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Emily the Criminal (2022)

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DZ-107: Establishing Tone through Character

How can we use dramatisation to create tone?

AI✦Analyses the film’s tonal strategy through Emily’s responses to pressure and menace, demonstrating how her reactions under threat become the primary tool for communicating both character interiority and the escalating danger of her circumstances.✦

⏱ 1h 54m

Tone · Structure · Process | 29 FEB 2024

Listen if you want to understand how character actions and reactions shape a film's tone

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In this episode, Chas and Stu continue their deep dive into how to write tone by examining films with “light” (we use the phrase loosely) tones: LADY BIRD, EMILY THE CRIMINAL, THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS, and SPONTANEOUS. We also talk a surprising amount about DUNE and CRAZY STUPID LOVE… →

Films: Lady Bird (2017) , Emily the Criminal (2022) , The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) , Spontaneous (2020)

Tone: Establishing Tone

Structure: Given Circumstances

Process: Craft Tools

"telling us what she’s feeling is giving the reader so much of what that threat, that feeling is."

— chas | DZ-107: Establishing Tone through Character