↓ Skip to main content
DRAFT ZERO

Draft Zero — Screenwriting Podcast & Deep Screenplay Analysis

Recent Foundational Deep Cuts

Latest Episode

DZ-128: What even is a Character Arc?

What effect does character changing have on the audience?
DZ-128: What even is a Character Arc?
Listen to separate the three layers of an arc -- does the character change? How do they feel about it? And how is the audience positioned to feel about it?
⏱ 1h 30m
28 Jun 2026
▶ More Info
Stu, Chas and Mel finally begin their journey into CHARACTER ARCS, starting with this “primer” episode to try and discern some learnings and analytical lenses through which to study future stories

In this episode, we explore differences between a character learning something and a character fundamentally changing, how to dramatise that, and how the show teaches the audience to perceive that transformation (whether positively or negatively)… →

"The stuff that actually I think that.. the stuff that is going to be affected on a business level is spectacle. That’s the stuff that’s kind of becoming easier to reproduce. The stuff that I think is going to become more precious is the stuff that breaks your heart."

— Stu Willis  |  DZ-128: What even is a Character Arc?

Recent Episodes

DZ-127: Secrets and Clues 2 - The Cost of Revelation

What does it cost a character to find something out, or to say it?
DZ-127: Secrets and Clues 2 - The Cost of Revelation
Listen to learn the emotional impact of revealing secrets vs discovering them.
▶ More Info
In this episode Stu, Chas and Mel apply the Landmark–Hidden–Secret framework (from DZ-126) across two very different genres: the thriller SIDE EFFECTS (2013) and the tragicomic pilot of SHRINKING… →
Shows: Shrinking

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!
▶ More Info
“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… →

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
▶ More Info
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… →

Foundational Episodes

Beginner's Guide →

DZ-29: Showdowns & Scene Structure

What can fight scenes - whether physical or verbal - teach us about structuring any scene?
In exploring how to write good fight scenes, Stu and Chas compare how writers structure memorable showdowns - both verbal and physical. Fights vs arguments. Swords vs insults. Lightsabres vs passive aggressive subtext. To do this, they analyse the showdowns in EASTERN PROMISES, ROB ROY, THE FORCE AWAKENS (yes, yes, we finally let Stu officially discuss Star Wars), A FEW GOOD MEN, BREAKING BAD and BEFORE SUNSET… →
⏱ 1h 41m
25 JAN 2016
Listen to discover how fight scenes can be great inspiration for writing any kind of showdown (verbal or otherwise)
▶ More Info

DZ-56: Character Motivations 2

Workshopping ways to fix character motivations.
In this second part of their exploration of character motivations, Chas and Stu dive into what makes “BAD” screenplays NOT work. They examine at moments where they (and maybe you, dear listeners) did not believe a key decision being made by a character and so were taken out of the movie. In a departure from the Draft Zero format, they apply the tools they developed in Part 1 to workshop potential fixes to these beats… →
⏱ 2h 16m
30 MAR 2019
Listen if you want to understand how character decisions can break a screenplay and how to fix them
▶ More Info

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
25 SEP 2019
Listen if you're writing a moment that feels too big for the page (but you need it on the page).
▶ More Info

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
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).
▶ More Info

DZ-19: Car-Crash Characters

How do you make unlikeable characters compelling to watch... in drama?
Stu and Chas revisit a topic from a year ago: how do screenwriters make unlikeable characters compelling? This time, we turn our focus to dramas and analyse how AMERICAN HISTORY X, YOUNG ADULT, NIGHTCRAWLER all make their asshole protagonists compelling to watch. We expand our original list of five writer’s tools to include a few more for your tool belt… →
⏱ 1h 59m
1 MAR 2015
Listen when you're writing a protagonist who does terrible things but you need the audience to keep watching.
▶ More Info

DZ-40: Tactics and Scenes

How do tactics make your characters and scenes more dynamic?
In this episode, Stu and Chas turn their gaze to the “tactics” that characters use in scenes to get what they want. Tactics are how the characters try to achieve their goals and (we reckon) can be revealing of the essence of their character. The shifting and thwarting of tactics can make scenes more dynamic; while over the course of a story, the changing of tactics can reflect the growth of characters... even if their goal stays the same… →
⏱ 2h 15m
4 FEB 2017
Listen to learn how a character's tactics reveal who they are under pressure--and how their changing tactics reveals their growth.
▶ More Info