John August

Weekend Read

Bronson Watermarker gets a minor update

Apps, Bronson, Highland, Weekend Read

[Bronson Watermarker](https://quoteunquoteapps.com/bronson/), our app for quickly personalizing PDFs, has an update in the Mac App Store. Version 2.0.4 fixes a drawing bug.
screenshot
I don’t mention the app as much as [Highland](https://quoteunquoteapps.com/highland-2/) or [Weekend Read](https://quoteunquoteapps.com/weekendread/), but Bronson has become the go-to app for a lot of productions in Hollywood. If you’ve received a watermarked script in the past few years, there’s a very good chance it was created with Bronson.

Bronson is available in the [Mac App Store](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bronson-watermarker-pdf/id881629098?mt=12).

Weekend Read can read scripts aloud

Apps, Fountain, Weekend Read

[Weekend Read](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/weekend-read/id502725173?mt=8), our app for reading screenplays on the iPhone and iPad, can also read them aloud. Here’s how to do it.

Ask Siri to “speak screen.” If you don’t already have Speech turned on, Siri will offer a link to the proper settings page:

siri setting

Tap Open Settings, then switch on Speak Screen.

speech settings

While you’re here, you can also choose a speaking voice in the Voices menu.

Then go back to Weekend Read and open a script.

To have it start reading aloud, swipe down from the top of the screen with two fingers, or just ask Siri to “speak screen.”

A set of controls appears, allowing you jump forward and back paragraphs, and adjust the reading speed.

speech HUD

Once you start it speaking, you can even change apps and it will keep going.

How did we do it? Honestly, we didn’t have to do a lot.

Almost all of this is built-in functionality provided by Apple’s Accessibility features. Behind the scenes, Weekend Read converts everything to Fountain, a plain-text format that feeds right into the system. By keeping it simple (and not cheating with view controllers) it just works.

For an upcoming version of Weekend Read, we’re working on small improvements such as “Mary says” and automatic expansion of abbreviations like “INT” and “V.O.”

You can find Weekend Read in the [App Store](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/weekend-read/id502725173?mt=8).

NDAs and other acronyms

Episode - 213

Go to Archive

Film Industry, Follow Up, Formatting, International, QandA, Scriptnotes, Transcribed, Weekend Read, WGA

Craig and John open the mailbag to answer questions on acronyms in dialogue, off-the-air specs and international WGA jurisdiction. Plus we look at the growing trend of non-disclosure agreements on studio projects, and whether the nature of film requires less complex characters.

The big news: we have new Scriptnotes t-shirts! They’re available only by pre-order, and only for a short time. Join us at the store as we talk through the three designs, ranging from the classic logo, to vintage Camp Scriptnotes to an all-new Three-Act Structure blueprint by listener Taino Soba. Orders must be in by THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17th. (Link below)

Links:

* [Scriptnotes shirts are available for pre-order in the John August Store](http://store.johnaugust.com/)
* [Dewalt hex bit set](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000628SO2/?tag=johnaugustcom-20) and a [magnetic bit extensions set](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004V3TQP2/?tag=johnaugustcom-20)
* This is the last week of the summer for [Featured Fridays](http://johnaugust.com/2015/weekend-read-featured-fridays) on [Weekend Read](http://quoteunquoteapps.com/weekendread/)
* Scriptnotes, 130: [Period space](http://johnaugust.com/2014/period-space)
* [South Park popularity is soaring in Taiwan](http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2000-12-28/features/0012280062_1_taiwan-south-park-four-musketeers) from The Baltimore Sun
* [Non-disclosure agreements](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-disclosure_agreement) on Wikipedia
* Screenwriting.io on [handling numbers in dialogue](http://screenwriting.io/how-should-you-handle-numbers-or-confusing-jargon-in-dialogue/)
* Screenwriting.io on [spec scripts](http://screenwriting.io/what-is-a-%E2%80%9Cspec-script%E2%80%9D/)
* Scriptnotes, 11: [How movie money works](http://johnaugust.com/2011/how-movie-money-works)
* [Dead Synchronicity](http://www.deadsynchronicity.com/en/home/)
* [Mr. Robot](http://www.usanetwork.com/mrrobot) on USA
* [Outro](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-the-outros) by Duncan Pflaster ([send us yours!](http://johnaugust.com/2014/outros-needed))

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_213.m4a) | [mp3](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_213.mp3).

**UPDATE 9-3-15:** The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2015/scriptnotes-ep-213-ndas-and-other-acronyms-transcript).

Weekend Read gains new features, fixes an annoying bug

Apps, Weekend Read

Weekend Read 1.5.4, [available now](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/weekend-read/id502725173?mt=8), adds optional push notifications for new scripts in the For Your Consideration section. It also fixes a really annoying bug where the app might insist that your library was full when it wasn’t.

It’s a free update for all users.

We’ve been adding a lot of new scripts recently — but you could easily miss them if you’re not checking the app every day. With push notifications turned on, you’ll get a banner telling you the moment there’s something new to download.

And there’s a lot to download. Each Friday this summer, we’re putting up new scripts in the Featured Friday section. These scripts are only available for the weekend, so you don’t want to miss them.

Tomorrow’s theme is Pilots, and includes early drafts of shows you’ve seen plus unproduced work from the Black List.

### Keeping count

For the past few weeks, nearly 100% of our support emails were a version of the following:

> I love Weekend Read, but it keeps telling me my library is full when I only have one (or two, or zero) scripts in it. Help!

No matter what we did, we couldn’t reproduce the error. We could offer affected users a fix — delete the app and reinstall it — but that didn’t solve the underlying problem.

Nima finally figured out what was wrong. Because of an API change, scripts imported directly from Mail were getting double-counted. Even when they were deleted, the count was wrong.

The fix took several weeks, then several minutes, but now it’s done.

You can find Weekend Read [on the App Store](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/weekend-read/id502725173?mt=8).