TED Talk (Part 5): J.J. Abrams

In 2007, J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost, Super 8) gave a TED Talk. I’m sure many of you have seen it. However, like many great presentations, much of what could be valuable as a writer drifts away into the ether. So for the next two weeks, I will be posting the entire transcript of Abrams’ ‘mystery box’ TED Talk.

Part 5

Then there’s the thing with imagination… withholding information, doing that intentionally is much more engaging. Whether it’s the shark in Jaws. If Bruce, Spielberg’s mechanical shark had worked, it wouldn’t have been as remotely as scary. In Alien, they never really show the alien… terrifying.

Even in a movie like a romantic comedy like The Graduate. They’re having that date, they’re in the car and it’s loud so they up the top up. You don’t even hear what they’re saying, you can’t hear a word, but it’s the most romantic date ever. You love it because you don’t hear it.

This is some great takeaway:

• Withholding information: It’s key to working the mystery box. Fight your instinct to explain things fully. Dole out data. Flick out facts. Tease out talking points. In other words, less is more. Yes, we want to answer questions. Then raise more questions. And more questions. And more…

You get the picture.

It reminds me of an excellent tweetstorm from screenwriter Justin Marks (The Jungle Book, Top Gun 2, Counterpart) on handling exposition which you can read here.

For Part 1 of Abrams’ TED Talk, go here.

For Part 2, go here.

For Part 3, go here.

For Part 4, go here.

To watch the entire video, go here.