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Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast

Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast

Chas Fisher and Stuart Willis

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Two emerging screenwriters – Chas Fisher and Stuart Willis – try to work out what makes great screenplays work. Discovering what it takes by analysing what successful writers put on the page.
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Top 10 Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast - DZ-91: Raising (different kinds of) Stakes

DZ-91: Raising (different kinds of) Stakes

Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast

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08/31/22 • 139 min

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.

BUY DRAFT ZERO MERCH via TeePublic

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!

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Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast - DZ-92: Insightful recognition in powerful endings

DZ-92: Insightful recognition in powerful endings

Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast

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09/29/22 • 86 min

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

RELATED EPISODES

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

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Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast - DZ-75: Fury Road & Visual Storytelling

DZ-75: Fury Road & Visual Storytelling

Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast

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12/31/20 • 69 min

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

RELATED EPISODES

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

BUY DRAFT ZERO MERCH via TeePublic

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Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast - DZ-96: Ensembles 1 - What do we mean by an ensemble?

DZ-96: Ensembles 1 - What do we mean by an ensemble?

Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast

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01/31/23 • 76 min

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

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Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast - DZ-62: Unfilmables and Unscriptables 3 - As Ifs & Emotional context
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12/02/19 • 137 min

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.

RUNNING ORDER
  • 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)
EPISODE LINKS

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

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Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast - DZ-00: Welcome to Draft Zero

DZ-00: Welcome to Draft Zero

Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast

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02/01/14 • 9 min

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?

Read: The Beginner’s Guide to Draft Zero: http://draft-zero.com/beginners-guide/

Please considering rating or subscribing to us on Apple Podcasts! or sharing us on the Social Medias! We like finding new listeners.

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

BUY DRAFT ZERO MERCH via TeePublic!

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Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast - DZ-41: Theme and Worldview

DZ-41: Theme and Worldview

Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast

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03/24/17 • 152 min

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.

So we take a look at the opening and closing scenes (and middle scenes, too) of some of our favourite shows: HOUSE OF CARDS, CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND, TRUE DETECTIVE, FARGO and TRANSPARENT. We also make passing reference to SPEC OPS: THE LINE, GAME OF THRONES (its Stu's new Star Wars), and BOJACK HORSEMAN.

In backmatter, we talk about the difference between the written scripts of these pilots and their released versions.

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

It should go without saying but - SPOILERS AHEAD.

Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast - DZ-95: Backmatter - Building and Maintenance

DZ-95: Backmatter - Building and Maintenance

Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast

play

12/31/22 • 76 min

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!

In this episode we discuss: potential topics for 2023; the ostensible shortening of first acts; balancing new projects vs current projects; how to maintain hope in the face of an industry as fickle as ours; and end with a discussion of Andor vs Obi-Wan. Yup, Star Wars is the new Die Hard. Get over it.

SPOILERS ABOUND for Andor and Obi-Wan.

FYI we recorded this episode with both of us in the same room (for a more casual atmosphere )but that means there’s more technical gremlins like crosstalk. Our apologies in advance!

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

CHAPTERS

  • 00:00:00 - Intro: Backmatter
  • 00:02:44 - Housekeeping
  • 00:05:49 - Future Episode Ideas
  • 00:25:52 - Are first acts getting shorter?
  • 00:40:16 - New projects vs current projects
  • 00:48:59 - Maintaining Hope or Avoiding Despair
  • 00:54:21 - The Big Lessons of 2022
  • 00:55:19 - Andor vs Keobi
  • 01:14:37 - Key Lessons & Wrap Up
  • 01:16:06 - Many thanks

LINKS

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

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Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast - DZ-10: Midpoint Reversals and The Ride

DZ-10: Midpoint Reversals and The Ride

Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast

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07/08/14 • 79 min

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?".

To get to the bottom of what makes a good midpoint shift (and whether your story needs one or not), Stu and Chas ride through DEATH AT A FUNERAL, PRISONERS, SHORT TERM 12, ALIEN, ALIENS and UP. We also drift across FULL METAL JACKET, PHILOMENA, HOW I LIVE NOW, ELYSIUM, DIE HARD and STAR WARS. Of course. Stu couldn't resist. It's not even funny anymore, is it?

LINKS

Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or RSS.

Please send feedback to ask at draft-zero.com. Please considering rating us on iTunes!

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Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast - DZ-87: Keeping Genre fresh

DZ-87: Keeping Genre fresh

Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast

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03/28/22 • 133 min

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 for Kodie Bedford, someone who has somehow managed to defy genre pigeon-holing by writing mystery, comedy and vampire shows.

The three of them look at GET OUT, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN and THE INVISIBLE MAN (with reference to PARASITE, JOHN WICK, TAKEN, KNIVES OUT and more) to see what tools the writers have used to deliver on the expectations of a genre while moving that genre on, without writing something stale.

As always: SPOILERS ABOUND

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

Thanks to Chris for editing this episode.

CHAPTERS

  • 00:00:57 - Intro: Keeping Genre Fresh
  • 00:03:10 - What is Genre?
  • 00:16:30 - Get Out
  • 00:45:10 - Promising Young Woman
  • 01:25:08 - The Invisible Man
  • 01:59:18 - Wrap Up
  • 02:11:44 - Thanks to our Patreons!

LINKS

RELATED EPISODES

This episode brought to you by ScriptUp – https://www.scriptupstudio.com – use promo code DZ10 to get 10% off.

Thanks to all our patrons, especially Jennifer, Leigh, Thomas, Garrett, Bjorn, Randy, Jesse, Sandra, Theis, Alex, and Khrob.

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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FAQ

How many episodes does Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast have?

Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast currently has 115 episodes available.

What topics does Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast cover?

The podcast is about Discussion, Films, Writing, Movie, Film, Movies, Podcasts, Performing Arts, Tv & Film, Arts and Screenwriting.

What is the most popular episode on Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast?

The episode title 'DZ-91: Raising (different kinds of) Stakes' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast?

The average episode length on Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast is 103 minutes.

How often are episodes of Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast released?

Episodes of Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast are typically released every 30 days, 22 hours.

When was the first episode of Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast?

The first episode of Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast was released on Feb 1, 2014.

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