Exposition… Oh, how many emotions this word alone may evoke! Some hate it to the bottom of their souls. Others overuse it in every script. There are even filmmakers who consider it an exclusively negative term and a mistake only rookies make. Well, let’s step back to facts. A portion of exposition is necessary in every film. At its best, it can smoothly introduce the world, context, backstory, and some plot points without the audience even noticing it. At its worst, it feels clunky, unnatural, and painfully in-your-face. What can I say! Writing effective exposition is an art form on its own. Let’s take a look at some examples and try to distill the dos and don’ts for our future projects. A quick disclaimer: “good” and “bad” are subjective terms. Your opinion might be different from mine, and that’s great. Let’s exchange thoughts! After all, we have an entire comments section for it below. Through fair and polite discussion, we might uncover hidden gems and gain new perspectives. What is exposition, and why can we not avoid it in films? Exposition is a literary term that refers to the background information the audience needs to understand the story. It is a technique that can provide viewers with the character’s backstory, the world-building rules, context details, crucial circumstances, or anything else that might be important to understanding the dramatic situation. Most often, exposition shows up at the beginning of a film – but not always. In the MZed course “Writing 201,”...
Published By: CineD - Today