DZ-44: Marvel - First Acts and Establishing Characters

Listen if your first act exposition feels clunky--the MCU has a schema for burying backstory inside character introductions.

First Acts are hard. They have to set so much in motion, especially setting up characters. To help them understand how to write effective first acts better, Stu and Chas turn their analytical gaze to a franchise that has been refining and reiterating its first act "schema" for over a decade... THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE.

The MCU has made (to date in 2017) six separate origin films, each tasked with establishing their titular characters. So you'd think they'd have found some patterns that works for them. In this episode, we take a look at three of these: IRON MAN, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, and DOCTOR STRANGE. Stu also makes numerous comparisons to THOR, and we enthuse about GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Vol 2.

As we breakdown where these first acts succeed (and, er, not-succeed), our discussion moves through sequence structure, macguffins, supporting characters, exposition... and -- most importantly -- Character Wounds and Character Flaws.

Even if you don't care for MCU films, there is plenty to learn from how they approach their first acts.

... and stick around after the end credits, for an important announcement re: our launching of a Patreon.

Thanks to Khrob and Nick for being patrons. They're good people.

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 and Nick.

———

CHAPTERS

• 00:07:42 – IRON MAN
• 00:39:08 – GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
• 01:18:13 – DOCTOR STRANGE
• 01:47:28 – WRAP UP
• 01:57:08 – WHAA? PATREON?

FILMS

• IRON MAN (2008) — (w) Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway (d) Jon Favreau
• GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (2014) — (w) James Gunn, Nicole Perlman (d) James Gunn
• DOCTOR STRANGE (2016) — (w) Jon Spaihts, Scott Derrickson, C Robert Cargill (d) Scott Derrickson

SCRIPTS

• Study the script: IRON MAN (2008) — Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway

RELATED EPISODES

• DZ-09: Characterising Introductions
• DZ-11: Adventure for the MacGuffin!
• DZ-15: World Building Rules, Okay?
• DZ-43: Driving Sequences - Character and Plot Intensity

———

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/2017/dz-44/