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High Fidelity (2020)

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DZ-112: Breaking the 4th wall

How is the effect of breaking the 4th wall different to voiceover?

As part of our series on how filmmakers can directly communicate to the audience, we finally examine the most blatant tool of them all: when character look directly down the barrel of the camera… and thus look directly at us, the viewer. Chas, Stu and Mel take the craft tools/levers they identified in previous episodes and use them to examine the tv-version-of HIGH FIDELITY (“Top Five Breakups”), ABBOTT ELEMENTARY (“Attack Ad)”) and - of course - FLEABAG… →

⏱ 1h 52m

31 JUL 2024

Character · Words · Tone

Listen to understand how breaking the 4th wall directly involves the audience in a character's emotional present.

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Films: High Fidelity (2020) , Abbott Elementary (2022) , Fleabag (2016)

Shows: High Fidelity 1x1 , Abbott Elementary 2x7 , Fleabag 2x4

Character: Audience Complicity , Character Agency , Character Motivation , Relationships , Internal Journey

Words: Fourth Wall , Voiceover

Tone: Establishing Tone

"In High Fidelity, it’s Rob kind of trying to understand her story. And so she’s kind of telling the story as a bit of a process. She is thinking with her mouth open, right? It’s kind of like how she would do it to a therapist, I guess."

— stu | DZ-112: Breaking the 4th wall