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.

Like with the character introductions episode, we cover a lot of scripts. In no particular order… [deep breath]… THE MATRIX, THE MATRIX RELOADED, MATRIX REVOLUTIONS, INCEPTION, GRAVITY, MINORITY REPORT, MOON, LOOPER, ELYSIUM, JURASSIC PARK, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE, MADAGASCAR, FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, PAN’S LABYRINTH, SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN, NIGHT WATCH, VAN HELSING, THE ONE I LOVE, 28 WEEKS LATER, WORLD WAR Z, DAWN OF THE DEAD, 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, ZOMBIELAND, WOMAN IN BLACK, BRICK, ANIMAL KINGDOM, DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE, THE UNTOUCHABLES, GOODFELLAS, SHORT TERM 12, SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY, MOONRISE KINGDOM, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, and FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL.

Damn that was a lot! And we’ve probably missed some, too. So have a listen and please let us know!

LINKS

• Draft Zero: DZ-09: Characterising Introductions
• Draft Zero: DZ-14: Old Underwear and Actor’s Tools
• Diary of a Screenwriter: Stanley Kubrick : Thoughts of Narrative
• A Constatinework Orange: Non-Submersible Units
• Reddit: Kate Powers (from Breaking Bad) on Non-Submersible Units
• Visual Memory: 49 What are Non-Submersible Units?
• io9: 7 Deadly Sins of Worldbuilding
• THE MATRIX by Larry and Andy Wachowski
• THE MATRIX RELOADED by Larry and Andy Wachowski
• INCEPTION by Christopher Nolan
• MINORITY REPORT by Scott Frank
• MOON screenplay by Nathan Parker, story by Duncan Jones
• LOOPER by Rian Johnson
• ELYSIUM by Neill Blomkamp
  • Think Progress: ‘Elysium’ Wants To Be A Lacerating Movie About Health Care, But It Has No Idea Why Inequality Exists
  • io9: Here’s What Elysium did wrong — and what it did right
• JURASSIC PARK screenplay by David Koepp
• HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON by Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders
• SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN by Evan Daugherty, John Lee Hancock & Hossein Amini, Story by Evan Daugherty
• LOTR: FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING by Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson
• Trailer: NIGHT WATCH (YouTube)
• PAN’S LABYRINTH by Guillermo del Toro
• 28 WEEKS LATER by Rowan Joffé, Juan Carlos Frensadillo, E.L. Lavigne, Jesus Olmo (uncredited, undated script)
• ZOMBIELAND by Rhett Rheese & Paul Wernick
• 30 DAYS OF NIGHT by Steve Niles, Revisions by Stuart Beattie, Revisions by Adi Hasak
• WOMAN IN BLACK by Jane Goldman
• BRICK by Rian Johnson
• GOODFELLAS by Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese
• ANIMAL KINGDOM by David Michôd
• SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK by David O. Russell
• TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY by Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan
• MOONRISE KINGDOM by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
• THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS by Wes Anderson & Owen Wilson
• Scriptnotes: Ep 149: The Long-Lost Austin Three Page Challenge (on Van Helsing)
• Scriptnotes: Ep 135: World-building
• Scriptnotes: Ep 160: A Screenwriter’s Guide to the End of the World

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