DZ-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/