DZ-37: Excelling at Exposition (Part 1)

Listen if your exposition scenes feel like information dumps disguised as dialogue.

In Draft Zero's first two part episode, Stu & Chas take an in-depth look at one of screenwriting's most common challenges: EXPOSITION. For many stories there are pre-existing facts that need to be communicated to the audience — whether those facts be about the rules of the world, the nature of a location, character motivations, character backstories or just character names. So how have great writers made exposition move the story forward, rather than stopping it to tell the audience stuff they need to know?

To that end, in Part 1 of Excelling At Exposition we break down scenes from PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL, SHORT TERM 12, INSIDE OUT, THE WORLD'S END, THE BIG SHORT, IT FOLLOWS, JURASSIC PARK and JURASSIC WORLD. Audio quotations are included for educational purposes.

Many thanks to /r/screenwriting for suggesting so many examples.

As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.

LIKE THIS EPISODE?

Send us feedback.

Thanks to our Patrons, especially Khrob, Theis, Sandra, Jesse, Randy, Paulo, Thomas, Jennifer, Malay, Alexandre and Lily.

———

FILMS

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL (2003) — (w) Terry Rossio, Ted Elliott (d) Gore Verbinski
SHORT TERM 12 (2013) — (w) Destin Daniel Cretton
INSIDE OUT (2015) — (w) Meg Lefauve, Josh Cooley, Pete Docter (d) Pete Docter
THE WORLD'S END (2013) — (w) Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright (d) Edgar Wright
THE BIG SHORT (2015) — (w) Adam Mckay, Charles Randolph (d) Adam Mckay
IT FOLLOWS (2015) — (w) David Robert Mitchell
JURASSIC PARK (1993) — (w) Michael Crichton, David Koepp, Michael Crichton (d) Steven Spielberg
JURASSIC WORLD (2015) — (w) Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Amanda Silver, Rick Jaffa, Derek Connolly, Colin Trevorrow (d) Colin Trevorrow

SCRIPTS

Study the script: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL (2003) — Terry Rossio, Ted Elliott
Study the script: SHORT TERM 12 (2013) — Destin Daniel Cretton
Study the script: INSIDE OUT (2015) — Meg Lefauve, Josh Cooley, Pete Docter
Study the script: THE WORLD'S END (2013) — Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright
Study the script: THE BIG SHORT (2015) — Adam Mckay, Charles Randolph
Study the script: JURASSIC PARK (1993) — Michael Crichton, David Koepp, Michael Crichton

SHOT ZERO DEEP DIVES

Perp & Victim 2: Opening Kills in Horror (2000s+)

LINKS

Listen: On the Page: Ep 457. Terry Rossio
Read: Compiled PDF of all Screenplays Excerpts

EPISODES IN THE EXPOSITION SERIES

RELATED EPISODES

———

More Draft Zero is brought to you by our awesome Patreons.

If you enjoy the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, a rating on Spotify, or a review on Podchaser.

We are @stuwillis, @mehlsbells and @chasffisher on Twitter. You can find @draft_zero and @_shotzero on Instagram and Twitter.

Full show notes at: https://draft-zero.com/2016/dz-37/

Fler avsnitt av Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast