DZ-52: Antagonists! 4 - vs Systems

Listen if you want to use how societal, governmental, or environmental forces as villains.

This is Part Four (!!) of our Five Part Epic Exploration into antagonists forces and sources of conflict. In this episode we explore "system/world/society" antagonists. While stereotypically associated with science-fiction, these sources of conflict are found across genres.

To that end, we talk MINORITY REPORT, DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, MUDBOUND, and THE LOBSTER - with a special mention of, like, all the high school movies.

We continue refining our tools surrounding antagonists/sources of conflict: obstacles, pressure, enablers, pushers, pullers, education and thwarting. We especially focus on how the pressures of the system/world/society force characters to either submit to the system, overthrow it or escape it; and how framing all of your characters’ journeys in relation to the rules of the world they inhabit can lead to a thematically strong story.

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

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CHAPTERS

• 00:06:50 – Minority Report
• 00:36:49 – Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes
• 00:53:31 – Mudbound
• 01:30:43 – The Lobster
• 02:01:02 – Systems And Genres
• 02:05:30 – Wrap Up & Key Learnings

FILMS

• MINORITY REPORT (2002) — (w) Scott Frank, Jon Cohen (d) Steven Spielberg
• DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2014) — (w) Mark Bomback, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver (d) Matt Reeves
• MUDBOUND (2017) — (w) Dee Rees, Hillary Jordan, Virgil Williams (d) Dee Rees
• THE LOBSTER (2015) — (w) Efthimis Filippou, Yorgos Lanthimos (d) Yorgos Lanthimos

SCRIPTS

• Study the script: MINORITY REPORT (2002) — Scott Frank, Jon Cohen
• Study the script: DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2014) — Mark Bomback, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver
• Study the script: MUDBOUND (2017) — Dee Rees, Hillary Jordan, Virgil Williams
• Study the script: THE LOBSTER (2015) — Efthimis Filippou, Yorgos Lanthimos

LINKS

• YouTube: MINORITY REPORT - Anderton Sees Himself Kill
• YouTube: THE LOBSTER - The Dance

EPISODES IN THE ANTAGONISTS! SERIES

• DZ-50: Antagonists! 2 - vs Self
• DZ-51: Antagonists! 3 - vs Nature
• DZ-52: Antagonists! 4 - vs Systems
• DZ-53: Antagonists! 5 - vs Audience
• DZ-49: Antagonists! 1 - vs Humans

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Full show notes at: https://draft-zero.com/2018/dz-52/