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Worldview

Every episode covering Worldview.

"the system is it doesn’t just not serve me it is out to get me and therefore all i could do is survive and and that’s what his decisions are based on"

— Mel Killingsworth  |  DZ-124: Making the Despicable Compelling

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DZ-41: Theme and Worldview

How can your characters' worldview dramatise your theme?
AI✦Stu and Chas make the case that a character’s worldview is the engine that dramatises your theme, and they track how pilots use opening and closing scenes to establish what each protagonist believes about the world.✦
⏱ 2h 32m
24 MAR 2017
Listen if theme feels abstract - we talk how how to make it visible through what characters believe.
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In this episode, Stu and Chas tackle one of the more esoteric topics in screenwriting (and writing in general): theme! To help us tackle this topic, we decided to look at television pilots, because we felt that television requires the theme to be more explicit. Our zig-zagging (and long) discussion covers thematic engines, music themes, thematic loglines, punishment vs reward, and - perhaps most of all - the worldview of characters… →

KEY IDEAS

System Hostility Shapes Survival Choices

"the system is it doesn't just not serve me it is out to get me and therefore all i could do is survive and and that's what his decisions are based on"

— Mel Killingsworth (00:27:43) · DZ-124: Making the Despicable Compelling

The System Is Out To Get Me

"he has realized that okay well the system is it doesn't just not serve me it is out to get me and therefore all i could do is survive and and that's what his decisions are based on his decisions to continue to cover up for mouse his decisions to like you said not do anything with those photos"

— Mel Killingsworth (00:27:43) · DZ-124: Making the Despicable Compelling

Gangster Stories vs. Noir Worldviews

"Often, gangsters are about the gang and the mob or the people within that. And noir is more interested, very broadly speaking, in... the system and the system being broader society, being the police, being, you know, culture at large and how you can or cannot necessarily win with it."

— Mel Killingsworth (00:12:21) · DZ-123: Flawed Characters in Noir

Even More

DZ-124: Making the Despicable Compelling

How does Film Noir show us terrible people doing terrible things without endorsing it?
AI✦Easy’s realization that ’the system doesn’t just not serve me, it is out to get me’ and Woman of the Hour’s parallel between 1970s predation and modern systems that fail victims show how noir’s worldview shapes what characters do and why audiences understand them.✦
⏱ 1h 10m
30 JAN 2026
Listen if you need audiences to root for characters who do terrible things
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DZ-123: Flawed Characters in Noir

What can Film Noir teach us about character arcs and audience engagement?
AI✦Mel frames The Long Goodbye as Marlowe starting with a genuine belief in good people but ending more jaded, suggesting his worldview shifts from optimism to pragmatism given the circumstances he encounters.✦
⏱ 1h 22m
31 DEC 2025
Listen if you want to write morally compromised characters without endorsing their choices.
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In this two part series, Mel and Chas use Noir (the genre) as a lens to interrogate flawed characters. How can characters doing reprehensible things still engage audiences? How can you ensure representation isn’t endorsement? And whether these characters undergo transformative arcs, or simply reveal their true natures… →

DZ-45: Arguments of the Scene

How can you dramatise your theme on a scene level?
AI✦Chas and Stu investigate how a character’s conscious and subconscious worldviews dramatise the overall theme of the work at the scene level.✦
⏱ 2h 21m
27 OCT 2017
Listen to discover how a character's worldview becomes the engine of conflict inside a single scene.
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As part of their ongoing exploration of scene-work, Stu and Chas apply their earlier thinking on theme and character worldview to individual scenes. Can examining a scene from a thematic perspective impact the drama, conflict or stakes of the scene? How does your character’s conscious and subconscious world views dramatise the overall theme of the work? How can an individual scene reflect the larger themes of the overall story? Do any of these questions or approaches lead to writing better scenes… →

DZ-42: One-Shot - Character Worldview & Macro POV in SPLT

What screenwriting lessons can be we learn from SPLIT?
AI✦Understanding the protagonist’s worldview--and how it conflicts with the reality of the film--becomes the engine that drives both the thematic and narrative journey.✦
⏱ 1h 52m
26 APR 2017
Listen when you're writing a twist and need to earn it through point-of-view rather than surprise alone.
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In our first (and perhaps last) one-shot, we take a close look at the M. Night Shyamalan’s SPLIT. Rather than having one topic with many examples, we use the one example to look at many topics. Well, okay, a few topics… →

DZ-47: Backmatter - A Lost Jedi, White Knighting, and Writers-On-Set

Will Director Stu allow Writer Chas on his set?
AI✦The episode uses The Last Jedi to discuss how a story’s overall worldview and thematic position emerge through character choices and their ramifications.✦
⏱ 2h 21m
11 JAN 2018
Listen to understand how consequences (not intentions) impact whether an audience roots for or against your protagonist.
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Following our annual wrap up in 2017, we’ve decided to once again explore what craft issues/lessons we can garner from the latest Stars, namely Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, focusing on how consequences of character actions can do a lot of heavy lifting as to how the audience perceives that character (as well as looking at worldview and overall story structure)… →

DZ-7: On Rewriting - How much Bull is left in the Hustle?

What can be gleamed from the substantial rewrite of a famed spec?
AI✦The hosts examine how the spec’s worldview shifted through O’Russell’s rewrite, affecting everything from character perspective to thematic questions.✦
⏱ 55m
25 MAY 2014
Listen to learn how impactful rewriting can be.
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Stu and Chas look at AMERICAN BULLSHIT (the 2010 Black List spec script by Eric Warren Singer) and the film it became… AMERICAN HUSTLE (co-written and directed by David O’Russell), which garnered 10 Oscar nominations in 2014… →

DZ-66: The Mandalorian and The Rise of Skywalker - Audience Knowledge vs Character Motivation

How does audience knowledge affect your character's motivations?
AI✦Mel, Chas, and Stu discuss how characters’ worldviews and decision-making shift when filtered through external knowledge and fan expectations in serialized universes.✦
⏱ 1h 45m
17 MAR 2020
Listen to understand how fan service weaponizes external knowledge against character logic.
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By Order 66: Chas and Stu are joined by special guest - filmmaker Mel Killingsworth - to talk all things Star Wars. Well. Focusing on The Mandalorian and The Rise of Skywalker and wherever else our tangents take us… →