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Have first acts gotten shorter, or does it just feel that way? John and Craig discuss the pressure on screenwriters to “get to it” faster, and why that’s often the wrong goal.
From there, we talk about the WGA’s annual numbers, which paint an improving picture for TV writers — but more bad news for the feature folk. Finally, we discuss the fight over THE BUTLER, and the degree to which studios can protect titles.
Do you make music? If you want to record us a great outro, we’ll be featuring some on upcoming episodes. Entries should feature the basic Scriptnotes melody (C3-E-D-B-C4) or its minor cousin, but otherwise it’s wide open except for, you know, don’t use copyrighted material. Send a link to ask@johnaugust.com pointing to an mp3 or other sound file we can hear. It’s an expo, not a competition, so have fun.
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LINKS:
- The live 100th episode is sold out!
- WGA’s 2013 Annual Financial Report
- John’s 2011 blog post on copyrighting movie titles
- You got served: Weinstein fighting for ‘The Butler’ title from the LA Times
- The Hero’s Journey by Glove and Boots
- Popehat.com and their posts on Prenda Law
You can download the episode here: AAC.
UPDATE 7-12-13: The transcript of this episode can be found here.
