Theme
Every episode tagged Theme, newest first.
2026
"There is the power that comes with money, but also the powerlessness that comes from being African-American in 1948."
— Chas Fisher | DZ-124: Making the Despicable Compelling
DZ-124: Making the Despicable Compelling
How does Film Noir show us terrible people doing terrible things without endorsing it?
AI✦Easy’s realization that ’the system doesn’t just not serve me, it is out to get me’ and Woman of the Hour’s parallel between 1970s predation and modern systems that fail victims show how noir’s worldview shapes what characters do and why audiences understand them.✦
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:… →
Films:
Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)
, Woman of the Hour (2024)
, Double Indemnity (1944)
, The Long Goodbye (1973)
2025
"And so then you have to find, create circumstances in which direct conflict is the only tactic that they have."
— Stu Willis | DZ-119: Final Character Choices & Great Endings
DZ-123: Flawed Characters in Noir
What can Film Noir teach us about character arcs and audience engagement?
AI✦Mel frames The Long Goodbye as Marlowe starting with a genuine belief in good people but ending more jaded, suggesting his worldview shifts from optimism to pragmatism given the circumstances he encounters.✦
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… →
DZ-120: Subtext is Overrated!
How do character goals, tactics, and fears create subtext automatically?
AI✦The group connects subtext to emotional truth, arguing that the gap between what characters say and what they feel–their fear of revealing themselves–is where the real drama lives.✦
Listen if you're struggling to write subtext without it feeling forced
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DZ-119: Final Character Choices & Great Endings
How do you dramatise a protagonist's internal journey through their final decision?
AI✦Both Michael Clayton and Promising Young Woman withhold the complete experience of the final choice to speak more toward theme, with Chas and Stu arguing that theme questions are character questions dramatized in the ending.✦
Listen if you want to understand how to better dramatise a character's internal journey
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In this episode, Stu and Chas focus solely on the final choices made by protagonists and how that reflects their character journey and successfully, or not, dramatises the internal… →
Films:
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
, Finding Nemo (2003)
, Michael Clayton (2007)
, Promising Young Woman (2020)
, Talk to Me (2022)
2024
"She's giving it to us visually. She's giving it to us in color. She's giving it to us sometimes in people who are like her real life brother. I don't think she could be shouting it at us any louder other than like, you know, doing the Woody Allen thing of pausing and walking in as herself and and talking directly to the camera."
— Mel Killingsworth | DZ-113: Tools For Filmmakers To Talk To The Audience
DZ-115: A Christmas Special - Rewatching & Rituals
What magic do Christmas movies use to make them so rewatchable?
AI✦Damien Cassar connects nostalgia and the ‘pain of homecoming’ to how holiday films provide comfort and belonging, grounding the entire discussion in emotional authenticity rather than surface sentiment.✦
Listen if you want to understand what makes holiday films enduring parts of our seasonal rituals!
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In this “backmatter” episode of Draft Zero, Stu, Chas, and Mel Killingsworth embark on a festive exploration of what makes holiday films so engaging and so re-watchable that they can become part of our rituals. To that end, we breakdown the charm of of Christmas films like KISS KISS BANG BANG, RIDERS OF JUSTICE, and IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE… →
DZ-114: Climaxes in Challengers
How does ending your story on the climax affect audience experience?
AI✦Chas and Mel trace how the decision to cut at the climax–and what gets shown versus what gets written–directly impacts the perceived theme of the film and what the story ultimately says.✦
Listen to understand how withholding resolution can become your story's greatest statement.
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While Stu is on show, Mel and Chas sit down to analyse the meaning behind the ending of 2024’s CHALLENGERS, especially when - upon reading the script - the most impactful moment of the ending on screen (for Chas in particular) is not written on the page… →
Films:
Challengers (2024)
DZ-113: Tools For Filmmakers To Talk To The Audience
What tools help ensure that you as the filmmaker are not misunderstood?
AI✦The three films analyzed demonstrate how directorial hand and authorial presence become visible through unconventional narrative structures that break traditional storytelling conventions.✦
Listen if you want to explore how you can make your creative hand visible through meta-storytelling and structural choices!?!
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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… →
2021
"To me, one of my most important things when writing to have a vague idea of what my theme is, is I know what doesn't belong in the story."
— Chas Fisher | DZ-83: A Very Thematic Stand-up Special!
DZ-83: A Very Thematic Stand-up Special!
What can screenwriters learn from the storytelling techniques used by stand-up comedians?
AI✦Alice Fraser’s Masters in Narrative Rhetoric grounds the discussion in how stand-ups construct thematic power through the rhetorical triangle–logos, ethos, and pathos–making thematic resonance the backbone of what makes a comedy set emotionally gripping.✦
Listen you want to understand how stand-up comedians grip audiences and build emotional arcs (and what narrative tools screenwriters can borrow from comedy)!
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Standup comedians can keep audiences gripped to their every word for over an hour, and often bring them to emotional climaxes by the end. So how do they do it and what tools can apply to scripted narratives… →
2014
"We're trying to do your homework for you."
— Chas Fisher | DZ-0: Welcome to Draft Zero
DZ-0: Welcome to Draft Zero
What, exactly, is Draft Zero?
AI✦Stu frames Draft Zero’s core interest as narrative aesthetics–the effect of certain techniques on audiences–rather than formulas or structural prescriptions.✦
Listen if you're new to the podcast and want to understand our philosophy on screenwriting craft!
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Welcome to Draft Zero. A message from 2019 to those starting with our first episodes dating from 2014. We’ve learned a lot in five years. So where do you begin… →