How do dramatic questions create tension?

In this episode, Stu and Chas delve into the cultural phenomenon of ADOLESCENCE. We try to find the craft tools that have made the show so compelling and such a catalyst for conversation.

In particular, we breakdown how the show’s emphasis on questions creates tension: not just tension through plot, but tension through character, and ultimately tension through theme.

We analsyse the show episode-by-episode, and discuss how the overall structure skilfully shifts from a plot-heavy police procedural towards a thematic-heavy melodrama and the impact that has on our experience.

We discuss how the decision to shoot the show in a series of “oners” affects the writing and what tools we can take from that to apply to our own writing (even if we’re not writing it to be a one-shot): POV characters, handovers, French scenes, emotional events, and more.

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

CHAPTERS

• 00:00:00 - Cold Open
• 00:00:10 - Why Adolescence?
• 00:09:32 - Episode One
• 00:32:03 - Episode Two
• 00:46:59 - Episode Three
• 00:57:47 - Episode Four
• 01:19:19 - Melodrama
• 01:23:32 - Scene-level tools
• 01:52:57 - Key Learnings & Wrap Up
• 01:58:33 - Thanks to our Patreons

RELATED EPISODES

• DZ-67: Writing “Passive” Protagonists & Melodrama
• DZ-108: The Emotional Event with Judith Weston
• DZ-101: Oners - Creating Immediacy & Anchoring Action on the Page
• DZ-70: Joker & Melodrama

LINKS

• Watch: Crafting Adolescence's Tense One-Take Episodes with Stephen Graham | BAFTA
• Watch: The Making Of Adolescence - The One-Shot Explained | Netflix

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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How can we teach our audience new storytelling rules in the middle of our story?

Following on from our episodes on establishing tone through action lines and through character, this is what we have been building up to: how to pull off a tonal switch… that does not throw the audience out of the film. And, in particular, how to pull that off on the page when writers don’t have framing, lighting, music, editing, etc. at our disposal?

With that goal in mind, Mel and Chas dissect specific moments on the pages of SHAUN OF THE DEAD, SORRY TO BOTHER YOU and SWISS ARMY MAN. While there are definite craft tools identified - rhythm of action lines, varying use of unfilmmables and metaphors, establishing language patterns - the two big takeaways are: (1) pulling off a tonal shift takes a lot of setup; and (2) when the time comes, contrast on the page is key.

Thanks to Chris Walker for editing this episode.

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

CHAPTERS

• 00:00:00 – Cold Open
• 00:00:25 - What do we mean by tonal shift?
• 00:08:35 - Distinguishing between genre shift and tonal shift
• 00:13:08 - Shaun of the Dead
• 00:45:41 - Sorry to Bother You
• 01:28:07 - Swiss Army Man
• 02:02:10 – Key learnings and wrap up
• 02:06:35 – Patreon thanks

RELATED EPISODES:

• DZ-105: Establishing tone through big print
• DZ-107: Establishing tone through character

LINKS:

• Every frame a painting – Edgar Wright – How to do visual comedy
• SHAUN OF THE DEAD - Edgar Wright & Simon Pegg
• SORRY TO BOTHER YOU - Boots Riley
• SWISS ARMY MAN - Daniels

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.

BUY DRAFT ZERO MERCH via TeePublic
SUBSCRIBE TO SHOT ZERO via Substack

How do you make extended technical scenes funny on the page?

Mel joins Chas to tackle physical comedy. We limited our homework selection to extended scenes (as opposed to moments and sight gags) in live action projects and - with the help of our Patreons - selected early sequences from BRINGING UP BABY, the pilot for HAPPY ENDINGS and that wonderful food poisoning scene in BRIDESMAIDS.

We discover how these incredible writers take their time (on the page) to set up geography, framing and running gags. We also get tips on judicious use ALL CAPS, ellipses and M-dashes to recreate visual gags… and when to just let a paragraph go long and draw attention to itself.

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

CHAPTERS

• 00:00:00 – Cold Open
• 00:00:19 – What physical comedy scenes are we looking at?
• 00:10:27 - BRINGING UP BABY
• 00:31:44 - Thank you Arc Studio Pro!
• 00:34:34 - HAPPY ENDINGS pilot
• 00:58:15 - BRIDESMAIDS
• 01:27:31 - Key learnings and wrap up
• 01:33:56 - Patreon thanks

RELATED EPISODES:

• DZ-16: Masters of Time and Whitespace
• Shot Zero - Why is Ryan Gosling so funny?
• Shot Zero - How is oner from GAME NIGHT so seamless?

LINKS:

• Every frame a painting - Edgar Wright - How to do visual comedy
• GAME NIGHT by Mark Perez
• BRINGING UP BABY by Hagar Wilde and Dudley Nichols
• HAPPY ENDINGS Pilot by David Caspe
• BRIDESMAIDS by Annie Mumulo and Kristen Wiig

This episode brought to you by (drum roll) ArcStudio: go to https://www.arcstudiopro.com/draftzero for $30 off a pro subscription!

And how can we forget 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.

BUY DRAFT ZERO MERCH via TeePublic
SUBSCRIBE TO SHOT ZERO via Substack