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Goodfellas (1990)

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DZ-101: Oners - Creating Immediacy & Anchoring Action on the Page

What can we learn by analysing how 'oners' are written on the page?

AI✦Dissects the Copacabana tracking shot to demonstrate how descriptive action can telegraph camerawork and spatial relationships, showing how writers establish POV-driven scene structure through what characters see and experience rather than camera directions.✦

⏱ 1h 23m

Scenes · Genre · Process | 3 JUL 2023

Listen to understand how screenwriters direct the camera without calling shots.

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Chas, Stu and Mel reunite to talk about writing the feel of camerawork in screenplays. We use “oners” — a long-playing continuous take — as a lens to talk about how some writers have “directed” from the page. We talk immediacy, camera positions, handovers, and anchoring action and more… →

Films: Goodfellas (1990) , The Adventures of Tintin (2011) , Children of Men (2006)

Scenes: Oners , Scene Structure

Genre: Visual Language

Process: Craft Tools

"This scene is all about how Karen feels. She’s seeing him interacting with all these people. He’s the one that’s physically active in the scene."

— mel | DZ-101: Oners - Creating Immediacy & Anchoring Action on the Page