Just a quick note on a needed edit. You have Social Network written twice here:

"And that concludes this 2-week series of Screenwriting Lesson from The Social Network and The Social Network."

These have been great, Scott. Not only do you say it can be done, but you show it with the screenplay.

You had another running feature on True Grit that was very similar to this. Perhaps, you can cover another one of the Best Adapted/Original Screenplay nominees?

Thanks for catching that boo-boo for me, Carlos. I think I'll just blame it on my PC!

I did do something similar with True Grit, you're right.

We'll see how folks react and what suggestions they have.

I'd love your analysis of my favorite movie of 2010: How to Train Your Dragon.

@DWS: That's a great idea. I think How to Train Your Dragon is a fantastic movie and there's lots of lessons to be gleaned from it. In fact, I started to do a character archetype breakdown of the movie just after I saw it, but never finished that, so a good excuse to revisit the movie. Good suggestion!

Good to see the old "CUT TO" isn't completely dead!

Great Post.

Another interesting principle for exposition could be 'conflict' too. Reveal with a conflict. This scene has enough conflict amongst almost all the characters.

@Sanket: Conflict is another principle on how to handle exposition. I am currently putting together a 1-week Screenwriting Master Class course called "Handling Exposition" in which we will look at 6 different principles for that aspect of screenwriting. More news on that later.

Most of the great scripts we get to read, of movies that are made, USUALLY handle exposition well and have the characters doing something while handling plot points. This may seem kind of douchey by me but I highly suggest every serious writer get an internship or something and be forced to cover TERRIBLE scripts. I did this for six months and learned probably just as much as I did reading masterpieces. The other side of the cue ball is just as revealing.

Chris
www.writesomehorror.blogspot.com

Hi, Scott --

I find your analyses of these two films incredibly helpful.

Yes, please do more. Carlos' idea is terrific. Screenplays that have been recognized as superlative (especially this year) could be valuable teaching/analysis tools.

Another idea: Select a movie in each of the most popular genres for analysis. Many of the nominated screenplays are dramas, and lots of us love thrillers, rom-coms, action flicks, comedies, etc. A detailed look-see into the workings of great examples of these would be amazing. It would make me smile ;)

Thanks Scott, this series has been incredibly insightful and helpful. I'd love to see more, another nominee idea would be great. Or specific genres, I'm easy. Black Swan?

Judy brings up a great point.

Not that it is impossible, but through updates on spec script sales, you've shown us, Scott, that dramas are not usually the best script for a newcomer to write. We've seen more comedy, action, thriller and horror from new writers.

If those are the genres that we should be focusing on to break in, it could be extremely beneficial to receive these lessons on screenwriting through examples of those types of films.

I always have camels f**king in the background of my exposition—heh. I love Bogart. http://tinyurl.com/6y6rj5o

Seriously, I don't know why this is such a problem. After reading and watching so many good books and movies, it feels natural to me to have chaos or interesting events surrounding my exposition.

I have my flaws but putting my characters on barstools isn't one of them. Unless it's barstools with camels going at it.