John August

Archives for 2013

Veronica Mars Attacks

Episode - 81

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Film Industry, Follow Up, Highland, News, Scriptnotes, Story and Plot, Transcribed

Craig and John discuss the big Veronica Mars/Kickstarter news in one of the more contentious podcasts to date. If you like umbrage, this is the show for you.

Next up, Highland has finally shipped. The plaintext screenplay editor (and PDF melter) raises questions about the assumption of security-through-laboriousness and the monoculture around Final Draft.

Finally, we discuss three of the points in Emma Coats’s Pixar Story Rules that are easy to forget but too important to ignore.

LINKS:

* [Untitled Screenplays](http://untitledscreenplays.tumblr.com/) and [Unfinished Scripts](https://twitter.com/UnfinishedS) are similar but different
* Use the code “SCRIPT” to unlock [discounted seats](http://johnaugust.com/2013/big-fish-previews-and-special-unlock-code) for the first four Big Fish performances, and [let us know you’re coming](mailto:ask@johnaugust.com)!
* One of John’s many doppelgängers [as Hebrew National’s Uncle Sam](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf2j-YzZRAA)
* [The Atlantic](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/03/when-america-was-female/273672/) on Uncle Sam’s “older, classier sister” Columbia
* [The Veronica Mars Movie Project](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559914737/the-veronica-mars-movie-project) on Kickstarter
* James Poneywisic of Time [on Veronica Mars](http://entertainment.time.com/2013/03/13/why-the-world-needs-a-kickstarter-veronica-mars-movie/)
* [The Hollywood Reporter](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/has-veronica-mars-kickstarter-campaign-428903)’s coverage, including a quote from writer/producer John Rogers
* Luke Pebler’s [guest post on Suzanne Scott’s blog](http://www.suzanne-scott.com/2013/03/15/guest-post-my-gigantic-issue-with-the-veronica-mars-kickstarter/)
* [Highland](http://quoteunquoteapps.com/highland/), the plaintext screenplay editor for Mac, half-off through March 31st at the [Mac App Store](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/highland/id499329572?ls=1&mt=12)
* [Emma Coats’s](https://twitter.com/lawnrocket) 22 story rules on [The Pixar Touch](http://www.pixartouchbook.com/blog/2011/5/15/pixar-story-rules-one-version.html)
* [StageWrite for iPad](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stagewrite-for-ipad/id504168392?mt=8) at the Mac App Store
* Give a loan and change a life with [Kiva](http://www.kiva.org/start)
* Direct your umbrage [here](mailto:ask@johnaugust.com) instead of Twitter
* OUTRO: [Kickstart My Heart](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd4h-BqwlXI) acoustic cover by whipsy

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_81.m4a).

**UPDATE** 3-24-13: The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-ep-81-veronica-mars-attacks-transcript).

Highland ships

Apps, Fountain, Highland

highland iconHighland, our long-in-beta screenplay editor, is finally available in the [Mac App Store today](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/highland/id499329572?mt=12).

It’s regularly priced at $19.99, but through the end of the month, it’s half-off at $9.99.

In addition to letting you write scripts in plain text, Highland converts files between PDF, Final Draft (.fdx) and Fountain formats. It works in all directions.

Yes, all directions — you can give it a PDF of a screenplay and it will melt it down to an editable file. That seems like magic, but it’s actually just a lot of hard work, and a year’s worth of report cards submitted by beta testers.

Melting PDFs is a feat that no other screenwriting app even attempts, so we made a [little video about it](http://player.vimeo.com/video/59698758?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&autoplay=0):

We’ll never be able to convert every PDF, which is one reason we offer a [free demo version](http://quoteunquoteapps.com/highland/) so you can see how it works before you buy it.

With Highland, you can also tackle FDX files without Final Draft. We’ve found our users are often writing in Google Docs or TextMate or vim — or on their iPads. Whatever setup you prefer, Highland can get you into and out of Final Draft smoothly when you need special features.

Highland is a great bridge between apps, but over the last year we’ve found more and more users are simply doing their writing in Highland. It’s a full-featured editor, with spelling, versions and find-and-replace. Because it’s plain text, you can focus on the words and not the formatting.

The biggest changes to Highland are easy to spot: a new icon, a new UI, and two new fonts. Courier Prime is an obvious addition, but we’ve also included Highland Sans, a brand-new editing typeface that’s sharp on the screen and easy on the eyes.

highland fontsOther additions include Dark Mode for late-night writing, fast pagination and Apple’s speech-to-text dictation.

And there are more cool things in the works. But today is a major milestone, because Highland was such a long time coming. I want to thank Ryan, Nima, Stuart and our amazing beta testers for their perseverence.

Check out more information, including a FAQ, at [Quote-Unquote Apps](http://quoteunquoteapps.com/highland/).

You can find Highland on the [Mac App Store](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/highland/id499329572?mt=12).

Tech Starts, Time Stops

Big Fish, Broadway

I’m in Chicago, where it’s the first day of tech rehearsal for Big Fish. Lights, sound, sets, props, costumes, VFX — everything has to be painstakingly tweaked and coordinated. In film terms, it’s like production and post-production happening simultaneously.

In other words, it takes a while.

Quite fittingly for a day of slow motion, EW.com has the [exclusive first listen](http://popwatch.ew.com/2013/03/18/listen-to-a-song-from-new-big-fish-musical-exclusive/) at a song from our show: Time Stops. It’s a duet between Norbert Leo Butz (as Edward Bloom) and Kate Baldwin (Sandra), written by Andrew Lippa.

If you’re familiar with the movie, you can probably guess where this song takes place, but I won’t spoil how it actually emerges in the scene. Suffice to say we’ll be spending many hours of tech getting it just right.

From book to movie to musical to commercial

Big Fish, Broadway

My college professors will be happy to know that roughly 20 years after getting my advertising degree, I finally wrote a television commercial. This 15-second Big Fish spot is airing in Chicago now:

To be fair, I didn’t write those words as advertising copy — they’re actually from the script. Our hard-working marketing team put it all together, using music from Andrew Lippa’s amazing score and voiceover by Bobby Steggert, who plays Will.

Reminder that if you’re coming to see Big Fish in Chicago — on any night in the run — [tweet me](http://twitter.com/johnaugust) or [email me](mailto:ask@johnaugust.com) your date and seat. I will endevour to come by and say hello.

Performances begin April 2nd. As of this morning, there are still some of the [special $26 balcony seats](http://johnaugust.com/2013/big-fish-previews-and-special-unlock-code) available for the first four shows.