"Often, gangsters are about the gang and the mob or the people within that. And noir is more interested, very broadly speaking, in... the system and the system being broader society, being the police, being, you know, culture at large and how you can or cannot necessarily win with it."
— Mel Killingsworth | DZ-123: Flawed Characters in Noir
Gangster Stories vs. Noir Worldviews
"Often, gangsters are about the gang and the mob or the people within that. And noir is more interested, very broadly speaking, in... the system and the system being broader society, being the police, being, you know, culture at large and how you can or cannot necessarily win with it."
— Mel Killingsworth
(00:12:21)
· DZ-123: Flawed Characters in Noir
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:…
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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…
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How can you dramatise your theme on a scene level?
AI✦Chas and Stu investigate how a character’s conscious and subconscious worldviews dramatise the overall theme of the work at the scene level.✦
Listen to discover how a character's worldview becomes the engine of conflict inside a single scene.
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As part of their ongoing exploration of scene-work, Stu and Chas apply their earlier thinking on theme and character worldview to individual scenes. Can examining a scene from a thematic perspective impact the drama, conflict or stakes of the scene? How does your character’s conscious and subconscious world views dramatise the overall theme of the work? How can an individual scene reflect the larger themes of the overall story? Do any of these questions or approaches lead to writing better scenes…
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What screenwriting lessons can be we learn from SPLIT?
AI✦Understanding the protagonist’s worldview--and how it conflicts with the reality of the film--becomes the engine that drives both the thematic and narrative journey.✦
Listen when you're writing a twist and need to earn it through point-of-view rather than surprise alone.
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In our first (and perhaps last) one-shot, we take a close look at the M. Night Shyamalan’s SPLIT. Rather than having one topic with many examples, we use the one example to look at many topics. Well, okay, a few topics…
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Will Director Stu allow Writer Chas on his set?
AI✦The episode uses The Last Jedi to discuss how a story’s overall worldview and thematic position emerge through character choices and their ramifications.✦
Listen to understand how consequences (not intentions) impact whether an audience roots for or against your protagonist.
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Following our annual wrap up in 2017, we’ve decided to once again explore what craft issues/lessons we can garner from the latest Stars, namely Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, focusing on how consequences of character actions can do a lot of heavy lifting as to how the audience perceives that character (as well as looking at worldview and overall story structure)…
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What can be gleamed from the substantial rewrite of a famed spec?
AI✦The hosts examine how the spec’s worldview shifted through O’Russell’s rewrite, affecting everything from character perspective to thematic questions.✦
Listen to learn how impactful rewriting can be.
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Stu and Chas look at AMERICAN BULLSHIT (the 2010 Black List spec script by Eric Warren Singer) and the film it became… AMERICAN HUSTLE (co-written and directed by David O’Russell), which garnered 10 Oscar nominations in 2014…
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How does audience knowledge affect your character's motivations?
AI✦Mel, Chas, and Stu discuss how characters’ worldviews and decision-making shift when filtered through external knowledge and fan expectations in serialized universes.✦
Listen to understand how fan service weaponizes external knowledge against character logic.
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By Order 66: Chas and Stu are joined by special guest - filmmaker Mel Killingsworth - to talk all things Star Wars. Well. Focusing on The Mandalorian and The Rise of Skywalker and wherever else our tangents take us…
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