Brian Vaughan, in a comment at Pandagon, on infodumps in film:
One of the trends in the late 70s and 80s was to overwhelm the audience with hints of an elaborate world just beyond the edge of the frame. Star Wars IV: A New Hope was the classic example of this. But that didn’t mean simply packing as much crap as possible into a movie, then running it really fast — the mistake Lucas made in the second trilogy.
I think Blade Runner remains a great example of this technique. Ridley Scott dropped a few things into key scenes that encouraged us to fill in the gaps:
- Sidewalk noodle vendor
- Videophone
- The eye shop
- 3D image viewer/printer
- Trademark/serial number on snake scale
Now, the movie’s over 20 years old, and some of the tropes Scott used to create his future Los Angeles are now considered hackney, but in its time — woah.
Photo by bruceley, used under a Creative Commons license.