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THE FILMIC COMPONENTS 137
Avoid time-lapse cliches. Because time lapses can be brilliantly effective, and because truly original ones are difficult to come by without resorting to intensive creative thought, the screen-play writer has been guilty of resorting to hoary and time-worn devices.
The oldest and perhaps the most widely used (even today) is the clock. It is the most obvious, because it is directly related to the passage of time. This is especially so when the time lapse to be indicated is a matter of minutes or hours. The simplest use of this device has the clock face faded out at the early time, and then faded in to the later time, the passage of time being indicated by the change in clock hands. Another variant still being used calls for a specially rigged prop clock, manually operated behind a set flat, in which the hands are seen to spin around and then stop at the time at which the lapse ends. Usually a pan is used to get to the clock. Then, if the clock is not in an extreme close-up, the camera will dolly in to one, to be followed by a match dissolve through to the clock face with the new time on it. The same technique is used on wrist watches, desk clocks, wall clocks, and in clock reflections in mirrors. A considerable amount of effort is spent in trying to freshen up what is, at best, a hoary, frayed device.
When the elapsed time is more than a matter of hours, and runs into days and months, the calendar gimmick is resorted to. This ancient wheeze uses an optical effect of leaves of the calendar being torn off in slow motion and floating away until the date required by the story is reached. This sort of calendar art has become so trite that writers have completely run out of refurbishing tricks. To fall back on the calendar is to confess to a paucity of inventiveness.
When the spread of time can be indicated by seasonal changes, Nature is often called into play, with a montage of spring, summer, fall, and winter scenes. These scenes, usually from stock, are often of varying locales. Sometimes though, special production shots are made of a single scene from the picture, and are re-dressed with birds for spring, flowers for summer, leaves blowing in the wind for fall, and boughs covered with snow for winter.
Now this sort of thing has in it the seeds of creative variation. Nature is so varied in all its aspects, and landscapes can be affected in so many ways by Nature, that variations of this time lapse should be possible with not too much thought.