Screenwriting Lessons: “The Social Network” — Part 5: Handling Exposition
A five-part series exploring lessons we can glean from Aaron Sorkin’s script.
A five-part series exploring lessons we can glean from Aaron Sorkin’s script.
The Social Network won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2011. It is an audacious script which breaks many so-called screenwriting ‘rules’ and thus is worth analyzing.
Today: The Social Network — Handling exposition.
A fellow scribe once told me, “Exposition equals death,” his way of saying there is nothing less entertaining than a character or characters engaged in expository dialogue. “Talking heads” is another way writers refer to the phenomenon.
Why does exposition have such a bad rap with screenwriters? Consider the definition it definition:
Writing or speech primarily intended to convey information or to explain; a detailed statement or explanation; explanatory treatise
Information, explanation, treatise. How boring can you be, right? But then there’s this:
INT. FIRST DEPOSITION ROOM - DAY EDUARDO
I told him I thought it sounded great. I
mean it did, it was a great idea. There
was no reason to hack, people were going
to put their own pictures up. What they
were interested in, what they were
looking for, what classes they were
taking... and people had the ability to
invite their friends to join. Or put a
different way, not invite their friends
to join. In a world where social
structure is very important, that was
sexy.
(BEAT)
It was a big project and he was going to
have to write tens of thousands of lines
of code so I wondered why he was coming
to me and not his roommates. Dustin
Moskowitz and Chris Hughes were
programmers. CUT TO: EXT. QUAD - NIGHT MARK
We're gonna need a little start-up cash
to rent the servers and get it online. CUT TO;INT. FIRST DEPOSITION ROOM - NIGHT EDUARDO
That was why. GRETCHEN
Did he offer business terms? CUT TO:EXT. QUAD - NIGHT MARK
We'll split it 70-30. 70 for me and 30
for you for putting up a thousand dollars
and handling everything on the business
end. You'll be CFO. CUT TO:INT. FIRST DEPOSITION ROOM - DAY GRETCHEN
And you said? EDUARDO
I said "Let's do it". GRETCHEN
Okay. Did he add anything else? EDUARDO
Yes. He said--- CUT TO:EXT. QUAD - NIGHT MARK
It probably was a. diversity thing but so
what? CUT TO:INT. FIRST DEPOSITION ROOM - DAY GRETCHEN
Why do you think he said that? BY
Gretchen, what's the relevancy? GRETCHEN
This is discovery, I'm trying to
discover. MARK
They're suggesting I was jealous of
Eduardo and began a plan to screw him out
of the company. GRETCHEN
Were you? SY
Gretchen-- MARK
Jealous of Eduardo? SY
Stop typing, we're off the record. MARK
Ma'am, I know you've done your homework
and so you know that money isn't a big
part of my life, but at the moment I
could buy Harvard University, take the
Phoenix Club and turn it into my ping
pong room.
This scene from The Social Network is largely exposition, the dissemination of facts. I mean it’s a legal deposition, for crying out loud. And yet it doesn’t equal death. In fact, it’s riveting. How can that be? Because it follows the first principle of how to handle exposition:
Make it interesting.
Make the facts themselves interesting.
Make the people who reveal the facts interesting.
Make the way in which the facts are revealed interesting.
Make the circumstances surrounding the revelation of the facts interesting.
Exposition = Death only if a writer shows no imagination in making it interesting.
Part 1: Compelling Protagonist
That concludes this week’s series of Screenwriting Lessons from the movie The Social Network. What did you learn from it?