Draft Zero — Screenwriting Podcast & Deep Screenplay Analysis
Latest Episode
DZ-128: What even is a Character Arc?
What effect does character changing have on the audience?
Listen to separate the three layers of an arc -- does the character change, how they feel about it, and how the audience is positioned to feel about it.
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Stu, Chas and Mel have finally begun 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, they explore difference 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). Throughout the discussion, they skate over A NEW HOPE, BLUE MOON, BREAKING BAD, BETTER CALL SAUL, the French real-time thriller FULL TIME, A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS, THE GREEN KNIGHT, ALL OF US STRANGERS, PREDATOR BADLANDS, FIELD OF DREAMS, MEG 2, and Stu’s receding hairline
Ultimately, this discussion synthesised into a series of questions to ask of a story and the main point of view character living through that story:… →
Shows:
Breaking Bad
"Contrast and affinity together creates the rhythm. But it goes into a whole bunch of stuff. Coming into character, and one of the things then he goes into is tone. And the way in which we understand tonality and the way we map tone is how it is related to everything else."
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?
Listen to learn the emotional impact of revealing secrets vs discovering them.
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… →
Films:
Wake Up Dead Man (2025)
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… →
Films:
Blue Moon (2026)
