History Main / SeparateSceneStorytelling

* The scenes depicting the stories of the witnesses in ''Film/{{Surveillance}} are done in a different film stock and differ from their narration.

* The scenes depicting the stories of the witnesses are done in a different film stock.

* The film version of ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' uses this for "The Tale of Three Brothers" section.

* A later season ''WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' episode did this with ''TreasureIsland'' (although it was very lose with the plot). There was a blackout, and Dave read them the book while the power was out. The scenes were the chipmunks playing three of the characters, but with the rest of the roles being original people.

* The 1995 film adaptation of ''LesMiserables'' was set in France during the Nazi occupation, and the main characters, inspired by acts of heroism from the novel, would play out their own lives as if they were the characters. This meant some sequences of the novel would be dramatically played out on screen (with the actors from the Nazi era playing the characters), some scenes where the action in the 1930s paralelled events and actions from the novel, and other ways as well.

This can overlap with: DreamSequence (if someone falls asleep when a story is told), {{Flashback}} (when the story being shown is something that happened in the past), FramingDevice (if the story being shown is the main point of the work).

* This occurred in the ''GarfieldAndFriends'' episode ''Badtime Story'' with several characters reading a parody of ''ChickenLittle''.

* Used on ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' when the [[AnIcePerson Ice King]] reads [[spoiler:his fanfaction]] to [[TheHero Finn]] and [[CanineCompanion Jake]].

Stories being told, read, or testified are often shown as separate scenes from the rest of the work.

This is because while it's often okay to just see someone telling these, or point the camera at a page (and thus this does not run into ShowDontTell), doing it for too long would just grind the action to a halt (or even be longer than the work trying to tell the story). Thus seeing the story being acted out keeps the story entertaining within the work.

What is being told can vary. Anything from an original [[ShowWithinAShow story within the show]], a PublicDomain book, a poem, a or ghost story, a letter, or giving a testimony in court.

While these scenes can involve a separate cast from the main work, they can also involve a UniversalAdaptorCast.

Characters to whom the story is being told, may do some LeaningOnTheFourthWall as they often understand and talk about elements from the visual scene never actually mentioned by the story-teller. This may be due to bad writing, or done intentionally for laughs.

Compare DeepImmersionGaming, ImagineSpot, CutawayGag.
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* A ''{{Moonlighting}}'' episode did this as a framing device to make an AffectionateParody of ''TheTamingOfTheShrew''. A kid wanted to watch the show, but he had to read the play for homework instead, and imagined it with the Moonlighting actors playing the roles.

* A later season ''WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' episode did this with ''TreasureIsland'' (although it was very lose with the plot). There was a blackout, and Dave read them the book while the power was out. The scenes were the chipmunks playing three of the characters, but with the rest of the roles being original people.
* The ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E16ReadItAndWeep Read it and Weep]]" had Rainbow Dash recuperating from a broken wing, and passing the time by an adventure novel based heavily on ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' and pulp adventure books. While she read, we saw the scenes of Daring-Do searching the jungle for treasure.
* The ''WesternAnimation/{{X-Men}}'' series episode "Jubilee's Fairy Tale Theater" was about Jubilee telling kids a story while they waited to get rescued from a cave-in. It cut to the X-Men in roles in a fantasy adventure.

* Used on ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' when [[TheHero Finn]] tells [[CanineCompanion Jake]] how he got [[AnIcePerson the Ice King's]] secret tapes.

* ''[[WesternAnimation/BookOfVirtues Adventures from the Book of Virtues]]'' is an example of this being used [[OncePerEpisode once or more per episode]]. Every episode has the animals telling the kids a classic story that accompanies the episode's virtue, whether it is a fairy tale, a folk tale, a tall tale, a fable, or a myth.

* The ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E16ReadItAndWeep Read it and Weep]]" had Rainbow Dash recuperating from a broken wing, and passing the time by an adventure novel based heavily on ''IndianaJones'' and pulp adventure books. While she read, we saw the scenes of Daring-Do searching the jungle for treasure.

* This occurred in the ''GarfieldAndFriends'' episode ''Badtime Story'' with several characters reading a parody of ''Disney/ChickenLittle''.

* This occurred in the ''GarfieldAndFriends'' episode ''Badtime Story'' with several characters reading a parody of ''ChickenLittle''.

* ''[[WesternAnimation/BookOfVirtues Adventures from the Book of Virtues]]'' is an example of this being used [[OncePerEpisode once or more per episode]]. Every episode has the animals telling the kids a classic story that accompanies the episode's virtue, whether it is a fairy tale, a folk tale, a tall tale, a fable, or a myth.
* A later season ''AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' episode did this with ''TreasureIsland'' (although it was very lose with the plot). There was a blackout, and Dave read them the book while the power was out. The scenes were the chipmunks playing three of the characters, but with the rest of the roles being original people.
* The ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E16ReadItAndWeep Read it and Weep]]" had Rainbow Dash recuperating from a broken wing, and passing the time by an adventure novel based heavily on ''IndianaJones'' and pulp adventure books. While she read, we saw the scenes of Daring-Do searching the jungle for treasure.
* The ''WesternAnimation/{{X-Men}}'' series episode "Jubilee's Fairy Tale Theater" was about Jubilee telling kids a story while they waited to get rescued from a cave-in. It cut to the X-Men in roles in a fantasy adventure.
* A ''{{Moonlighting}}'' episode did this as a framing device to make an AffectionateParody of ''TheTamingOfTheShrew''. A kid wanted to watch the show, but he had to read the play for homework instead, and imagined it with the Moonlighting actors playing the roles.
* ''ThePrincessBride'': When the grandfather starts reading to the child, the action changes to the story.
* ''TheSuiteLifeOnDeck'': has the cast doing a wackified retelling of RobinHood -- one part story, one part dream that TheDitz is having from having dozed off in class.
* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': "Excaliferb" is an {{Homage}} to ThePrincessBride and a spoof of the King Arthur Excalibur story. Carl tries to SelfInsert but Major Monogram calls him out for it and won't let him continue unless he reads it properly.

* This occurred in the ''GarfieldAndFriends'' episode ''Badtime Story'' with several characters reading a parody of ''ChickenLittle''.
* An episode of ''{{Daria}}'' was about Daria trying to write a story for class, and her attempts were shown this way, ranging from a ShoutOut to ''TheGraduate'', to a JaneAusten spoof, to a future Daria hoped would happen.

* ''TheNeverendingStory'' played with this. It looked like it was only this at first, and then it turned out the story wasn't just a story.
* ''{{Foxtrot}}'' does this for stories the characters attempt to write. Many of these attempts fall under HerCodeNameWasMarySue, especially the TropeNamer arc.
* In "Lyle the Kindly Viking", a ''VeggieTales'' episode, Archibald Asparagus begins reading the story from a pop-up book before the view zooms in and we see the story fully animated.
* ''ManOfLaMancha'' does this for most of the film, with the characters acting out the tale of Don Quixote in jail and that cutting to seeing them all in the desert/inn/house they were pretending to have.
* Technically the whole of ''HowIMetYourMother'' is this trope, but there are also numerous internal examples, some where the whole episode is a story someone's telling.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', in the Victini and Zekrom/Reshiram movies: The story of the two princes and the dragons is told in-universe with an elaborate pop-up book, but is mostly shown to the viewer as separate scenes.
* Some of the earlier DisneyAnimatedCanon films began with a StorybookOpening.

* ''[[WesternAnimation/BookOfVirtues Adventures from the Book of Virtues]]'' is an example of this being used [[OncePerEpisode once or more per episode]].

Stories being told, read, or testified are often shown as separate scenes than the rest of the work.

* In "Lyle The Kindly Viking", a ''VeggieTales'' cartoon, Archibald Asparagus begins reading the story from a pop-up book before the view zooms in and we see the story fully animated.

* ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'', in the Victini and Zekrom/Reshiram movies: The story of the two princes and the dragons is told in-universe with an elaborate pop-up book, but is mostly shown to the viewer as separate scenes.
* Some of the earlier animated Disney films that began with a StorybookOpening.

This can overlap with {{Flashback}} when the story being shown is something that happened in the past. It can also overlap with FramingDevice if the story being shown is the main point of the work. Most forms of RashomonStyle plots are done this way.

Compare DeepImmersionGaming, ImagineSpot.

!!Examples