DZ-112: Breaking the 4th wall

How is the effect of breaking the 4th wall different to VoiceOver?

As part of our series on how filmmakers can directly communicate to the audience, we finally examine the most blatant tool of them all: when character look directly down the barrel of the camera… and thus look directly at us, the viewer. Chas, Stu and Mel take the craft tools/levers they identified in previous episodes and use them to examine HIGH FIDELITY, ABBOTT ELEMENTARY and - of course - FLEABAG.

By examining how "in-world" the camera is, who is talking, and whom the character is talking to (i.e. who we are in the relationship), we end up discovering how breaking the 4th wall can involve the audience in the emotional present of the character and also grants the character a degree of narrative control (a craft lever that can be dialled in and out).

Separately, in a Backmatter to this episode to be found on our Patreon page, Mel and Chas answer a listener question and take a deep dive into how breaking the 4th wall changes the RELATIONSHIP between you - the viewer - and character.

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

Thanks to Chris Walker for his excellent editing this episode.

CHAPTERS

00:00:00 - Cold Open
00:00:17 - What is "barrelling"?
00:13:45 - HIGH FIDELITY
00:39:46 - ABBOTT ELEMENTARY
01:04:09 - FLEABAG
01:40:54 - Key Learnings
01:50:48 - Patreon thanks

RELATED EPISODES

Backmatter on Breaking the 4th Wall
DZ-109: Talking DIRECTLY to your audience
DZ-110: Voiceover
DZ-111: Unreliable Narrators and Fight Club

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DZ-112: Breaking the 4th wall

Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast