John August

Archives for 2011

Stuart is the new Matt

News

I’m happy/sad to announce that Matt Byrne, my assistant since post-production on The Nines, has been hired as a staff writer on the new ABC drama Scandal.

Not only is Matt a great writer, he’s a former CNN White House producer, so he’s pretty much the ideal fit for a show about political dealings in the nation’s capital. It’s a great next step for him.

In addition to producing [The Remnants](http://vimeo.com/2755105) (with Dan Etheridge), Matt was the first assistant to write posts for the site, covering topics like [Kickstarter](http://johnaugust.com/2011/raising-movie-funds-on-kickstarter) and [Star Trek](http://johnaugust.com/2009/trek-writer). He’s promised to write in with a report about his first stint writing for TV, but for now he’s already busy breaking stories.

Stuart Friedel will be taking over as my assistant.

He’s a 2010 graduate of the Peter Stark Producing Program at USC, and spent the past year working at Disney Channel and Disney XD. He previously interned with Wes Anderson, Ad Hominem, Tim and Eric and Smallville, and made a documentary about the mailman on Mister Rogers.

So, a slacker.

I already have a stack of new projects for Stuart to tackle, and anticipate giving him a larger editorial presence (and byline) on the site.

In the meantime, join me in saying bon voyage to Matt, and hello to Stuart.

Outlines, treatments and numbered pages

Formatting, QandA, Treatments

questionmarkI was looking through your library section at the TV shows you’d written and noticed a few things that caught my eye. I’m trying to write a treatment/pitch for a TV series and, well, first of all:

In writing it out, is it called a “pitch” or a “treatment” or a “write-up”?

I noticed that all three of your “write-ups” were different in terms of style, as in there didn’t seem to be any sort of template or format to follow specifically, like you would with a screenplay. How do you know what to do technically? Even down to the fonts used, and what is in bold. Sometimes there are bullets.

I also noticed your page numbers: 1 of 5, 2 of 5…. and so on. How did you do that? Did you do that manually or is there some setting I am not seeing in Word that allows for that, because I couldn’t find it.

— Jeff Fradley
Anchorage

answer iconTo me, an outline tends to be less prose-y and feature more bullet points, but there is no common consensus in Hollywood about what’s what. In features, we use “treatment” and “outline” and “beat sheet” interchangeably.

A “write-up” is generally a written version of something you’ve pitched. It could be long or short. A “leave-behind” is a written summary of a pitch that you literally leave behind after the meeting. ((Leave-behinds are often a terrible idea, because this written version becomes the basis of all future conversations. And you’ve essentially just delivered free work.))

As far as page numbers, I’m a big fan of X of Y headers — I even do it on handwritten documents. They were probably more important back when we were faxing documents around, but they’re a good idea overall.

ops sample

Pretty much every word processor can do this kind of page numbering.

In Pages, Insert > Page Number. Then type “of.” Then Insert > Page Count.

In Word, use the header bar/ribbon thing to Insert Page Number, then “of,” then Insert Number of Pages.

In Google Docs, well. It’s hard to do in Google Docs.

Outlines aren’t essential

QandA, Writing Process

questionmarkI looked at your outline for Big Fish and noticed you had it broken up into acts and what happens in each act. How exactly did you know what was suppose to happen? How do you start to figure it out?

For me, I might know some of the events pretty clearly but I might not know what happens in-between. Or I might know the middle and end, but not the beginning. I find it hard to break down my story the way you do.

Sometimes when I have a scene in my head, I’ll just start writing particular scenes and then go back to figure out more of an outline. Is that wrong?

— Ian Topple
Syosset, NY

answer iconIt’s not wrong. The correct way to write your screenplay is whatever gets it written.

My [original one-page outline](http://johnaugust.com/library) for Big Fish is really an anomaly. I rarely go into that level of detail.

Most scripts begin more the way you describe, with a few key moments and characters that gradually chain themselves together. I’ll always have a sense of where the story is going — I can write a third-act scene before I’ve written the end of the first act — but I won’t necessarily know how I’m going to get there.

The [sequence outline](http://johnaugust.com/library) in the Library came after the first draft, and charted what was actually happening in the script I wrote. It was a way of seeing how the movie was dividing its time between the real world and Edward Bloom’s stories.

Don’t beat yourself up over outlines. Save the self-flagellation for the scenework.

Big Fish, the musical

Big Fish, Broadway, News

As [announced](http://www.playbill.com/news/article/151625-Producers-Reel-in-a-Whopper-for-Broadways-Big-Fish-Musical-Susan-Stroman) [today](http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/susan-stroman-signs-on-to-direct-stage-musical-of-tim-burtons-big-fish/), we’re doing Big Fish as a Broadway musical, aiming for Spring 2012.

Susan Stroman is directing and choreographing. Andrew Lippa wrote music and lyrics. I wrote the book. Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen are producing.

It’s based on Daniel Wallace’s novel and my script for the 2003 film.

This isn’t one of those announcements where some people had lunch and said, “Hey, maybe let’s try to do a show.” It’s written. Two acts. Amazing songs. We’ve read it and sung it forty times for lots of different people.

Studious readers of the blog and my Twitter feed may have noticed I’ve been in New York City a lot. This is why.

I’ve had to pass on writing and directing jobs because I’m unavailable — but couldn’t explain why. This is why.

I’ve learned how to sing passably. This is why.

I’ll have much more to write about the show in the weeks and months (and hopefully years) ahead. Broadway is a completely different world than Hollywood, a parallel universe in which many things are better for writers — but also more complicated.

All the hard work getting the show to this point will no doubt be eclipsed by the hard work getting it to the stage. I know I’m lucky to be working with veterans.

I’ve approached this whole experience — a six-year journey — as a fascinated newcomer. I’m excited to share what I’m learning.