DZ-107: Establishing Tone through Character

Listen if you want to understand how character actions and reactions shape a film's tone

In this episode, Chas and Stu continue their deep dive into how to write tone by examining films with “light” (we use the phrase loosely) tones: LADY BIRD, EMILY THE CRIMINAL, THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS, and SPONTANEOUS. We also talk a surprising amount about DUNE and CRAZY STUPID LOVE.

We focus on the relationship between character & tone and how the writers of these films use dramatisation to create their unique tones. We talk minimalism vs maximalism, dialogue, character actions & reactions, emotional dynamic range, and rules of the world vs given circumstances.

Stu proposes a new triangle to help us understand the dials we as writers have to affect tone:

The given circumstances of the story,

How that effects character actions & reactions,

How the audience are told about those elements.

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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"Emily feels a rush of blood to the head. And the blood, to me, kind of connects it to the feral thing, right? Like it's just got a little bit of an animalistic quality to it in terms of the kind of language system they're using it." — Stu Willis @ 00:42:31

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CHAPTERS

00:00:00 – Cold Open

00:00:23 – Tone & Character

00:03:21 – › The tone triangle: given circumstances, character reaction, audience feeling

00:09:38 – › Diegetic vs non-diegetic levers and the writer's control over tone

00:15:26 – Ladybird

00:18:43 – › How opening scenes encode a film's emotional range

00:22:37 – › Underplaying drama to teach audiences what to laugh at

00:29:42 – › How dialogue mechanics carry tonal instruction on the page

00:33:20 – EMILY THE CRIMINAL

00:36:22 – › Sparse big print and character-revealing given circumstances

00:44:34 – › How action and reaction encode tone and theme

00:53:25 – › Dialogue styling and emotional proximity to character

00:57:43 – THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS

01:02:51 – › How character reaction creates comedic contrast with violence

01:13:32 – › Given circumstances, audience expectation, and world rules

01:17:28 – SPONTANEOUS

01:20:57 – › Action lines as character voice and tonal instruction

01:26:31 – › Humor as audience permission to engage with horror

01:34:03 – › Tonal complexity versus emotional range across films

01:38:11 – › Shared laughter as a device for building connection

01:39:38 – Key Learnings & Wrap Up

01:42:38 – › Tonal contrast as emotional contract with audience

01:46:13 – › Character reactions as the root of tonal clarity

01:51:58 – Many thanks to our Patreons

FILMS

LADY BIRD (2017) — (w) Greta Gerwig

EMILY THE CRIMINAL (2022) — (w) John Patton Ford

THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS (2018) — (w) Ethan Coen, Joel Coen (d) Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

SPONTANEOUS (2020) — (w) Aaron Starmer, Brian Duffield (d) Brian Duffield

SCRIPTS

Study the script: LADY BIRD (2017) — Greta Gerwig

Study the script: THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS (2018) — Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

LINKS

Read: Tom Vaughan / Story and Plot: Controlling the tone in your screenwriting

EPISODES IN THE ESTABLISHING TONE SERIES

DZ-105: Establishing Tone through Big Print

DZ-107: Establishing Tone through Character

RELATED EPISODES

DZ-82: Dramatising Given Circumstances in WATCHMEN

DZ-105: Establishing Tone through Big Print

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