Sneaky Ways To Hide Exposition

As the June Weekend Summer School comes closer I’ve been working on some of the advanced techniques we’ll be covering, and one of the most crucial is how to handle exposition.

This one really sorts the professionals from the wannabes, and I’m going to share one of my top exposition techniques with you here.

First, if you want to have serious fun working thoroughly on professional screenwriting skills, from linear and non-linear, flashbacks and strong characters, to top-level editing, believable dialogue and evocative visuals, over a weekend at the end of June, and do it as you would in a studio, then the link to find out more and to book your place is:

http://www.euroscript.co.uk/screen-play.html

Meanwhile, back to exposition. Many writers think exposition means clunky dialogue-ridden scenes where the characters tell you important but heavy-handed information such as:

“Did you know you can get jobs that help you get out of the ghetto?”

“No, really, would that help us escape deportation and also buy eggs that we can’t get inside?”

“Funny you should say that…”

In fact that is what is technically known as bad exposition! I call it “overt” exposition.

Great scripts are full of exposition, but in “covert” form – great writers are adept at hiding their exposition so that you get the information without noticing it. There are 22 different ways of doing this, all of which we study at the Summer School, and I’m going to share the first of them.

If you’re interested in giving yourself a challenge, all 22 can be seen in a single brilliant sequence of Schindler’s List written by Stephen Zaillian. It’s the sequence approximately 25 minutes from the start in which Stern hires Jews in order to save them from deportation to the death camps.

Anyway, here’s the #1 exposition technique: dramatic action is the heart of all good scripts, so if you have exposition to hide, use the dramatic thrust of the scene.

For example, in the sequence from Schindler’s List, Stephen Zaillian first creates a strong dramatic throughline: Stern and his colleagues want to save as many Jewish men, women and children as possible, but the Jews of the time were confused and uncertain as to what was going on.

Within this context it is totally logical that Stern and his colleagues should use the information they have to try to persuade the Jews of the enormous danger they are in and how they can escape.

We are hooked by the drama, and in the process we learn a host of facts which will be essential to understanding the story that will follow.

Making the exposition part of the unfolding dramatic structure is a very powerful way of imparting information to the viewer in a hidden way. Try it in your current script.

However, be aware that it will not always be possible to make every piece of exposition dramatic. Sometimes the structure won’t allow it. Sometimes it would simply take too long, or involve action that would not be right at the time.

This is why we need the other 21 tricks.

Check out the movie and see how many different tricks Stephen Zaillian uses to slip exposition in without you noticing.

(You’ll need to watch the actual film, this sequence is not included in the early draft script available on the net).

As I say, we’ll be looking at all 22 ways to hide exposition in the weekend Summer School which starts 6.00pm on Friday June 24. I want to make this an intensive experience for a relatively small group, where you are immersed in the techniques of professional screenwriting whatever your level of expertise.

If you would like to be involved go now to http://www.euroscript.co.uk/screen-play.html.

Write as a Professional

I’m busy planning the Euroscript Professional Screenwriting Mini-Summer School (June 24-26), which is devoted to helping TV and cinema screenwriters develop their skills to a higher professional level  - and I’ve been asking myself: what is it that makes the difference between a professional script and one that isn’t?

Obviously one answer is that a professional script gets paid for. But that begs the question: is it the matter of payment that makes it professional – or is it the professionalism that leads to the payment?

Because if you’ve read a lot of scripts (and if you haven’t, why not?) you’ll immediately know when you’re reading a professional script. There’s something about it. What is that something?

And can you do it – and get paid in your turn?

I looked back over the many hundreds of scripts I’ve read in my time, and I found there was one common element that divided those that worked professionally from those that didn’t.

It’s not three-act structure, or whether they have less dialogue (or more), or whether they “show don’t tell”, or how much they understand genre – although these (and many other skills) are relevant in their various ways.

It’s something that’s very simple. Although as one martial arts instructor said to me – “Simple doesn’t necessarily mean easy!”

The professional scripts felt like they had been written for an audience.

The others didn’t.

The professional scripts focused at every single moment on the effect that the ultimate movie or TV programme would have on a viewer.

Every technique, every word, every structural element, every joke, every sound, every character beat was there not because it was clever, or because the writers liked it or even because they had an emotional reaction themselves. But because it aimed to elicit an emotional response in the people watching.

As I say, that may sound simple, but how easy is it?

It demands intense concentration, as well as enormous humility and honesty.

It demands a thorough knowledge of cinema and TV and how they work, and time spent reading a wide range of scripts and writers.

It also requires that the writer has a ferociously effective command of all the skills, tricks and techniques of the craft.

Does that sound doable? Of course it is. It’s a matter of attitude and of putting in the time. Nowadays you can read or download hundreds of scripts online for free. You can study writers online for free.

And you can focus 100% on what the reader – and then the audience – is going to get from it.

Simple, maybe. Easy? That’s what you get paid the big bucks for.

And if you’re interested at the Professional Writing Mini-Summer School we’ll be treating writers as they would be in a professional job.

You’ll work on structure and non-standard structure, scene building, developing strong characters, dialogue and subtext, visual writing, exposition and credibility issues as if you were in a TV or film studio working on commission.

And every moment will be about making your script work.

If you want to join us in Central London, it runs from the evening of Friday June 24 through to Sunday 26. Booking is open now.