§ PODCAST / EPISODES
THE EPISODES.
127 episodes — craft deep-dives, guest interviews, one-shots, casual backmatter and more!
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"I’ve been for a long time trying to improve my ability to what I call dramatize the internal and I think this is a really good opportunity to do this."
— Chas Fisher | DZ-104: Characters Alone - Dramatizing the Internal
DZ-126: Secrets and Clues
How can Secrets and Clues motivate characters?
“Getting information puts your character in danger. And danger rewards your character with information." — One of three ideas we steal from game design in this episode. In this two part series, we talk about how secrets, clues and hidden information motivate characters and may (or may not) help you plot from a character perspective. Part One (this episode) looks at WAKE UP DEAD MAN; while Part Two looks at SIDE EFFECTS, and the pilot episode of SHRINKING… →
Listen if you want to understand how hidden information drives character motivation and plot structure!
DZ-125: Oscars One-shot - BLUE MOON
What craft tools make a low-budget, contained, period drama riveting?
BLUE MOON is a talky, period-drama that film about an obscure songer-writer in the 1940s. Yet, it attracted world-class talent AND Academy Award nominations, including for it’s script. Join Chas & Mel as they explore how narrative POV, interweaving relationships, hooky dialogue, and even the screenplay format itself make the script for BLUE MOON so great… →
Listen if you want to understand how narrative POV, screenplay format, and dialogue craft can elevate a contained biopic into an Oscar-nominated film
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DZ-124: Making the Despicable Compelling
How does Film Noir show us terrible people doing terrible things without endorsing it?
Mel and Chas continue to explore what Noir (the genre) can teach writers of all other genres. In particular:… →
Listen if you need audiences to root for characters who do terrible things
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DZ-123: Flawed Characters in Noir
What can Film Noir teach us about character arcs and audience engagement?
In this two part series, Mel and Chas use Noir (the genre) as a lens to interrogate flawed characters. How can characters doing reprehensible things still engage audiences? How can you ensure representation isn’t endorsement? And whether these characters undergo transformative arcs, or simply reveal their true natures… →
Listen if you want to write morally compromised characters without endorsing their choices.
DZ-122: Escalating Antagonism Across Genres
How can you apply horror ideas to action and comedy?
In this episode Chas, Stu and guest Kim Ho continue their exploration into the power(s) of antagonism and how focusing on them can develop story… →
Listen to learn how thinking of your hero as the horror (for your villains) makes your script dynamic.
DZ-121: Escalating Antagonism in SINNERS
How do the antagonistic forces in your story escalate distinctly from the protagonists' journey?
We often struggle to develop the middle stages of a story. Could this be because we focus on our protagonists’ journeys and plot structure more than on how the antagonistic powers are awakened, wronged, discovered, gathering strength and revealing themselves… →
Listen to strengthen your story by focusing on the antagonistic forces in your script.
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DZ-120: Subtext is Overrated!
How do character goals, tactics, and fears create subtext automatically?
Or, how focusing on good drama will result in good subtext. We often hear how subtext is important for good screenwriting. We’re here to tell you it isn’t. Good subtext is a result of good drama, and your focus should be on creating that good drama. But how… →
Listen if you're struggling to write subtext without it feeling forced!
DZ-119: Final Character Choices & Great Endings
How do you dramatise a protagonist's internal journey through their final decision?
In this episode, Stu and Chas focus solely on the final choices made by protagonists and how that reflects their character journey and successfully, or not, dramatises the internal… →
Listen if you want to understand how to better dramatise a character's internal journey
DZ-118: ADOLESCENCE and Tension Through Questions
How do dramatic questions create tension?
In this episode, Stu and Chas delve into the cultural phenomenon of ADOLESCENCE. We try to find the craft tools that have made the show so compelling and such a catalyst for conversation… →
Listen if you think tension only comes from plot.
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DZ-117: Pulling Off Tonal Shifts
How can we teach our audience new storytelling rules in the middle of our story?
Following on from our episodes on establishing tone through action lines and through character, this is what we have been building up to: how to pull off a tonal switch… that does NOT throw the audience out of the film. And, in particular, how to pull that off on the page when writers don’t have framing, lighting, music, editing, etc. at our disposal… →
Listen if you want to write tonal pivots that land on the page without a director's toolkit.
DZ-116: Writing Physical Comedy
How do you make extended technical scenes funny on the page?
Mel joins Chas to tackle physical comedy. We limited our homework selection to extended scenes (as opposed to moments and sight gags) in live action projects and – with the help of our Patreons – selected early sequences from BRINGING UP BABY, the pilot for HAPPY ENDINGS and that wonderful food poisoning scene in BRIDESMAIDS… →
Listen if you're writing physical comedy and have no idea how to make it work on the page
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DZ-115: A Christmas Special - Rewatching & Rituals
What magic do Christmas movies use to make them so rewatchable?
In this “backmatter” episode of Draft Zero, Stu, Chas, and Mel Killingsworth embark on a festive exploration of what makes holiday films so engaging and so re-watchable that they can become part of our rituals. To that end, we breakdown the charm of of Christmas films like KISS KISS BANG BANG, RIDERS OF JUSTICE, and IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE… →
Listen if you want to understand what makes holiday films enduring parts of our seasonal rituals!
DZ-114: Climaxes in CHALLENGERS
How does ending your story on the climax affect audience experience?
While Stu is on show, Mel and Chas sit down to analyse the meaning behind the ending of 2024’s CHALLENGERS, especially when - upon reading the script - the most impactful moment of the ending on screen (for Chas in particular) is not written on the page… →
Listen to understand how withholding resolution can become your story's greatest statement.
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DZ-113: Tools For Filmmakers To Talk To The Audience
What tools help ensure that you as the filmmaker are not misunderstood?
In our final (ha!) episode looking at Talking Directly to the Audience, we turn away from character-and-text based craft tools to look at other ways that filmmakers - whether they be directors, writers, editors, or anyone else - can make the audience feel their ‘hand’ more. To that end, Mel, Stu and Chas dive into ADAPTATION, STORIES WE TELL and THE FORTY-YEAR-OLD VERSION… →
Listen if you want to explore how you can make your creative hand visible through meta-storytelling and structural choices!?!
DZ-112: Breaking the 4th wall
How is the effect of breaking the 4th wall different to voiceover?
As part of our series on how filmmakers can directly communicate to the audience, we finally examine the most blatant tool of them all: when character look directly down the barrel of the camera… and thus look directly at us, the viewer. Chas, Stu and Mel take the craft tools/levers they identified in previous episodes and use them to examine the tv-version-of HIGH FIDELITY (“Top Five Breakups”), ABBOTT ELEMENTARY (“Attack Ad)”) and - of course - FLEABAG… →
Listen to understand how breaking the 4th wall directly involves the audience in a character's emotional present.
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DZ-111: Unreliable Narrators and FIGHT CLUB
How does the unreliability of a narrator impact the way a story is told?
In this episode, Stu and Mel (sans Chas!) take a deep dive into FIGHT CLUB and its use of the unreliable narrator. This is a bridging episode between our previous episode on VOICEOVER and our forthcoming episode on TALKING TO CAMERA as Fight Club does both.… →
Listen to learn how unreliable narrators shape storytelling through voiceover, structure, and control.
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DZ-110: Voiceover
How can you use voiceover without it feeling like a cheat?
How can you use Voiceover without it feeling like a cheat?… →
Listen to explore how voiceover can set tone, reveal character, enhance empathy, and create tension.
DZ-109: Talking DIRECTLY to your audience
What are the different ways a filmmaker can ask something of the audience?
What are the different ways a filmmaker can ask something of the audience… →
Listen if you've wondered what a character actually wants when they're talking directly to the audience!?
DZ-108: The Emotional Event with Judith Weston
How and why should every scene have an emotional event?
How and why should every scene have an emotional event?… →
Listen to understand why a scene's power lives in what shifts between characters, not what happens to them.
DZ-107: Establishing Tone through Character
How can we use dramatisation to create tone?
In this episode, Chas and Stu continue their deep dive into how to write tone by examining films with “light” (we use the phrase loosely) tones: LADY BIRD, EMILY THE CRIMINAL, THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS, and SPONTANEOUS. We also talk a surprising amount about DUNE and CRAZY STUPID LOVE… →
Listen if you want to understand how character actions and reactions shape a film's tone
DZ-106: How do you know if you have enough story?
How do you know if you have enough narrative fuel to write a script?
In this episode, Chas, Stu and Mel attempt to answer a listener question: “In your own pre-writing process, how do you know you have enough for a feature? And do you have a specific pre-writing method you’re going to?”… →
Listen you're not sure whether your idea has enough fuel for 90 pages.
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DZ-105: Establishing Tone through Big Print
How can we teach the reader to find the humour in our darkness?
Chas and Stu finally start their long-mooted exploration of tone with a series that examines films and shows with unusual tones and dives into how the writers establish those tones in the first 5 pages… →
Listen if you want to use an unusual tone in your screenplay.
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DZ-104: Characters Alone - Dramatizing the Internal
How can scenes where characters are alone increase our connection with them?
In this episode, we explore the audience’s connection with characters through the lens of characters being alone… →
Listen to understand how solitude reveals character interiority and deepens audience connection
DZ-103: Game of the Scene 2 - Triangle of Sadness, The Favourite
How can games elevate dramatic scenes?
In part two of this two parter, Stu and Chas go further into the game (of the scene) and look at how games force characters other than the protagonist to interact. We deep dive into the wonderful social satires of TRIANGLE OF SADNESS and THE FAVOURITE… →
Listen to understand how games force characters to interact and reveal themselves (through competency, decisions, and rule-breaking)
DZ-102: Game of the Scene - Bluey, John Wick 4
How can 'games' help us write better scenes?
Stu and Chas turn their attention to a topic that has long eluded them: the game of the scene. We look at how considering the game that characters are playing — its rules, arenas, players, referees, and win conditions — can help you write more dynamic scenes… →
Listen to make your scene writing more dynamic (by looking at the underlying game)
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DZ-101: Oners - Creating Immediacy & Anchoring Action on the Page
What can we learn by analysing how 'oners' are written on the page?
Chas, Stu and Mel reunite to talk about writing the feel of camerawork in screenplays. We use “oners” — a long-playing continuous take — as a lens to talk about how some writers have “directed” from the page. We talk immediacy, camera positions, handovers, and anchoring action and more… →
Listen to understand how screenwriters direct the camera without calling shots.
DZ-100: Scenes through Swords
What scene-writing tools can be learned from martial arts?
In this slightly unusual episode of Draft Zero (but also incredibly on brand), Stu and philosopher-swordsperson Damon Young discuss how the lessons they have learned from martial arts can be applied to scenes. In particular, they discuss how approaching an opponent in a sword fight can be analogous to how characters approach conflict, such as: the distance between the characters, who chooses to engage first, how to feint, how to lure an attack by leaving yourself vulnerable, etc… →
Listen if you want to know why the distance between two characters matters more than what they say.
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DZ-99: Scene Questions
How do audience questions shape scenes?
Inspired by our earlier episodes on sequences, Chas and Stu narrow their focus to look at the atomic unit of screen storytelling: the scene. In particular, we breakdown how question and answers prompted in the audience structure individual scenes… →
Listen if learn how to structure individual scenes through the questions you pose to your audience!
DZ-98: Ensembles 3 - Character Function & Theme
What effect does adding a ton of characters have on your story?
In Part 3 (the final part? Ha!) of our exploration into ensemble stories, Stu, Chas & Mel examine films whose genres do not conventionally require a ton of characters or that use those ensembles in unconventional ways. In particular, adding whole storylines that are separate from the main character’s story. To that end, we dive into three films that were horrifically snubbed by the Oscars: THE WOMAN KING, RIDERS OF JUSTICE and NOPE… →
Listen if you're writing an ensemble storiy and want to understand how different characters serve different narrative and thematic functions!
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DZ-97: Ensembles 2 - Servicing Characters
How do you give your audience access to a lot of characters?
In Part 2 of our exploration into ensemble stories, Stu, Chas and Mel examine films whose plot and genre require a lot of characters. Thus we tackle a team sports film (PITCH PERFECT), a murder mystery (GLASS ONION), a slasher (SCREAM 2022) and a family holiday flick (THE FAMILY STONE)… →
Listen if you're writing ensemble stories and want to discover tools for giving all your characters adimension
DZ-96: Ensembles 1 - What do we mean by an ensemble?
How can the same story feel different when you have more characters?
In the first part of our series on ensembles, Chas, Stu and Mel start by laying the groundwork for our future episodes. And we begin by asking the seemingly innocuous question: What do we mean by calling a story an ensemble?… →
Listen if you're working on a story with multiple protagonists and want to understand what makes an ensemble different from a single-protagonist narrative
DZ-95: Backmatter - Building and Maintenance
How do you maintain hope in the face of, er, screenwriting
Time for our annual backmatter episode, where we drop any ruse of any objectivity, and fully embrace our subjective opinions… →
Listen listen to hear why first acts keep shrinking--and whether yours should too
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DZ-94: Talismans (Part 2)
How can you use physical objects to track character change… wordlessly?
In part two of our two-part series on TALISMANS, we break down the beats used to turn objects (in a broad sense) into talismans; how talismans can track character journeys and transitions; and how they can be used to create powerful moments without words… →
Listen to write objects that accumulate powerful meanings across your story and create unspoken emotional payoffs.
DZ-93: Talismans (Part 1)
How can you use physical objects to reveal inner character?
In this series, Chas and Stu discuss TALISMANS. Physical objects that are imbued with meaning by a character or characters. They’re a powerful tool to access inner character… →
Listen to so you can write talismans that are powerful tools for accessing character!
DZ-92: Insightful Recognition in Powerful Endings
How can endings prompt an audience to reflect on your story?
Stu & Chas set out to explore what makes certain endings powerful, in particular those of LA LA LAND, INCEPTION, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN and TURNING RED. The lens they bring to those endings is Aristotle’s moment of “anagnorisis” (don’t worry - we can’t pronounce it either), traditionally when a character moves from ignorance to knowledge (particularly of self)… →
Listen if you want to write endings that make audiences pause and ponder (in a good way, obvs)
DZ-91: Raising (different kinds of) Stakes
How can you keep your audience hooked when they know the end of the story?
Chas, Stu and Mel take a deep dive into stakes, using then lens of biopics to help us think about them. If an audience already knows the “plot” outcome of a story, then how do you create stakes to make a story tense for the audience… →
Listen listen if you're writing a biopic or any story where the audience already knows how it ends.
DZ-90: Setups & Payoffs in Everything Everywhere All At Once
How can you use setups and payoffs to stitch your film together?
In this one-shot, Chas and Stu dive into the awesomeness of EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE. In particular, we focus on its use of setups, payoffs and reversals; breakdown the difference between Pointers and Plants and Stitches; deep dive into its Michael Arndt inspired ending. And, of course, we talk hotdog fingers and butt-plugs… →
Listen to understand how setups, payoffs, and reversals create narrative cohesion even when your story is fkn bonkers.
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DZ-89: Opening Sequences
How does your opening sequence set up your audience?
Inspired by her tweet on how subversive an opening OCEAN’S ELEVEN has, Chas and Stu invited amazing writer/director Jessica Ellis onto the show to deep dive into opening sequences. How does a good opening setup character, genre, and theme… →
Listen if you want to understand how great opening sequences establish character, genre, and theme while defying genre conventions
DZ-88: Drama in Genre clothing
How can dramas use genre elements to hook their audiences?
Stu and Chas reunite with TV writer & director Kodie Bedford to look at how some films start out as genre but gradually become character dramas. Or, as Stu never said on the episode “Genre in the streets, Drama in the sheets”.… →
Listen if you're writing a genre film but sense your story wants to become something else entirely.
DZ-87: Keeping Genre Fresh
How do you deliver on the emotional contract of a genre while surprising the audience?
In tackling this enormous topic, Stu and Chads enlist professional TV writer and director Kodie Bedford, someone who has somehow managed to defy genre pigeon-holing by writing mystery, comedy and vampire shows… →
Listen when you're writing within a genre but terrified you'll deliver something your audience has already seen.
DZ-86: Backmatter - Minimum Viable Product
How do you determine what is your MVP?
In their annual full backwater episode, Stu and Chas let out their pandemic hair, drop the ruse of objectivity, and allow themselves to have even more options about writing and the business of writing… →
Listen for screenwriting lessons from 2021, strategies for pitching projects, and insights on running a writers workshop
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DZ-85: Choices & Decisions 2 - The Farewell & Wrath of Man
What is difference between choice and decision when it comes to audience experience?
In our second part of our “series” on Choices & Decisions, we take a deep dive into THE FAREWELL and WRATH OF MAN, with a sidebar on NOMADLAND… →
Listen when you want to show a character refusing to change despite every opportunity to do so.
DZ-84: Choices & Decisions 1 - Booksmart
What is the difference between choice and decision when it comes to characters?
In order to better understand dramatising of character, Chas and Stu take a very draft zero look at very specific tool: choices and decisions. We analyse three films through the decisions made by their characters. In particular, how the audience understanding of: the choice available, the considered decision itself, and the consequence changes how we feel about these characters. And how separating those three things can create different emotional effects on your audience… →
Listen how the separation of choice, decision, and consequence (for a character) creates emotional impact.
DZ-83: A Very Thematic Stand-up Special!
What can screenwriters learn from the storytelling techniques used by stand-up comedians?
Standup comedians can keep audiences gripped to their every word for over an hour, and often bring them to emotional climaxes by the end. So how do they do it and what tools can apply to scripted narratives… →
Listen you want to understand how stand-up comedians grip audiences and build emotional arcs (and what narrative tools screenwriters can borrow from comedy)!
DZ-82: Dramatising Given Circumstances in Watchmen
How can you elegantly convey given circumstances and exposition?
In this final podcast release of last year’s run of LiveSoLation episodes, Chas and Stu are joined by Uber-geek Mel Killingsworth (who else?) in an epic exploration of how Dave Gibbons’ and Alan Moore’s seminal graphic novel WATCHMEN is adapted differently in Zack Snyder’s 2009 film and Damon Lindelof’s 2019 HBO television show… →
Listen if you're drowning your readers in world-building and can't figure out how to make it awome.
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DZ-81: Pitch Decks & Look Books - Development Tools 4
How do you make effective pitch decks and look books for your projects?
Chas and Stu are joined by writer/director/producer/multi-hyphenate Marc Furmie of Rezistor Studios to talk all things pitch decks and look books. Coming from an advertising and music video background, Marc shares his experience in putting together visual materials to pitch a project. We discuss the difference between pitch decks and lookbooks, how they help you sell your projects, what buyers are looking for, television vs features, and how do we make yours better… →
Listen if you're preparing to pitch a project and want to understand how to create compelling visual materials
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DZ-80: Interweaving Timelines 3 - Little Women
How can interweaving timelines elevate the emotional experience for the audience?
In our final part, part 3, of our Interweaving Timelines series, we — Chas, Stu & Mel — take a deep dive into Greta Gerwig’s 2019 adaptation of Little Women. In her adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s iconic novels, Greta chose to interweave the seperate timelines of Little Women and it’s sequel, Good Wives, to create a thematically and emotionally potent work. This differs from all the other adaptations, which have chosen to keep the chronological storytelling of the source material… →
Listen to explore non-chronological structures can make work thematically resonant.
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DZ-79: Interweaving Timelines 2 - The Social Network
How can interweaving two timelines change how we feel about a character?
In this Part 2 of Interweaving Timelines (aka The Stu Monologue Episode), Mel, Chas and Stu tackle Sorkin/Fincher’s The Social Network. As you’ll hear, it is clearly Stu’s favourite of the examples we cover and, ah, not Mel’s favourite. While all three bring their own biases and opinions on the reality of Facebook as it has become, we do manage to put the destruction of democracy to one side to actually analyse the meticulous craft that this film displays… →
Listen to understand how manage stakes when you're using flashforwards.
DZ-78: Interweaving Timelines 1 - Destroyer
How does interweaving two timelines change how the audience feel?
Stu and Chas are joined by Mel Killingsworth to dissect interweaving timelines. Not anthology films. Not Cloud Atlas. But films where two plot lines featuring the same characters, but from different timelines, are woven together… →
Listen when you're writting multiple timelines and struggling to anchor your reader to one timeline's perspective.
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DZ-77: Backmatter - Prioritising and choosing projects
How do you choose which project to start next?
In their now-annual full backmatter episode, Stu and Chas let their hair down, drop the guise of objectivity, and allow themselves to have an even more subjective opinion about writing and the business of writing… →
Listen if you're starting a new co-writing relationship, managing multiple projects, or wondering how to prioritize your next screenplay.
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DZ-76: Spotlight on Sofia Coppola
What can we learn from Sofia Coppola's on-the-page skills over her career?
Following the success of the Tips from Tarantino episode, we have again decided to look at three different scripts from over the course of a long screenwriting career from a single writer to see what we can learn. Our beloved patreons not only selected Sofia Coppola as said writer, but also selected the scripts to analyse: LOST IN TRANSLATION, THE BLING RING and THE BEGUILED… →
Listen to discover how Sofia Coppola crafts character performance on the page and uses whitespace to create her distinctive cinematic voice
DZ-75: Fury Road & Visual Storytelling
How can you do powerful storytelling... without dialogue?
Stu and Chas are joined by filmmaker, podcaster and writer Lia Matthew Brownn to deep dive into FURY ROAD and its astounding visual storytelling, both on the page and on screen. We talk about setups and payoffs, given circumstances, image systems, environmental storytelling, and how the relationship between Furiosa and Max is built over the course of the story with very little dialogue (besides Tom Hardy’s grunts and the odd bellow of “MEDIOCRE!”).
You can also watch the complete live stream on YouTube or just the breakdown of the Furiosa/Max fight (which isn’t in the podcast) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8uYAbEcQeQ&feature=youtu.be… →
Listen to hear how visual storytelling can carry an entire narrative with minimal dialogue.
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DZ-74: Midsommar & Folk Horror
What can we learn from folk horror?
Draft Zero return with their next YouTube livestream! Stu and Chas are joined by previous guest (and successful screenwriter) C.S. McMullen for a deep dive into MIDSOMMAR! We analyse the film through the lens of Folk Horror, but tackle broader topics such as horror vs dread, rising tension, transgressions, unfilmables, and portraying toxic relationships… →
Listen if you want to understand how folk horror works as a genre and how Ari Aster uses it to explore grief and toxic relationships
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DZ-73: Selling documents - Development Tools 3
How do I write selling documents differently to development documents?
In developing our stories and scripts, we have probably written some combination of treatments and loglines and outlines. Some of us have probably even sent these development materials out to producers or agencies when “selling” a project — as a step towards getting someone to read or gulp produce your material. If so… have you written them differently? Should you have? You probably should have&hellip… →
⏱ 39m
Listen if you're preparing treatments, loglines, or outlines to pitch to producers or agencies.
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DZ-72: Theme & The Story Synopsis - Development Tools 2
How can I develop my theme without writing script pages?
Continuing our look at tools used in development, Chas & Stu are joined by Stephen Cleary to talk about Theme, The Thematic Logline and what Stephen calls The Story Synopsis. All are tools to help writers better understand their theme and how it is dramatised. We use the classic film WITNESS as an example, so spoilers abound… →
Listen tolearn concrete tools for developing theme in the early stages of your writing.
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DZ-71: Treatments & Loglines - Development Tools 1
How can I develop my plot before writing the screenplay?
Stu and Chas are joined by fan-favourite, Stephen Cleary, to NOT look at what makes great screenplays work – but what makes great “short documents” work. We draw on Stephen Cleary’s wealth of experience in developing work with writers, as a producer, as a script editor and as a former head of development… →
Listen to understand why a treatment isn't something to dread, but the plot-development tool that saves you months of writing.
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DZ-70: Joker & Melodrama
How does Joker use melodramatic techniques to elevate its storytelling?
Draft Zero return with their next YouTube livestream! Stu and Chas take a deep dive into JOKER and analyse the film through the story paradigm of melodrama. Is it a melodrama? Why or why not does that matter? And does that influence how it has been written on the page… →
Listen if you're writing a character whose trauma becomes the engine of your entire narrative.
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DZ-69: Parasite & Audience Questions
How can you use audience questions to heighten emotional investment?
Draft Zero return with their next YouTube livestream! Stu and Chas take a deep dive into PARASITE and how its mastery of audience questions elevates the film. They then answer listeners questions on PARASITE and much more… →
Listen to understand how refusing to give your audience moral clarity can deepen their investment in character fates.
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DZ-68: Using POV to structure KNIVES OUT
How can shifting narrative point of view drive your sequences?
Born out of isolation madness, this episode is an edited version of Draft Zero’s first YouTube livestream. Stu and Chas both watched KNIVES OUT and - together with our listeners - broke down each sequence and turning point by reference to what the audience knows in relation to the characters (aka narrative point of view). They then answer listener questions on KNIVES OUT and much else besides live on air… →
Listen to help you master the gap between what your audience knows and what your characters know.
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DZ-67: Writing Passive Protagonists & Melodrama
How do I tell a powerful story where the protagonist cannot drive the plot?
Stu and Chas are joined by Stephen Cleary following his exploration into Melodrama, and together they try to reclaim the word from its pejorative meaning… →
Listen if you want to write powerful stories centred on characters without much agency.
DZ-66: The Mandalorian and The Rise of Skywalker - Audience Knowledge vs Character Motivation
How does audience knowledge affect your character's motivations?
By Order 66: Chas and Stu are joined by special guest - filmmaker Mel Killingsworth - to talk all things Star Wars. Well. Focusing on The Mandalorian and The Rise of Skywalker and wherever else our tangents take us… →
Listen to understand how fan service weaponizes external knowledge against character logic.
DZ-65: Collaborating with a Director - The Snip
HOw does a writer work with a director (on a short film?)
This episode, Chas steps down as co-host (kinda) and is interviewed by Stu as a guest, alongside director Ben Mizzi, about the short rom-com that Chas wrote and Ben directed & produced. The episode covers taking an idea from pitch to screen, working with a director, directing performance on the page, and marketing and distribution strategies for short films… →
Listen if you are thinking of producing your own short film!
DZ-64: Backmatter - Controlling your Work, Treatments, and Writing Styles
What can and should you do next?
In our annual Backmatter-only episode, Stu and Chas indulge themselves by offering personal opinions on the life and work of emerging screenwriters based on their own personal experience… →
Listen to understand what you can control in your career--and what you absolutely cannot.
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DZ-63: Tools for Better Dialogue 2 - Hook and Eye
How can you create flow and contrast in your dialogue?
A full three years after the first instalment (and one of our most popular), Stu and Chas have kidnapped Stephen Cleary to once again develop some craft tools around dialogue. It would be fair to say that - in that time - all three have learnt a lot more about dialogue than they knew in 2016. It would be also fair to say that Stephen perhaps learnt a little more through his research into “genderlect”… →
Listen when you're rewriting dialogue and want to create connection between characters.
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DZ-62: Unfilmables 3 - As Ifs & Emotional Context
How do you know if your unfilmable is good... or if you're just being a wanker?
In this third and final part of our series on unfilmables, Chas and Stu turn their critical eye to… each other’s work! They take their key learnings from the previous episodes and apply them to rewriting scenes from their own projects. They discuss metaphors, emotional context, and how you can write tone on the page without resorting to unfilmables… →
Listen if you want to learn how to write tone and emotional context on the page.
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DZ-61: Unfilmables 2 - Moments of Awe
How can unfilmables help you create those cinematic moments of awe?
In this second part of our series on unfilmables, Chas and Stu continue their deep dive into how writing the “unfilmable” can enhance your script. Rather than looking at micro moments, they turn their gaze to “moments of awe” — those often breathtaking cinematic moments that feel beyond writing. But are those scenes actually unscriptable… →
Listen if you're writing a moment that feels too big for the page (but you need it on the page).
DZ-60: Unfilmables 1 - Engaging imagination
How can unfilmables enhance the experience of your script?
*AKA Why your screenwriting guru is wrong *… →
Listen to discover how *produced* screenplays use unfilmables to shape tone, performance, and humour on the page.
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Films:
Lethal Weapon (1987)
, Hereditary (2018)
, A Quiet Place (2018)
, Killing Them Softly (2012)
, Spartan (2004)
, The Girl on the Train (2016)
, The Nice Guys (2016)
, Drive (2011)
, Michael Clayton (2007)
, The Tree of Life (2011)
, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
, Killing Eve (2018)
, Fleabag (2016)
, Sharp Objects (2018)
, Battlestar Galactica (2004)
DZ-59: Avengers Endgame - Ending Character Journeys
Do you want your audience feeling with or for your characters?
One day, Chas saw Avengers: Endgame for the second time and wrote a review on Letterboxd. In particular, he had issues with how little he perceived the characters of Cap and Tony changed within the film, their big finale (spoiler). Then friend and patron of the podcast Julio Olivera vehemently disagreed in the comments. He was egged on by Stu. And there in the comments began a debate that looked a lot like an episode of Draft Zero. So we decided to make it one… →
Listen if you're interested in how to dramatise character change, position your audience in relation to characters, and explore the difference between empathy and sympathy in screenwriting
DZ-58: Game of Thrones - Character Exposition
How can you let your characters tell us how they feel?
In watching Season 7 (and the first three episodes of Season 8) of Game of Thrones, Stu noticed that there were lots of scenes where characters either met for the first time or were reunited after a long time apart. In these scenes, the audience knows (or thinks they know) more than either character. And so the fascination, power and subversion comes from what the characters choose to reveal… or not… →
Listen to understand why what a character *doesn't* say reveals more than exposition ever could.
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DZ-57: Backmatter - Aesthetics and Forgiveness in Writing
How can you best articulate your ideas?
It is time (in fact, well past time) for our semi-annual #Backmatter episode. For the uninitiated, this is an episode where Stu and Chas discuss career and craft-related topics beyond what makes great screenplays work. To that end, Stu and Chas dive into: a five year review of Draft Zero and how it has changed their writing craft and process; a discussion on the aesthetics of writing; learnings for emerging writers in having their work produced; and finally forgiving yourself for not writing… →
Listen if you need to forgive yourself (for not writing)
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DZ-56: Character Motivations (Part 2)
Workshopping ways to fix character motivations.
In this second part of their exploration of character motivations, Chas and Stu dive into what makes “BAD” screenplays NOT work. They examine at moments where they (and maybe you, dear listeners) did not believe a key decision being made by a character and so were taken out of the movie. In a departure from the Draft Zero format, they apply the tools they developed in Part 1 to workshop potential fixes to these beats… →
Listen if you want to understand how character decisions can break a screenplay and how to fix them
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DZ-55: Character Motivations 1
What to do when a reader says "I don't buy that he/she would do that"?
Chas & Stu look at examples of good character motivation. We’ve all watched movies where we don’t believe the motivation of a character or characters. We may have even written scripts where readers don’t buy the character’s choices. And that’s often a real problem because most of these choices coincide with key structural moments — e.g. the moments where the characters decide to do something “out of character” in order to progress to the next part of the story. To help us solve the problem of how to improve our character motivations, in this episode we explore great examples of character motivation and how they have helped the audience believe a character’s decision… →
Listen if you're writing a scene where your character does something 'out of character' and your readers to buy it.
DZ-54: Thematic Sequences
How does removing character and plot question force your audience to engage with theme?
Chas and Stu are joined, once again, by the inestimable Stephen Cleary. This episode is a spiritual sequel to our last episode with Stephen, the one on sequence structure. That episode explored how sequences could be broken into plot, character, and plot/character sequences… →
Listen if you want to make theme your primary driver (for a sequence)
DZ-53: Antagonists! 5 - vs Audience
What if there is no antagonist?
It’s time. The Epic Deep Dive(TM) into Antagonists has reached its shuddering conclusion. And for this Part V - by choosing films that have no obvious singular antagonist (and in some cases no obvious narrative either) - Stu and Chas realised there was indeed a final category of antagonists: the films themselves. Where the film (and the filmmaker) are engaging directly with the audience. Where the films are… VERSUS AUDIENCE… →
Listen to turn narrative uncertainty itself into the engine that keeps viewers compelled.
DZ-52: Antagonists! 4 - vs Systems
How do systems pressure your characters to change?
This is Part Four (!!) of our Five Part Epic Exploration into antagonists forces and sources of conflict. In this episode we explore “system/world/society” antagonists. While stereotypically associated with science-fiction, these sources of conflict are found across genres… →
Listen if you want to use how societal, governmental, or environmental forces as villains.
DZ-51: Antagonists! 3 - vs Nature
What changes in your story if your antagonistic forces can't be bargained with?
In this Part Three of our Five Part Epic Exploration™ into antagonistic forces (and sources of conflict), Chas & Stu explore “nature” antagonists, including some supernatural ones. What became clear in doing the homework (and recording this episode twice) was that the antagonistic forces - whether natural or supernatural - presented different narrative challenges to the protagonists if (a) they did not seem to make choices and (b) could not be bargained with or defeated… →
Listen to understand why pressure--not obstacles--is what transforms a protagonist when they face an unstoppable force.
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DZ-50: Antagonists! 2 - vs Self
How can characters be their own antagonist?
In Part Two of our Five Part Epic Exploration™ into antagonists, Chas & Stu take a look at “vs self” stories. Stories where the protagonist (or main character) serves as their own antagonist as well as the antagonist for those around them… →
Listen if you want to understand how protagonists can serve as their own antagonist and how antagonistic forces shape a character's journey
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DZ-49: Antagonists! 1 - vs Humans
What makes a strong human antagonist?
Prompted by a listener (and patron of the podcast) question, Stu and Chas dive into antagonistic forces. And because Draft Zero does not do anything by halves, this is Part One of a Five Part Epic Exploration™ into antagonists; namely: vs humans, vs self, vs nature/supernatural, vs systems and “other”. aka the classic narrative conflicts… →
⏱ 1h 20m
31 MAR 2018
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DZ-48: One-Shot - Blade Runner 2049 - Agency vs Choice
Can your characters be given choices and yet still be deprived of agency?
To kick off 2018, Chas and Stu take a deep dive into one of their favourite movies of 2017: Blade Runner 2049. However, they abstained from “Fox News-ing this shit” by being joined by the most accomplished screenwriter they know, C.S. McMullen (Blood List 2017, Black List 2017, also a lover of Blade Runner 2049)… →
Listen to discover how characters can be dramatised through binary choices (and understand the difference between choice and agency).
DZ-47: Backmatter - A Lost Jedi, White Knighting, and Writers-On-Set
Will Director Stu allow Writer Chas on his set?
Following our annual wrap up in 2017, we’ve decided to once again explore what craft issues/lessons we can garner from the latest Stars, namely Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, focusing on how consequences of character actions can do a lot of heavy lifting as to how the audience perceives that character (as well as looking at worldview and overall story structure)… →
Listen to understand how consequences (not intentions) impact whether an audience roots for or against your protagonist.
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DZ-46: Structure & Point of View
What questions do you want your audience asking at any given time?
Waaaaaaaaaay back in DZ-5, Stu and Chas examined how shifting narrative point of view (i.e. what the audience knows in relation to the characters on screen) heightens emotions in any given scene. We’ve now taken that micro idea and applied it to the macro: how can deciding what the audience knows and when in relation to the characters organise your story? Are whole sequences or even acts driven by the audience following a character, feeling concerned about a character, empathising with a character or being absorbed in the irony of knowing more than all the characters interacting on screen… →
Listen if you want to understand how narrative point of view can organise your entire story structure
DZ-45: Arguments of the Scene
How can you dramatise your theme on a scene level?
As part of their ongoing exploration of scene-work, Stu and Chas apply their earlier thinking on theme and character worldview to individual scenes. Can examining a scene from a thematic perspective impact the drama, conflict or stakes of the scene? How does your character’s conscious and subconscious world views dramatise the overall theme of the work? How can an individual scene reflect the larger themes of the overall story? Do any of these questions or approaches lead to writing better scenes… →
Listen to discover how a character's worldview becomes the engine of conflict inside a single scene.
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DZ-44: Marvel - First Acts and Establishing Characters
How can your first act effectively establish your character journey?
First Acts are hard. They have to set so much in motion, especially setting up characters. To help them understand how to write effective first acts better, Stu and Chas turn their analytical gaze to a franchise that has been refining and reiterating its first act “schema” for over a decade… THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE… →
Listen if your first act exposition feels clunky--the MCU has a schema for burying backstory inside character introductions.
DZ-43: Driving Sequences - Character and Plot Intensity
What gives your sequences their intensity?
Chas and Stu are joined for the fourth time by the inestimable Stephen Cleary - this time to take a deep dive into sequences. A real deep dive. A 3+ hour deep dive… →
Listen to understand how dramatic questions shape audience engagement and pacing through sequences.
DZ-42: One-Shot - Character Worldview & Macro POV in SPLT
What screenwriting lessons can be we learn from SPLIT?
In our first (and perhaps last) one-shot, we take a close look at the M. Night Shyamalan’s SPLIT. Rather than having one topic with many examples, we use the one example to look at many topics. Well, okay, a few topics… →
Listen when you're writing a twist and need to earn it through point-of-view rather than surprise alone.
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DZ-41: Theme and Worldview
How can your characters' worldview dramatise your theme?
In this episode, Stu and Chas tackle one of the more esoteric topics in screenwriting (and writing in general): theme! To help us tackle this topic, we decided to look at television pilots, because we felt that television requires the theme to be more explicit. Our zig-zagging (and long) discussion covers thematic engines, music themes, thematic loglines, punishment vs reward, and - perhaps most of all - the worldview of characters… →
Listen if theme feels abstract - we talk how how to make it visible through what characters believe.
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Films:
House of Cards (2013)
, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015)
, True Detective (2014)
, Transparent (2014)
, Fargo (2014)
, Game of Thrones (2011)
, BoJack Horseman (2014)
, Six Feet Under (2001)
Shows:
House of Cards 1x1
, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 1x1
, True Detective 1x1
, Transparent 1x1
, Fargo 1x1
, Game of Thrones 1x1
, BoJack Horseman 1x1
, Six Feet Under 1x1
DZ-40: Tactics and Scenes
How do tactics make your characters and scenes more dynamic?
In this episode, Stu and Chas turn their gaze to the “tactics” that characters use in scenes to get what they want. Tactics are how the characters try to achieve their goals and (we reckon) can be revealing of the essence of their character. The shifting and thwarting of tactics can make scenes more dynamic; while over the course of a story, the changing of tactics can reflect the growth of characters… even if their goal stays the same… →
Listen to learn how a character's tactics reveal who they are under pressure--and how their changing tactics reveals their growth.
DZ-39: Backmatter - Hitting LA, Receiving Feedback, and a Roguish One
How can writers make use of their time when hitting LA?
In another backmatter-only episode, Stu & Chas zig-zag through a range of topics. We talk about Chas’ experience(s) hitting both Los Angeles and the Austin Film Festival, effective networking, career capital, the art of receiving feedback, and Stu’s harsh Three Strikes Rule. We look back at the most important lessons we’ve learned about storytelling in 2016 and that leads us to talk about character choices in a little-known and little-talked about film called ROGUE ONE… →
Listen if you're about to network at a festival and have no idea what writers actually do with their time there.
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DZ-38: Excelling at Exposition (Part 2)
How can exposition twist your story in new directions?
In the second part of Draft Zero’s two-part episode on “Exposition”, Stu & Chas take an even deeper look at this notoriously challenging part of screenwriting. For many stories there are pre-existing facts (or given circumstances) that need to be communicated to an audience, and often we rely on dialogue to do it. But exposition can do more than just communicate, it can serve as dramatic revelation that twists a story into a new direction or provides an emotional payoff - or both!. So how do great writers make exposition work for the story, rather than just tell audience stuff they need to know? And how can writers go wrong… →
Listen to learn how to use exposition as dramatic revelation rather than mere information delivery.
DZ-37: Excelling at Exposition (Part 1)
How can you successfully integrate exposition into your story?
In Draft Zero’s first two part episode, Stu & Chas take an in-depth look at one of screenwriting’s most common challenges: EXPOSITION. For many stories there are pre-existing facts that need to be communicated to the audience — whether those facts be about the rules of the world, the nature of a location, character motivations, character backstories or just character names. So how have great writers made exposition move the story forward, rather than stopping it to tell the audience stuff they need to know… →
Listen if your exposition scenes feel like information dumps disguised as dialogue.
DZ-36: Backmatter - Time Risk and Fixing Movies
How can writers wisely invest their time in projects?
In this “special”, backmatter-only episode, Stu & Chas take inspiration from Terry Rossio’s excellent article on TIME RISK and ice skate over a range of topics. We talk about time investment in projects, Stuart’s project Restoration, doing you down work first, managing feedback, thinking positive being a negative, and we open the listener mail bag for critiques, praise and suggestions. We also explore how we could do Draft Zero episodes exploring tone and theme… →
Listen if you're juggling multiple projects and can't figure out which one deserves your attention right now.
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DZ-35: Driving Characters or Character Driven?
How can films maintain audience interest without stakes or plot questions?
Continuing their focus on “character”, Stuart and Chas take a close look at films that may be considered character-driven… or rather character studies… or just plot-lite films? Whatever you call them, these films — CHEF, HAPPY-GO-LUCKY, and AMOUR — let their plots take a back seat to a closer examination of their characters. Stuart and Chas dive in to investigate how, without plot driving the story forward, do these films maintain our interest? We talk Mike Leigh’s idea of the ‘Running Condition’, Character Choice, SceneWork and the myriad other techniques the filmmakers use to keep us interested… →
Listen if you're writing a character study and unsure how to build momentum without external conflict.
DZ-34: Game of Choices - Decision Making and Character Implications
How does the experience of a character's decision impact our feelings towards that character?
After a spectacular end to Season 6 of GAME OF THRONES, Chas and Stu were struck by the very different portrayals of Sansa in Episode 9 - Battle of the Bastards and Cersei in Episode 10 - The Winds of Winter. Despite both characters having an enormous impact on the narrative, the audience’s experience of those characters is very different – largely because Sansa is absent from 98% of Battle of the Bastards… →
DZ-33: Protagonist vs Hero - Dawn of Character Function
How does splitting 'character functions' enhance theme?
We are often told that our ‘protagonist’ needs to be a active. That they need to be compelling. That they need to change. And - old faithful - that they need to be likeable. But after looking at MAD MAX: FURY ROAD, STAR TREK (2009), THE FIGHTER, and SICARIO, Chas and Stu learn that your primary character does not need to do all these things. In fact, they learn that splitting these functions between your primary characters can reinforce theme and create potential for different types of narratives… →
Listen to see how splitting character functions across your cast sharpens what your story actually means.
DZ-32: High-Tension Sequences
How can you recreate the feeling of cinematic high-tension on the page?
Chas & Stu take a close look at sequences of high-tension - the ones that make you lean forward in fear, or jump backwards in terror. Without camera angles, lighting, music or sound, how can screenwriters can evoke those emotions in readers using only the page? These sequences can be found in any genre of film, not just thriller or horror. To that end, Stu and Chas dive into high tension scenes from NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, ZODIAC, ROOM, and THE BABADOOK. We cover their use of shifting POV, Dramatic Irony, Status Transactions, White Space, Sound FX, and many more… →
Listen if you want to evoke fear and tension using only the written word (without relying on camera, lighting, music, or sound_
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DZ-31: Tools for Better Dialogue 1
How does dialogue serve to reveal character?
Chas & Stu are joined once again by the renowned script developer and producer, Stephen Cleary. In the first part of our series on writing better dialogue (there will be more!), we take a close look at how dialogue serves character: individuating characters, revealing characterisation, shifting status, and much more… →
Listen if your want your dialogue to individualizes characters, reveal characterization, and shift status!
DZ-30: Oscars revisited - Spotlight and Carol
What makes a script so compelling that it ends up with an Oscar nod?
In this episode Stu and Chas return to their first ever episode by tackling two Oscar-nominated screenplays. But this time - instead of exploring the rigid structures laid down by gurus - they use it as an opportunity to explore what they’ve learned in the last three years and apply them to the phenomenal writing in SPOTLIGHT and CAROL (with slight digression towards THE EXPANSE and GAME OF THRONES (which has possibly replaced Star Wars as the de facto reference point for anything.)… →
Listen to learn how catharsis, world-building, mid-points, and status transactions elevate great writing
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DZ-29: Showdowns & Scene Structure
What can fight scenes - whether physical or verbal - teach us about structuring any scene?
In exploring how to write good fight scenes, Stu and Chas compare how writers structure memorable showdowns - both verbal and physical. Fights vs arguments. Swords vs insults. Lightsabres vs passive aggressive subtext. To do this, they analyse the showdowns in EASTERN PROMISES, ROB ROY, THE FORCE AWAKENS (yes, yes, we finally let Stu officially discuss Star Wars), A FEW GOOD MEN, BREAKING BAD and BEFORE SUNSET… →
Listen to discover how fight scenes can be great inspiration for writing any kind of showdown (verbal or otherwise)
DZ-28: Containing Your Script
How do you keep contained movies engaging?
Contained Thrillers* *seem to be a genre that never goes out of fashion. But being contained is not just limited to thrillers. It’s a way of telling stories on a lower budget, regardless of genre. So - while allegedly easier to make / get made - limiting a story to a single location also limits the tools that maintain an audience’s interest. Changing audience or character point of view, intercutting between locations or characters are all much harder (if not impossible) in contained films. So how do good contained films hook their audience and keep them… →
Listen if you're writing a contained thriller, drama, or any story limited to a single location
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DZ-27: Competing views on Screenplay Competitions
Can screenplay competitions be worth it?
After being repeatedly asked by listeners for thoughts on screenplay competitions, Stu and Chas go full back matter for this special episode. They tackle the question - do comps just feeding the hope machine or are they a valid investment? - in their typical detailed (i.e. long) style. With their differing perspectives, Stu (a director looking for material) and Chas (a writer keen for exposure), talk to an impressive roster of guests. We start with Gordy Hoffman, founder and judge of the Bluecat Screenplay Competition; repeat Austin Film Festival attendees - first for the screenplay and now for the finished web series of EX BEST - Diana Gettinger & Monica Hewes; Launchpad 2014 finalist Tony Pitman; and Insite Competition winner Blake Ashford, whose winning script CUT SNAKE hit cinemas in 2015… ten years after winning the competition… →
Listen if you're considering entering a screenplay competition and want to hear from writers and industry professionals about whether it's a worthwhile investment!
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DZ-26: Horror and Collaboration- Wolf Creek 2
How does a screenwriter collaborate with a director on an existing property?
In this halloween special, Chas (sans Stu) is joined by a very special guest… Aaron Sterns the co-writer of WOLF CREEK 2 – the big budget sequel to the infamous WOLF CREEK, also directed by Greg McLean. Chas and Aaron talk horror, anti-horror, collaboration, novels and how a screenwriter works within an existing franchise… →
Listen if you're co-writing and need to figure out where your voice ends and your collaborator's begins.
DZ-25: Coincidences, Contrivances & Giant Eagles
How do screenwriters get away with using coincidences in their stories?
Remember that time in THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS when Bruce suddenly - magically - returned to Gotham, and you were like “WTF?!” Well, it turns out that many of the best films have moments that are just as coincidental or contrived (or a flock of Giant Eagles) and yet get away with it. Does Pixar’s “rule” that it is ‘cheating to use coincidences to get your characters out of trouble’, always apply… →
Listen when you need to know which coincidences earn trust and which ones feel like cheating.
DZ-24: Forging story rules in TV pilots
Are your story rules in your pilot strong enough to play out over the life of your show?
Stu and Chas move away from the world of features and dive into the Pilot Episodes of some (New) Golden Age Television: THE SHIELD, THE WIRE, BREAKING BAD, and MAD MEN. And we sneak in some discussion about ANGEL, THE SOPRANOS and GAME OF THRONES… →
Listen if you wanna know great television pilots establish the dramatic, literary, and cinematic rules that sustain their entire run.
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DZ-23: LIVE - Starting A Career In Film And Television
Are you a filmmaker but not sure how to start your career?
Draft Zero was invited to moderate a panel as part of the 2015 St Kilda Film Festival. In our very first live episode, we are joined by TV Writer Mithila Gupta (Winners and Losers), Director Corrie Chen (Reg Makes Contact) and Producer/Executive Simon de Bruyn (*Acquisitions Executive, XYZ Films *and Producer) to talk about ‘breaking in’, how it has changed, the different approaches, opportunities and challenges. They share their tips on networking effectively, setting up an online presence, persevering through doubt and getting relevant experience… →
⏱ 1h 45m
Listen if you're an emerging filmmaker looking to break into the industry
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DZ-22: Romantic Comedy, Actually
How can studying RomCom clichés teach us to subvert them?
With Stu busy working on Hollywood blockbusters, Chas is joined by Alli Parker (script department on Aussie TV series and former co-ordinator of European #scriptchat) to unpick successful romcoms to see if they can illuminate a path for writers working in this struggling genre. Cheap to produce and potentially highly lucrative, Chas and Alli look at RomCom’s conventions to see what it may take to reinvigorate this genre… →
Listen if you're writing a romcom and want to understand what makes this gentre tick.
DZ-21: Scene Transitions and the Hook
How can scene transitions do more than just move from one location to another?
Stu and Chas look at one of the basic building blocks of a script: scene transitions. Transitions don’t just move you from one scene to another in a slick way, they can help you compress time, enhance thematic connections, unify different story threads, orient (or disorient) your reader… and just make your script feel more like a movie… →
Listen to understand how transitions compress time, enhance thematic connections, unify story threads, and orient your reader
DZ-20: Writing Strong Secondary Characters - Trinity, Bechdel and a Bamboo Killer
How can the Trinity Syndrome help you write better secondary characters?
Chas & Stu are joined by Bamboo Killer (aka Emily Blake) - one of the co-hosts of the Chicks Who Script podcast. They take a critical look at secondary female characters in mainstream movies through the lens of the oft-cited Bechdel test and the new, less-cited, Trinity Syndrome. The Trinity Syndrome berates movies for creating a “Strong Female Character With Nothing To Do” (like Trinity in the Matrix sequels) and raises a list of questions for filmmakers to ask themselves about their (female) characters… →
Listen when you're writing secondary female characters and need them to have more depth.
DZ-19: Car-Crash Characters
How do you make unlikeable characters compelling to watch... in drama?
Stu and Chas revisit a topic from a year ago: how do screenwriters make unlikeable characters compelling? This time, we turn our focus to dramas and analyse how AMERICAN HISTORY X, YOUNG ADULT, NIGHTCRAWLER all make their asshole protagonists compelling to watch. We expand our original list of five writer’s tools to include a few more for your tool belt… →
Listen when you're writing a protagonist who does terrible things but you need the audience to keep watching.
DZ-18: Michael Bay - F*ing the Frame and P*ing the Page
Are there screenwriting lessons to be taken from analysing the work of Michael f-ing Bay?
Of course there are. How could there not be? After all, Michael Bay is the 3rd highest grossing director at the worldwide box office… of all time. Behind, y’know, Spielberg and stuff. How could a man of such credentials not know story? Or, so argues this week’s guest: the author of MICHAEL F-ING BAY: THE UNHERALDED GENIUS IN MICHAEL BAY’S FILMS… [drumroll]… the Bitter Script Reader… →
Listen to understand how one of the world's highest-grossing directors structures story, makes great villians, controls information flow, and makes visual decisions on the page
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DZ-17: Where's my gold-plated ensuite?
When you're an emerging filmmaker, what are different ways to tackle a "career"?
It’s our Holiday Special! In this episode (recorded December 2014), Chas and Stu break all the rules. No homework. No pages. No empirical analysis. They reluctantly but boldly reflect over the first year of Draft Zero and how it has influenced their ‘careers’ (such as they are). They also engage in a heated debate on whether a short film, a micro-budget feature or web-based content is the best way to go in terms of pushing a filmmaking career forward… →
Listen when you're deciding between shorts, features, and web content--and need to know which format actually builds a sustainable creative practice.
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DZ-16: Masters of Time and Whitespace
Does manipulating time on the page make your script feel more cinematic?
Chas and Stu are joined by Khrob Edmonds - an award-winning filmmaker - to discuss manipulation of time&hellip… →
Listen if you want your screenplay to feel cinematic before a director ever reads it.
DZ-15: World Building Rules, Okay?
How does setting up rules help you build a world?
In our most epic/longest episode yet, Chas and Stu tackle world building in films. Specifically, how the rules make something a world and not just a setting. Starting with world-centric genres like sci-fi and fantasy, we also cover horror, crime drama and - er - “other”. We discuss a variety of techniques for setting up the rules of the world, including cold opens, voiceover, title cards and outsider characters! We’ve limited ourselves to the opening 3-5 pages… mostly… because (so the theory goes) they’re the pages that teach the audience how to read/watch your story/film… →
Listen when your opening pages feel like exposition dumps (which is bad, okay?)
DZ-14: Writing For Actors with Succession's Sarah Snook
How can we make our screenwriting more appealing to Actors?
In this episode, Chas and Stu are joined by a very special guest, SARAH SNOOK - star of Succession, Predestination, Jessabelle, and Oddball, amongst many others - to discuss ACTING and it’s relationship with WRITING… →
Listen to understand how writers can craft more compelling material for actors (and how they approach scripts)
DZ-13: True That - Tips from Tarantino
What is it about Tarantino's *writing* that elevates his work?
Chapter 1: Of Milk and Men… →
Listen to steal Tarantino's technique for planting details that detonate as payoffs three scenes later.
DZ-12: Craft, Career and Coffins
It's the The Podcast You Used To Know…
Well, half of us is… Chas (sans Stu) is joined by a very special guest - Natasha Pincus. As a screenwriter, Tash’s feature CLIVE was on the 2012 Black List. As a director, her music video for Goyte’s Someone I Used To Know was nominated for an MTV Music Video Award. And at the time of this recording, her debut feature as a screenwriter FELL was weeks away from opening night… →
Listen if you're navigating multiple creative disciplines and wondering how to build a sustainable career across them.
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DZ-11: Adventure for the MacGuffin!
Is the MacGuffin truly interchangable, and how does it impact on your character writing?
Stu and Chas are joined by a special guest - Scriptmag contributor Brad Johnson - to discuss how the choice of the MacGuffin can impact on the quality of an action/adventure film. To test this thesis, our heroes compare the auspicious originals of two iconic franchise with their, um, less-than-auspicious 4th instalments (in other words we compare RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK with KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL and THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL with ON STRANGER TIDES) as well as look at two recent & original entries into the genre, namely NATIONAL TREASURE and PRINCE OF PERSIA… →
Listen to discover why the MacGuffin's emotional weight--not its function--determines whether your audience cares enough to follow the entire adventure.
DZ-10: Midpoint Reversals and The Ride
How can the middle of your film pivot so much that it pulls the rug out of your audience?
Stu and Chas embark on the first of a series of explorations into the dreaded Second Act. Their first stop is midpoint reversals or shifts, a plot point bang in the middle of ACT II that changes the protagonist’s goal, raises the stakes and potentially leaves your audience leaning forward and asking “How the hell is this going to end?&rdquo… →
Listen when your second act sags and you need a structural jolt to accelerate audience engagement.
DZ-9: Characterising Introductions
Can the introduction of a character be so good that the character doesn't need describing?
Stu and Chas argue about different techniques for introducing characters and whether character descriptions are even necessary. This is important for writers, as we only have words to compensate for the whole range of cinematic expression. And so Chas and Stu explore techniques like introducing characters through action, having other people discuss the character first, ensuring the introduction represents the character’s goal/flaw/theme, and many more… →
⏱ 1h 22m
Listen if you want your character introductions to pop!
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DZ-8: Status Transactions
How does a shift in status or power reveal character?
Stu and Chas explore an idea they both came across studying theatre: status and by extension (or juxtaposition) power. Is a story where a character changes status or experiences loss (or gains) in power more compelling… →
Listen to make your character relatinships more dynamic.
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DZ-7: On Rewriting - How much Bull is left in the Hustle?
What can be gleamed from the substantial rewrite of a famed spec?
Stu and Chas look at AMERICAN BULLSHIT (the 2010 Black List spec script by Eric Warren Singer) and the film it became… AMERICAN HUSTLE (co-written and directed by David O’Russell), which garnered 10 Oscar nominations in 2014… →
Listen to learn how impactful rewriting can be.
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DZ-6: Key Scenes and Unlocking the Story
Can one scene be the key to unlocking the whole story?
Can one scene be the key to unlocking the whole story… →
Listen if you want to understand how a single key scene between protagonist and antagonist can unlock the entire structure of your story!
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DZ-5: Shifting audience point of view and heightened emotions
Can forcing your audience to ask questions - and then answering them - trigger an emotional response?
Stu and Chas delve into audience point of view - not character point of view! Does your audience know more, less or the same as your characters? And does changing this within a scene trigger or heighten the desired emotional response… →
Listen to learn about the most powerful tool in screenwriting: narrative POV.
DZ-4: Catharsis and the Post-Coital Cigarette
How does the end of certain films make your soul shudder?
Stu and Chas are joined by their first guest – illustrious script developer and producer Stephen Cleary – to explore how certain films can trigger an outpouring of emotion from the audience. Turns out that Aristotle may have figured it out a few thousand years ago and called it Catharsis… →
Listen if you want to make you endings great!
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DZ-3: Making Unlikeable Protagonists Compelling
How do you make obnoxious a-holes compelling
Stu and Chas delve into unlikable protagonists in comedy. How do filmmakers keep us watching characters who should alienate us? To answer this question, Stu and Chas look at the first 20 pages of HOT FUZZ, AS GOOD AS IT GETS and - of course - GROUNDHOG DAY… →
Listen if you want to understand how filmmakers make audiences care about deeply flawed protagonists
DZ-2: Do the Screenplay Gurus score big at the Box Office?
Do the biggest original films of 2013 follow more archetypal - or formulaic - structures?
After analysing awards-nominated screenplays, Stu and Chas turn to the original screenplays that struck it biggest at the box office in 2013: GRAVITY and FROZEN. Do bigger films stick more closely to the archetypal story structures espoused by Vogler and Snyder… →
Listen to see how GRAVITY and FROZEN use completely different structural blueprints.
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DZ-1: Do Screenplay Gurus win you Oscars?
Do Oscar-Nominated screenwriters follow the structural formulas prescribed by the 'gurus' and books?
In this, our debut episode of Draft Zero, Stu and Chas analyse two screenplays nominated for Academy Awards in 2014 – PHILOMENA and DALLAS BUYERS CLUB – to see whether they follow the structural theories espoused by Blake Snyder, Michael Hauge and Christopher Vogler. We discuss character dynamics, structural challenges, and the complexities of narrative… →
Listen if you want to know whether Blake Snyder, Michael Hauge and Christopher Vogler's structural theories actually apply to Academy Award-nominated screenplays
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DZ-0: Welcome to Draft Zero
What, exactly, is Draft Zero?
Welcome to Draft Zero. A message from 2019 to those starting with our first episodes dating from 2014. We’ve learned a lot in five years. So where do you begin… →
Listen if you're new to the podcast and want to understand our philosophy on screenwriting craft!