If you have to unload some exposition then make sure you keep up the pace and hold the audience’s interest at the same time. Distract them, have it happen in the middle of a gun fight or when something unexpected happens or at an exciting/busy location.

Do this, and everything else falls into place.

I’ve been giving this lots of thought.

And I’ve come to some conclusions — the first is the closer you get to the actual scene construction the fewere the rules.

It seems to me that at that level, there is good practice, and stuff that has worked in the past, but no real rules that can’t and haven’t been successfully broken.

However, I think there are rules that apply to the overall construction.

I think the first one is:

1) HAVE A STORY YOU CAN PITCH

By this I mean, when someone asks what the movie is about, you should have an answer for that question — and answer that would persuade the listener to want to see the movie.

I don’t mean (It must be high concept) high concept is just a formula that people use to work with the above rule.

I really believe that a screenplay that isn’t pitchable isn’t going to create a movie — you might create a work of art, but not a movie.

The next rule I’m sure is

2) KNOW YOUR CHARACTERS

All movies are about how specific characters react to a set of circumstances.
The truth is, you can take a cliched plot, or cliched scene and if your character is sufficiently distinct or even unique, their reaction to the situation will be what make the scene new and fresh.

So, I’m sure that knowing your characters in depth has to be a rule — no way around it — if you’re making a movie that is.

3) DOES YOUR PLOT MAKE SENSE?

I think all movies have to have some structure — I’m not advocating any particular structure, just some recognistion that stories have a start, a middle and an end — and that you deal with the audience slightly differently in each part.

This doesn’t mean that the “real time story” has to be in that order, the start of the movie can be the end of the “real time story.”

But the actual order in which the audience are told things/discover things is important.

and the only real rule I could come up with was

4) MAKE THE AUDIENCE WORK

If your goal is to make every moment of the film compelling, then you can’t give them all the information at the start — they need to discover things, clues and work out for themselves what’s going on.
This is the reason people say “No exposition” is a rule.

But actually, the real rules is “keep your audience engaged.”

I honestly think, beyond these basic concepts:

Have a good story, have some structure, know your characters and make the telling compelling

I think everything else is up for grabs.

Everything else is good or bad practice.

Unk, thanks for the prompt — it’s been good to think about this stuff.

They should care about your story, your characters, about what happens next, etc.

If you break that rule, then there’s really no reason anyone should watch your movie or read your screenplay.

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