Screenwriting : Exposition by Richard "RB" Botto

It's the difference between an original Picaso and a paint-by-the-numbers copy.

It can if you let it. Two rules you need to follow: Dole out information to the audience over time and always introduce exposition through conflict. GITTES I said the truth! EVELYN -- she's my sister -- Gittes slaps her again. EVELYN (continuing) -- she's my daughter. Gittes slaps her again. EVELYN (continuing) -- my sister. He hits her again. EVELYN (continuing) My daughter, my sister --

Rule two should be engraved on every screenwriter's laptop. Thanks, Danny.

Getting creative with exposition is always fun! "Exposition through conflict" is a great mantra to have, that one's going in the notebook ;). Also, "Exposition only when absolutely necessary". I'd also add that if bad exposition sucks the life out of the story, then on-the-nose dialogue is a bullet in the brain.

Jurassic Park is an example of a film that I admired for its technical qualities, but not much of a story in my opinion

... emphatically agree with Richard, anyone seriously considering your script will toss it, as the scribe having identified him/herself as a neophyte. ... if your script isn't for spec... go ahead knock yourself out. :)

Show don't tell.

He's banned, J. Thanks for having my back. In his defense, I remember my first beer.

??? Kathi Carey is the only one who makes any sense here to me. It helps screenwriting to have done some acting and camera operation. Only then can you know what can really be done. The screenwriting world is in a stupor of excessive theorizing. Most of the viewers tell me they are tired of seeing the same old formulaic story and car chases and crashes over and over again. Of course, there are really only a very few basic stories, but the same basic body can be dressed an infinite number of ways. The viewers, with the exception of a few adolescents, also tell me they are tired of ridiculously implausible stories, which we seem to be flooded with nowadays. What do I go by? Not my own opinions, but that of focus groups which I have organized over the years.

Thanks guys... I have gone back through my scripts and beginning to fix this problem you mentioned... I hadn't realized that may have been the problem... Not only that, I felt it did not sound right, but could never put my finger on it...

Glad this thread was helpful, Kira.