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DRAFT ZERO

DZ-125: Oscars One-shot - BLUE MOON

What craft tools make a low-budget, contained, period drama riveting?

⏱ 1h 18m
Structure · Character · Words | 26 FEB 2026

Show Notes

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.

While Stu is still on show and we are between the 2026 Oscar nominations and the actual ceremony, our patreons selected BLUE MOON for this one-shot and boy are Mel and Chas glad they did. They dive into many lessons learned in previous episodes, like our character-driven episode… or analysis of French scenes in Adolescence… or the story-telling power that comes from the audience knowing the ending from biopics.

"The dialogue is very pop culture heavy, but it does it in a clever way."

Mel Killingsworth  |  DZ-125: Oscars One-shot - BLUE MOON

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Thanks to our Patrons, especially Khrob, Theis, Sandra, Jesse, Randy, Paulo, Thomas, Jennifer, Malay, Alexandre and Lily.

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


Chapters

  • 00:00:00 – BLUE MOON
  • 00:02:19 – Summary of Key Learnings
  • 00:13:34 – Controlling narrative POV
  • 00:27:49 – Using screenplay FORMAT to reflect the emotional story
  • 00:39:27 – Interweaving relationships
  • 00:56:46 – Repetition and pop culture references in dialogue
  • 01:07:54 – Key learnings
  • 01:16:02 – Thanks patreons and Oscar-nominated listener!

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