The first draft of anything: Exposition II

I am back from the summer break, sitting on my east facing terrace in the early evening with a fizzling Munich mule next to me. Most of the garden is dark in this by now, except for the sepia blooming pampas grass, towering and swaying silhouettes on the fringes of the wall light. Likely my last session before it gets too cold to sit outside this late, but for the first time I have a backlog of ideas thick enough to carry this newsletter through the coming season.

This is the sixth edition of our nudgeletter, designed to help you craft better stories in your presentations.

Exposition, Part II

“Show, don’t tell” is easy to understand yet hard to apply - in movies and even more in presentation, as they are usually delivered in a voiceover-style. So here are some additional best practices:

1) Focus exposition

In the first 90 seconds of “Die Hard”, we learn a lot about John McClain: He is married, has kids, works as a cop and is not invincible like other movie heroes at the time (click here for an analysis on John McClane's hero role). All of that information is relevant for the movie. He might not have liked the food served on the plane, but are we withheld that information. The movie plot wouldn’t have changed on whether he prefers chicken or fish.

2) Distract your audience from exposition

In the final act of “Once upon a time… in Hollywood” the final fight is won with a flamethrower in the hand of the worn out actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio). This is only believable because Tarantino included a scene earlier in the movie where Dalton talks about his flamethrower-training to prove his commitment to prepare for a role.

Nudges:

• Learn to spot exposition and to distinguish good from bad. For starters, work with the concept of focus. Is the information relevant to know to follow the movie or is it just filler.
• If you feel your presentation flow is broken because you need some exposition for a slide to work, look for places earlier in the presentation to sneak it as a side note or in a different context.
• Distinguish exposition and premise. Premise (the presentation in one sentence) tackles the general 'What' and should be made clear as early as possible for the audience to set the scene. Exposition focuses on the 'Why'.