DZ-25: Coincidences, Contrivances & Giant Eagles

Listen when you need to know which coincidences earn trust and which ones feel like cheating.

Remember that time in THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS when Bruce suddenly - magically - returned to Gotham, and you were like "WTF?!" Well, it turns out that many of the best films have moments that are just as coincidental or contrived (or a flock of Giant Eagles) and yet get away with it. Does Pixar's "rule" that it is 'cheating to use coincidences to get your characters out of trouble', always apply?

In exploring how to get the audience to buy into these moments where the writer needs story to intrude over character or even logic, Stu and Chas dive into FINDING NEMO, MICHAEL CLAYTON and PULP FICTION (as well as honourably mentioning THOR II, OUT OF SIGHT, MAD MAX FURY ROAD, EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, INDEPENDENCE DAY and those bloody Giant Eagles in both RETURN OF THE KING and THE HOBBIT).

In back matter, we talk about moving forward vs working backwards when developing screenwriting skills.

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

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FILMS

• FINDING NEMO (2003) — (w) Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson, David Reynolds (d) Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich
• MICHAEL CLAYTON (2007) — (w) Tony Gilroy
• PULP FICTION (1994) — (w) Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Quentin Tarantino (d) Quentin Tarantino

SCRIPTS

• Study the script: FINDING NEMO (2003) — Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson, David Reynolds
• Study the script: MICHAEL CLAYTON (2007) — Tony Gilroy
• Study the script: PULP FICTION (1994) — Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Quentin Tarantino

LINKS

• Read: Draft Zero - Short Documents
• Read: io9.com: The 22 rules of storytelling according to Pixar
• Read: Wikipedia: Coincidence
• Read: Scriptmag.com - SPECS & THE CITY: Deus Ex Machina and Lord of the Rings by Brad Johnson
• YouTube: MICHAEL CLAYTON Clip
• YouTube: THE HOBBIT - Eagles Rescue
• YouTube: White Boy Bob's Death - OUT OF SIGHT

RELATED EPISODES

• DZ-05: Shifting audience point of view and heightened emotions
• DZ-07: On Rewriting - How much Bull is left in the Hustle?
• DZ-15: World Building Rules, Okay?

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Full show notes at: https://draft-zero.com/2015/dz-25/