DZ-117: Pulling Off Tonal Shifts

Listen if you want to write tonal pivots that land on the page without a director's toolkit. Following on from our episodes on establishing tone through action lines and through character, this is what we have been building up to: how to pull off a tonal switch… that does NOT throw the audience out of the film. And, in particular, how to pull that off on the page when writers don’t have framing, lighting, music, editing, etc. at our disposal? With that goal in mind, Mel and Chas dissect specific moments on the pages of SHAUN OF THE DEAD, SORRY TO BOTHER YOU and SWISS ARMY MAN. While there are definite craft tools identified - rhythm of action lines, varying use of unfilmmables and metaphors, establishing language patterns - the two big takeaways are: (1) pulling off a tonal shift takes a lot of setup; and (2) when the time comes, contrast on the page is key. Thanks to Chris Walker for editing this episode. As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes. LIKE THIS EPISODE? Discuss with our Patrons on Patreon. Watch and comment on YouTube. Send us feedback. Thanks to our Patrons, especially Lily, Paulo, Alexandre, Malay, Jennifer, Thomas, Randy, Jesse, Sandra, Theis and and Khrob. → Read the transcript for this episode. ——— "Not only does it allow us to accept the mother's death, but it allows them to really go for emotion because they've already taught us that throughout the film, there will be these moments." — Chas Fisher @ 00:00:00 ——— CHAPTERS 00:00:00 – Cold Open 00:00:25 – What do we mean by tonal shift? 00:08:35 – Distinguishing between genre shift and tonal shift 00:13:08 – Shaun of the Dead 00:45:41 – Sorry to Bother You 01:28:07 – Swiss Army Man 02:02:10 – Key learnings and wrap up 02:06:35 – Patreon thanks FILMS SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004) — (w) Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright (d) Edgar Wright SORRY TO BOTHER YOU (2018) — (w) Boots Riley SWISS ARMY MAN (2016) — (w) Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert SCRIPTS Study the script: SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004) — Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright Study the script: SORRY TO BOTHER YOU (2018) — Boots Riley Study the script: SWISS ARMY MAN (2016) — Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert SHOT ZERO DEEP DIVES Framing [between] Them: SHAUN OF THE DEAD LINKS YouTube: Every Frame A Painting - Edgar Wright - How to Do Visual Comedy EPISODES IN THE TONE SERIES DZ-117: Pulling Off Tonal Shifts RELATED EPISODES DZ-105: Establishing Tone through Big Print DZ-107: Establishing Tone through Character ——— 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/2025/dz-117/