Writers like reinventing the wheel. In fact, we’re encouraged to do it. “The same but different” is a phrase you’ll hear from executives. Or, rather a phrase you’ll hear executes want to hear. Well, so I hear but that may be hearsay.
In this short series I shall reinvent the wheel of writers’ terms and give them new names. The next up for this treatment is… exposition dump (kind of), which shall now be forever known as the “Exposition Funnel”.
“As You Know…”
You’re probably aware of what an exposition dump is. When a character or two proceed to spew a great amount of information about a situation, the past, present or future and/or some story point. The writer doesn’t want to tease out or allow by natural exploration the information to flow, it must be understood now and consumed in one! The audience is forced into a sausage eating contest and the information is the sausage. Nom, nom.
What I want to rename is the special character (or thing) that can be used to get the exposition out. A rookie cop is a prime example. They get to be the exposition funnel for why these things are happening. Who this character is. Why they have to do things in this specific way. To both make this current and date it. The Protagonist in Tenet is an exposition funnel. Used to tell us how things work in the world and what will happen.
It doesn’t have to be a person though, a thing can be used as an exposition funnel. Reading from a book or computer. The montage of internet searching and then spewing forth everything they found is a premium exposition funnel item.
The point of the exposition character/item is as an audience substitute. Information the characters should know but the audience does not needs to be conveyed somehow. Like everything in screenwriting, it’s not always a bad thing. Done well and, well, it works. That’s why it’s a popular technique. It comes in for criticism when it’s talking to the audience like a five year-old or the “as you know…”
Applying to Your Own Writing
Do use an exposition funnel when appropriate. I’m warning you to be aware of it and to use it wisely, like every other screenwriting tool. And didn’t you know… he lost his wife in a pedalo accident and that’s why he’s so mad at people on bicycles, it brings it all back.