Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast

DZ-19: Car-Crash Characters

Listen Later

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.

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    • 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/

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            Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcastBy Chas Fisher and Stuart Willis
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