What are ways to show the passage of time in a movie?!
Question:
What are ways to show the passage of time in a movie?
My favorite example of this was from Harry Potter 3, where they would do a shot on the Whomping Willow. The tree would look whatever season they were passing into. But other than this, I'm usually brain dead when it comes to remembering how to pass time in a movie. I'm like character A goes to work at 8am. But has a plot moment at 12pm. How do I smoothly cut from 8am to 12pm? Thanks in advance for answers.
Answers: Old Hollywood movies often showed pages of a calendar being shed (the one-day ones). Sometimes, they show the monthly pages being torn free or somehow falling then flying off, whichever effect they want to go for.
Fadeouts and fadeins also are popular, in which people understand that hours or even years have passed.
Sometimes, an opening scene will display a date~complete or only the year. A followup scene might say "Six Months Later" or "Ten Years Ago", whichever way the story moves.
Time lapses are popular, showing one image changing to others, sort of reminiscent of the tree's changes. In "The Haunting" (the original), they have this great shot in which a little girl is lying in bed being read to by someone. Through film overlays/fades, she becomes older and older until you see the ancient-looking woman on her deathbed. It's a wonderful shot!
In the old b&w films, They might show someone in a room then use changes in lighting to suggest the passing of time, from night to dawn or from morning to twilight.
If characters are playing the same role from youth to adulthood, costuming changes can suggest that they are growing up. I've seen such tricks as a closeup of feet walking, shifting from a child's to an adult's footwear.
The seasons changing trick is done a lot, showing the same setting through the four seasons.
I'm sure there are other tricks, but they don't come to mind right now. Scenes showing the hands of a clock going forward ........... Fade the clock image from 8am to 12pm, then shift the camera to the character.