The Element of Time

There are two extremes to time. In the 1995 movie “Nick of Time,” Johnny Depp plays a man who’s told to kill a state governor within 75 minutes or he’ll kill his daughter. What’s interesting about this movie is that the entire story takes place in real-time, meaning that the story is told as the hero rushes to find a way to defeat the villain. There are no jump cuts to another time. The entire story takes place within the actual time frame of the movie.

While interesting, this restriction to real-time is also limiting because it forces every element of the story to be interesting and real life is simply not always that interesting. Yet forcing the story to adhere to real-time is an interesting idea.

On another extreme is a recent Eddie Murphy movie called “Mr. Church,” which spans several decades. The hero is a young girl who first meets Mr. Church, a black cook hired to work for the family. The movie tells the story of the young girl, then as the hero becomes a teenager, then as the hero becomes a college student, and finally until the hero becomes a young woman. This lack of focus means “Mr. Church” cannot focus on any particular time period with much intensity so the entire story gets diluted over several decades.

Both “Nick of Time” and “Mr. Church” highlight the two extremes in story telling. At one extreme you can tell your story in real-time. On the other extreme, you can tell your story over decades.

In most cases, neither approach will work, which is why most movies generally stick with both a compressed time period while also skipping over large chunks of time as well. This allows the screenwriter to focus only on the important parts of the story while jumping over the boring parts.

Most horror films that rely on “found footage” follow the real-time story telling extreme, and they usually suffer as a result because not every moment is interesting. What makes most stories interesting is when you can jump to only the most interesting scenes.

In “Star Wars” there’s a scene where Luke realizes his aunt and uncle may be in danger from storm troopers looking for R2D2. This is how the scene plays out in the actual film:

• Luke realizes the stormtroopers are looking for R2D2 so they may be at his aunt and uncle’s farm. Luke rushes to his speeder while Obi-wan warns him it’s too dangerous.
• Luke races across the desert towards his uncle’s farm.
• Luke arrives at the farm and sees the burned out corpses of his aunt and uncle.

In this short sequence, there’s a small time jump between each scene. Here’s how this sequence would play out in real-time:

• Luke realizes the stormtroopers are looking for R2D2 so they may be at his aunt and uncle’s farm. Luke rushes to his speeder while Obi-wan warns him it’s too dangerous.
• Luke jumps into his speeder, starts it, and races away.
• Luke races across the desert towards his uncle’s farm, constantly looking at the approaching farm.
• Luke arrives at the farm.
• Luke parks the speeder and jumps out.
• Luke sees the burned out corpses of his aunt and uncle.
• Luke jumps back in his speeder and heads back to Obi-wan.
• Luke races across the desert back to Obi-wan.
• Luke parks the speeder and jumps out.
• Luke tells Obi-wan what happened.

Notice how drawn out and boring real-time suddenly makes this sequence? By avoiding real-time, films jump to only the most interesting scenes and let the audience use their imagination to fill in the missing gaps. Everyone knows that Luke had to start the speeder in the beginning but it’s boring to see that.

In general, real-time story telling can be too restrictive. On the other hand, jumping from one scene to another to compress time can go too far as in “Mr. Church” where the story spans over a decade.

In “Mr. Church,” the first part of the story is about the hero as a little girl meeting Mr. Church. Then suddenly the story jumps forward to when the hero is a teenager. Later, it jumps even faster to when the hero is a college student, then another jump takes us to the hero as a young woman.

The huge problem with such giant leaps forward in time is that it keeps us from identifying and relishing the story. Imagine telling the story of “Star Wars” with such large gaps of time like this:

• Luke is born as a baby and suddenly separated from his parents and taken to his uncle’s farm.
• Luke is toddler, growing up with his uncle.
• Luke is a teenager, growing up on the farm.
• Luke is a young man, watching all his friends leave while he’s stuck on the farm.
• Luke is in an X-Wing fighter, blowing up the Death Star.
• The end.

Notice that such large gaps of time between scenes simply distances the audience further away from identifying with the hero. When the audience no longer feels like they’re experiencing life as the hero does but simply watching someone else live, then the audience becomes passive and the story becomes dull.

So the lesson is to experiment with time in your own screenplay. See if real-time will work or jumping over large chunks of time might work. Chances are good your story will be best served by simply jumping over the boring parts of any story and focusing only on the exciting parts that take place within a limited time frame.

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