Screenwriter and author John August

Guild Sets Dates for Meetings and Vote

March 19, 2019 WGA

For the past few months, the WGA West and East have been negotiating with talent agencies over a successor to our 43-year-old agreement. I’m on the negotiating committee and it’s been fascinating.

Soon we’ll be holding membership meetings to discuss what’s going on and what’s in store:

WGA West members in Los Angeles:

Tuesday, March 26th at Beverly Hilton, 7:30 pm
Wednesday, March 27th at Sheraton Universal, 7:30 pm
Saturday, March 31st at Writers Guild Theater, 10:30 am
RSVP using the link in the email you received from “WGA Mandatory.”

WGA East members in New York City:

Wednesday, March 27, 2019 at BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 7:30 pm.
RSVP and bring your Guild ID card.

WGA members will be voting on the following resolution:

To authorize the Board and Council to implement an Agency Code of Conduct, if and when it becomes advisable to do so, upon expiration of the current AMBA on April 6, 2019.

Voting for will take place for West members from Wednesday, March 27 at 9pm PDT through Sunday March 31 at 10:00am PDT. For East members, voting runs from Wednesday, March 27 at 9pm EDT through Sunday, March 31 at 10:00am EDT.

Eligible members will receive an email that includes a link to the online ballot when the ballot is activated. Please vote!

The Chinese Box Office is Huge

February 11, 2019 International

Writing for Forbes, Scott Mendelson notes that the biggest movie in China is bigger than even the biggest US movies:

The Wandering Earth wrapped up its first week of release in China with a record-breaking $349 million. That’s the biggest one-week total ever in China, besting the $338m debut of Detective Chinatown 2 last year and the $307m launch of Wolf Warrior 2 in the summer of 2017. It was the second-biggest seven day total for any release in any territory save for the $390m seven-day cume of Walt Disney’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015.

Yes, Wandering Earth earned more in its first week in China than Disney’s Avengers: Infinity War earned in North America ($338m) last April.

Yes: it’s complicated because China controls which movies can be released, and how wide they can expand, so it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. But it’s clear that the Chinese box office is simply massive.

Hollywood movies have long been one of the America’s most reliable exports, because you simply couldn’t make a certain kind of movie anywhere else. That’s not true anymore.

Come to the Arlo Finch launch

February 5, 2019 Arlo Finch, Los Angeles, Projects

If you’re in the Los Angeles area, please come to the launch event for Arlo Finch in the Lake of the Moon. I’ll be signing books and answering questions about the series. I may even be allowed to share some cool news.

Invite for LA book signing

The LA event is at:

Chevalier’s Books on Larchmont
Saturday, February 9th at 12:30
website

You can also order the book online or purchase it at many US bookstores.

First week sales are a wonderful thing, because they help more readers discover the book. So does sharing it on social media (#arlofinch) and leaving a review on GoodReads. (The review page for book two is pretty light because it just came out today.)

As I post this, I’m in St. Louis, where I just finished two days of school visits. Tonight, I fly to Seattle, for two more days of school visits and a live Scriptnotes. Then it’s a day in San Francisco before heading home.

The second half of the tour comes in April, when I’ll be headed up and down the East Coast for events at schools and bookstores. For more details, you can check out my Arlo Finch page.

Hiring a coder

February 1, 2019 Apps, Bronson, Geek Alert, Highland, Los Angeles, Weekend Read

We’re bringing in a new person to help us update some of our older Mac and iOS apps. Maybe that’s you!

Requirements:

Experience with Mac and iOS development (either professionally or on your own)
Familiarity with web APIs
Proficiency in Swift
Ability to read (and understand) Objective-C

For the right candidate, it should be an interesting assignment. You’ll be rewriting existing Objective-C code as Swift, and bringing a 2019 perspective (and technology) to previously-solved problems. You’ll be working beside Nima Yousefi, who coded Highland,¹ Weekend Read and a lot of other useful apps for writers. He’ll show you the ropes and help guide you through the process.

This is a contract gig, maybe 40 hours of work altogether, but there’s always the possibility of future projects. We’re looking for someone in Los Angeles who’s available on Tuesday and Friday afternoons for some in-person discussion.

The right person might be transitioning from another field, a college student, or someone on a gap year. You can look at this as an educational experience, intern-like, but definitely paid. If you’re a hobbyist coder considering becoming an indie app developer, it would be a good introduction. That’s how Nima got started.

Interested? Drop us a note to introduce yourself and your work. Please include links to stuff we can check out, especially Github and sample code.

Fun fact: Highland 2 is almost entirely Swift, except for some very low-level stuff dealing with PDFs which goes all the way back to the original Highland. ↩