PODCAST · tv
Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast
by Chas Fisher and Stuart Willis
Two emerging screenwriters – Chas Fisher and Stuart Willis – try to work out what makes great screenplays work. Discovering what it takes by analysing what successful writers put on the page.
Episodes
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DZ-130: Positive Character Arcs
Listen to understand how to dramatize a character's internal change. Welcome to our third entry in our character arc series; and the first where we talk about characters that actually change. And positively, too. We deep dive into BARBIE, WIDOWS and ALL OF US STRANGERS to work out what makes an…
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Teaser: Positive Character Arcs
Teaser for our next episode: DZ-130. Please watch BARBIE, WIDOWS, and ALL OF US STRANGERS so you can learn about positive character arcs.
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DZ-129: Steadfast Character Arcs - Agents of Change
Listen to learn how to move an audience with a character who never changes. Do characters need to change for you to have a satisfying story? That's a question we've been asking since, like, episode five of this podcast. And we're finally talking about them - whatever you call 'em: steadfast,...
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DZ-128: What even is a Character Arc?
Listen to separate the three layers of an arc -- does the character change? How do they feel about it? And how is the audience positioned to feel about it? Stu, Chas and Mel finally begin their long-awaited journey into CHARACTER ARCS. In this "primer" episode, we try find some learnings and...
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DZ-127: Secrets and Clues 2 - The Cost of Revelation
Listen to learn the emotional impact of revealing secrets vs discovering them. In this episode Stu, Chas and Mel apply the Landmark–Hidden–Secret framework (from DZ-126) across two very different genres: the thriller SIDE EFFECTS (2013) and the tragicomic pilot of SHRINKING. SIDE EFFECTS is a…
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DZ-126: Secrets and Clues
Listen if you want to understand how hidden information drives character motivation and plot structure! “Getting information puts your character in danger. And danger rewards your character with information." — One of three ideas we steal from game design in this episode. In this two part series,...
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DZ-125: Oscars One-shot - BLUE MOON
Listen if you want to understand how narrative POV, screenplay format, and dialogue craft can elevate a contained biopic into an Oscar-nominated film BLUE MOON is a talky, period-drama that film about an obscure songer-writer in the 1940s. Yet, it attracted world-class talent AND Academy Award...
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DZ-124: Making the Despicable Compelling
Listen if you need audiences to root for characters who do terrible things Mel and Chas continue to explore what Noir (the genre) can teach writers of all other genres. In particular: How to keep the audience on side of characters doing reprehensible things; How to control your audience...
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DZ-123: Flawed Characters in Noir
Listen if you want to write morally compromised characters without endorsing their choices. In this two part series, Mel and Chas use Noir (the genre) as a lens to interrogate flawed characters. How can characters doing reprehensible things still engage audiences? How can you ensure…
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1dZ-01: Arkyvrs - A Mansion Most Vile - Ep1
What happens when a group of filmmakers play a ragtag group of filmmakers in a gritty sci-fi horror? "Ignite the fire within and explore unknown territory" - Werner Herzog. This episode is unusual, even by Draft Zero standards. It's an "Actual Play Podcast" where Chas, Stu, & Mel are joined by…
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DZ-122: Escalating Antagonism Across Genres
Listen to learn how thinking of your hero as the horror (for your villains) makes your script dynamic. In this episode Chas, Stu and guest Kim Ho continue their exploration into the power(s) of antagonism and how focusing on them can develop story. While Part 1 looked at the horror film SINNERS…
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DZ-121: Escalating Antagonism in SINNERS
Listen to strengthen your story by focusing on the antagonistic forces in your script. We often struggle to develop the middle stages of a story. Could this be because we focus on our protagonists’ journeys and plot structure more than on how the antagonistic powers are awakened, wronged,...
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DZ-120: Subtext is Overrated!
Listen if you're struggling to write subtext without it feeling forced! Or, how focusing on good drama will result in good subtext. We often hear how subtext is important for good screenwriting. We're here to tell you it isn't. Good subtext is a result of good drama, and your focus should be on...
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DZ-119: Final Character Choices & Great Endings
Listen if you want to understand how to better dramatise a character's internal journey In this episode, Stu and Chas focus solely on the final choices made by protagonists and how that reflects their character journey and successfully, or not, dramatises the internal. We compare and contrast...
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DZ-118: ADOLESCENCE -- How Questions Create Dramatic Tension
Listen when you need tension without external stakes--subtext, stillness, and thematic weight do the work. In this episode, Stu and Chas delve into the cultural phenomenon of ADOLESCENCE. We try to find the craft tools that have made the show so compelling and such a catalyst for conversation. In...
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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…
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DZ-116: Writing Physical Comedy
Listen to learn how formatting--white space, caps, dashes--becomes your comedy toolkit without a director. Mel joins Chas to tackle physical comedy. We limited our homework selection to extended scenes (as opposed to moments and sight gags) in live action projects and – with the help of our...
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DZ-115: A Christmas Special - Rewatching & Rituals
Listen if you want to understand what makes holiday films enduring parts of our seasonal rituals! In this “backmatter” episode of Draft Zero, Stu, Chas, and Mel Killingsworth embark on a festive exploration of what makes holiday films so engaging and so re-watchable that they can become part of…
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DZ-114: Climaxes in CHALLENGERS
Listen to understand how withholding resolution can make your story great! While Stu is on show, Mel and Chas sit down to analyse the meaning behind the ending of 2024's CHALLENGERS, especially when - upon reading the script - the most impactful moment of the ending on screen (for Chas in...
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DZ-113: Tools For Filmmakers To Talk To The Audience
Listen if you want to explore how you can make your creative hand visible through meta-storytelling and structural choices!?! In our final (ha!) episode looking at Talking Directly to the Audience, we turn away from character-and-text based craft tools to look at other ways that filmmakers -...
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DZ-112: Breaking the 4th wall
Listen to understand how breaking the 4th wall directly involves the audience in a character's emotional present. As part of our series on how filmmakers can directly communicate to the audience, we finally examine the most blatant tool of them all: when character look directly down the barrel of...
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DZ-111: Unreliable Narrators and FIGHT CLUB
Listen to learn how unreliable narrators shape storytelling through voiceover, structure, and control. In this episode, Stu and Mel (sans Chas!) take a deep dive into FIGHT CLUB and its use of the unreliable narrator. This is a bridging episode between our previous episode on VOICEOVER and our...
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DZ-110: Voiceover
Listen to explore how voiceover can set tone, reveal character, enhance empathy, and create tension. How can you use Voiceover without it feeling like a cheat? In this episode, we finally delve into the world of VOICEOVERS (as part of our larger series exploring craft tools that allow characters…
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DZ-109: Talking DIRECTLY to your audience
Listen if you've wondered what a character actually wants when they're talking directly to the audience!? What are the different ways a filmmaker can ask something of the audience? Chas and Stu are joined by Mel in this prelude episode to upcoming episodes on Voiceover (DZ-110, DZ-111) and…
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DZ-108: The Emotional Event with Judith Weston
Listen to understand why a scene's power lives in what shifts between characters, not what happens to them. How and why should every scene have an emotional event? For the first episode of our tenth anniversary year, we are joined by Judith Weston to talk about Emotional Events. What is an...
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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…
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DZ-106: How do you know if you have enough story?
Listen you're not sure whether your idea has enough fuel for 90 pages. In this episode, Chas, Stu and Mel attempt to answer a listener question: “In your own pre-writing process, how do you know you have enough for a feature? And do you have a specific pre-writing method you're going to?” Thus we...
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DZ-105: Establishing Tone through Big Print
Listen if you want to use an unusual tone in your screenplay. Chas and Stu finally start their long-mooted exploration of tone with a series that examines films and shows with unusual tones and dives into how the writers establish those tones in the first 5 pages. How does your script want your...
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DZ-104: Characters Alone - Dramatizing the Internal
Listen to understand how solitude reveals character interiority and deepens audience connection In this episode, we explore the audience's connection with characters through the lens of characters being alone. Chas and Stu breakdown scenes (and their scripts) from AFTERSUN, SENSE AND SENSIBILITY...
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DZ-103: Game of the Scene 2 - Triangle of Sadness, The Favourite
Listen to understand how games force characters to interact and reveal themselves (through competency, decisions, and rule-breaking) In part two of this two parter, Stu and Chas go further into the game (of the scene) and look at how games force characters other than the protagonist to interact.…
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DZ-102: Game of the Scene - Bluey, John Wick 4
Listen to make your scene writing more dynamic (by looking at the underlying game) Stu and Chas turn their attention to a topic that has long eluded them: the game of the scene. We look at how considering the game that characters are playing — its rules, arenas, players, referees, and win...
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DZ-101: Oners - Creating Immediacy & Anchoring Action on the Page
Listen to understand how screenwriters direct the camera without calling shots. Chas, Stu and Mel reunite to talk about writing the feel of camerawork in screenplays. We use “oners” — a long-playing continuous take — as a lens to talk about how some writers have “directed” from the page. We talk...
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DZ-100: Scenes through Swords
Listen if you want to know why the distance between two characters matters more than what they say. In this slightly unusual episode of Draft Zero (but also incredibly on brand), Stu and philosopher-swordsperson Damon Young discuss how the lessons they have learned from martial arts can be…
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DZ-99: Scene Questions
Listen if learn how to structure individual scenes through the questions you pose to your audience! Inspired by our earlier episodes on sequences, Chas and Stu narrow their focus to look at the atomic unit of screen storytelling: the scene. In particular, we breakdown how question and answers...
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DZ-98: Ensembles 3 - Character Function & Theme
Listen if you're writing an ensemble storiy and want to understand how different characters serve different narrative and thematic functions! In Part 3 (the final part? Ha!) of our exploration into ensemble stories, Stu, Chas & Mel examine films whose genres do not conventionally require a ton of...
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DZ-97: Ensembles 2 - Servicing Characters
Listen if you're writing ensemble stories and want to discover tools for giving all your characters adimension In Part 2 of our exploration into ensemble stories, Stu, Chas and Mel examine films whose plot and genre require a lot of characters. Thus we tackle a team sports film (PITCH PERFECT), a...
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DZ-96: Ensembles 1 - What do we mean by an ensemble?
Listen if you're working on a story with multiple protagonists and want to understand what makes an ensemble different from a single-protagonist narrative In the first part of our series on ensembles, Chas, Stu and Mel start by laying the groundwork for our future episodes. And we begin by asking...
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DZ-95: Backmatter - Building and Maintenance
Listen listen to hear why first acts keep shrinking--and whether yours should too Time for our annual backmatter episode, where we drop any ruse of any objectivity, and fully embrace our subjective opinions! In this episode we discuss: potential topics for 2023; the ostensible shortening of first...
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DZ-94: Talismans (Part 2)
Listen to write objects that accumulate powerful meanings across your story and create unspoken emotional payoffs. In part two of our two-part series on TALISMANS, we break down the beats used to turn objects (in a broad sense) into talismans; how talismans can track character journeys and...
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DZ-93: Talismans (Part 1)
Listen to so you can write talismans that are powerful tools for accessing character! In this series, Chas and Stu discuss TALISMANS. Physical objects that are imbued with meaning by a character or characters. They’re a powerful tool to access inner character. In this first part, we lay the...
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DZ-92: Insightful Recognition in Powerful Endings
Listen if you want to write endings that make audiences pause and ponder (in a good way, obvs) Stu & Chas set out to explore what makes certain endings powerful, in particular those of LA LA LAND, INCEPTION, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN and TURNING RED. The lens they bring to those endings is…
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DZ-91: Raising (different kinds of) Stakes
Listen listen if you're writing a biopic or any story where the audience already knows how it ends. Chas, Stu and Mel take a deep dive into stakes, using then lens of biopics to help us think about them. If an audience already knows the “plot” outcome of a story, then how do you create stakes to...
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DZ-90: Setups & Payoffs in EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE
Listen to understand how setups, payoffs, and reversals create narrative cohesion even when your story is fkn bonkers. In this one-shot, Chas and Stu jump into the utter chaos of EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE. Y'know, nultiverses, butt-plug action sequences, hot-dog fingers, a raccoon chef, a...
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DZ-89: Opening Sequences
Listen if you want to understand how great opening sequences establish character, genre, and theme while defying genre conventions Inspired by her tweet on how subversive an opening OCEAN’S ELEVEN has, Chas and Stu invited amazing writer/director Jessica Ellis onto the show to deep dive into...
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DZ-88: Drama in Genre clothing
Listen if you're writing a genre film but sense your story wants to become something else entirely. Stu and Chas reunite with TV writer & director Kodie Bedford to look at how some films start out as genre but gradually become character dramas. Or, as Stu never said on the episode "Genre in the...
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DZ-87: Keeping Genre Fresh
Listen when you're writing within a genre but terrified you'll deliver something your audience has already seen. In tackling this enormous topic, Stu and Chads enlist professional TV writer and director Kodie Bedford, someone who has somehow managed to defy genre pigeon-holing by writing mystery,...
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DZ-86: Backmatter - Minimum Viable Product
Listen for screenwriting lessons from 2021, strategies for pitching projects, and insights on running a writers workshop In their annual full backwater episode, Stu and Chas let out their pandemic hair, drop the ruse of objectivity, and allow themselves to have even more options about writing and...
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DZ-85: Choices & Decisions 2 - The Farewell & Wrath of Man
Listen when you want to show a character refusing to change despite every opportunity to do so. In our second part of our “series” on Choices & Decisions, we take a deep dive into THE FAREWELL and WRATH OF MAN, with a sidebar on NOMADLAND. In THE FAREWELL, we consider how the choice/decision to…
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DZ-84: Choices & Decisions 1 - Booksmart
Listen how the separation of choice, decision, and consequence (for a character) creates emotional impact. In order to better understand dramatising of character, Chas and Stu take a very draft zero look at very specific tool: choices and decisions. We analyse three films through the decisions…
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DZ-83: A Very Thematic Stand-up Special!
Listen if you want to understand how stand-up comedians grip audiences and build emotional arcs (and what narrative tools screenwriters can borrow from comedy)! Standup comedians can keep audiences gripped to their every word for over an hour, and often bring them to emotional climaxes by the…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Two emerging screenwriters – Chas Fisher and Stuart Willis – try to work out what makes great screenplays work. Discovering what it takes by analysing what successful writers put on the page.
HOSTED BY
Chas Fisher and Stuart Willis
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast have?
Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast currently has 130 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast about?
Two emerging screenwriters – Chas Fisher and Stuart Willis – try to work out what makes great screenplays work. Discovering what it takes by analysing what successful writers put on the page.
How often does Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast release new episodes?
Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast publishes regularly with 130 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast?
You can listen to Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast?
Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast is created and hosted by Chas Fisher and Stuart Willis.
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