John and Craig debate and defend one of the most-maligned elements of screenwriting: Exposition. How do you tell an audience what they need to know without being labeled a hack? We offer tips for getting viewers up to speed without them realizing they’re getting fed exposition.
We also follow up on screenplay competitions, the psychology of toxic fandom, fridging as a trope, and the market for lesbian love stories.
Links:
- Michael Arndt’s thoughts on Endings (and Beginnings)
- Midnight blue typewriter Scriptnotes t-shirts are back on Cotton Bureau for a limited time!
- “Fridging” is the trope of violence against women motivating a male protagonist’s plot.
- These seven lesbian movies are coming out in 2018.
- This exposition scene in Aliens does it right.
- American Animals, written and directed by Bart Layton
- Isoland 2: Ashes of Time for iOS and Android
- The Scriptnotes Listeners’ Guide!
- The USB drives!
- John August on Twitter
- Craig Mazin on Twitter
- John on Instagram
- Find past episodes
- Outro by Timothy Vajda (send us yours!)
Email us at ask@johnaugust.com
You can download the episode here.
UPDATE 7-10-18: The transcript of this episode can be found here.