I once read a script that was about a party and the first half of the script was about introducing all the characters at the party.  One person arrived and the writer gave us his name and backstory and why he was there then moved to the next person who arrived.  This is boring when it happens for one page let alone fifty.

One of the rules in improv is that you don’t have scenes with strangers.  The reason for this is the scene will inevitably be dull.  It’s so awkward going through the introductions, not knowing anything about one another, they have to find something to discuss, this is really boring for an audience.  But in a film or television series, you’re bound to have a scene where you introduce a stranger.  Crime dramas do this every episode, but they artfully avoid the whole introduction and awkward conversation thing by introducing the person they’re going to speak with before they meet so when the audience sees them, we know who they are.  The cops can get right to business.

But what if you HAVE to introduce a bunch of strangers to one another?

Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” is a fine example of a story that involves a group of strangers getting to know one another.  It’s tricky to do this in a compelling way.  The opening scene of the 1945 movie introduces 10 characters with no dialogue.  No one speaks for the first 3 ½ minutes of the movie.  But then once they start talking, all they do is introduce themselves: “I think I better introduce myself, I’m Vera Claythorne, Mrs Owen’s secretary.” “Oh. I’m Mrs. Bent.”It’s pretty dull dialogue, but there are ten strangers to introduce so it’s a tough job no matter how you address it.

How confusing and annoying would it be if these strangers all dropped their names on the boat on the way in?  By keeping them quiet, we can become acquainted with them through simple actions and individual characteristics: Vera’s scarf and how the two men flanking her react to it flying in their faces; the man who can’t settle because he’s distracted by the ‘captain’s’ sandwich, etc..

The boat scene also sets up the scene where all the men introduce themselves one after the other.  Quinncannon says, “We tell the story in Ireland about two Englishmen who were cast away on a desert island for three years and never spoke to one another because they hadn’t been introduced.” This single line kind of pokes fun at the opening scene because no one spoke to one another and they’re all about to be stranded on a desert(ed) island.  It also opens it up for introductions.  These ten strangers do have to be introduced and at least it’s a very short scene, but this is a fine example of why scenes like this are best avoided.  Don’t dwell on the introduction, drop the names and move on.

Whatever you do, don’t dump who they are, what they do and why they’re there all at once.  This is acceptable if you have a single character like a cop who has to introduce himself to a witness of a crime, but don’t make a habit of it, let your characters’ personal histories unravel naturally.  If your script is nothing more than a series of character introductions, your readers will fall away one by one until there were none.