How does audience knowledge affect your character's motivations? 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. Our primary lens is look at how both shows handle "fan service" — but really its about how you handle character motivations when your audience has more knowledge than your characters, especially knowledge from outside the show itsel...
Mar 17, 2020•1 hr 45 min•Season 7Ep. 66
What changes in your writing and development when collaborating with a director? 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. If you are thinking of producing your own content, wel...
Feb 14, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Season 7Ep. 65
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. To that end, they discuss: what is and is not in your control in relation to an emerging writing career; choosing what project to develop next; using the Black List site to gain traction; the difference between treatments for pitching as opposed to for development; and the difference in writing style when writi...
Jan 30, 2020•1 hr 42 min•Season 7Ep. 64
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". In Part II, we analyse key scenes from f...
Dec 31, 2019•1 hr 58 min•Season 6Ep. 63
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. They are also joined by Carissa Lee (who has been reading the exce...
Dec 02, 2019•2 hr 17 min•Season 6Ep. 62
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? In this episode we look at sequences from YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE, SEARCHING FOR BOBBY F...
Sep 25, 2019•2 hr 6 min•Season 6Ep. 61
How can unfilmables enhance the experience of your script? AKA Why your screenwriting guru is wrong In this episode, Chas and Stu deep dive into the controversial area of "unfilmables" — those alleged screenwriting sins, where a writer writes a line that (apparently) cannot be seen or heard. But many produced spec scripts use unfilmables to great effect. So how and why do they "get away with it"? In this first part, they look at unfilmables in micro moments: to describe locations, set (or change...
Aug 07, 2019•2 hr 25 min•Season 6Ep. 60
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 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. And what began as an exploration of how to...
Jul 01, 2019•1 hr 15 min•Season 6Ep. 59
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. And yet... while we thought this episod...
May 16, 2019•1 hr 48 min•Season 6Ep. 58
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 finall...
May 01, 2019•1 hr 29 min•Season 6Ep. 57
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. Character decisions that come ...
Mar 30, 2019•2 hr 16 min•Season 6Ep. 56
In part 1 of this 2-part episode, 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 sto...
Jan 15, 2019•2 hr 18 min•Season 6Ep. 55
How does removing character and plot questions 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 on sequence structure. That episode explored how sequences could be broken into plot, character, and plot/character sequences. Well, Stephen's back to talk about a different type of sequence: the thematic sequence. By limiting (or removing all together) questions related...
Oct 10, 2018•2 hr 50 min•Season 5Ep. 54
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. The films that led to this "insight" ...
Aug 26, 2018•2 hr 26 min•Season 5Ep. 53
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. To that end, we talk MINORITY REPORT, DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, MUDBOUND, and THE LOBSTER - with a special mention of high school movies. We continue refining our tools...
Jun 28, 2018•2 hr 16 min•Season 5Ep. 52
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 ma...
May 31, 2018•1 hr 52 min•Season 5Ep. 51
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. It took us a long time to settle on our homework, but we ended up exploring LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, SHAME, and MONSTER. Our discussion continues in backmatter with MINDHUNTER and STEVE JOBS. As a result of our expl...
Apr 19, 2018•1 hr 48 min•Season 5Ep. 50
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. For this "vs humans" part, we chose to look at DIE HARD, MISERY and THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE OF EBBING, MISSOURI (with sp...
Mar 31, 2018•1 hr 21 min•Season 5Ep. 49
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). For a film that is thematically about choice, Stu and Chas thought this would be an excellent opportunity to ex...
Feb 28, 2018•1 hr 54 min•Season 5Ep. 47
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). We also discuss how the sexual assault allegations in our industry can impact on what wo...
Jan 11, 2018•2 hr 22 min•Season 4Ep. 47
What questions do you want your audience asking at any given time? Waaaaaaaaaay back in DZ-05, 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 charac...
Dec 19, 2017•2 hr 25 min•Season 4Ep. 46
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 charact...
Dec 19, 2017•2 hr 25 min•Season 4Ep. 46
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 q...
Oct 27, 2017•2 hr 21 min•Season 4Ep. 45
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. The MCU has made (to date) six separate origin films, each tasked with establishing their titular charact...
Sep 17, 2017•2 hr 7 min•Season 4Ep. 44
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. Stephen postulates that sequences can compel the audience in different ways via the type of dramatic questions being posed. Are they plot questions (" Will she defuse the bomb? ") or character questions (" Will she understand what compels her to defuse bombs? ") or a combination of both? Wha...
Jul 08, 2017•3 hr 16 min•Season 4Ep. 43
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. Firstly, we take the opportunity to revisit theme. SPLIT offers a very clear example of the worldview of the characters and the rules of the world working together to create a coherent theme. Then we look at the SPLIT's use o...
Apr 26, 2017•1 hr 53 min•Season 4Ep. 42
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 ...
Mar 24, 2017•2 hr 33 min•Season 4Ep. 41
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 sa...
Feb 04, 2017•2 hr 16 min•Season 4Ep. 40
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-t...
Jan 15, 2017•1 hr 30 min•Season 3Ep. 39
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 directio...
Dec 06, 2016•1 hr 53 min•Season 3Ep. 38
