Subscribe to our newsletter. Many readers will measure a screenplay s exposition, expecting no more than a quarter page total. Unfortunately, exposition is often several pages. The audience no longer discovers the story through character actions. When this happens, empathy with the characters disappears.
Most exposition is in the first ten pages.
That sounds formulaic but makes sense since the audience is just discovering the characters and the plot line. It is also the time when most readers will add the script to the reject pile. Professional readers first notice the length of the screenplay, which is expected to be around 120 pages. They often flip through the screenplay to determine the balance between dialogue and action lines. Amateur writers usually have too much dialogue, hence a non-visual story.