Screenwriters John August and Craig Mazin discuss screenwriting and related topics in the film and television industry, everything from getting stuff written to the vagaries of copyright and work-for-hire law.
http://johnaugust.com/scriptnotes
Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 4 days 4 hours 4 minutes
episode 463: 463 - Writing Action (Encore)
John and Craig talk action! It’s an all-craft episode about how words on the page become high-adrenaline events on the screen. Using a variety of different scripts, we look at how different styles of action sequences can be used to clearly...
episode 601: 601 - Side Quests
John and Craig take a detour to discuss side quests: those smaller tasks that can serve as the building blocks of a character’s journey. How do side quests differ from your hero’s primary goal? What’s the best way to use them? And how can...
episode 602: 602 - Research Isn’t Cheating
John and Craig host another round of the Three Page Challenge, selecting three listeners’ scripts for feedback on what’s working and common pitfalls to avoid. They offer insights into the tricky issues when cheating movement, formatting...
episode 603: 603 - Billion Dollar Advice
John and Craig welcome Akela Cooper (M3GAN, Malignant) to help offer guidance to billionaires looking to put their money in the safest place they can: the film and television industry. The trio looks at the upsides of investing in productions, which...
episode 604: 604 - That’s a Good Question
John and Craig question questions themselves. What’s really happening when a character asks a question? How many types of questions can be asked? What can questions tell us about our characters and the power dynamics within a scene? Are these...
episode 605: 605 - Medicine and Mayhem
John and Craig look at four tales of science, medicine and mayhem and ask, how would this be a movie? Stories include a catatonic woman who woke up after 20 years, a white supremacist transformed by MDMA, a drugged crypto lawyer, and an in-depth...
episode 606: 606 - Character and Story Fit
John welcomes back Pamela Ribon (My Year of Dicks, Moana) to talk about how to fit the right characters to your story. We know story comes from characters, but often an idea starts with a world, so how do writers find the right characters to build...
episode 607: 607 - In the Beginning Was the Word
John and Craig ponder the nature of words and what gives them meaning. Using new information on how large language models function, they look at the dizzying amount of connections words can create with other words, between humans, and their profound...
episode 608: 608 - Scriptnotes LIVE! at Dynasty Typewriter in LA
Quinta Brunson on and Rachel Bloom on and Natasha Lyonne on and Quinta Brunson’s Quinta Brunson on at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, New York City or Craig Mazin...
episode 609: 609 - Dialogue and Character Voice
John and Craig look at how well-written dialogue is used to give characters a unique voice. Using clips from previous episodes they present a history of dialogue and its evolution, how it informs your actors, and how communicating an idea sometimes...