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 DZ-58: Game of Thrones - Character Exposition DZ-37: Excelling at Exposition (Part 1) DZ-38: Excelling at Exposition (Part 2) RELATED EPISODES DZ-15: World Building Rules, Okay? DZ-35: Driving Characters or Character Driven? ——— 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/