John August

John

All the easy answers

QandA

Sometimes I worry that my site has gotten too inside-baseball with its discussions of esoteric screenwriting terms, software tools and film industry economics.

Is this stuff even accessible to a newbie?

A quick visit to the mailbag is reassuring. Newcomers don’t seem intimidated. For example, this email came just moments ago:

> Dear John August,

> or whomever will read this,

> I have a few questions, I have come up with a great idea for a movie and I am wondering how to get the idea out there.

> I want to write a script for the movie. I can vision it so perfectly in my mind. How much do I need to type up? How can I get it copyrighted? Where do I go from there?

> My idea is to send it straight to the movie companies but is that the best choice? I need some info on it. If something could be set up how long would it take and how fast would this screenplay/script need to be written.

> I am looking forward to a response.

You’ve got the movie in your head, so just write as much as feel like writing. Spelling doesn’t matter, but illustrations will help the director see what you want.

When you’re finished, put your script/screenplay in an envelope addressed to Hollywood. You don’t need an address. It’s like sending a letter to Santa at the North Pole — the post office knows where to deliver it.

You’ll get your check in about three weeks.

Hollywood by the numbers

Film Industry, Geek Alert

Give Horace Dediu a bunch of Hollywood data and he’ll make [some great charts](http://www.asymco.com/2012/02/07/hollywood-by-the-numbers/) that test your hunches.

For example, it’s very unlikely to have a $200 million blockbuster outside the summer or Christmas windows:

blockbuster seasons

(That outlier from 2004 is [The Passion of the Christ](http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=passionofthechrist.htm).)

Deidu asks a question I’d never considered: How feasible is it for an outside company to become a major distributor?

> The top five [studios] were earning 64% of revenues in 1975 and the top five were earning 60% in 2011. One of the top five from 1975 is no longer in the running this year (MGM) and one new major was added (Buena Vista, owned by Disney).

> There has been one other notable change: Columbia was acquired by Sony but stayed out of the top 5. Beside Disney there is one new significant entrant in Dreamworks gaining share in the last decade.

> But the prevailing impression from the data is that the incumbents remained as such during the last four decades. There are many small studios but they have not “disrupted” the market by shifting significant revenues out of the hands of the majors.

The same big studios have been dominating the business for *forty years.* That’s remarkable stability for an industry that feels so tumultuous.

Dediu’s [whole analysis](http://www.asymco.com/2012/02/07/hollywood-by-the-numbers/) is worth a look. Or a semester’s study.

Convert old Final Draft files, in five clever-but-tedious steps

Follow Up, Geek Alert, Screenwriting Software

Last week, I [urged](http://johnaugust.com/2012/pricing-fdx-reader) Final Draft to release a free converter app to let screenwriters move their old-and-busted .fdr files to the newer .fdx format.

A reader wrote in to say that Final Draft already has one. Sort of.

The evaluation version of Final Draft 8 — which supports both .fdr and .fdx — is free on the Final Draft website.

You can open an .fdr file, then save it as .fdx. The problem is, the evaluation version is limited to 15 pages.

[Mac Harwood](http://MacHarwood.blogspot.com/) has a solution:

> 1. Select the menu Format > Elements to bring up the Elements dialog box.
> 2. In the Font tab, select ‘Set Font’ and change the font size to ’1′.
> 3. Then press Apply Font/Size to all elements.
> 4. In the Paragraph tab, set ‘Space before’ to be 0, and then do the same for each element.

> Now the 200 page epic will only be a few pages, which you can save with the evaluation version.

This works, but the resulting file is a mess of tiny letters. His fix:

> Just open up the created .fdx file in your favourite text editor (I use Notepad++) and do a search and replace for all occurrences of “Size=1″ to a blank. Then save.

This workflow could save your life if you were stuck somewhere with an .fdr file and no way to open it, but it’s hardly a practical solution for screenwriters staring at folders full of old files. ((If someone out there finds a way to automate this crazy workflow, let me know.))

Erik Harrison offers a possible explanation for why a Final Draft converter isn’t forthcoming:

> There probably ISN’T a file format [for .fdr]. It’s likely just a binary dump of the state of internal memory at the time of save. Certainly that was true of a lot of word processors I used in the old day, and even still is true for Word in some senses.

If that’s the case, it helps explain why the new iPad app doesn’t support .fdr. In order to support the old format, the app would have to duplicate way too much of the full Final Draft.

In defense of Liz Lemon

Television

Linda Holmes worries that 30 Rock has [infantilized Liz Lemon](http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2012/02/09/146626983/the-incredible-shrinking-liz-lemon-from-woman-to-little-girl):

> Over the course of six seasons, Jack has been fully transformed into a condescending, all-knowing daddy, and Liz has been fully transformed into a needy little girl who is eternally terrified of displeasing him. She’s always had a grudging respect for him, but now she simply reveres him and trusts his judgment more than hers. She was once frazzled but smart, harried but competent, capable of wrangling a bunch of crazy people and then slumping at the end of the day, exhausted but minimally victorious. Now, she’s just dumb, incapable of making her own decisions, and her relationship with Jack is entirely out of balance.

I disagree. Holmes is cherry-picking her Liz/Jack moments to make her case.

While there’s always been a paternal dynamic to their relationship, over the last season or two we’ve seen Jack relying on Liz for emotional support while dealing with corporate changes and marriage. He’s stopped referring to her as a mentee and started calling her a friend.

Is their friendship weird? Sure. But he’s her boss, and that’s comedy.

This season’s [fifth episode](http://www.hulu.com/watch/324194/30-rock-today-you-are-a-man#s-p1-so-i0) centered on contract negotiations between Liz and Jack:

JACK

(crying into his hand)

I want to be a baby again!

LIZ

No, no, no! Look, you won! I’ll sign whatever! Just don’t cry. Daddy doesn’t cry.

JACK

Do you know why I lost earlier? Because of our friendship. I want you to have everything, and that made me make a mistake. In other words, I lost because of emotion, which I always thought was a weakness, but now I’ve learned can also be a weapon.

[...]

LIZ

Wow. After six years, there’s still room for growth in this friendship.

That last line was delivered with a wink and a nod to camera, as if Fey had already read Holmes’ critique. (Or a set of network notes.)

Rewatch the pilot. It’s not great, as Tiny Fey is happy to point out. 30 Rock only found its groove once they committed to the fact Liz wasn’t the nice, normal girl surrounded by crazy people. She’s deeply odd herself, and not just in flashbacks.

Still: We want good things to happen for Liz Lemon, because we like her. But she’s not Mary Tyler Moore. The question isn’t whether she’s going to make it after all — partly because it’s not at all clear what “making it” would entail. The healthiest thing for the character would be to run far, far away.

But then there wouldn’t be a show.