What is a "framing device"?

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  • What is a "framing device"?

    What is a "framing device"?

    I came across this term in the latest issue of Creative Screenwriting magazine. The article said that in order to distinguish their script from another script with a similar theme, they used a "framing device" at the beginning and the end.

    Much obliged to those of you who kindly help me increase my screenwriting knowledge.

  • #2
    Putting a framing device at the beginning and end, as you say you read it used as, sounds more like book-ending.

    A framing device is usually something that anchors a script. A re-occurring icon, person, location or event that glues the story together.

    This is a broad definition; one of those things that cannot be easily defined.

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    • #3
      "The Princess Bride" has an example of a framing device.

      The movie starts with Peter Falk reading a fairy tale to his grandson, with the fairy tale as the main story of the film. Occasionally we cut back out of the fairy tale to the other story about Peter Falk, and finally close with him. "Big Fish" has a similar framing device as does novel of "The Brothers Karamazov".

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      • #4
        You know, when you plant the gun and the evidence at someone else's place and...

        Actually - already answered. It's when you open with the hero as an adult, then flashback and the whole movie is about him as a kid, then at the end you go back to him as an adult.

        Or something similar to that.

        - Bill

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        • #5
          Framing Device

          Much like the kid on the beach from Road to Perdition (if I remember correctly).

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          • #6
            The airport scenes at the start and end of Love Actually is
            another example. (Crap movie, don't see it.)

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            • #7
              Ahh, what about CITIZEN KANE with the whole 'Rosebud' driven story?

              Is that a framing device?

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              • #8
                yes it is. also the old man and his family during present day, which bookends the story of "saving private ryan".

                sometimes it's also used to pique the audience's interest in a story which, sometimes by necessity, takes a bit of time to get started. reminds you that all of the "stuff" is leading up to something which you saw in the beginning, i.e., a murder, a situation, etc..

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                • #9
                  "Saving Private Ryan" does this also, where you see Private Ryan as an old man at the cemetary, then flash back to the story of finding and saving him, then return to him as the old man at the cemetary.

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                  • #10
                    aka bookend

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                    • #11
                      Re: thanks

                      Thanks for your help. So a framing device is simply putting the story within another story.

                      In which case, Confidence uses a framing device: the guy on his knees in the alley, with a gun to his head, telling the story.

                      Are framing devices frowned upon? The way flashbacks are, for instance?

                      Is there any difference between framing devices and bookending?

                      Thanks again.

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                      • #12
                        Re: thanks

                        The only thing frowned on is bad story telling and double dipping your chip.

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                        • #13
                          Framing devices are usually okay.

                          Flashbacks are tricky - easily (mis)used to plug plot holes. But if your whole story is a flashback framed by some dead guy floating in a pool or some guy telling you about when he and his pals discovered a dead guy when they were kids, you're okay. The whole story is the flashback, so it isn't being used to plug plot holes.

                          The problem that may pop up is using voice over to *tell* your story instead of lettig us experience the story and using the voice over to add an additional layer to the story. The way to prevent this is to make sure the story works 100% without any voice over, then to make sure the voice over isn't telling us what we are seeing, but giving a *commentary* on what we are seeing.

                          - Bill

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