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The Substance (2024)

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DZ-120: Subtext is Overrated!

How do character goals, tactics, and fears create subtext automatically?

AI✦How do you build subtext when your character says exactly what they want? Breaks down the gap between what a character does to get it and what they’re actually afraid of revealing.✦

⏱ 1h 54m

1 AUG 2025

Character · Theme · Scenes

Listen if you're struggling to write subtext without it feeling forced!

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Or, how focusing on good drama will result in good subtext. We often hear how subtext is important for good screenwriting. We’re here to tell you it isn’t. Good subtext is a result of good drama, and your focus should be on creating that good drama. But how… →

Films: Michael Clayton (2007) , Inglourious Basterds (2009) , The Substance (2024)

Character: Character Motivation , Tactics , Subtext , Character Agency

Theme: Emotional Truth , Narrative Aesthetics , Theme

Scenes: Scene Structure , Dramatic Irony

"So much of subtext is your fear, you know, of like what you don’t reveal. And so like because we tend to think in terms of tactics as what you want."

— tom-vaughn | DZ-120: Subtext is Overrated!