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

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

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.

We breakdown the famous Copacabana shot from GOODFELLAS, the awe-inspiring chase sequence from THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN, and the heart pounding ‘Zed attack’ from CHILDREN OF MEN. We also briefly discuss THE BOURNE IDENTITY, HEREDITARY, THE BEAR, ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN and TOUCH OF EVIL.

And we do this breakdown by closely reading the actual words on the page!

So thanks to Meegan May (of Starship Q Star) for performing the big print / action lines. Script Pages available on our Patreon -> https://www.patreon.com/posts/dz-99-scene-82312058

Thanks to Chris Walker for editing this episode.

As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.

LIKE THIS EPISODE?

• Watch and comment on YouTube.
• Send us feedback.

Thanks to our Patrons, especially Khrob, Theis, Sandra, Jesse, Randy, Paulo, Thomas, Jennifer, Malay, Alexandre and Lily.

→ Read the transcript for this episode.

———

"You're meant to be swept along with this action. In Children of Men, the script's... just bang, bang, bang. You can almost tell that it's happening simultaneously because of the mini slugs, you know, in the road, in the car, outside, inside. It's all felt as one." — Mel Killingsworth @ 00:06:55

———

CHAPTERS

• 00:00:13 – Cold Open
• 00:00:23 – Sponsor: ScriptUp
• 00:01:58 – Directing from the Page: Writing the Feel of Camerawork
• 00:07:26 – › Writing camera direction versus writing the feeling of a shot
• 00:09:50 – BOURNE IDENTITY & HEREDITARY
• 00:13:15 – › Narrative purpose as the test for any oner
• 00:16:30 – GOODFELLAS
• 00:16:57 – › Excerpt: the Copacabana follow shot
• 00:18:22 – › How breathless prose mirrors Karen's point of view
• 00:25:00 – › Modernising the we-see style for spec scripts
• 00:32:48 – THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN
• 00:34:14 – › Excerpt: the Bagghar chase set piece
• 00:37:23 – › Capitalisation and handovers as the connective tissue of a oner
• 00:43:48 – › Anchoring action through micro-plotting and clear victory conditions
• 00:49:34 – CHILDREN OF MEN
• 00:53:38 – › Excerpt: the Zed ambush
• 01:00:32 – › Mini slugs and car-interior POV as 360-degree orientation
• 01:06:17 – › Real-time big print and the moment-by-moment obligation of action lines
• 01:12:24 – Key Learnings & Wrap Up
• 01:16:50 – › Intentionality as the writer's true directorial compass
• 01:21:03 – Thanks to our Patreons

FILMS

• GOODFELLAS (1990) — (w) Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese (d) Martin Scorsese
• THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN (2011) — (w) Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish, Steven Moffat (d) Steven Spielberg
• CHILDREN OF MEN (2006) — (w) Timothy J Sexton, David Arata, Alfonso Cuaron, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, P D James (d) Alfonso Cuaron

SCRIPTS

• Study the script: GOODFELLAS (1990) — Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese
• Study the script: THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN (2011) — Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish, Steven Moffat
• Study the script: CHILDREN OF MEN (2006) — Timothy J Sexton, David Arata, Alfonso Cuaron, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, P D James

SHOT ZERO DEEP DIVES

• Time and space in staging "Oners"
• Time and space in staging "Oners"
• Time and space in staging "Oners"

LINKS

• SCRIPTS: The script Pages are available on our Patreon
• WATCH: Goodfellas, The"Copacabana" shot
• WATCH: The Adventures of TinTin, "Get that bird!"
• WATCH: Children of Men, "Zed's attack"
• WATCH: The Bourne Identity, "Escaping The American Embassy"
• WATCH: All The President's Men, "The Dahlberg Scene"

RELATED EPISODES

• DZ-16: Masters of Time and Whitespace
• DZ-60: Unfilmables 1 - Engaging imagination
• DZ-61: Unfilmables 2 - Moments of Awe
• DZ-62: Unfilmables 3 - As Ifs & Emotional Context

———

More Draft Zero is brought to you by our awesome Patreons.

If you enjoy the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, a rating on Spotify, or a review on Podchaser.

We are @stuwillis, @mehlsbells and @chasffisher on Twitter. You can find @draft_zero and @_shotzero on Instagram and Twitter.

Full show notes at: https://draft-zero.com/2023/dz-101/