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✦Examines how the “Zed attack” sequence uses rapid mini-slugs and stacked simultaneous action to create the felt experience of being swept along by relentless, overlapping chaos – demonstrating how a writer can direct momentum and immediacy from the page.✦

⏱ 1h 23m

Scenes · Genre · Process | 3 JUL 2023

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

▶ More Info

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

Process: Craft Tools

"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

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