Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Webshow: Bad Newscast Exposition

In this week's video, I take on a writing trick that is rarely used all that well - using a newscast scene to fill in exposition.

Posted by The Bitter Script Reader at 12:00 AM
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10 comments:

  1. Waves of GrayJune 26, 2013 at 2:26 AM

    I'm not sure if anyone else feels the same way, but I am annoyed when a character is told to turn on the television (usually the news) and somehow the segment is just beginning at that very moment, rather than being in the middle or the end of it. That doesn't ruin the movie, or even the scene, but it just doesn't seem realistic. Is this just a convention that is for the greater good?

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  2. ashley p. quachJune 26, 2013 at 8:47 AM

    "Arrested Development" has, by far, the best use of TV news exposition.

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  3. Eitan LoewensteinJune 26, 2013 at 11:30 AM

    AD also did a great bit where a character tried to use the "turn the news on at the exact right moment" bit but had to wait for the commercials to finish.

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  4. Sven EricJune 26, 2013 at 1:13 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. Sven EricJune 26, 2013 at 1:14 PM

    It was done really well in Spider-Man ... I don't know if it was Part 3? When they are reporting live from a fight between Spidey and a villain. Spidey is being beaten over and over again and the reporter says exactly what we are seeing, including "that has to hurt a lot".

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    Replies
    1. joeJuly 8, 2013 at 7:05 PM

      "This could be the end....of Spider-Man."

      Ugh. Just ugh.

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  6. UnknownJune 26, 2013 at 4:35 PM

    I believe Steven Spielberg is on record of saying "keep the press out" regarding exposition and heightening the dramatic importance of an event within a story. Disaster movies and major cities besieged by aliens routinely have the gratuitous news broadcaster notifying everyone that they're in a world of shit. The audience knows it and the fleeing citizens apparently do as well so what value does it offer in current movies?

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  7. SiobhanJune 26, 2013 at 10:19 PM

    Kind of sad any writer actually has to be *told* this stuff.

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  8. UnknownJune 27, 2013 at 10:06 AM

    One thing I notice in a lot of 'news report' scenes in scripts is that very often, the newscaster will say something like "our fair city" or "our great, esteemed mayor". I can't say I've ever seen a news report use these phrases. Where does this cliche come from?

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