Comments on: Show, Don’t Tell https://www.thestorydepartment.com/show-dont-tell/ Story. Screenplay. Sale. Thu, 04 Apr 2013 19:36:00 +0000 hourly 1 By: ozzywood https://www.thestorydepartment.com/show-dont-tell/#comment-1357 Thu, 04 Apr 2013 19:36:00 +0000 https://thestorydepartment.com/?p=27857#comment-1357 In reply to Steven Fernandez.

Your comment agrees with my personal taste, Steven.

However, check this out: https://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=500daysofsummer.htm

The movie was a MASSIVE success. So the writers mastered this technique very well. Even with the extreme use of non-linear storytelling, it didn’t seem to bother the audience.

So the question is: Why DID it work in 500 Days?

]]> By: Steven Fernandez https://www.thestorydepartment.com/show-dont-tell/#comment-1356 Thu, 04 Apr 2013 12:53:00 +0000 https://thestorydepartment.com/?p=27857#comment-1356 A good example of over-use of flashbacks and jump cuts to the point of making a story seem disjointed is the film “500 Days Of Summer” (2008’ish). Probably the writer or director thought that non-linear storytelling would be ‘cool’. But, in fact, the flow of the story was so ‘chopped up’ that it was way too difficult to care about the two lead characters.

]]>