Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast

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?

To explore this, we deep dive into HIDDEN FIGURES (about the NASA Friendship 7 mission), DOWNFALL (the final days of Berlin in WW2), and BRIGHT STAR (the life and death of romantic poet John Keats). We unpack the ideas around internal, external and philosophical /moral stakes and propose some new terminology that may help us write stakes more effectively.

As always: SPOILERS ABOUND.

Audio quotations used for educational purposes only. Timestamps indicated below. Chapter markers included in the mp3.

Thanks to Chris Walker for editing this episode.

This episode brought to you by (drum roll):

ScriptUp: https://www.scriptupstudio.com – use promo code DZ10 to get 10% off; and

ArcStudio: https://www.arcstudiopro.com - go to www.draft-zero.com/arcstudio for $30 off a subscription!

And how can we forget our awesome Patreons?, Especially Malay, Casimir, Eduardo, Jennifer, Leigh, Garrett, Bjorn, Randy, Jesse, Sandra, Theis, Alex and Khrob. You rule!

Please considering rating or subscribing to us on Apple Podcasts or sharing us on the Social Medias! We like finding new listeners. We are @stuwillis and @chasffisher on twitter. And you can find @draft_zero on Instagram and Twitter.

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CHAPTERS - 00:00:00 - Intro - 00:04:41 - What even are stakes? - 00:24:26 - Hidden Figures - 01:00:46 - Downfall - 01:33:38 - Bright Star - 02:10:33 - Key Learnings - 02:18:57 - Thanks Patreons!

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).

But in analysing these films, Chas and Stu discover that endings can be particularly powerful when the characters experience insightful recognition in others, or in the world, or - perhaps most powerfully - when the anagnorisis is aimed at the audience. In other words, are there craft tools for your ending to prompt an audience to ask itself the question “What was that all about?”? Turns out, we think there are.

As always: SPOILERS ABOUND

Audio quotations used for educational purposes only. Timestamps indicated below. Chapter markers included in the mp3.

Thanks to Chris Walker for editing this episode.

CHAPTERS

• 00:00:00 - Intro
• 00:00:48 - Insightful recognition in endings
• 00:03:39 - What the hell is “anagnorisis”?
• 00:12:04 - LA LA LAND
• 00:30:45 - INCEPTION
• 00:35:14 - NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
• 01:00:04 - TURNING RED
• 01:18:18 - Wrap up & Key Learnings
• 01:24:26 - Thanks patreons!

LINKS

• HULK PRESENTS THE MYTH OF THE THREE ACT STRUCTURE
• Lindsay Doran on the psychology of story-telling

RELATED EPISODES

• DZ-04: Catharsis and the Post-Coital Cigarette

This episode brought to you by (drum roll):

ScriptUp: https://www.scriptupstudio.com – use promo code DZ10 to get 10% off; and

ArcStudio: go to https://www.arcstudiopro.com/draftzero for $30 off a subscription!

And how can we forget our awesome Patreons?, Especially Malay, Casimir, Eduardo, Jennifer, Garrett, Bjorn, Randy, Jesse, Sandra, Theis, Alex and Khrob. You rule!

Please considering rating or subscribing to us on Apple Podcasts or sharing us on the Social Medias! We like finding new listeners. We are @stuwillis and @chasffisher on twitter. And you can find @draft_zero on Instagram and Twitter.

BUY DRAFT ZERO MERCH via TeePublic

How can you do powerful storytelling... without dialogue?

Stu and Chas are joined by filmmaker, podcaster and writer Matthew Brown 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.

As always: SPOILERS ABOUND

Audio quotations used for educational purposes only. Timestamps indicated below. Chapter markers included in the mp3.

RUNNING ORDER

• 00:00:00 Intro: Fury Road & Visual Storytelling
• 00:01:07 Why Fury Road?
• 00:06:17 World Building & Given Circumstances
• 00:23:19 World Building & Plot Points
• 00:30:50 Setups & Payoffs
• 00:35:03 Who is the Protagonist?
• 00:35:08 Max & Furiosa's Arc
• 01:00:44 Stray Observations
• 01:05:28 Wrap Up

EPISODE LINKS

• FOLLOW: Matt Brown - @tederick on twitter, or buy his book at tederick.com/furyroad
• READ: Cinephillia and Beyond - In Search of Our Better Selves: The Rebirth, Redemption and Road Warriors of George Miller’s ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’
• WATCH: Mad Max: Fury Road
• READ: The Art of Mad Max Max Fury Road

RELATED EPISODES

• DZ-33: Protagonist vs Hero – Dawn of Character Function
• DZ LiVE Ep3 - Watchmen - The Comic, The Movie & The Show

Many thanks to all our patrons but particularly to Stuart, Jack, Chris, Khrob, and Sandra. They’re good humans.

Please considering rating or subscribing to us on Apple Podcasts or sharing us on the Social Medias! We like finding new listeners. We are @stuwillis and @chasffisher on twitter. And you can find @draft_zero on Instagram and Twitter.

LINKS @ http://linktr.ee/draftzero

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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?’

As we unpack our own assumptions, biases and thoughts, we ask (and attempt to answer) more questions: How does an ensemble differ from a single protagonist or two hander? Why does this distinction even matter? What challenges What genres inherently are ensembles? And what do we hope to learn from the series?

We ice-skate over myriad films including JURASSIC PARK, ALIEN, TOP GUN vs TOP GUN: MAVERICK, DEATH AT A FUNERAL, WAR OF THE WORLDS vs INDEPENDENCE DAY, LORD OF THE RINGS vs WILLOW, OCEAN’S 11 vs OUT OF SIGHT, THIEF vs HEAT, AWAY FROM HER, DIRTY DOZEN, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, SE7EN, READY OR NOT. Look, there’s heaps. We talk a lot of movies.

We also talk through our lens for breaking down group dynamics: collaborative vs competitive vs combative.

As always: SPOILERS ABOUND

Thanks to Chris Walker for editing this episode. <3 Chris!

CHAPTERS

• 00:00:00 - Intro
• 00:04:17 - What is an ensemble?
• 00:26:51 - Taxonomy of Ensembles
• 00:47:25 - ArcStudio Sponsorship
• 00:48:32 - Group Dynamics
• 01:08:39 - Wrap Up & Hopeful Learnings
• 01:15:15 - Patreon Thanks

This episode brought to you by (drum roll):

ScriptUp: https://www.scriptupstudio.com – use promo code DZ10 to get 10% off; and

ArcStudio: go to https://www.arcstudiopro.com/draftzero for $30 off a subscription!

And how can we forget our awesome Patreons?, Especially Casimir, Eduardo, Jennifer, Garrett, Bjorn, Randy, Jesse, Sandra, Theis, Alex and Khrob. You rule!

Please considering rating or subscribing to us on Apple Podcasts or sharing us on the Social Medias! We like finding new listeners. We are @stuwillis and @chasffisher on twitter. And you can find @draft_zero on Instagram and Twitter.

BUY DRAFT ZERO MERCH via TeePublic

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 withoutresorting to unfilmables.

They are also joined by Carissa Lee (who has been reading the excerpts) to discuss her perspective as an actor on the scripts we’ve been reading; and they answer listener questions about unfilmables.

And, lastly, in backmatter Carissa reads the entire script to Stu’s award-nominated script, DUST BUNNY.

Thanks to Chris Walker for editing this episode, and Carissa Lee for performing the big print.

• Introduction / Discussion
• UNCONDITIONAL (Pilot) by Chas Fisher (@ 09:10)
• PAYLOAD by Matthew Clayfield & Stuart Willis (@ 38:48)
• DUST BUNNY by Stuart Willis (@ 59:50)
• THE ACTOR’S PERSPECTIVE with Carissa Lee (@ 01:15:59)
• LISTENER QUESTIONS & KEY LEARNINGS (@ 01:41:56)
• Backmatter: DUST BUNNY - full script read by Carissa Lee (@ 01:59:13)

• LISTEN: DZ-60: Unfilmables and Unscriptables (Part 1) – Engaging imagination
• LISTEN:DZ-61: Unfilmables and Unscriptables (Part 2) - Moments of Awe
• READ: DZ-62 Unfilmables (Part 3) - Collated Scripts
• WATCH: PAYLOADwritten & directed by Stuart Willis
• WATCH: RESTORATIONwritten by Matthew Clayfield & Stuart Willis
• LISTEN: PAYLOAD Original Soundtrackcomposed by David Barber
• LISTEN: RESTORATION Original Soundtrackcomposed by David Barber

Please considering rating or subscribing to us on Apple Podcasts! or sharing us on the Social Medias! We like finding new listeners. We are @stuwillis and @chasffisher on twitter. And you can find @draft_zero on Instagram and Twitter.

Many thanks to all our patrons but particularly to Theis, Jesse, Daniel, Jack, Chris, Khrob, Sandra, Nick, Matteo, and Carrie. They’re good humans.

BUY DRAFT ZERO MERCH via TeePublic