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Diary of a First-Time Director

Episode - 212

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October 3, 2017 Scriptnotes, Transcribed

John and Craig sit down with Marielle Heller, the writer and director of the acclaimed feature The Diary of a Teenage Girl, to talk about the journey of getting her movie made, from optioning the novel to the Sundance Labs through production.

We discuss sex scenes and ’70s wallpaper, anamorphic lenses and leaving subplots on the cutting room floor. Plus there’s a lot of MacGruber.

This episode originally aired August 25, 2015.

Links:

* [Scriptnotes and a live Three Page Challenge will be at the 2017 Austin Film Festival](https://www.austinfilmfestival.com/)
* [Submit](http://johnaugust.com/threepage) for the Three Page Challenge
* [Marielle Heller](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1716636/) on IMDb
* [The Diary of a Teenage Girl official site](http://sonyclassics.com/thediaryofateenagegirl/) and [the trailer](http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/sony/thediaryofateenagegirl/)
* [The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Revised Edition](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1623170346/?tag=johnaugustcom-20) by Phoebe Gloeckner
* Scriptnotes, 121: [My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend’s Screenwriter](http://johnaugust.com/2013/my-girlfriends-boyfriends-screenwriter), with Mike Birbiglia
* [Sundance Institute Feature Film Program](http://www.sundance.org/programs/feature-film)
* [Director of Photography Brandon Trost](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Trost) on Wikipedia
* [Rotoscoping](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscoping) on Wikipedia
* Mari Heller on [NPR’s Fresh Air](http://www.npr.org/2015/08/13/431997207/a-diary-unlocked-a-teenage-coming-of-age-story-put-on-film)
* [VHS Camcorder](http://rarevision.com/vhscam/)
* [I’m Sorry I Didn’t Respond to Your Email, My Husband Coughed to Death Two Years Ago](https://medium.com/keep-learning-keep-growing/i-m-sorry-i-didn-t-respond-to-your-email-my-husband-coughed-to-death-two-years-ago-9e12c93c92fa) by Rachel Ward
* [The Wonder Weeks App](http://www.thewonderweeks.com/about-the-wonder-week-app/)
* [The Scriptnotes Listeners’ Guide!](johnaugust.com/guide)
* [The USB drives](https://store.johnaugust.com/collections/frontpage/products/scriptnotes-300-episode-usb-flash-drive) are available!
* [John August](https://twitter.com/johnaugust) on Twitter
* [Craig Mazin](https://twitter.com/clmazin) on Twitter
* [John on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/johnaugust/?hl=en)
* [Find past episodes](http://scriptnotes.net/)
* [Outro](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-the-outros) by Jack Mazin ([send us yours!](http://johnaugust.com/2014/outros-needed))

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode [here](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_212_rebroadcast.mp3).

**UPDATE 10-13-17:** The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2017/scriptnotes-ep-212-rebroadcast-diary-of-a-first-time-director-transcript).

Related Posts

  1. Diary of a First-Time Director
  2. Scriptnotes, Ep 212: Diary of a First-Time Director– Transcript
  3. Secrets and Lies

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