DZ-119: Final Character Choices & Great Endings

Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast

How does your protagonist’s final choice resolve the plot, character arc and theme?

In this episode, Stu and Chas focus solely on the final choices made by protagonists and how that reflects their character journey and successfully, or not, dramatises the internal. We compare and contrast different uses of narrative POV in respect to these final choices, in particular whether and when the audience is made aware of the options available to the character, the act of making the choice, and the consequences of the choice. We breakdown examples from DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES, FINDING NEMO, MICHAEL CLAYTON, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN and TALK TO ME.

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

CHAPTERS

• 00:00:00 - Opening
• 00:00:18 - Why Final Choices?
• 00:10:45 - DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES
• 00:19:09 - FINDING NEMO
• 00:28:45 - MICHAEL CLAYTON
• 00:53:11 - PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
• 01:16:38 - TALK TO ME
• 01:41:45 - Key Learnings
• 01:50:13 - Thanks awesome patreons!

RELATED EPISODES

• DZ-04: Catharsis and the Poist-coital Cigarette
• DZ-84: Choices & Decisions
• DZ-87: Keeping Genre Fresh
• DZ-33: Protagonist vs Hero
• DZ-58: Game of Thrones - Character Exposition
• DZ-34: Game of Choices

LINKS

• MICHAEL CLAYTON by Tony Gilroy
• PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN by Emerald Fennell
• TALK TO ME by Danny Philippou & Bills Hinzman based on a concept by Daley Pearson
• Michael Arndt: What makes an insanely good ending
• Every Frame a Painting: Snowpiercer - Look Left or Right

RELATED EPISODES

• DZ-04: Catharsis and the Poist-coital Cigarette
• DZ-84: Choices & Decisions
• DZ-87: Keeping Genre Fresh
• DZ-33: Protagonist vs Hero
• DZ-58: Game of Thrones - Character Exposition
• DZ-34: Game of Choices

More Draft Zero is brought to you more often by our awesome Patreons. Especially Lily, Paulo, Alexandre, Malay, Jennifer, Thomas, Randy, Jesse, Sandra, Theis, 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, @mehlsbells and @chasffisher on Twitter. You can find @draft_zero and @_shotzero on Instagram and Twitter.

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