Emily the Criminal (2022)

Featured In

DZ-107: Establishing Tone through Character

How can we use dramatisation to create tone?

AI✦Analyses the film’s tonal strategy through Emily’s responses to pressure and menace, demonstrating how her reactions under threat become the primary tool for communicating both character interiority and the escalating danger of her circumstances.✦

⏱ 1h 54m

Tone · Structure · Process | 29 FEB 2024

Listen if you want to understand how character actions and reactions shape a film's tone

▶ More Info

In this episode, Chas and Stu continue their deep dive into how to write tone by examining films with “light” (we use the phrase loosely) tones: LADY BIRD, EMILY THE CRIMINAL, THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS, and SPONTANEOUS. We also talk a surprising amount about DUNE and CRAZY STUPID LOVE… →

Films: Lady Bird (2017) , Emily the Criminal (2022) , The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) , Spontaneous (2020) , Dune (2021) , Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011)

Tone: Establishing Tone

Structure: Given Circumstances

Process: Craft Tools

"Emily feels a rush of blood to the head. And the blood, to me, kind of connects it to the feral thing, right? Like it’s just got a little bit of an animalistic quality to it in terms of the kind of language system they’re using it."

— stu | DZ-107: Establishing Tone through Character