DZ-109: Talking DIRECTLY to your audience

Listen if you've wondered what a character actually wants when they're talking directly to the audience!?

What are the different ways a filmmaker can ask something of the audience?

Chas and Stu are joined by Mel in this prelude episode to upcoming episodes on Voiceover (DZ-110, DZ-111) and Breaking the 4th Wall (DZ-112). In this episode, we attempt to taxonomise the different ways filmmakers can ask something directly of their audience.

To this end, we identify 4 levers that can be pulled:

1. Diagetic to non-diagetic (in story world to outside story world) 2. Who is talking? From story-teller to a character 3. Whom are they talking to? Themselves or directly to the audience? 4. From when in time is the communication coming?

They then take these levers and ask a series of questions, including:

What does the communication want from the audience?

Does the audience know who’s talking?

How reliable is the information?

How aware is who is communicating of the audience?

They then apply these questions and levers to… deep breath… : STAR WARS, ROBOCOP, STARSHIP TROOPERS, KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, MINORITY REPORT, CHILDREN OF MEN, NEVER HAVE I EVER, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, STRANGER THAN FICTION, DUNE, OPPENHEIMER, YELLOWJACKETS, HUSTLERS, THE OFFICE, MASTERCHEF, ZOMBIELAND, FLEABAG, PRETTY LITTLE LIARS, THE BIG LEBOWSKI, SPONTANEOUS, BLACKKKLANSMAN, AMERICAN FICTION, AMERICAN SPLENDOR, THE KILLER, VERONICA MARS, FIGHT CLUB, SHUTTER ISLAND, SIXTH SENSE, HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR. FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, GOODFELLAS, EMPERORS NEW GROOVE, THE TRUMAN SHOW, HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, DIE HARD, THE BIG SHORT, THE USUAL SUSPECTS, DERRY GIRLS, THE LAST JEDI, THE LAST DUEL, RASHOMON, BONES AND ALL, ARCHIVE 81, SANS SOLEIL, F IS FOR FAKE, THE PRINCESS BRIDE, THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS, JULIUS CAESAR, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Vol. 1

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.

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→ Read the transcript for this episode.

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"If you don't have anything dramatic to say, don't say it at all." — Stu Willis @ 00:00:00

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CHAPTERS

00:00:00 – Cold Open

00:00:49 – Distinguishing talking directly to the audience

00:04:32 – Different levers to pull

00:09:20 – Who is communicating?

00:15:01 – › Mapping the spectrum from title cards to character narrators

00:20:37 – › When narration blurs the line between diegetic and meta

00:26:13 – Does the audience know who's talking?

00:29:47 – › What narrators want from their audience

00:32:21 – › Filmmakers speaking directly without breaking the fourth wall

00:40:00 – From when is the communication coming?

00:40:50 – How reliable is the communication?

00:46:08 – How aware are the characters?

00:49:56 – › What does the speaker want from their audience

00:53:46 – › Emotional vs intellectual effects of direct address

00:58:35 – Analysing edge cases

01:04:00 – › Writer's intent versus character's intent in voiceover

01:07:37 – What effects do these have on the audience?

01:11:51 – › Monologue length and its emotional effect on audiences

01:16:00 – Key learnings and wrap-up

01:19:00 – Thanks patreons!

FILMS

FIGHT CLUB (1999) — (w) Chuck Palahniuk, Jim Uhls (d) David Fincher

FLEABAG (2016) — (w) Phoebe Waller Bridge

THE BIG SHORT (2015) — (w) Adam Mckay, Charles Randolph (d) Adam Mckay

F FOR FAKE (1973) — (w) Orson Welles

STAR WARS (1977) — (w) George Lucas

SCRIPTS

Study the script: FIGHT CLUB (1999) — Chuck Palahniuk, Jim Uhls

Study the script: THE BIG SHORT (2015) — Adam Mckay, Charles Randolph

EPISODES IN THE TALKING DIRECTLY TO THE AUDIENCE SERIES

DZ-109: Talking DIRECTLY to your audience

DZ-110: Voiceover

DZ-111: Unreliable Narrators and FIGHT CLUB

DZ-112: Breaking the 4th wall