DZ-107: Establishing Tone through Character

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

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.

We focus on the relationship between character & tone and how the writers of these films use dramatisation to create their unique tones. We talk minimalism vs maximalism, dialogue, character actions & reactions, emotional dynamic range, and rules of the world vs given circumstances.

Stu proposes a new triangle to help us understand the dials we as writers have to affect tone:

• The given circumstances of the story,
• How that effects character actions & reactions,
• How the audience are told about those elements.

Thanks to Chris Walker for his excellent editing this episode.

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

Emily feels a rush of blood to the head. And the blood, to me, kind of connects it to the feral thing, right? Like it's just got a little bit of an animalistic quality to it in terms of the kind of language system they're using it.

— stu

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→ Read the transcript for this episode.

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CHAPTERS

• 00:00:00 – Cold Open
• 00:00:23 – Tone & Character
• 00:15:26 – Ladybird
• 00:33:20 – Emily The Criminal
• 00:57:43 – The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
• 01:17:28 – Spontaneous
• 01:39:38 – Key Learnings & Wrap Up
• 01:51:58 – Many thanks to our Patreons

FILMS

• LADY BIRD (2017) — (w) Greta Gerwig
• EMILY THE CRIMINAL (2022) — (w) John Patton Ford
• THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS (2018) — (w) Ethan Coen, Joel Coen (d) Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
• SPONTANEOUS (2020) — (w) Aaron Starmer, Brian Duffield (d) Brian Duffield

SCRIPTS

• Study the script: LADY BIRD (2017) — Greta Gerwig
• Study the script: THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS (2018) — Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

LINKS

• Read: Tom Vaughan / Story and Plot: Controlling the tone in your screenwriting

EPISODES IN THE ESTABLISHING TONE SERIES

• DZ-105: Establishing Tone through Big Print
• DZ-107: Establishing Tone through Character
• DZ-117: Pulling Off Tonal Shifts

RELATED EPISODES

• DZ-82: Dramatising Given Circumstances in Watchmen
• DZ-105: Establishing Tone through Big Print

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Full show notes at: https://draft-zero.com/2024/dz-107/