DZ-15: World Building Rules, Okay?

Listen when your opening pages feel like exposition dumps (which is bad, okay?)

In our most epic/longest episode yet, Chas and Stu tackle world building in films. Specifically, how the rules make something a world and not just a setting. Starting with world-centric genres like sci-fi and fantasy, we also cover horror, crime drama and - er - "other". We discuss a variety of techniques for setting up the rules of the world, including cold opens, voiceover, title cards and outsider characters! We've limited ourselves to the opening 3-5 pages... mostly... because (so the theory goes) they're the pages that teach the audience how to read/watch your story/film.

Like with the character introductions episode, we cover a lot of scripts. In no particular order... [deep breath]... THE MATRIX, THE MATRIX RELOADED, MATRIX REVOLUTIONS, INCEPTION, GRAVITY, MINORITY REPORT, MOON, LOOPER, ELYSIUM, JURASSIC PARK, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE, MADAGASCAR, FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, PAN'S LABYRINTH, SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN, NIGHT WATCH, VAN HELSING, THE ONE I LOVE, 28 WEEKS LATER, WORLD WAR Z, DAWN OF THE DEAD, 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, ZOMBIELAND, WOMAN IN BLACK, BRICK, ANIMAL KINGDOM, DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE, THE UNTOUCHABLES, GOODFELLAS, SHORT TERM 12, SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY, MOONRISE KINGDOM, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, and FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL.

Damn that was a lot! And we've probably missed some, too. So have a listen and please let us know!

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

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FILMS

THE MATRIX (1999) — (w) Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
INCEPTION (2010) — (w) Christopher Nolan
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (2001) — (w) Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, J R R Tolkien (d) Peter Jackson
JURASSIC PARK (1993) — (w) Michael Crichton, David Koepp, Michael Crichton (d) Steven Spielberg
PAN'S LABYRINTH (2006) — (w) Guillermo Del Toro

SCRIPTS

Study the script: THE MATRIX (1999) — Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
Study the script: INCEPTION (2010) — Christopher Nolan
Study the script: THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (2001) — Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, J R R Tolkien
Study the script: JURASSIC PARK (1993) — Michael Crichton, David Koepp, Michael Crichton
Study the script: PAN'S LABYRINTH (2006) — Guillermo Del Toro

SHOT ZERO DEEP DIVES

Strong Openings: PAN'S LABYRINTH

LINKS

RELATED EPISODES

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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-15/

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