How does your opening sequence set up your audience? 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 opening sequences. How does a good opening setup character, genre, and theme? In exploring how best to open your story - instead of looking at the almost mandatory studio note of “dropping you in the action” - Stu, Chas and Jess look at the inventive openings of OCEAN’S ELEVEN,...

How can dramas use genre elements to hook their audiences? 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 streets, Drama in the sheets". Together, they break down HUSTLERS, PIG and POWER OF THE DOG, to see how these films use their genre trappings to hook their audience while ultimately delivering something else entirely. We discuss chapter...

How do you deliver on the emotional contract of a genre while surprising the audience? In tackling this enormous topic, Stu and Chads enlist professional TV writer and desire for Kodie Bedford, someone who has somehow managed to defy genre pigeon-holing by writing mystery, comedy and vampire shows. The three of them look at GET OUT, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN and THE INVISIBLE MAN (with reference to PARASITE, JOHN WICK, TAKEN, KNIVES OUT and more) to see what tools the writers have used to...

How do you determine what is your MVP? 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 the business of writing. In this Backmatter entry, they go deep on: future episode topics; their screenwriting lessons from 2021 (especially on control); pitching projects; the minimum viable product & minimum loveable thing; and share their exper iences with running a...

In our second part of our “series” on Choices and Decision, we take a deep dive into THE FAREWELL and WRATH OF MAN, with a sidebar on NOMADLAND.

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 BOOKSMART through the decisions made by its characters. In particular, how the audience understanding of: the choice available, the considered decision itself, and the consequence changes how we feel about these characters. And how separating those three things can create different emotional effects on your audience.

Standup comedians can keep audiences gripped to their every word for over an hour, and often bring them to emotional climaxes by the end. So how do they do it and what tools can apply to scripted narratives?  For this deep dive into standup, Stu and Chas are joined by the super-talented comic and podcaster Alice Fraser. Which is rather fortuitous. Because not only are we schooled on comedy techniques, but because Alice also has a Masters in Narrative Rhetoric. 

In this final podcast release of last year’s run of LiveSoLation episodes, Chas and Stu are joined by Uber-geek Mel in an epic exploration of how Dave Gibbons’ and Alan Moore’s seminal graphic novel WATCHMEN is adapted differently inthe 2009 film and 2019's HBO television show. In this podcast release, we focus on a single craft tool: GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES.

Chas and Stu are joined by writer/director/producer/multi-hyphenate Marc Furmie of Rezistor Studios to talk all things pitch decks and look books. Coming from an advertising and music video background, Marc shares his experience in putting together visual materials to pitch a project. We discuss the difference between pitch decks and lookbooks,  how they help you sell your projects, what buyers are looking for, television vs features, and how do we make yours better?

In our final part, part 3, of our Interweaving Timelines series, we take a deep dive into Greta Gerwig's 2019 adaptation of Little Women. In her adaptation of the iconic novels, Greta chose to interweave the seperate timelines of Little Women and it's sequel, Good Wives, to create a thematically and emotionally potent work. This differs from all the other adaptations, which have chosen to keep the chronological storytelling of the source material. It's almost like a scientific experiment!

In Part 2 of Interweaving Timelines, DZ tackle The Social Network. We analyse Sorkin’s on-the-page skill with time jumps, managing intercutting and introducing characters - as well as explore how the flash-forward technique manages the absence of stakes (i.e. we know Facebook exists) and creates a different emotional experience to the flashbacks of Destroyer. Finally, we look at how the interweaving timelines change how the audience feel about Mark Zuckerberg (as portrayed in this film).

Stu and Chas are joined by Mel Killingsworth to dissect interweaving timelines. Not anthology films. Not Cloud Atlas. But films where two plot lines featuring the same characters, but from different timelines, are woven together. How do you manage stakes when you know a character’s future? What questions does this prompt in the viewer? And how the hell do you orient the reader?

In this particular Backmatter entry, Stu & Chas wax lyrical on [deep breath]: character journeys, hyperlink cinema, keeping genre fresh, beginning a new co-writing relationship, managing multiple projects, choosing your next project, and - naturally - Star Wars. SPOILERS ABOUND, particularly for The Mandalorian Season 2 and Ready or Not.

What can we learn from Sofia Coppola’s on-the-page skills over her career? Following the success of the Tips from Tarantino episode, we have again decided to look at three different scripts from over the course of a long screenwriting career from a single writer to see what we can learn. Our beloved patreons not only selected Sofia Coppola as said writer, but also selected the scripts to analyse: LOST IN TRANSLATION, THE BLING RING and THE BEGUILED.

Stu and Chas are joined by filmmaker, podcaster and writer Matthew Brown to deep dive into FURY ROAD and its astounding visual storytelling, both on the page and on screen. We talk about setups and payoffs, given circumstances, image systems, environmental storytelling, and how the relationship between Furiosa and Max is built over the course of the story with very little dialogue (besides Tom Hardy’s grunts and the odd bellow of “MEDIOCRE!”).

What can we learn from folk horror? Draft Zero return with their next YouTube livestream! Stu and Chas are joined by previous guest (and successful screenwriter) C.S. McMullen for a deep dive into MIDSOMMAR! We analyse the film through the lens of Folk Horror, but tackle broader topics such as horror vs dread, rising tension, transgressions, unfilmables, and portraying toxic relationships.

In this final part from the epic recording on short documents, Stephen explores how we should craft the words on the page and structure these documents differently when they are to sell the project as opposed to develop the project. Something that Chas and Stu badly need to hear, learn and apply right now.

How can I develop my theme without writing script pages? Continuing our look at tools used in development, Chas & Stu are joined by Stephen Cleary to talk about Theme, The Thematic Logline and what Stephen calls The Story Synopsis. All are tools to help writers better understand their theme and how it is dramatised. We use the classic film WITNESS as an example, so spoilers abound.

Stu and Chas are joined by fan-favourite, Stephen Cleary, to NOT look at what makes great screenplays work -- but what makes great "short documents" work. Part I explores the short documents and tools you can use to develop your story’s PLOT before going to script, including the Premise, the Logline, various synopses, character documents, and - of course - the dreaded Treatment…

How does Joker use melodramatic techniques to elevate its storytelling? Draft Zero return with their next YouTube livestream! Stu and Chas take a deep dive into JOKER and analyse the film through the story paradigm of melodrama. Is it a melodrama? Why or why not does that matter? And does that influence how it has been written on the page?

Draft Zero return with their next YouTube livestream! Stu and Chas take a deep dive into PARASITE and how its mastery of audience questions elevates the film. They then answer listeners questions on PARASITE and much more.

How can shifting narrative point of view drive your sequences? Born out of isolation madness, this episode is an edited version of Draft Zero’s first YouTube livestream. Stu and Chas both watched KNIVES OUT and - together with our listeners - broke down each sequence and turning point by reference to what the audience knows in relation to the characters (aka narrative point of view).  hey then answer listener questions on KNIVES OUT and much else besides live on air.

Stu and Chas are joined by Stephen Cleary following his exploration into Melodrama, and together they try to reclaim the word from its pejorative meaning. By examining powerful Melodramas (with many tangents) the three hosts try to unpick what makes Melodrama an alternate story paradigm to the Hero’s Journey.

We hope you are all staying healthy and safe. Due this difficult time of lockdown, Chas and Stu have decided to “regularly” do special live-streamed episodes (via YouTube Live) of Draft Zero that we are calling LiVEsolation. After they’re streamed, recordings of the livestreams (including the chat!) will be on our YouTube channel for later viewing. We recommend you like our facebook page to keep up to date with our schedule and subscribe to us on YouTube to see all the videos.

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 itself.