DZ-107: Establishing Tone through Character

Listen if you want to understand how character actions and reactions shape a film's tone In this episode, Chas and Stu continue their deep dive into how to write tone by examining films with “light” (we use the phrase loosely) tones: LADY BIRD, EMILY THE CRIMINAL, THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS, and SPONTANEOUS. We also talk a surprising amount about DUNE and CRAZY STUPID LOVE. We focus on the relationship between character & tone and how the writers of these films use dramatisation to create their unique tones. We talk minimalism vs maximalism, dialogue, character actions & reactions, emotional dynamic range, and rules of the world vs given circumstances. Stu proposes a new triangle to help us understand the dials we as writers have to affect tone: The given circumstances of the story, How that effects character actions & reactions, How the audience are told about those elements. Thanks to Chris Walker for his excellent editing this episode. As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes. LIKE THIS EPISODE? Watch and comment on YouTube. Send us feedback. Thanks to our Patrons, especially Lily, Alexandre, Malay, Jennifer, Thomas, Randy, Jesse, Sandra, Theis and Khrob. → Read the transcript for this episode. ——— "Emily feels a rush of blood to the head. And the blood, to me, kind of connects it to the feral thing, right? Like it's just got a little bit of an animalistic quality to it in terms of the kind of language system they're using it." — Stu Willis @ 00:42:31 ——— CHAPTERS 00:00:00 – Cold Open 00:00:23 – Tone & Character 00:03:21 – › The tone triangle: given circumstances, character reaction, audience feeling 00:09:38 – › Diegetic vs non-diegetic levers and the writer's control over tone 00:15:26 – Ladybird 00:18:43 – › How opening scenes encode a film's emotional range 00:22:37 – › Underplaying drama to teach audiences what to laugh at 00:29:42 – › How dialogue mechanics carry tonal instruction on the page 00:33:20 – EMILY THE CRIMINAL 00:36:22 – › Sparse big print and character-revealing given circumstances 00:44:34 – › How action and reaction encode tone and theme 00:53:25 – › Dialogue styling and emotional proximity to character 00:57:43 – THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS 01:02:51 – › How character reaction creates comedic contrast with violence 01:13:32 – › Given circumstances, audience expectation, and world rules 01:17:28 – SPONTANEOUS 01:20:57 – › Action lines as character voice and tonal instruction 01:26:31 – › Humor as audience permission to engage with horror 01:34:03 – › Tonal complexity versus emotional range across films 01:38:11 – › Shared laughter as a device for building connection 01:39:38 – Key Learnings & Wrap Up 01:42:38 – › Tonal contrast as emotional contract with audience 01:46:13 – › Character reactions as the root of tonal clarity 01:51:58 – Many thanks to our Patreons FILMS LADY BIRD (2017) — (w) Greta Gerwig EMILY THE CRIMINAL (2022) — (w) John Patton Ford THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS (2018) — (w) Ethan Coen, Joel Coen (d) Joel Coen, Ethan Coen SPONTANEOUS (2020) — (w) Aaron Starmer, Brian Duffield (d) Brian Duffield SCRIPTS Study the script: LADY BIRD (2017) — Greta Gerwig Study the script: THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS (2018) — Ethan Coen, Joel Coen LINKS Read: Tom Vaughan / Story and Plot: Controlling the tone in your screenwriting EPISODES IN THE ESTABLISHING TONE SERIES DZ-105: Establishing Tone through Big Print DZ-107: Establishing Tone through Character RELATED EPISODES DZ-82: Dramatising Given Circumstances in WATCHMEN DZ-105: Establishing Tone through Big Print ——— 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/2024/dz-107/