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DZ-113: Tools For Filmmakers To Talk To The Audience

What tools help ensure that you as the filmmaker are not misunderstood?

22 SEP 2024

Show Notes

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 - whether they be directors, writers, editors, or anyone else - can make the audience feel their ‘hand’ more. To that end, Mel, Stu and Chas dive into ADAPTATION, STORIES WE TELL and THE FORTY-YEAR-OLD VERSION.

We discuss structure (in particular how to structure more meta stories), the influence of TikTok and YouTube in portraying character authenticity, how to set up scenes where your characters can actually debate what your story is really about., and get into the gritty of where “in the story world” the communication from the filmmakers is.

Ultimately, in exploring these three powerful films through this lens, we discover that these tools give filmmakers more control in conveying their theme. Quelle surprise.

This episode brought to you by (drum roll) ArcStudio: go to https://www.arcstudiopro.com/draftzero for $30 off a pro subscription!

Thanks to Chris Walker for his excellent editing this episode.

"I think the reason why I was surprised at this on this viewing is how, I guess, diegetic all the communication is. Like, it feels like it’s within a story world."

— Chas Fisher  |  DZ-113: Tools For Filmmakers To Talk To The Audience

Thanks to our Patrons, especially Lily, Paulo, Alexandre, Malay, Jennifer, Thomas, Randy, Jesse, Sandra, Theis and 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
  • 00:00:28 – The Meta of Meta
  • 00:04:20 – › How filmmakers speak without breaking immersion
  • 00:07:48 – › Mapping the craft levers for filmmaker-to-audience communication
  • 00:11:01 – ADAPTATION
  • 00:14:11 – › How filmmakers communicate through diegetic versus direct address
  • 00:20:30 – › When fiction blurs with reality in meta-storytelling
  • 00:29:23 – › Structural devices versus overt meta-communication across all three films
  • 00:34:28 – › What the work wants from its audience
  • 00:36:43 – Sponsor: Arc Studio Pro
  • 00:39:40 – Adaption (Part 2)
  • 00:42:23 – STORIES WE TELL
  • 00:44:24 – › Exposing the apparatus of documentary filmmaking
  • 00:49:44 – › Reconstructed Super 8 footage and the ethics of misdirection
  • 00:57:07 – › Sarah Polley's absence as subject and presence as author
  • 01:07:55 – › Mapping diegetic control across the film's storytelling layers
  • 01:12:13 – THE FORTY YEAR OLD VERSION
  • 01:19:29 – › Black-and-white cinematography and the Woody Allen inversion
  • 01:23:13 – › Locating the filmmaker's voice on the meta-storytelling spectrum
  • 01:33:20 – › Extracting portable craft techniques from autobiographical filmmaking
  • 01:43:39 – › Authenticity, truth, and what each film is ultimately arguing
  • 01:48:14 – Wrap Up & Key Learnings
  • 01:50:48 – › Black-and-white, artifice, and meta-techniques as thematic anchors
  • 01:56:27 – › Sound design, structural play, and further viewing recommendations
  • 02:01:24 – Many thanks to our Patreons <3

Films

Episodes in the Talking Directly to the Audience series

More Draft Zero is brought to you by our awesome Patreons.

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