Latest Episode
DZ-126: Secrets and Clues
How can Secrets and Clues motivate characters?
Listen if you want to understand how hidden information drives character motivation and plot structure!
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“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, we talk about how secrets, clues and hidden information motivate characters and may (or may not) help you plot from a character perspective. Part One (this episode) looks at WAKE UP DEAD MAN; while Part Two looks at SIDE EFFECTS, and the pilot episode of SHRINKING… →
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AI✦The hosts directly address whether characters are pushed forward or pulled forward by information, and how that distinction shapes the kind of escalation each character can sustain across the film.✦
Films:
Wake Up Dead Man (2025)
"Judd doesn’t want to solve the crime. He wants to confess, right? And Benoit wants to solve the crime. And the way he gets Judd to go along with him at that point is to say: Father, sorry, Dr. Nat is in danger."
Recent Episodes
DZ-125: Oscars One-shot - BLUE MOON
What craft tools make a low-budget, contained, period drama riveting?
Listen if you want to understand how narrative POV, screenplay format, and dialogue craft can elevate a contained biopic into an Oscar-nominated film
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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 nominations, including for it’s script. Join Chas & Mel as they explore how narrative POV, interweaving relationships, hooky dialogue, and even the screenplay format itself make the script for BLUE MOON so great… →
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AI✦Mel and Chas break down how Blue Moon's almost total commitment to Larry Hart's perspective--he's absent from only two beats in the entire film--shapes both the script's structure and the audience's emotional experience of his decline.✦
Films:
Blue Moon (2026)
DZ-124: Making the Despicable Compelling
How does Film Noir show us terrible people doing terrible things without endorsing it?
Listen if you need audiences to root for characters who do terrible things
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Mel and Chas continue to explore what Noir (the genre) can teach writers of all other genres. In particular:… →
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AI✦The episode isolates voiceover and given circumstances as tools that contextualize why characters make incredibly stupid or morally grey choices for understandable reasons.✦
Films:
Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)
, Woman of the Hour (2024)
, Double Indemnity (1944)
, The Long Goodbye (1973)
DZ-123: Flawed Characters in Noir
What can Film Noir teach us about character arcs and audience engagement?
Listen if you want to write morally compromised characters without endorsing their choices.
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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 representation isn’t endorsement? And whether these characters undergo transformative arcs, or simply reveal their true natures… →
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AI✦Mel and Chas argue whether Neff and Marlowe undergo transformative arcs or simply reveal who they always were, asking whether change means doing something different or allowing your true nature to emerge.✦
