I think it was Humphrey Bogart who said (upon receiving exposition heavy script pages) something to the effect of “I sure hope that there’s camels screwing the background while I deliver this dialog to keep the folks entertained.”I need to find some copulating ungulates for my script as well.
Originally, five or ten pages of World War II back story was tacked on to the front of this script explaining how a Nazi treasure ended up in a podunk town in Ohio. But I decided not to go this route for several reasons.
Expense - Now I’ve got a partial period piece on my hands. The price of movie making just went up.
Tone - All of the good guys end up dead in the first scene. Not really a good start for my comedy. Pixar managed to pull it off for UP but I’d rather not go there if I can help it.
Audience Superior - A big part of the story is the mystery about what is hidden and where is it? If the audience already knows all of the details, watching the character’s search isn’t going to be much fun.
So, I sprinkled clues all through the script but some of the clues take a little more explaining than others and sometimes you just can’t show and not tell.
Anyway, I’m making good progress. Now if I can just find a way to justify some humping humpers in the background I’m golden.
