DZ-06: Key Scenes and Unlocking the Story

Listen if you want to understand how a single key scene between protagonist and antagonist can unlock the entire structure of your story!

Can one scene be the key to unlocking the whole story?

Stu and Chas are joined once again by the inestimable Stephen Cleary to explore his idea of 'key scenes'. Scenes like the diner scene in HEAT. Or the boardroom showdown in MARGIN CALL. These scenes are not only key to a film, they can also be key to developing a story. Why? Stephen's observation is that if you put your protagonist and antagonist in a scene together for a period of time and they will instinctively play out the beats of your whole story... if you have the characters figured out.

An interesting theory and one we put to the test. In addition to HEAT and MARGIN CALL, we look at scenes and sequences from THE GODFATHER, NOTTING HILL, THE DARK KNIGHT, THE RAID 2: BERANDAL and Stu avoids mentioning STAR WARS by working in EMPIRE STRIKES BACK instead.

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

LIKE THIS EPISODE?

• Send us feedback.

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

———

FILMS

• HEAT (1995) — (w) Michael Mann
• MARGIN CALL (2011) — (w) Jc Chandor

SCRIPTS

• Study the script: HEAT (1995) — Michael Mann
• Study the script: MARGIN CALL (2011) — Jc Chandor

SHOT ZERO DEEP DIVES

• ▶ Why the fight choreography of Arnie's TOTAL RECALL is so good (and so brutal).

LINKS

• YouTube: The Dark knight: The Joker's interrogation
• Read:
• YouTube: The Godfather: Corleone Family Flashback
• Read: Michael Mann's Heat: How Research Created a Classic Thriller
• YouTube: Mann Made From LA Takedown To Heat Part 1
• YouTube: Margin Call - Be First, Be Smarter or Cheat

———

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/2014/dz-06/