DZ-101 Creating Immediacy & Anchoring Action on the Page

Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast

What can we learn by analysing how ‘oners’ are written on the page?

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.

We breakdown the famous Copacabana shot from GOODFELLAS, the awe-inspiring chase sequence from THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN, and the heart pounding ‘Zed attack’ from CHILDREN OF MEN. We also briefly discuss THE BOURNE IDENTITY, HEREDITARY, THE BEAR, ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN and TOUCH OF EVIL.

And we do this breakdown by closely reading the actual words on the page. So thanks to Meegan May (of Starship Q Star) for performing the big print / action lines. Script Pages available on our Patreon.

Thanks to Chris Walker for editing this episode.

As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.

CHAPTERS

• 00:00:13 - Cold Open
• 00:00:23 - ScriptUp Sponsorship
• 00:00:33 - New Chapter
• 00:01:58 - Intro: Camerwork on the page
• 00:09:50 - Contrary Examples: The Bourne Identity and Hereditary
• 00:13:15 - Narrative Purpose and Oners
• 00:16:30 - Goodfellas (intro)
• 00:16:57 - Goodfellas (excerpt)
• 00:18:22 - Goodfellas (discussion)
• 00:32:48 - The Adventures of Tintin (intro)
• 00:34:14 - The Adventures of Tintin (excerpt)
• 00:37:23 - The Adventures of Tintin (discussion)
• 00:49:34 - Children of Men (intro)
• 00:53:38 - Children of Men (excerpt)
• 01:00:32 - Children of Men (discussion)
• 01:12:24 - Key Learnings and Wrap Up

SCENE EXCERPTS via

• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/dz-101-script-85503252
• DZ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/draft_zero/
• SZ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_shotzero/
• DZ Twitter: https://twitter.com/draft_zero
• SZ Twitter: https://twitter.com/_shotzero

LINKS

• WATCH: Goodfellas, The “Copacabana” shot - https://youtube.com/watch?v=OJEEVtqXdK8
• WATCH: The Adventures of TinTin, “Get that bird!” - https://youtube.com/watch?v=ryB-3BRdd64
• WATCH: Children of Men, “Zed’s attack” - https://youtube.com/watch?v=YMM8XrZe1R8
• WATCH: The Bourne Identity, “Escaping The American Embassy” - https://youtube.com/watch?v=tqsUt9n13Gg
• WATCH: All The President’s Men, “The Dahlberg Scene” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qeemjaosp-E
• WATCH: Every Frame A Painting - The Spielberg Oner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q4X2vDRfR
• LISTEN: Starship Q Star: https://starshipqstar.com

LINKS

• WATCH: Goodfellas, The“Copacabana” shot - https://youtube.com/watch?v=OJEEVtqXdK8
• WATCH: The Adventures of TinTin, “Get that bird!” - https://youtube.com/watch?v=ryB-3BRdd64
• WATCH: Children of Men, “Zed’s attack” - https://youtube.com/watch?v=YMM8XrZe1R8
• WATCH: The Bourne Identity, “Escaping The American Embassy” - https://youtube.com/watch?v=tqsUt9n13Gg
• WATCH: All The President’s Men, “The Dahlberg Scene” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qeemjaosp-E
• WATCH: Every Frame A Painting - The Spielberg Oner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q4X2vDRfR
• LISTEN: Starship Q Star: https://starshipqstar.com

RELATED EPISODES

• DZ-60: Unfilmables and Unscriptables (Part 1) - Engaging imagination
• DZ-61: Unfilmables and Unscriptables (Part 2) - Moments of Awe
• DZ-62: Unfilmables 3 – As Ifs & Emotional context
• DZ-16: Masters of Time and Whitespace

This episode brought to you by (drum roll):

• ScriptUp: https://www.scriptupstudio.com – use promo code DZ10 to get 10% off

And how can we forget our awesome Patreons, especially Lily, Alexandre, Casimir, Eduardo, Jennifer, Thomas, Garrett, Randy, Jesse, Sandra, Theis, Alex, and Khrob.

Please considering rating or subscribing to us on Apple Podcasts or sharing us on the Social Medias! We like finding new listeners. We are @stuwillis, and @chasffisher on twitter. You can find @draft_zero and @_shotzero on Instagram and Twitter.

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