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Chas Fisher

Host

"We’re not setting out with this podcast to learn craft tools to how to write a great holiday movie but hopefully we pick up some learnings on the way."

— Chas Fisher | DZ-115: A Christmas Special - Rewatching & Rituals

Secrets and Clues

Oscars One-shot - BLUE MOON

Making the Despicable Compelling

Flawed Characters in Noir

Escalating Antagonism Across Genres

Escalating Antagonism in SINNERS

Subtext is Overrated!

Final Character Choices & Great Endings

ADOLESCENCE and Tension Through Questions

Pulling Off Tonal Shifts

Writing Physical Comedy

A Christmas Special - Rewatching & Rituals

Climaxes in Challengers

Tools For Filmmakers To Talk To The Audience

Breaking the 4th wall

Talking DIRECTLY to your audience

The Emotional Event with Judith Weston

Establishing Tone through Character

How do you know if you have enough story?

Establishing Tone through Big Print

Characters Alone - Dramatizing the Internal

Game of the Scene 2 - Triangle of Sadness, The Favourite

Game of the Scene - Bluey, John Wick 4

Oners - Creating Immediacy & Anchoring Action on the Page

Scenes through Swords

Scene Questions

Ensembles 3 - Character Function & Theme

Ensembles 2 - Servicing Characters

Ensembles 1 - What do we mean by an ensemble?

Backmatter - Building and Maintenance

Talismans (Part 2)

Talismans (Part 1)

Insightful Recognition in Powerful Endings

Raising (different kinds of) Stakes

Setups & Payoffs in Everything Everywhere All At Once

Opening Sequences

Drama in Genre clothing

Keeping Genre fresh

Backmatter - Minimum Viable Product

Choices & Decisions 2 - The Farewell & Wrath of Man

Choices & Decisions 1 - Booksmart

A Very Thematic Stand-up Special!

Dramatising Given Circumstances in Watchmen

Pitch Decks & Look Books - Development Tools 4

Interweaving Timelines 3 - Little Women

Interweaving Timelines 2 - The Social Network

Interweaving Timelines 1 - Destroyer

Backmatter - Prioritising and choosing projects

Spotlight on Sofia Coppola

Fury Road & Visual Storytelling

Midsommar & Folk Horror

Selling documents - Development Tools 3

Theme & The Story Synopsis - Development Tools 2

Treatments & Loglines - Development Tools 1

Joker & Melodrama

Parasite & Audience Questions

Using POV to structure KNIVES OUT

Writing Passive Protagonists & Melodrama

The Mandalorian and The Rise of Skywalker - Audience Knowledge vs Character Motivation

Collaborating with a Director - The Snip

Backmatter - Controlling your Work, Treatments, and Writing Styles

Tools for Better Dialogue (Part 2) - Hook and Eye

Unfilmables 3 - As Ifs & Emotional context

Unfilmables 2 - Moments of Awe

Unfilmables 1 - Engaging imagination

Avengers Endgame & Ending Character Journeys

Game of Thrones - Character Exposition

Backmatter - Aesthetics and Forgiveness in Writing

Character Motivations (Part 2)

Character Motivations (Part 1)

Thematic Sequences

Antagonists! 5 - vs Audience

Antagonists! 4 - vs Systems

Antagonists! (Part 3) - vs Nature

Antagonists! (Part 2) - vs Self

Antagonists! 1 - vs Humans

One-Shot - Blade Runner 2049 - Agency vs Choice

Backmatter - A Lost Jedi, White Knighting, and Writers-On-Set

Structure & POV - Get Out, Dunkirk, & The Lives of Others

Arguments of the Scene

Marvel, First Acts and Establishing Characters

Driving Sequences - Character and Plot Intensity

One-Shot -Split, Character Worldview & Macro POV

Theme and Worldview

Tactics and Scenes

Backmatter - Hitting LA, Receiving Feedback, and a Roguish One

Excelling at Exposition (Part 2)

Excelling at Exposition (Part 1)

Backmatter - Time Risk and Fixing Movies

Driving Characters or Character Driven?

Game of Choices - Decision Making and Character Implications

Protagonist vs Hero - Dawn of Character Function

High-Tension Sequences

Tools for Better Dialogue

Oscars revisited - Spotlight and Carol

Showdowns & Scene Structure

Containing Your Script

Competing views on Screenplay Competitions

Horror and Collaboration - Wolf Creek 2

Coincidences, Contrivances & Giant Eagles

Forging story rules in TV pilots

LIVE - Starting A Career In Film And Television

Romantic Comedy, Actually

Scene Transitions and the Hook

Writing Strong Secondary Characters - Trinity, Bechdel and a Bamboo Killer

Car-Crash Characters

Michael Bay - F*ing the Frame and P*ing the Page

Where's my gold-plated ensuite?

Masters of Time and Whitespace

World Building Rules, Okay?

Writing For Actors with Succession's Sarah Snook

True That - Tips from Tarantino

Craft, Career and Coffins

Adventure for the MacGuffin!

Midpoint Reversals and The Ride

Characterising Introductions

Status Transactions

On Rewriting - How much Bull is left in the Hustle?

Key Scenes and Unlocking the Story

Shifting audience point of view and heightened emotions

Catharsis and the Post-Coital Cigarette

Making Unlikeable Protagonists Compelling

Do the Screenplay Gurus score big at the Box Office?

Do Screenplay Gurus win you Oscars?

Welcome to Draft Zero

"They all very deliberately throw the audience back as they’re wrapping up to what they’ve started with."

— Chas Fisher | DZ-83: A Very Thematic Stand-up Special!