DZ-00: Welcome to Draft Zero — Transcript

Hi, I'm Chas Fisher.

And I'm Stu Willis.

And welcome to Draft Zero, a podcast where two Australian filmmakers try to work out what makes great screenplays work.

And welcome to episode zero of Draft Zero. This is Chas and Stu, five years from the future. This is us in 2019 recording an introduction to our very first episode, which was recorded way back in 2014, because we've been on quite the journey for the last five years, and we're perhaps a little in... Embarrassed maybe about our first two episodes so we feel like we need to caveat what you're about to listen to if indeed you decide to listen to it at all uh after what we have to say which isn't to say you shouldn't listen to the rest of us we've been going for five years obviously we've been doing something all right tarantino thinks so um yeah name drop uh um but we kind of wanted to highlight what we're about and perhaps ways that you can approach draft zero is this if this is the very first time you're diving into us.

So, at DraftZero, we decided we wanted to improve our writing craft, particularly writing, but it's now kind of developed into- Broadly narrative. By picking topics that we were struggling with in our own writing and filmmaking, finding examples of films that do this spectacularly well, where possible, finding those scripts, studying them, and relaying our findings. So, it's kind of like, you know how that screenwriting maxim is all about, you know, go and read scripts and write pages. We're trying to do your homework for you.

We're doing our homework for us and sharing it with you. Well, yeah, I mean, we're laughing. And ultimately, what we are trying to do is, on the one hand, we might sound a little bit esoteric. We use the term, particularly in later episodes, as narrative aesthetics. What we're interested in is the effect of certain techniques in terms of the effect you're having on audiences, we're very audience focused, in terms of your writing. However, we're not about generative tools. We're not going to help you to sit down in front of the piece of paper and write. That ultimately is up to you. But what we can help you, or what we've done to help us, is to make what we write better.

The reason why Sue and I feel compelled to write, not write, the reason why Sue and I feel compelled to record this little intro to Draft Zero is because, first of all, we would record episodes on whatever took our fancy at the time. So, there's no order into our back catalogue. No episode.

There's no lesson plan. There's no lesson plan. If you want to be like, I'm going to start at episode one and by episode 56, I'll have written my first feature. Not going to happen.

So, we really jump from topic to topic to topic. And the other thing to be really aware of is that because we don't focus on generation of tools, we are mainly providing tools for looking back at your work and rewriting it so that you can better have the effect that you want to have with your writing. And also, because there's so many resources out there about- three-act structure and how to, you know, formulas for screenplays. We're much less about the larger structural elements of feature films and much more about micro topics, like how to induce catharsis or when, how tactics can improve a scene and reveal character.

And the use of white space on the page, how you control pacing of a scene through white space. It's a great episode.

How to have a film where your protagonist doesn't go on any journey at all. In fact, the protagonist might just be a point of view protagonist. Anyway, so these are the kind of micro things that we do and we jump around. But we thought it was important that if you are a beginning writer who's looking for where to start, we urge you to perhaps stop listening to this episode one and go to our website. And go to, there'll be a link in the show notes, but go to our website and find the Beginner's Guide to Draft Zero, where we have broken down some of our bigger episodes and grouped them together. And we've got groups of episodes around structure, around protagonist and antagonists, around characters, around first act problems, third act problems, a whole lot of scene work, dialogue theme so that you can go and find either you know to get that broad understanding first or to find exactly the thing that may interest you or you may be struggling with it in your writing and.

If you want the cliff notes of where to start with writing your very first script, Just start.

So useful, Stu.

There are genuinely other really good resources, and we'll try and include some in the show notes now, of where to start. If you're interested in that kind of coursework approach, we are not coursework in that way. What we can do, however, is hopefully give you open up. Open up. I mean, we've opened our own eyes. Like, you know, like.

It's not like we're trying to be like.

We're the gurus on the mountain that have made it. It's like we're still exploring and trying to learn stuff and we're sharing what we've learnt with you. And it's pretty cool. Some of the stuff that we've learnt is generally like, holy shit, like, look at what these guys have done. That's amazing. And that's gender non-specific guys, by the way. There's a whole bunch of really cool, and we do in a later episode discuss how we approach writing, if you're interested in that kind of fundamental process stuff. What I will note is that often what we have done will, particularly when you're starting out, is going to be more a rewriting tool than a writing tool. So when you're writing your first draft, you might have this stuff in the back of your mind or maybe not, but you're just going to write. And then you're going to use us to help us you draft. As we have developed as writers, this stuff has kind of been integrated into our writing just through the benefit of experience. So it's kind of in the first draft. So, it becomes a writing tool rather than a rewriting tool because it's a way you conceptualize stuff because ultimately writing is something that you need to know everything before you can start. But we learn linearly, you know.

Yeah.

And we're not here to give you a study guide. It's not like music where it's going to be like, let's do level one screenwriting. Let's do level two screenwriting. Not like that, unfortunately.

Yeah.

If only.

But there are lots of other great podcasts out there that, and books particularly. Approach it that way so.

And speaking of books the first two episodes are looking at screenwriting books and whatever the flaws of these episodes are they were the first two things that we recorded, they do look at the classic screenwriting books and i think some of what we had to say is still valid yeah ultimately you we've just learned a.

Lot in the last five years so i guess we're.

And one of the things yeah i mean i guess one of the things that we've learned is that these, screenwriting structure books it doesn't matter which one you pick because they're not actually going to help your writing that much but they will help you get started and they will do the most important thing when you're starting out which is help you get through the monumental task of writing something like 20,000 words and over 100 pages which is the hardest thing when you're starting to write is how do I get to the end and these gurus will help you do that by providing a framework and as you get used to the idea, once you can run the marathon you can start worrying about your technique but when you're first running the marathon you're just like holy fuck how do i make it to 5k's you just need to finish i just need to finish i don't have to be the fastest i don't have to be the best and then it's only by the point that you realize that you can run 5k's that you can think about everything else so.

If you've just listened to that and gone this is not the podcast for me.

Thank you for your time thank you for even checking us out we.

Wish you well and go and finish and then come back.

Please come back, just download the you don't even have to listen to them just keep subscribed, we don't have to know that you don't listen thank.

You future listeners um and sue and i both very accessible onto the on the interwebs if you ever want to argue with opinions that we held many years ago yes.

We wish you well on your writing journeys that sounds so wanky But it's true We do.

We are both wanky And we wish you well.