# Terminology

## Exposition

> Exposition is the information that grounds you in a story: who, what, where, when, and why" is about "**giving away what the audience needs, when the audience needs it**.

![Exposition](https://1408087550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-LKEX2pgEboHMhySJ5EJ%2F-LKEY0IYYNxY55xtF_2J%2F-LKEY3MVRF2kM0uxPTxF%2Fexposition.png?generation=1534637926010243\&alt=media)

We'll [discuss this in more detail in the exposition section](https://autoedit.gitbook.io/how-to-tell-compelling-stories-out-of-interviews/story-concepts/exposition).

## Train / Narrative Spine

> “No film set on a train ever failed”

![](https://1408087550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-LKEX2pgEboHMhySJ5EJ%2F-LKEY0IYYNxY55xtF_2J%2F-LKEY4DYTqzPodDgoL66%2Fearly_films_trains.png?generation=1534637930666721\&alt=media)

The quote is an inside joke on the double meaning of the word **train**. That in story terminology stands as synonym for narrative spine, and how earlier films have often involved trains in some capacity. From top left: [Lumiere brothers "Train at La Ciotat"](https://youtu.be/1dgLEDdFddk), ["Night Mail Train"](https://youtu.be/-WO7JxYlhOM) produced by the GPO Film Unit,[ Dziga vertov "Man with the Movie Camera"](https://youtu.be/cGYZ5847FiI), "[Chronicle of a summer" Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronique_d'un_%C3%A9t%C3%A9).

> storytelling to **move forward** you want the audience to be curious about the information you’re giving them.
>
> your goal is to create a film that’s driven by a story, one that will motivate even general viewers to want to know more of those details that thrill you.

## Theme

> the general **underlying subject** of a specific story, a recurring idea that often illuminates an aspect of the human condition.

![Underlying Theme](https://1408087550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-LKEX2pgEboHMhySJ5EJ%2F-LKEY0IYYNxY55xtF_2J%2F-LKEY4D_arAFaC62ejLx%2Funderlying_theme.png?generation=1534637930469555\&alt=media)

## Arc

> The arc refers to the way or ways in which the events of the story **transform your characters**

![Story Arc](https://1408087550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-LKEX2pgEboHMhySJ5EJ%2F-LKEY0IYYNxY55xtF_2J%2F-LKEY4DbQ3DTGQtes8Wz%2Fstory_arc.png?generation=1534637922096442\&alt=media)

In an over simplification we could say that if a Character goes from `A` to `B`. That's some kind of a journey.

But if they Go from `A` to `C` going through `B`. Where in `B` they have some kind of transformation so that our character at `A` and our character at `C` are different, then you got a story ARC. The difference could as small as change of mind of some view of the world and as big as a character transformation where they could almost be distinct as two different people.

## Plot and Character

> A **character-driven** film is one in which the action of the film emerges from the wants and needs of the characters.
>
> In a **plot-driven film**, the characters are secondary to the events that make up the plot.

![plot\_char\_story](https://1408087550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-LKEX2pgEboHMhySJ5EJ%2F-LKEY0IYYNxY55xtF_2J%2F-LKEY4DdJfMtEhXKm5dL%2Fplot_char_story.png?generation=1534637930993947\&alt=media)