Why it matters?

This has got to be the best class I've attended ever since term started and this is what I make of it. Here goes:

A sequence of shots makes an incident, several incidents makes up a scene, many scenes makes an act, three acts makes the plot.This is exposition.

But exposition DOES NOT equate to a story.
An exposition turns into a story ONLY when

a) there is an genuine, believable, human emotion (that the character is experiencing) that audience can relate to
b) there is an emotional pay-off at the end, something that makes it all worthwhile, that makes emotional sense.

A diary entry can be purely expositional, methodically recording events and details.
But when the writer describes his/her feelings, explains the stakes, and the consequences of failure, the reward of success, thats when it becomes attention grabbing.

But its still not a story unless it finishes with an emotional pay-off, a consequence that has emotional implications that you can relate to as humans.

Your pet ant dying does not have any emotional implications. Nether does your grandmother, unless you clearly lay out the stakes in your exposition - how close you were, how deep the bonds were, describing how she risked her life and donated her kidney to you at the risk of almost dying....