Video: “Notes — a life story, a love story”

A series of notes tell the life story of a couple.

This video made the round yesterday. Check it out.

My first thought upon watching the video is a variation of an observation by John Lennon: That life happens between all the notes we write.

From a storytelling standpoint, however, what I found fascinating is that each note in the video is a piece of exposition.

In theory, exposition tends to suck the life out of scenes. In this video, the exposition breathes life into the story.

How?

It occurred to me each note falls into a category I use in my Handling Exposition class to transform exposition into entertainment:

Exposition as Fascination
Exposition as Mystery
Exposition as Revelation
Exposition as Conflict
Exposition as Humor

It’s not exposition per se which translates into laborious writing. The video above clearly proves that. Rather it’s how we, as writers, handle exposition wherein lies the rub.

HT FastCoCreate for the link.

For more on my Handling Exposition class, go here.