5 Techniques To Deliver Exposition

What’s up my dudes and dudettes!

So, recently I’ve been thinking about Exposition a lot. How can we make information entertaining or compelling to the audience? Challenging task.

Pure information doesn’t have to be boring, but it usually gets in the way of the pace of the plot, and slowing things down to explain something to a character (and the audience) can have disastrous effects on the movie. Let’s try not to do that.

Luckily for us, this has been a problem for screenwriters ever since the first page got typed, which means there are some classic screenwriters ways of dealing with the issue of information.

But first, what’s Exposition? Our old, and always reliable, friends at Le Wik describe it as:

“Narrative Exposition is the insertion of background information within a story or narrative; for example, information about the setting, characters’ backstories, prior plot events, historical context, etc. “

What the text doesn’t say is that Exposition can be incredibly destructive to the attention of the audience. People want drama, not lectures.

How can you write your way around boring but essential information? Here are 5 ways to do so!

1. Comedy.

Sometimes the best way to give information is to distract the audience while doing so. Comedy can entertain the spectator while a character spews off relevant plot information.

This scene in The Hangover is basically a Doctor telling our characters information on what happened last night and where their friend might be, which could be a very dull scene. What the creators do here is pretty smart; they put the characters in a fun situation while they (and the audience) get to hear the relevant information.

Smart!

2. Action

Same idea as above, but instead of comedy, you use thrilling action to hide the fact you are giving information to the audience.

I’m blanking out on a scene like this, but I’m sure there are hundreds out there. Imagine a car chase where one of the characters has to explain what’s going on to the main character who is- of course- out of the loop.

Take this scene from Apocalypse Now, which is not an exposition scene at all, but it could be adapted to be one in case you needed to tell your main character something important his mission. The scenery and the chaos surrounding the character would be enough to distract the audience from the information.

3. Conflict/Drama

If the characters are involved in a tense situation or a conflict of some sort, the writer has enough leeway to inject the information he needs to get across without losing the dramatic tension of the scene.

In this scene, Kyle needs to tell Sarah (and the audience) why he is here and what has happened to the future.

This moment could be dull or underwhelming if it occurred at a coffee shop or Sarah’s apartment. Instead, the creators set-up the exposition scene while the characters are being hunted down by the terminator.

The underlying threat of being hunted down keeps the audience alert and focused on what Kyle is saying. Information + Entertainment, great work by Mr. Cameron.

4. High Energy

This point could be a subset of the conflict category, but I’m going to keep it separate. 🤷‍♂️

If the characters are discussing the information in a heated or energetic way, the attention of the audience gets split between the drama of the character’s interaction and the relevant plot information they need to hear.

In this Back to The Future scene, Doc explains to Marty, and the audience, how the time machine works.

This scene is full of exposition but is not boring because, 1) The experiment gives the moment some illusion of tension, and 2) Doc’s energetic delivery makes the dialogue a lot more fun and entertaining for the audience.

5) Just do it ™

Are you writing a film with so much exposition that the story literally needs to stop so the characters and the audience can get a mini-lecture on what’s going on? Well, sometimes you’ve got to own it and Just do it™.

Films like Jurassic Park or The Matrix have a lot of information they need to get across as quickly as possible, and the only way they can do so is to have a character explain everything away.

Let’s take a look at both scenes.

This is pure exposition and nothing else, does it work? YES!

It works because the short film the characters are watching is entertaining by itself, and because the information given by Mr. DNA short film is INTERESTING to the audience. We all want to know how they are cloning dinosaurs!

Now let’s take a look at The Matrix:

I call this scene “The Morpheus show,” and I wonder if he does this with every recruit? Probably not. Anyway, this is a tricky scene for any screenwriter; you have to explain how The Matrix works and how they got here, without being boring.

The one thing they have going for them is that the idea of The Matrix is pretty impressive, so people want to know more about it. What the creators do here is that they have Morpheus explain everything while there are some pretty spectacular scenery changes around him, this keeps the audience hooked on the information while being terrified by the visuals.

These are just some of the techniques I’ve found screenwriters use to deliver their exposition; I’m sure there are many more!

I would also want to include here the wormhole scene from Interstellar.

I guess this scene should be in the Just do it.™ category? I don’t know, but it’s pretty effective one none the less. Great exposition. 10/10. Top scene.

Happy writing, everybody!