Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast

By Chas Fisher and Stuart WillisTV & Film Arts Performing Arts

Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast episodes

August 03, 2015DZ-24: Forging story rules in TV pilots
Listen if you wanna know great television pilots establish the dramatic, literary, and cinematic rules that sustain their entire run.
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.
Our spiritual guide on this tele-vision quest is Wallflower (aka Grant Nebel), writer at The Solute and formerly of The Dissolve and the AV Club.
Together, they examine how the final acts of these pilot episodes - and the Dramatic, Literary and Cinematic rules established therein - will set the scene for the entire life of these seminal shows, right up to their end. Obviously, abound.
This was one of our favourite episodes to record and - given that both Chas and Stu are casting seductive glances at writing television - hopefully one of our most useful too.
As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.
LIKE THIS EPISODE?
Send us feedback.
Thanks to our Patrons, especially Khrob, Theis, Sandra, Jesse, Randy, Paulo, Thomas, Jennifer, Malay, Alexandre and Lily.
———
SHOWS
THE SHIELD 1x1 "Pilot" — Clark Johnson (d), Shawn Ryan (w)
THE WIRE 1x1 "The Target" — Clark Johnson (d), David Simon, David Simon, Ed Burns (w)
BREAKING BAD 1x1 "Pilot" — Vince Gilligan (d), Vince Gilligan (w)
MAD MEN 1x1 "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" — Alan Taylor (d), Matthew Weiner (w)
LINKS
Read: The-Solute.com: Wallflower (Grant Nebel)
Read: Grant Nebel: Collected writing on THE SHIELD
Read:
Read: Vulture.com: Man Men Pilot Predicts the Final Episodes
Read: StyleCaster: 'Breaking Bad' and Colors: A Comprehensive Guide to the Theories, Costumes
Read: The Disenchanted Costumier: Breaking Bad Costumes
Read: ActionCutPrint: Elia Kazan - On What Makes a Director (excerpted)
Watch: Every Frame A Painting: David Fincher - And the Other Way is Wrong
Read: Bob Saenz: The Mean Old Writer
Read: Genre Hacks: What is the Most Important Screenwriting Tool: The Rewriting Cycle
Read: Wired: Harnessing the Power of Feedback Loops
Read: GoodReader - PDF Reader (PDF Annotation)
Read: Readdle: Documents & PDF Expert (PDF Annotation)
Read: Readdle: Documents & PDF Expert (PDF Annotation)
Read: Mind Mapping Software & Tool For Mac & Windows
RELATED EPISODES
DZ-04: Catharsis and the Post-Coital Cigarette
DZ-06: Key Scenes and Unlocking the Story
DZ-09: Characterising Introductions
———
More Draft Zero is brought to you by our awesome Patreons.
If you enjoy the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, a rating on Spotify, or a review on Podchaser.
We are @stuwillis, @mehlsbells and @chasffisher on Twitter. You can find @draft_zero and @_shotzero on Instagram and Twitter.
Full show notes at: https://draft-zero.com/2015/dz-24/
2 hr 6 min
July 06, 2015DZ-23: LIVE - Starting A Career In Film And Television
Listen if you're an emerging filmmaker looking to break into the industry
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.
It's pretty out-of-format for us, but it's an informative and fun discussion.
We continue the discussion into BACKMATTER where we focus on emerging writers approaching directors to get stuff made.
As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.
LIKE THIS EPISODE?
Send us feedback.
Thanks to our Patrons, especially Khrob, Theis, Sandra, Jesse, Randy, Paulo, Thomas, Jennifer, Malay, Alexandre and Lily.
———
FILMS
REG MAKES CONTACT (2015) — (w) Andrew Slattery, Corrie Chen (d) Corrie Chen
BLOOMERS (2013) — (w) Michelle Law (d) Corrie Chen
THE INFINITE MAN (2014) — (w) Hugh Sullivan
LINKS
Read: HEARTS ONLINE by Mithila Gupta
Watch: Vimeo: BLOOMERS by Corrie Chen
YouTube: Henry & Aaron - It's a Snap
Read: GoodReads: The Art of Asking: or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help by Amanda Palmer
Read: Ted Talks: The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer
Read: Short of the Week
Watch: Vimeo Staff Picks
Read: Director's Notes
Listen: iTunes: The Infinite Man
YouTube: TEDxConejo 2012 - Lindsay Doran - Saving The World vs Kissing The Girl via @troyguze
Read: io9: The 22 rules of storytelling, according to Pixar
RELATED EPISODES
DZ-12: Craft, Career and Coffins
DZ-22: Romantic Comedy, Actually
———
More Draft Zero is brought to you by our awesome Patreons.
If you enjoy the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, a rating on Spotify, or a review on Podchaser.
We are @stuwillis, @mehlsbells and @chasffisher on Twitter. You can find @draft_zero and @_shotzero on Instagram and Twitter.
Full show notes at: https://draft-zero.com/2015/dz-23/
1 hr 46 min
June 11, 2015DZ-22: Romantic Comedy, Actually
Listen if you're writing a romcom and want to understand what makes this gentre tick.
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.
To that end, they look at deep breath WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, WHAT IF, THE PROPOSAL, 500 DAYS OF SUMMER, NOTTING HILL, FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS as well as special mentions to GOING THE DISTANCE, SEAN OF THE DEAD and ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND.
As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.
LIKE THIS EPISODE?
Send us feedback.
Thanks to our Patrons, especially Khrob, Theis, Sandra, Jesse, Randy, Paulo, Thomas, Jennifer, Malay, Alexandre and Lily.
———
FILMS
WHEN HARRY MET SALLY... (1989) — (w) Nora Ephron (d) Rob Reiner
(500) DAYS OF SUMMER (2009) — (w) Michael H Weber, Scott Neustadter (d) Marc Webb
THE PROPOSAL (2009) — (w) Peter Chiarelli (d) Anne Fletcher
NOTTING HILL (1999) — (w) Richard Curtis (d) Roger Michell
SCRIPTS
Study the script: WHEN HARRY MET SALLY... (1989) — Nora Ephron
Study the script: (500) DAYS OF SUMMER (2009) — Michael H Weber, Scott Neustadter
Study the script: THE PROPOSAL (2009) — Peter Chiarelli
Study the script: NOTTING HILL (1999) — Richard Curtis
LINKS
Read: Vulture.com: 10 Most Over-Used Romantic Comedy Plot-Points
Read: Goodreads: Writing the Romantic Comedy by Billy Mernit
YouTube: WHAT IF trailer
YouTube: (500) DAYS OF SUMMER - Expectations vs Reality
YouTube: Girls (HBO) Season 2 Episode 10 Finale
Read: NewStatesman: "Let's talk about genre" - Neil Gaiman and Kazuo Ishiguro in conversation
Read: TheDailyDot.com: The Mako Mori Test: 'Pacific Rim' inspires a Bechdel Test alternative
Read: Wikipedia: Cosmic Encounter
RELATED EPISODES
DZ-04: Catharsis and the Post-Coital Cigarette
DZ-13: True That - Tips from Tarantino
———
More Draft Zero is brought to you by our awesome Patreons.
If you enjoy the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, a rating on Spotify, or a review on Podchaser.
We are @stuwillis, @mehlsbells and @chasffisher on Twitter. You can find @draft_zero and @_shotzero on Instagram and Twitter.
Full show notes at: https://draft-zero.com/2015/dz-22/
1 hr 41 min
May 07, 2015DZ-21: Scene Transitions and the Hook
Listen to understand how transitions compress time, enhance thematic connections, unify story threads, and orient your reader
*
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.
To help us see how scenes connect & collide in interesting ways, we take a close look at scripts of films with great transitions to see how much of the work was done by the writer (as opposed to the director or editor): SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD, HIGHLANDER, AMERICAN SPLENDOR and BOYHOOD.
And then, in backmatter we take a self-reflective look at TIME MANAGEMENT (and naps).
Oh, we are also holding a LIVE EPISODE of Draft Zero at the 2015 St Kilda Film Festival. May 25, 8pm. More details shortly!
BACKMATTER LINKS
As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.
LIKE THIS EPISODE?
Send us feedback.
Thanks to our Patrons, especially Khrob, Theis, Sandra, Jesse, Randy, Paulo, Thomas, Jennifer, Malay, Alexandre and Lily.
———
FILMS
SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (2010) — (w) Michael Bacall, Edgar Wright (d) Edgar Wright
HIGHLANDER (1986) — (w) Gregory Widen, Peter Bellwood, Larry Ferguson (d) Russell Mulcahy
AMERICAN SPLENDOR (2003) — (w) Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini, Harvey Pekar, Joyce Brabner (d) Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
BOYHOOD (2014) — (w) Richard Linklater
SCRIPTS
Study the script: SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (2010) — Michael Bacall, Edgar Wright
Study the script: BOYHOOD (2014) — Richard Linklater
LINKS
Read: David Bordwell
Read: The Hook: Scene Transitions in Classical Cinema
Read: There Will Be Blood - Hands and Faces Across the Table
Read: Watching You Watch There Will Be Blood
Watch: Vimeo: There Will Be Blood with gaze locations of 11 viewers
Read: Scriptnotes: Ep89 - Writing effective transitions
YouTube: Scott Pilgrim Transitions
YouTube: Every Frame a Painting: Edgar Wright - How to do Visual Comedy
YouTube: Highlander (1986) - Trailer
YouTube: American Splendor - What's In A Name
Watch: Kevin B. Lee : Who Deserves the 2015 Oscar for Best Director?
Read: Screenwriting.io: What is a pre-lap?
Read: The Next Web: The Secret To Insane Productivity? Will Power
Read: The Write Practice: 23 Essential Quotes from Ernest Hemingway About Writing
Read: Brain Pickings: The Daily Routines of Great Writers
Read: The Guardian: Rise and shine: the daily routines of history's most creative minds
Read: Paul Graham: How To Do What You Love
Read: iView: Redesign my Brain with Todd Sampson
Read: Denvog: Index Card for iPhone and Index Card for iPad
Read: Denvog: Index Card for iPhone and Index Card for iPad
Read: Short of the Week: Deeper than Yesterday
Read: Pozible: Real Lust, Inc
———
More Draft Zero is brought to you by our awesome Patreons.
If you enjoy the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, a rating on Spotify, or a review on Podchaser.
We are @stuwillis, @mehlsbells and @chasffisher on Twitter. You can find @draft_zero and @_shotzero on Instagram and Twitter.
Full show notes at: https://draft-zero.com/2015/dz-21/
1 hr 41 min
April 02, 2015DZ-20: Writing Strong Secondary Characters - Trinity, Bechdel and a Bamboo Killer
Listen when you're writing secondary female characters and need them to have more depth.
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.
Chas, Stu & Emily take these questions and use them to analyse the use of female characters in MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL, EDGE OF TOMORROW, DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES and HOW TO TRAIN YOU DRAGON 2. They also cover the awesomeness of the awesomeness that is Rose Tyler (Doctor Who), Katniss Everdeen (Hunger Games), and Kira Nerys (Deep Space Nine).
Funnily enough, turns out writing better female characters is really about writing better characters... who happen to be female.
As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.
LIKE THIS EPISODE?
Send us feedback.
Thanks to our Patrons, especially Khrob, Theis, Sandra, Jesse, Randy, Paulo, Thomas, Jennifer, Malay, Alexandre and Lily.
———
FILMS
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL (2011) — (w) Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec (d) Brad Bird
EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014) — (w) Christopher Mcquarrie, Hiroshi Sakurazaka, Jez Butterworth, John Henry Butterworth (d) Doug Liman
DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2014) — (w) Mark Bomback, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver (d) Matt Reeves
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 (2014) — (w) Dean Deblois
SCRIPTS
Study the script: EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014) — Christopher Mcquarrie, Hiroshi Sakurazaka, Jez Butterworth, John Henry Butterworth
Study the script: DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2014) — Mark Bomback, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver
Study the script: HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 (2014) — Dean Deblois
LINKS
Listen: Chicks Who Script Podcast. They are @cwspodcast on Twitter
Read: The Dissolve: We're losing all our Strong Female Characters to the Trinity Syndrome
YouTube: EDGE OF TOMORROW - Emily Blunt Is Rita Vrataski [They gush about Rita in this - c.f. the DAWN video below]
YouTube: Dawn Of The Planet of the Apes: Keri Russell Ellie Behind the Scenes Movie Interview | ScreenSlam
YouTube: Everything wrong with DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
Read: Asking the Wrong Questions: Ode to Kira
———
More Draft Zero is brought to you by our awesome Patreons.
If you enjoy the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, a rating on Spotify, or a review on Podchaser.
We are @stuwillis, @mehlsbells and @chasffisher on Twitter. You can find @draft_zero and @_shotzero on Instagram and Twitter.
Full show notes at: https://draft-zero.com/2015/dz-20/
1 hr 19 min
March 02, 2015DZ-19: Car-Crash Characters
Listen when you're writing a protagonist who does terrible things but you need the audience to keep watching.
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.
In response to our audience survey, we also introduce our first episode of backmatter.
As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.
LIKE THIS EPISODE?
Send us feedback.
Thanks to our Patrons, especially Khrob, Theis, Sandra, Jesse, Randy, Paulo, Thomas, Jennifer, Malay, Alexandre and Lily.
———
FILMS
AMERICAN HISTORY X (1998) — (w) David Mckenna (d) Tony Kaye
YOUNG ADULT (2011) — (w) Diablo Cody (d) Jason Reitman
NIGHTCRAWLER (2014) — (w) Dan Gilroy
SCRIPTS
Study the script: YOUNG ADULT (2011) — Diablo Cody
Study the script: NIGHTCRAWLER (2014) — Dan Gilroy
LINKS
Read: YOUNG ADULT by Diablo Cody (Final Draft) - First 20 pages. For educational purposes only
Read: YOUNG ADULT by Diablo Cody - First 20 pages. For educational purposes only
YouTube: Young Adult - Trailer
YouTube: New York Times: 'Nightcrawler' Anatomy of a Scene with Dan Gilroy
YouTube: THE KILLER INSIDE ME - Trailer
Watch: Every Frame a Painting: Snowpiercer - Left or Right
Read: The Contrarians: Episode 2 - Alien 3
Read: Temple of the Seven Golden Camels: Staging and How It Affects Mood & Drama
Read: Temple of the Seven Golden Camels: (Just a Little Bit) More Flat and Deep
Watch: Every Frame a Painting: Drive (2011) - the Quadrant System
Watch: Every Frame a Painting: The Bad Sleep Well (1960) - the Geometry of a Scene
Read: Day One: A Simple and Elegant Journal for iPhone, iPad and Mac
Read: Shawn Blanc: Day One review
IMDB: David Caesar
RELATED EPISODES
DZ-03: Making Unlikeable Protagonists Compelling
———
More Draft Zero is brought to you by our awesome Patreons.
If you enjoy the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, a rating on Spotify, or a review on Podchaser.
We are @stuwillis, @mehlsbells and @chasffisher on Twitter. You can find @draft_zero and @_shotzero on Instagram and Twitter.
Full show notes at: https://draft-zero.com/2015/dz-19/
2 hr
January 22, 2015DZ-18: Michael Bay - F*ing the Frame and P*ing the Page
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
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!
For those unfamiliar with the Bitter Script Reader and his puppet avatar, he is one of the internet's greatest free resources for emerging screenwriters. A man who shares his experiences of being a Hollywood gatekeeper for nothing because he's "sick of reading bad scripts".
Together, Stu, Chas and Bitter come through with their long-threatened episode to see what - if anything - screenwriters can learn from analysing the work of one of the most successful filmmakers all time, Michael Bay. We look at THE ROCK, THE ISLAND, and PAIN & GAIN, and cover writing great villains, controlling the flow of information to the audience (via car chases, of course) and creating visual decisions on the page.
So sit back and relax while Stu, Chas and the Bitter Script Reader learn how you can f@*k the page and not just the frame.
Oh, and if you have 7 seconds to spare, click here to go to our 2-question Draft Zero listener survey!
As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.
LIKE THIS EPISODE?
Send us feedback.
Thanks to our Patrons, especially Khrob, Theis, Sandra, Jesse, Randy, Paulo, Thomas, Jennifer, Malay, Alexandre and Lily.
———
FILMS
THE ROCK (1996) — (w) Douglas S Cook, David Weisberg, Mark Rosner, Jonathan Hensleigh (d) Michael Bay
THE ISLAND (2005) — (w) Caspian Tredwell Owen, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Caspian Tredwell Owen (d) Michael Bay
PAIN & GAIN (2013) — (w) Christopher Markus, Stephen Mcfeely (d) Michael Bay
SCRIPTS
Study the script: THE ROCK (1996) — Douglas S Cook, David Weisberg, Mark Rosner, Jonathan Hensleigh
LINKS
Read: Michael F-ing Bay: The Unheralded Genius in Michael Bay's Films
Watch: Every Frame A Painting: What is Bayhem?
Watch: Michaelbay.com: Transformers 4: Bay on Action
YouTube: Car chase sequence from THE ROCK
YouTube: Best of Daniel Lugo from PAIN&GAIN
Read: TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION is the most brilliant and subversively political film you'll see all year
EPISODES IN THE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT SERIES
DZ-18: Michael Bay - F*ing the Frame and P*ing the Page
DZ-76: Spotlight on Sofia Coppola
DZ-13: True That - Tips from Tarantino
———
More Draft Zero is brought to you by our awesome Patreons.
If you enjoy the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, a rating on Spotify, or a review on Podchaser.
We are @stuwillis, @mehlsbells and @chasffisher on Twitter. You can find @draft_zero and @_shotzero on Instagram and Twitter.
Full show notes at: https://draft-zero.com/2015/dz-18/
1 hr 8 min
January 06, 2015DZ-17: Where's my gold-plated ensuite?
Listen when you're deciding between shorts, features, and web content--and need to know which format actually builds a sustainable creative practice.
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.
As the 2014 "season" comes to a close, Chas and Stu hold two polls for the listeners:
Should Chas and Stu spruik a favourite crowd-funding campaign run by listeners each episode?
Should Chas and Stu stick to the rules or occasionally set format aside to talk about their personal approaches to career and craft?
Click here to go to our 2-question / 7-second Draft Zero listener survey!
May 2015 be great for all our listeners and may Chas and Stu finally open a door to find a gold-plated ensuite.
As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.
LIKE THIS EPISODE?
Send us feedback.
Thanks to our Patrons, especially Khrob, Theis, Sandra, Jesse, Randy, Paulo, Thomas, Jennifer, Malay, Alexandre and Lily.
———
FILMS
PLAY IT SAFE (2015) — (w) Chris Pahlow, Jack White (d) Chris Pahlow
PAYLOAD (2011) — (w) Stuart Willis
LINKS
Read: Austin Film Festival Staff Picks review of THE SUICIDE THEORY
Read: THE TYGER written by Matthew Clayfield, art by Melanie Cook
Read: THE TYGER written by Matthew Clayfield, art by Melanie Cook
Read: THE TYGER written by Matthew Clayfield, art by Melanie Cook
Read: PLAY IT SAFE written & directed by Chris Pahlow
Read: MEATSPACE - Leon East's production company. He the man
Watch: PAYLOAD written and directed by Stuart Willis
EPISODES IN THE BACKMATTER SERIES
DZ-17: Where's my gold-plated ensuite?
DZ-36: Backmatter - Time Risk and Fixing Movies
DZ-47: Backmatter - A Lost Jedi, White Knighting, and Writers-On-Set
DZ-57: Backmatter - Aesthetics and Forgiveness in Writing
DZ-64: Backmatter - Controlling your Work, Treatments, and Writing Styles
DZ-77: Backmatter - Prioritising and choosing projects
DZ-86: Backmatter - Minimum Viable Product
DZ-95: Backmatter - Building and Maintenance
RELATED EPISODES
DZ-03: Making Unlikeable Protagonists Compelling
DZ-10: Midpoint Reversals and The Ride
DZ-15: World Building Rules, Okay?
DZ-16: Masters of Time and Whitespace
———
More Draft Zero is brought to you by our awesome Patreons.
If you enjoy the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, a rating on Spotify, or a review on Podchaser.
We are @stuwillis, @mehlsbells and @chasffisher on Twitter. You can find @draft_zero and @_shotzero on Instagram and Twitter.
Full show notes at: https://draft-zero.com/2015/dz-17/
1 hr 15 min
December 16, 2014DZ-16: Masters of Time and Whitespace
Listen if you want your screenplay to feel cinematic before a director ever reads it.
Chas and Stu are joined by Khrob Edmonds - an award-winning filmmaker - to discuss manipulation of time...
... on the page!
Cinema is a time-based art, and one of the primary tools in film editing is manipulation of time. A closer look at sequences in the scripts of PULP FICTION, THE BOURNE IDENTITY, THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM, WOMAN IN BLACK, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, UP, WHIPLASH, and THE UNTOUCHABLES reveals how master screenwriters use the same time-controlling techniques on the page. The closer a writer can recreate cinema's use of time on the page, the more of an "I'm watching a movie" feeling you can generate for the reader. Or, as Chas puts it, writing like you'd edit. We discuss use of white space, super-present tense, decompression & compression, Soviet Montage Theory, the Kuleshov effect and just a tiny amount of grammar.
NB: Stu refers to '-ing' words as 'present participles', John August (cited below) refers to 'present progressive'. Turns out there's a subtle difference between the two! Grammar esoterica FTW. See: What Is the Difference between Present Participle and Present Progressive -> http://grammar.about.com/od/basicsentencegrammar/f/progpartdiff.htm.
As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.
LIKE THIS EPISODE?
Send us feedback.
Thanks to our Patrons, especially Khrob, Theis, Sandra, Jesse, Randy, Paulo, Thomas, Jennifer, Malay, Alexandre and Lily.
———
FILMS
PULP FICTION (1994) — (w) Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Quentin Tarantino (d) Quentin Tarantino
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) — (w) Philip Kaufman, George Lucas, Lawrence Kasdan (d) Steven Spielberg
THE BOURNE IDENTITY (2002) — (w) William Blake Herron, Tony Gilroy, Robert Ludlum (d) Doug Liman
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (2007) — (w) Tony Gilroy, George Nolfi, Scott Z Burns, Robert Ludlum (d) Paul Greengrass
THE UNTOUCHABLES (1987) — (w) David Mamet (d) Brian De Palma
THE WOMAN IN BLACK (2012) — (w) Jane Goldman, Susan Hill (d) James Watkins
UP (2009) — (w) Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom Mccarthy, Pete Docter (d) Pete Docter
WHIPLASH (2014) — (w) Damien Chazelle
SCRIPTS
Study the script: PULP FICTION (1994) — Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Quentin Tarantino
Study the script: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) — Philip Kaufman, George Lucas, Lawrence Kasdan
Study the script: THE BOURNE IDENTITY (2002) — William Blake Herron, Tony Gilroy, Robert Ludlum
Study the script: THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (2007) — Tony Gilroy, George Nolfi, Scott Z Burns, Robert Ludlum
Study the script: THE UNTOUCHABLES (1987) — David Mamet
Study the script: THE WOMAN IN BLACK (2012) — Jane Goldman, Susan Hill
Study the script: UP (2009) — Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom Mccarthy, Pete Docter
Study the script: WHIPLASH (2014) — Damien Chazelle
SHOT ZERO DEEP DIVES
Staging the violence in TOTAL RECALL 1990 vs 2012
LINKS
Read: John August: On the present tense
Read: John August: Present tension
Read: Scriptnotes: Ep 52: Grammar, Guns and Butter
Read: Storyteller's Journal: Decompression: Writing Comics Like Movies
Read: Wikipedia: Soviet Montage Theory
Read: Wikipedia: The Kuleshov Effect
YouTube: The Kuleshov Effect - Original experiment
Read: No Film School: The History of Editing, Eisenstein, & the Soviet Montage
YouTube: Miramax (YouTube): Mia Overdoses
YouTube: MovieClips (YouTube): A Shot of Adrenaline
YouTube: MovieClips (YouTube): Bank Evacuation Plan
YouTube: MovieClips (YouTube): Ross and Waterloo
YouTube: Woman in Black - scary scene
YouTube: Lego Indiana Jones and the Fight on the Flying Wing
YouTube: Married Life - Carl & Eddie
YouTube: MovieClips (YouTube): Knife to a Gun Fight
YouTube: The Odessa Steps And Its Descendants
Read: ACMI Dreamworks Animation: Interrogating Gingy
Read: Temple of the Seven Golden Camels: Presentation Storyboards by Joe Ranft (short article of pitching storyboarded sequences in animation)
Read: Goodreads: Cinematic Storytelling by Jennifer Van Sijll
Read: Director's Guild of America: A Tribute to Director Steven Spielberg
RELATED EPISODES
DZ-05: Shifting audience point of view and heightened emotions
———
More Draft Zero is brought to you by our awesome Patreons.
If you enjoy the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, a rating on ...
1 hr 50 min
November 04, 2014DZ-15: World Building Rules, Okay?
Listen when your opening pages feel like exposition dumps (which is bad, okay?)
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.
Like with the character introductions episode, we cover a lot of scripts. In no particular order... [deep breath]... THE MATRIX, THE MATRIX RELOADED, MATRIX REVOLUTIONS, INCEPTION, GRAVITY, MINORITY REPORT, MOON, LOOPER, ELYSIUM, JURASSIC PARK, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE, MADAGASCAR, FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, PAN'S LABYRINTH, SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN, NIGHT WATCH, VAN HELSING, THE ONE I LOVE, 28 WEEKS LATER, WORLD WAR Z, DAWN OF THE DEAD, 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, ZOMBIELAND, WOMAN IN BLACK, BRICK, ANIMAL KINGDOM, DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE, THE UNTOUCHABLES, GOODFELLAS, SHORT TERM 12, SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY, MOONRISE KINGDOM, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, and FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL.
Damn that was a lot! And we've probably missed some, too. So have a listen and please let us know!
As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.
LIKE THIS EPISODE?
Send us feedback.
Thanks to our Patrons, especially Khrob, Theis, Sandra, Jesse, Randy, Paulo, Thomas, Jennifer, Malay, Alexandre and Lily.
———
FILMS
THE MATRIX (1999) — (w) Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
INCEPTION (2010) — (w) Christopher Nolan
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (2001) — (w) Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, J R R Tolkien (d) Peter Jackson
JURASSIC PARK (1993) — (w) Michael Crichton, David Koepp, Michael Crichton (d) Steven Spielberg
PAN'S LABYRINTH (2006) — (w) Guillermo Del Toro
SCRIPTS
Study the script: THE MATRIX (1999) — Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
Study the script: INCEPTION (2010) — Christopher Nolan
Study the script: THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (2001) — Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, J R R Tolkien
Study the script: JURASSIC PARK (1993) — Michael Crichton, David Koepp, Michael Crichton
Study the script: PAN'S LABYRINTH (2006) — Guillermo Del Toro
SHOT ZERO DEEP DIVES
Strong Openings: PAN'S LABYRINTH
LINKS
Read: Visual Memory: 49 What are Non-Submersible Units?
Read: io9: 7 Deadly Sins of Worldbuilding
Read: Scriptnotes: Ep 149: The Long-Lost Austin Three Page Challenge (on Van Helsing)
Read: Scriptnotes: Ep 135: World-building
Read: Scriptnotes: Ep 160: A Screenwriter's Guide to the End of the World
RELATED EPISODES
DZ-09: Characterising Introductions
DZ-14: Writing For Actors with Succession's Sarah Snook
———
More Draft Zero is brought to you by our awesome Patreons.
If you enjoy the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, a rating on Spotify, or a review on Podchaser.
We are @stuwillis, @mehlsbells and @chasffisher on Twitter. You can find @draft_zero and @_shotzero on Instagram and Twitter.
Full show notes at: https://draft-zero.com/2014/dz-15/
2 hr 1 min

About Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast

From the publisher's feed

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.