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Unfilmables
Every episode covering Unfilmables.
"They change the rhythm of the big print when they want us as a reader to stop and pay attention to what they’re doing."
— Chas Fisher | DZ-117: Pulling Off Tonal Shifts
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DZ-60: Unfilmables 1 - Engaging imagination
How can unfilmables enhance the experience of your script?
AI✦The entire episode interrogates why ‘unfilmables’ -- those allegedly forbidden techniques -- work brilliantly in produced specs, and Chas and Stu systematically deconstruct how writers get away with writing things that can’t be seen or heard.✦
Listen to discover how *produced* screenplays use unfilmables to shape tone, performance, and humour on the page.
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*AKA Why your screenwriting guru is wrong *… →
Films:
Lethal Weapon (1987)
, Hereditary (2018)
, A Quiet Place (2018)
, Killing Them Softly (2012)
, Spartan (2004)
, The Girl on the Train (2016)
, The Nice Guys (2016)
, Drive (2011)
, Michael Clayton (2007)
, The Tree of Life (2011)
, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
, Killing Eve (2018)
, Fleabag (2016)
, Sharp Objects (2018)
, Battlestar Galactica (2004)
DZ-61: Unfilmables 2 - Moments of Awe
How can unfilmables help you create those cinematic moments of awe?
AI✦Chas and Stu return to unfilmables specifically to examine how writing moments that feel beyond the page--moments of awe--can actually be shaped and controlled through deliberate craft choices.✦
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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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… →
Films:
You Were Never Really Here (2017)
, Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)
, The Invitation (2016)
, Moonlight (2016)
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?
AI✦The entire series culminates here as Chas and Stu apply their learnings by critiquing unfilmables in each other’s actual scripts and discussing what separates a justified stylistic choice from self-indulgence.✦
Listen if you want to learn how to write tone and emotional context on the page.
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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… →
Even More
DZ-117: Pulling Off Tonal Shifts
How can we teach our audience new storytelling rules in the middle of our story?
AI✦The varying use of unfilmables across SHAUN OF THE DEAD, SORRY TO BOTHER YOU, and SWISS ARMY MAN shows how this unconventional technique can anchor a tonal shift on the page.✦
Listen if you want to write tonal pivots that land on the page without a director's toolkit.
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Following on from our episodes on establishing tone through action lines and through character, this is what we have been building up to: how to pull off a tonal switch… that does NOT throw the audience out of the film. And, in particular, how to pull that off on the page when writers don’t have framing, lighting, music, editing, etc. at our disposal… →
DZ-74: Midsommar & Folk Horror
What can we learn from folk horror?
AI✦C.S. McMullen and the hosts discuss how Aster handles moments that seem impossible to film--internal psychological states and transgressive acts--and the craft choices that make them work.✦
Listen if you want to understand how folk horror works as a genre and how Ari Aster uses it to explore grief and toxic relationships
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Draft Zero return with their next YouTube livestream! Stu and Chas are joined by previous guest (and successful screenwriter) C.S. McMullen for a deep dive into MIDSOMMAR! We analyse the film through the lens of Folk Horror, but tackle broader topics such as horror vs dread, rising tension, transgressions, unfilmables, and portraying toxic relationships… →
Films:
Midsommar (2019)
DZ-1: Do Screenplay Gurus win you Oscars?
Do Oscar-Nominated screenwriters follow the structural formulas prescribed by the 'gurus' and books?
AI✦Stu highlights Philomena’s use of stage directions like ‘Big print says underneath it, but she pointedly doesn’t elaborate’--moments that contextualize performance without needing dialogue or action.✦
Listen if you want to know whether Blake Snyder, Michael Hauge and Christopher Vogler's structural theories actually apply to Academy Award-nominated screenplays
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Three of the most widely read structure books in screenwriting — Snyder’s Save the Cat, Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey, and Michael Hauge’s Six Stages — all make essentially the same claim: this is how great films are built. In our debut episode, we run that claim against two Oscar-nominated films to see if it holds: PHILOMENA and DALLAS BUYERS CLUB… →