DZ-101: Oners - Creating Immediacy & Anchoring Action on the Page

Listen to understand how screenwriters direct the camera without calling shots.

Chas, Stu and Mel reunite to talk about writing the feel of camerawork in screenplays. We use “oners” — a long-playing continuous take — as a lens to talk about how some writers have “directed” from the page. We talk immediacy, camera positions, handovers, and anchoring action and more.

We breakdown the famous Copacabana shot from GOODFELLAS, the awe-inspiring chase sequence from THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN, and the heart pounding ‘Zed attack’ from CHILDREN OF MEN. We also briefly discuss THE BOURNE IDENTITY, HEREDITARY, THE BEAR, ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN and TOUCH OF EVIL.

And we do this breakdown by closely reading the actual words on the page!

So thanks to Meegan May (of Starship Q Star) for performing the big print / action lines. Script Pages available on our Patreon -> https://www.patreon.com/posts/dz-99-scene-82312058

Thanks to Chris Walker for editing this episode.

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

LIKE THIS EPISODE?

Watch and comment on YouTube.

Send us feedback.

Thanks to our Patrons, especially Khrob, Theis, Sandra, Jesse, Randy, Paulo, Thomas, Jennifer, Malay, Alexandre and Lily.

→ Read the transcript for this episode.

———

"You're meant to be swept along with this action. In Children of Men, the script's... just bang, bang, bang. You can almost tell that it's happening simultaneously because of the mini slugs, you know, in the road, in the car, outside, inside. It's all felt as one." — Mel Killingsworth @ 00:06:55

———

CHAPTERS

00:00:13 – Cold Open

00:00:23 – Sponsor: ScriptUp

00:01:58 – Directing from the Page: Writing the Feel of Camerawork

00:07:26 – › Writing camera direction versus writing the feeling of a shot

00:09:50 – BOURNE IDENTITY & HEREDITARY

00:13:15 – › Narrative purpose as the test for any oner

00:16:30 – GOODFELLAS

00:16:57 – › Excerpt: the Copacabana follow shot

00:18:22 – › How breathless prose mirrors Karen's point of view

00:25:00 – › Modernising the we-see style for spec scripts

00:32:48 – THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN

00:34:14 – › Excerpt: the Bagghar chase set piece

00:37:23 – › Capitalisation and handovers as the connective tissue of a oner

00:43:48 – › Anchoring action through micro-plotting and clear victory conditions

00:49:34 – CHILDREN OF MEN

00:53:38 – › Excerpt: the Zed ambush

01:00:32 – › Mini slugs and car-interior POV as 360-degree orientation

01:06:17 – › Real-time big print and the moment-by-moment obligation of action lines

01:12:24 – Key Learnings & Wrap Up

01:16:50 – › Intentionality as the writer's true directorial compass

01:21:03 – Thanks to our Patreons

FILMS

GOODFELLAS (1990) — (w) Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese (d) Martin Scorsese

THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN (2011) — (w) Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish, Steven Moffat (d) Steven Spielberg

CHILDREN OF MEN (2006) — (w) Timothy J Sexton, David Arata, Alfonso Cuaron, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, P D James (d) Alfonso Cuaron

SCRIPTS

Study the script: GOODFELLAS (1990) — Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese

Study the script: THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN (2011) — Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish, Steven Moffat

Study the script: CHILDREN OF MEN (2006) — Timothy J Sexton, David Arata, Alfonso Cuaron, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, P D James

SHOT ZERO DEEP DIVES

Time and space in staging "Oners"

Time and space in staging "Oners"

Time and space in staging "Oners"

LINKS

SCRIPTS: The script Pages are available on our Patreon

WATCH: Goodfellas, The"Copacabana" shot

WATCH: The Adventures of TinTin, "Get that bird!"

WATCH: Children of Men, "Zed's attack"

WATCH: The Bourne Identity, "Escaping The American Embassy"

WATCH: All The President's Men, "The Dahlberg Scene"

RELATED EPISODES

DZ-16: Masters of Time and Whitespace

DZ-60: Unfilmables 1 - Engaging imagination

DZ-61: Unfilmables 2 - Moments of Awe

DZ-62: Unfilmables 3 - As Ifs & Emotional Context

———

More Draft Zero is b