Heightened Flashbacks: CAN'T HARDLY WAIT
how transitions and melodrama show us a narrator's reliability
Early in Can’t Hardly Wait, Preston (Ethan Embry) and Denise (Lauren Ambrose) discuss how Preston met his desperate crush Amanda (Jennifer Love Hewitt).
The flashback style of their conversation informs how we ‘read’ the rest of the movie by setting the film’s tone while showing and telling us about Preston as person and narrator.
Three key elements of the flashback are transitions and camera angles, lighting and effects, and what-we-see versus what-he-says.
Transitions and Angles
Dramatic low angle is dramatic!
Preston directly addresses the audience looking ‘down’, almost as a judge lording over us from on high.
Despite the steep angle and Preston’s solemn narration, it’s clear the film doesn’t take itself too seriously, as exemplified by its silly, fun pop tart transition.
The brand tie-in is particularly strong in this flashback; in fact it’s most of the basis of Amanda and Preston’s connection, even before it literally tumbles into the camera.
You have to wonder which came first, the script writing in a breakfast pastry, or a company offering money to a feature film which would show their product in a favourable light.
Lighting and Effects
Preston’s solemn narration and intense facial expressions are underscored with thunder and lighting and crash zooms, oh my!
The lighting and sound effects are over-the-top, with the flashes seeming to be in the classroom with Preston and Amanda. All the better to be melodramatic, my dear.
What We See versus What He Says
Voiceover is a great tool for creating different types of irony, because the audience is getting information which may directly contradict what characters are saying, be outside their realm of knowledge, etc. (For more on this, see Takeaways.)
Via voiceover, Preston says “Amanda and I are connected!” but in this whole sequence, they never touch or interact. He also says “I was the first person [to] lay eyes on her” while we never actually see her face.
Though we don’t see proof that Preston sees her face, either, it’s pretty implied with this shot of her walk from the car, as well as the classroom where she’s standing still facing the class and he’s staring, awestruck.
It’s hard to be sure whether the film is hiding Amanda’s face to emphasise how ridiculous it is Preston is smitten after one glance . . . or because they couldn’t get Jennifer Love Hewitt for the day of shooting, and needed to get creative.
Whatever the reason, it suggest Preston is melodramaaaaatic in more ways than one, since he’s waxing lyrical over the beauty of someone we can’t see.
It also works by heightening our anticipation to see her in the film later!
Takeaways
If you have an early scene where a character describes an event the audience sees, the techniques used for the flashback / cutaway will affect how the viewer looks at that character and your entire story.
Consider your angles, lighting, special effects, sound mixing, transitions, etc. in that light: a microcosm of the whole, a perfect opportunity to show the audience how to ‘read’ the rest of the film.
(If you can get some of that sweet, sweet pop tart product placement money while you’re at it, that can’t hurt, either.)
For more about how to script scenes like this, we (and Chas!) did a Draft Zero miniseries on how a character’s voiceover can set tone, including how what-you-see versus what-they-say establishes their level of reliability (and melodrama!).