, the flashback scene of the Bride in the church is shown in black and white. 

The 'Jacob's Ladder' party scene is shot to be disorientating and strange, and gives a frantic air to the scene as odd things are scene moving quickly.