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DRAFT ZERO

Draft Zero — Screenwriting Podcast & Deep Screenplay Analysis

Recent Foundational Deep Cuts

Latest Episode

DZ-126: Secrets and Clues
How can Secrets and Clues motivate characters?
DZ-126: Secrets and Clues
Listen if you want to understand how hidden information drives character motivation and plot structure!
⏱ 1h 28m
Structure · Character · Scenes |30 Apr 2026
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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✦The episode's central framework examines how secrets (information characters know exists but must unlock) and hidden clues (invisible until characters pay a cost) motivate character action across WAKE UP DEAD MAN and other narratives.✦

"Judd doesn’t want to solve the crime. He wants to confess, right? And Benoit wants to solve the crime. And the way he gets Judd to go along with him at that point is to say: Father, sorry, Dr. Nat is in danger."

— Chas Fisher  |  DZ-126: Secrets and Clues

Recent Episodes

DZ-125: Oscars One-shot - BLUE MOON
What craft tools make a low-budget, contained, period drama riveting?
DZ-125: Oscars One-shot - BLUE MOON
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.✦
DZ-124: Making the Despicable Compelling
How does Film Noir show us terrible people doing terrible things without endorsing it?
DZ-124: Making the Despicable Compelling
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.✦
DZ-123: Flawed Characters in Noir
What can Film Noir teach us about character arcs and audience engagement?
DZ-123: Flawed Characters in Noir
Listen if you want to write morally compromised characters without endorsing their choices.
⏱ 1h 22m
Character · Theme · Scenes |31 Dec 2025
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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.✦

Foundational Episodes

Beginner's Guide →
DZ-32: High-Tension Sequences
How can you recreate the feeling of cinematic high-tension on the page?
Chas & Stu take a close look at sequences of high-tension - the ones that make you lean forward in fear, or jump backwards in terror. Without camera angles, lighting, music or sound, how can screenwriters can evoke those emotions in readers using only the page? These sequences can be found in any genre of film, not just thriller or horror. To that end, Stu and Chas dive into high tension scenes from NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, ZODIAC, ROOM, and THE BABADOOK. We cover their use of shifting POV, Dramatic Irony, Status Transactions, White Space, Sound FX, and many more… →
⏱ 2h 23m
Scenes · Audience · Structure | 12 JUN 2016
Listen if you want to evoke fear and tension using only the written word (without relying on camera, lighting, music, or sound_
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DZ-41: Theme and Worldview
How can your characters' worldview dramatise your theme?
In this episode, Stu and Chas tackle one of the more esoteric topics in screenwriting (and writing in general): theme! To help us tackle this topic, we decided to look at television pilots, because we felt that television requires the theme to be more explicit. Our zig-zagging (and long) discussion covers thematic engines, music themes, thematic loglines, punishment vs reward, and - perhaps most of all - the worldview of characters… →
⏱ 2h 32m
Theme · Structure · Process | 24 MAR 2017
Listen if theme feels abstract - we talk how how to make it visible through what characters believe.
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DZ-49: Antagonists! 1 - vs Humans
What makes a strong human antagonist?
Prompted by a listener (and patron of the podcast) question, Stu and Chas dive into antagonistic forces. And because Draft Zero does not do anything by halves, this is Part One of a Five Part Epic Exploration™ into antagonists; namely: vs humans, vs self, vs nature/supernatural, vs systems and “other”. aka the classic narrative conflicts… →
⏱ 1h 20m
Character · Structure · Scenes | 31 MAR 2018
Listen if you want to understand how to craft compelling antagonists who oppose your protagonist through direct human conflict
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DZ-50: Antagonists! 2 - vs Self
How can characters be their own antagonist?
In Part Two of our Five Part Epic Exploration™ into antagonists, Chas & Stu take a look at “vs self” stories. Stories where the protagonist (or main character) serves as their own antagonist as well as the antagonist for those around them… →
⏱ 1h 47m
Character · Structure | 19 APR 2018
Listen if you want to understand how protagonists can serve as their own antagonist and how antagonistic forces shape a character's journey
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DZ-61: Unfilmables 2 - Moments of Awe
How can unfilmables help you create those cinematic moments of awe?
In this second part of our series on unfilmables, Chas and Stu continue their deep dive into how writing the “unfilmable” can enhance your script. Rather than looking at micro moments, they turn their gaze to “moments of awe” — those often breathtaking cinematic moments that feel beyond writing. But are those scenes actually unscriptable… →
⏱ 2h 5m
Words · Genre · Theme | 25 SEP 2019
Listen if you're writing a moment that feels too big for the page (but you need it on the page).
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DZ-33: Protagonist vs Hero - Dawn of Character Function
How does splitting 'character functions' enhance theme?
We are often told that our ‘protagonist’ needs to be a active. That they need to be compelling. That they need to change. And - old faithful - that they need to be likeable. But after looking at MAD MAX: FURY ROAD, STAR TREK (2009), THE FIGHTER, and SICARIO, Chas and Stu learn that your primary character does not need to do all these things. In fact, they learn that splitting these functions between your primary characters can reinforce theme and create potential for different types of narratives… →
⏱ 1h 58m
Character · Theme · Process | 15 JUL 2016
Listen to see how splitting character functions across your cast sharpens what your story actually means.
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