Latest Episode
DZ-126: Secrets and Clues
How can Secrets and Clues motivate characters?
Listen if you want to understand how hidden information drives character motivation and plot structure!
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“Getting information puts your character in danger. And danger rewards your character with information." — One of three ideas we steal from game design in this episode. In this two part series, we talk about how secrets, clues and hidden information motivate characters and may (or may not) help you plot from a character perspective. Part One (this episode) looks at WAKE UP DEAD MAN; while Part Two looks at SIDE EFFECTS, and the pilot episode of SHRINKING… →
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AI✦Stu, Chas, and Mel break down how Benoit Blanc is pulled through the story by his need to solve the case while Father Judd is pushed through against his will to prove innocence--two distinct motivation engines for dual protagonists.✦
Films:
Wake Up Dead Man (2025)
"Narrative velocity is what drives a player character to do something. And when we talk about this in screenwriting, we talk about activating the character, making the character active."
Recent Episodes
DZ-125: Oscars One-shot - BLUE MOON
What craft tools make a low-budget, contained, period drama riveting?
Listen if you want to understand how narrative POV, screenplay format, and dialogue craft can elevate a contained biopic into an Oscar-nominated film
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BLUE MOON is a talky, period-drama that film about an obscure songer-writer in the 1940s. Yet, it attracted world-class talent AND Academy Award nominations, including for it’s script. Join Chas & Mel as they explore how narrative POV, interweaving relationships, hooky dialogue, and even the screenplay format itself make the script for BLUE MOON so great… →
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AI✦Mel and Chas break down how Blue Moon's almost total commitment to Larry Hart's perspective--he's absent from only two beats in the entire film--shapes both the script's structure and the audience's emotional experience of his decline.✦
Films:
Blue Moon (2026)
DZ-124: Making the Despicable Compelling
How does Film Noir show us terrible people doing terrible things without endorsing it?
Listen if you need audiences to root for characters who do terrible things
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Mel and Chas continue to explore what Noir (the genre) can teach writers of all other genres. In particular:… →
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AI✦The episode shows how voiceover and character motivation--giving audiences access to why a character makes an incredibly stupid but understandable choice--lets you jump over narrative hurdles that might otherwise lose the audience.✦
Films:
Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)
, Woman of the Hour (2024)
, Double Indemnity (1944)
, The Long Goodbye (1973)
DZ-123: Flawed Characters in Noir
What can Film Noir teach us about character arcs and audience engagement?
Listen if you want to write morally compromised characters without endorsing their choices.
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In this two part series, Mel and Chas use Noir (the genre) as a lens to interrogate flawed characters. How can characters doing reprehensible things still engage audiences? How can you ensure representation isn’t endorsement? And whether these characters undergo transformative arcs, or simply reveal their true natures… →
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AI✦Neff's motivation to help Phyllis boils down to 'I would like to sleep with you,' and Mel emphasizes he's 'just lying to himself' about the nobler justifications he constructs for the murder.✦
