Moving Images, Understanding Media

272 Moving Images: Making Movies, Understanding Media

On American television, writer Larry David, who was a co-creator of the

show Seinfeld, uses story outlines for the episodes of his show Curb Your

Enthusiasm, from which the actors improvise their dialogue and behavior

from the indicated dramatic context and narrative structure.

Th ere are many factors to consider in developing stories and bringing

them to the screen. Th e materials you create are meant to make the production

and post-production processes as fruitful as possible. From the initial

inspirations and visions that provoke us to want to create motion pictures,

it is a tremendously challenging process to transform them into a series of

shots that make up sequences and well-developed stories.

Words and Pictures: Finding a Flow

Returning to our fi ve story examples featuring Sarah, Hector, Jimmy, and the

others, consider “putting into continuity” the second passage. Th e scene with

Hector would require substantial re-imagining. We can see Hector eating

cereal and his mother talking on the phone, but a signifi cant amount of the

information in the narration is inside Hector’s head or delivered through

commentary by the author. How can the screenwriter set up this story?

Remember the lessons we have learned about cinematic storytelling: visual

solutions are oft en the most eff ective. Th e screenwriter might see fi t to have

Hector tell another character what he is thinking or address the audience

through voice-over, but how can this be done interestingly? In what ways

can it be done visually?

Setting up the Story

In a movie, when a character explains the background for a scene or a

situation, this is an example of a device called exposition. Exposition is

a component of storytelling used so that audiences can understand the

context of a narrative and key information that they would not otherwise

be aware of through the images they see on the screen, such as character

backgrounds, historical conditions, or an upcoming event linked to the past.

It is oft en delivered by an on-screen conversation or voice-over, although

it can also be conveyed through news reports, visual indications (such as

signs), or written cues.

When we set up a story—and particularly a short one—a primary

challenge for the writer is to bring the audience right into the narrative.

Exposition—such as lengthy explanations—can make the movie drag or

seem artifi cial. Th e challenge to the writer is to inform the audience of key

information in a way that helps to move the story forward and adds to the

depiction of the narrative. Many short fi lms place the spectator right in front

of a scene or series of sequences in which we experience the story directly

through the events that we see. Th ey may off er no backstory at all: What we

see happening in front of us is what we get. We understand the characters

only through the scenes taking place without fl ashbacks and explanations

of past events or relationships.

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