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Children of Men (2006)

Featured In

DZ-101: Oners - Creating Immediacy & Anchoring Action on the Page

What can we learn by analysing how 'oners' are written on the page?

AI✦Zeroes in on how mini slugs and action description create the feel of simultaneous chaos--showing how writers direct the camera through prose, not shot lists.✦

⏱ 1h 23m

3 JUL 2023

Scenes · Genre · Character

Listen to understand how screenwriters direct the camera without calling shots.

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Chas, Stu and Mel reunite to talk about writing the feel of camerawork in screenplays. We use “oners” — a long-playing continuous take — as a lens to talk about how some writers have “directed” from the page. We talk immediacy, camera positions, handovers, and anchoring action and more… →

Films: Goodfellas (1990) , The Adventures of Tintin (2011) , Children of Men (2006)

Scenes: Oners , Scene Structure

Genre: Visual Language

Character: POV Characters

"You’re meant to be swept along with this action. In Children of Men, the script’s... just bang, bang, bang. You can almost tell that it’s happening simultaneously because of the mini slugs, you know, in the road, in the car, outside, inside. It’s all felt as one."

— mel | DZ-101: Oners - Creating Immediacy & Anchoring Action on the Page

DZ-43: Driving Sequences - Character and Plot Intensity

What gives your sequences their intensity?

AI✦Breaks down how shifting between plot questions and character questions across three distinct worlds keeps momentum alive without relying on external propulsion.✦

⏱ 3h 16m

8 JUL 2017

Structure · Character · Scenes

Listen to understand how dramatic questions shape audience engagement and pacing through sequences.

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Chas and Stu are joined for the fourth time by the inestimable Stephen Cleary - this time to take a deep dive into sequences. A real deep dive. A 3+ hour deep dive… →

Films: The Bourne Identity (2002) , Naked (1993) , The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) , There Will Be Blood (2007) , Fargo (1996) , Children of Men (2006) , Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)

Structure: Sequences , Dramatic Questions , Character Questions , Plot Questions

Character: Character Agency

Scenes: Scene Structure

"Children of Men clearly has three acts, which has three different worlds. You have London, you have the country, and you have the refugee camp."

— chas | DZ-43: Driving Sequences - Character and Plot Intensity

Shot Zero Deep Dives

Time and space in staging "Oners" by Shot Zero

via Goodfellas, Children of Men, and The Adventures of Tintin

Read on Substack

Referenced In

DZ-9

Characterising Introductions

⏱ 1h 22m

JUN 2014