Today I am sharing this wonderful article on exposition from celebrated screenwriter Tom Vaughan. He said this so much better than I could. Share some love for Tom by signing up for his free weekly newsletter. His original post can be found here:
https://twitter.com/storyandplot/status/1745462711029539101
The good news: exposition in screenwriting is easier than we make it.
Most early clumsiness is due to a lack of confidence. Both in ourselves and in the audience.
While confidence comes with experience, here are two ways to shrink that learning curve even faster.
I tend to break exposition down into two types:
1. The Information Dump
This is the scene when we learn the necessary information for the plot. It's usually in the first act and too often in a meeting room of some sort.
The challenge, of course, is how to make this compelling for the audience.
The most common strategy is to have something more interesting going on.
THE BIG SHORT uses celebrity cameos to explain the more complicated details. It's a fun twist on an old problem. JURASSIC PARK has the amusement park ride breakdown of DNA.
But I also want to offer up another option: have characters care.
When in doubt, lean into the emotion.
When characters care deeply, we care deeply.
When Army Intelligence asks Indy about the city of Tannis in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, it's Indy and Marcus' enthusiasm that drives the scene.
Indy and Marcus know a secret we don't, and they're excited about it. This is their world.
We barely notice that they've just laid out the path for the first half of the movie.
Ask yourself why it matters to the hero? How deeply do they care?
When AVENGERS: END GAME goes through a recap and tracks down Thanos, it does so through the emotional weight of failure.
Each character handles it differently. It turns a scene of "Where is Thanos?" into one of empathy rather than plot.
This brings me to a key principle.
It's not about the plot. It's about the emotional reaction to the plot.
Which is the only thing the plot is really good for.
2. Character history and background.
This type of information expands on a character or relationship. Backstory. Early in our writing, we tend to want to give it to the audience as soon as possible.
Don't fall into this trap.
Never give away as exposition what would be more effective later as a reveal.
The difference between exposition and a reveal is that one is information, and the other evokes emotion.
When we hold off something as a reveal, it answers questions the audience was quietly asking.
The audience loves it when you do that.
MANCHESTER BY THE SEA is a great example. We know this guy is lost and checked out. It's not until 55 minutes into the film that we learn why. His children are dead. And it's his fault. And he can't live with himself.
Learning this later makes us empathize, reassess, and forgive. It's an emotional response rather than information as given circumstances.
You are not obligated to give information about a character or a relationship upfront.
This is always a structural question, that is:
Choosing what the audience knows and when they know it.
So ask yourself:
When will you get the most emotional value out of this information? That's when you share it with the audience.
And trust the audience when you do.
The audience picks up plenty. When characters behave as if something is true, the audience will figure it out.
One of the few limitations of screenwriting is adherence to emotional truth.
We don't need to mangle a scene just to let the audience know the nature of a relationship.
HANK
Hey, sis. Just because we're related...
We see the puppet strings. And we check out.
All we need to do is ensure the characters behave as if something is true, and the audience will figure it out.
HANK
Did you call mom?
That's all we need. You do not have to answer questions before they're asked. You do have to win the audience's confidence that they're in good hands so they know that you will.
That's a wrap for this thread! If you enjoyed this thread and are interested in screenwriting:
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