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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
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Stu, Chas and Mel finally begin their long-awaited journey into CHARACTER ARCS. In this “primer” episode, we try find some learnings and analytical lenses that we can then apply in future breakdowns

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)… →

"Character arcs are really difficult to talk about because they’re not just in isolation. Rarely is a film only about one character, right? So we’re actually talking about how we harmonize other characters around them."

— 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.
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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!
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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… →

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… →

Foundational Episodes

Beginner's Guide →

DZ-51: Antagonists! 3 - vs Nature

What changes in your story if your antagonistic forces can't be bargained with?
In this Part Three of our Five Part Epic Exploration™ into antagonistic forces (and sources of conflict), Chas & Stu explore “nature” antagonists, including some supernatural ones. What became clear in doing the homework (and recording this episode twice) was that the antagonistic forces - whether natural or supernatural - presented different narrative challenges to the protagonists if (a) they did not seem to make choices and (b) could not be bargained with or defeated… →
⏱ 1h 52m
31 MAY 2018
Listen to understand why pressure--not obstacles--is what transforms a protagonist when they face an unstoppable force.
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DZ-15: World Building Rules, Okay?

How does setting up rules help you build a world?
In our most epic/longest episode yet, Chas and Stu tackle world building in films. Specifically, how the rules make something a world and not just a setting. Starting with world-centric genres like sci-fi and fantasy, we also cover horror, crime drama and - er - “other”. We discuss a variety of techniques for setting up the rules of the world, including cold opens, voiceover, title cards and outsider characters! We’ve limited ourselves to the opening 3-5 pages... mostly... because (so the theory goes) they’re the pages that teach the audience how to read/watch your story/film… →
⏱ 2h 0m
4 NOV 2014
Listen when your opening pages feel like exposition dumps (which is bad, okay?)
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DZ-62: Unfilmables 3 - As Ifs & Emotional Context

How do you know if your unfilmable is good... or if you're just being a wanker?
In this third and final part of our series on unfilmables, Chas and Stu turn their critical eye to... each other’s work! They take their key learnings from the previous episodes and apply them to rewriting scenes from their own projects. They discuss metaphors, emotional context, and how you can write tone on the page without resorting to unfilmables… →
⏱ 2h 17m
2 DEC 2019
Listen if you want to learn how to write tone and emotional context on the page.
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DZ-16: Masters of Time and Whitespace

Does manipulating time on the page make your script feel more cinematic?
Chas and Stu are joined by Khrob Edmonds - an award-winning filmmaker - to discuss manipulation of time… →
⏱ 1h 49m
16 DEC 2014
Listen if you want your screenplay to feel cinematic before a director ever reads it.
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DZ-43: Driving Sequences - Character and Plot Intensity

What gives your sequences their intensity?
Chas and Stu are joined for the fourth time by the inestimable Stephen Cleary - this time to take a deep dive into sequences. A real deep dive. A 3+ hour deep dive… →
⏱ 3h 16m
8 JUL 2017
Listen to understand how dramatic questions shape audience engagement and pacing through sequences.
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DZ-53: Antagonists! 5 - vs Audience

What if there is no antagonist?
It’s time. The Epic Deep Dive(TM) into Antagonists has reached its shuddering conclusion. And for this Part V - by choosing films that have no obvious singular antagonist (and in some cases no obvious narrative either) - Stu and Chas realised there was indeed a final category of antagonists: the films themselves. Where the film (and the filmmaker) are engaging directly with the audience. Where the films are... VERSUS AUDIENCE… →
⏱ 2h 26m
26 AUG 2018
Listen to turn narrative uncertainty itself into the engine that keeps viewers compelled.
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"I think people often struggle in writing or enjoying road movies and I think that’s why there’s a lot of bad ones is that bit in the middle doesn’t feel driven."

— Chas Fisher  |  DZ-43: Driving Sequences - Character and Plot Intensity