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DZ-105: Establishing Tone through Big Print

How can we teach the reader to find the humour in our darkness?

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

30 NOV 2023

Show Notes

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 reader to experience violence in your story? Humour? Sex? Prejudice?

To answer these questions, this episode look at how films with “darker” or “sadder” tones teach the reader what they can laugh at, namely: THE NICE GUYS, THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN and the pilot for YELLOWJACKETS.

Together they learn how to better talk about tone, how to frame tone for a scene or sequence, and what levers writers can use on the page to compensate for cinematic tools like music, performance, composition, lighting, design, editing, etc etc etc.

Future episodes plan to explore establishing lighter or quirkier tones, as well as tools in shifting or changing tone on the page.

"I think part of Martin McDonagh’s ability to incorporate the surrealistic elements, particularly in The Pillar Man, but the kind of what is perceived as the black comedy elements, because the character basically starts cutting off his fingers."

— Stu Willis  |  DZ-105: Establishing Tone through Big Print

Thanks to our Patrons, especially Lily, Alexandre, Malay, Casimir, Jennifer, Thomas, Randy, Jesse, Sandra, Theis 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

  • 00:00:00 – Cold Open
  • 00:00:32 – What is tone?
  • 00:05:36 – › Tone defined through the rhetorical triangle
  • 00:09:27 – › Teaching the audience the rules of tone
  • 00:16:36 – › Word and narrative choices as tonal tools
  • 00:25:00 – THE NICE GUYS
  • 00:31:48 – › How Shane Black's prose style establishes tone on the page
  • 00:39:39 – › Complicity, strangeness, and tonal shift within the opening scene
  • 00:49:49 – › How repetition and rhythm sell comedy in action lines
  • 00:55:07 – Sponsor: Arc Studio Pro
  • 00:57:23 – THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN
  • 01:00:17 – › Surrealism, sparseness, and McDonagh's tonal commitment
  • 01:05:43 – › How script mood is built through environment and repetition humour
  • 01:21:42 – › What the opening pages teach us about tonal contracts with the audience
  • 01:25:06 – YELLOWJACKETS
  • 01:28:07 – › Establishing three tones across three timelines in a pilot
  • 01:34:49 – › How big print language and POV shifts create horror dread
  • 01:43:06 – › Tonal transitions between scenes using comedy and environment
  • 01:50:16 – › Writing style shifts that signal tone within action lines
  • 01:53:30 – Key Learnings & Wrap Up
  • 01:57:23 – › Being bolder with tone in Australian screenwriting
  • 02:00:14 – › Signalling authorial judgment in satirical writing
  • 02:04:40 – Many thanks to our Patreons!

Films

Shows

Scripts

Episodes in the Establishing Tone series

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We are @stuwillis, @mehlsbells and @chasffisher on Twitter. You can find @draft_zero and @_shotzero on Instagram and Twitter.