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DZ-95: Backmatter - Building and Maintenance

How do you maintain hope in the face of, er, screenwriting

Legacy Episode — Migrated from our original site. Will take time to tidy up!

31 DEC 2022

Show Notes

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 acts; balancing new projects vs current projects; how to maintain hope in the face of an industry as fickle as ours; and end with a discussion of Andor vs Obi-Wan. Yup, Star Wars is the new Die Hard. Get over it.

FYI we recorded this episode with both of us in the same room (for a more casual atmosphere )but that means there’s more technical gremlins like crosstalk. Our apologies in advance!

Thanks to Chris Walker for editing this episode. <3 Chris!

Thanks to our Patrons, especially Casimir, Eduardo, Jennifer, Garrett, Bjorn, Randy, Jesse, Sandra, Theis, Alex and Khrob.

As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.

Resources

Transcript

Read the transcript for this episode.

Chapters

  • 00:00:09 – Cold Open
  • 00:00:39 – What's Coming in 2023
  • 00:05:56 – › Ensemble films and efficient character tools
  • 00:10:28 – › Fictional podcasts and audio drama as minimum viable product
  • 00:14:50 – › Monologues, rhetoric, and characters speaking to the audience
  • 00:25:42 – Are First Acts Getting Shorter?
  • 00:27:03 – › Streaming, audience patience, and the pressure on early pages
  • 00:32:10 – › Cold opens, inciting incidents, and buying time for character
  • 00:40:09 – Balancing New Projects Against Current Work
  • 00:43:55 – › Cognitive load, burnout, and finding the space to write
  • 00:48:05 – › Sunk cost, paid work, and protecting time for new material
  • 00:49:48 – Maintaining Hope in a Fickle Industry
  • 00:51:22 – › Action over optimism: hope as a process not a feeling
  • 00:54:21 – Lessons from 2022
  • 00:56:41 – ANDOR vs. OBI-WAN KENOBI
  • 00:56:56 – › What Kenobi got right despite its problems
  • 01:00:17 – › Plot armor, scale, and why Obi-Wan never felt under genuine threat
  • 01:05:10 – › How ANDOR earns tension by surrounding the known survivor
  • 01:09:49 – › Thematic scenes, characters alone, and what rebellion costs
  • 01:14:38 – Thanks to Our Patreons!

Shows

Shot Zero Deep Dives

Episodes in the backmatter series

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