10 Annoying Problems With Found Footage Movies
5. Forced Exposition
Similar to the problem of forced dialogue, how many times have you seen this scene in a found footage movie: the characters are facing this big mystery, so they go online and Google around about it before coming across a website that perfectly explains everything, and they then read from it to their friend holding the camera.
This happens all the time, especially in movies involving possession where the characters end up on a website with a black background and red text from some demonologist who conveniently can explain everything. Sometimes they’ll get him on Skype to chat or maybe he’ll pay a visit in person, and within a minute or two everything the audience needs to know is revealed.
Forced exposition is obviously a problem in non-found footage movies too, but it’s even more prominent in this genre. The characters practically explain right into the camera what’s going on, and because these films have such short running times, it very often only takes about 30 seconds of them scrolling through the web or reading a dusty old book. In a good film, the explanations of things should be gradually and naturally revealed, but that’s all too rare in found footage films that often just rely on a massive, awkward exposition dump.