John August

John

Roaring, just a little more quietly

Broadway

The long-running Broadway production of The Lion King put on a special matinee for [autistic children and their families](http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/03/parents-and-kids-say-they-appreciated-autism-friendly-lion-king-matinee/?hpw):

> The company of “The Lion King” and a panel of autism experts collaborated on ways to slightly modify the show to make sure autistic children did not have negative reactions to loud or sudden sound or light cues. The volume in the opening number and other scenes, including the sound of a roar, was turned down. All strobe lights and lighting that panned into the house were cut. The sound and light reductions were done electronically so that neither the actors nor the orchestra had to tone down their performances.

> […]

> Off stage, there were small activity and quiet areas were set up in the lobby for children who needed a break from the show. Volunteers from local autism organizations were on hand to offer assistance. Victor Irving, the Minskoff’s house manager, said he asked the pedicab drivers who park outside the Minskoff to refrain from ringing their bike bells.

Such a good idea.

(/via [Lazy Reviewer](http://lazybookreviews.tumblr.com/))

Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

News

Without Steve Jobs, we’d still have computers and mobile phones and other wonderful devices. But they’d be different.

In most cases, worse. But certainly different.

As I look around, most of the gizmos I use to do my work (and avoid my work) exist because of Steve Jobs. He didn’t design them or code them, but he willed them into being.

People talk about his reality distortion field, but I think they’re misapplying the term: his gravity bent the path of technology. He made his vision reality.

I never met him. But I’m deeply sad to lose him because we will collectively miss out on his next big ideas.

His death is like losing a great filmmaker. We celebrate the work he created, but regret what he didn’t get to finish. There will never be another One More Thing.

I think that’s what I’m feeling most: a sense that the future won’t be quite as amazing as it could have been.

How kids become screenwriters

Episode - 6

Go to Archive

Scriptnotes, Television, Transcribed

John and Craig look at the new fall shows and how little kids become screenwriters, with discussion of D&D, Malcolm Gladwell and daisy-wheel printers.

For this installment, I wanted to focus on how people become screenwriters. Not “how to” — there are countless terrible books on that. Rather, what is it that calls people to such an atypical career, one that you can’t necessarily practice as a child or learn all at once in college?

Links:

* ABC’s [Once Upon a Time](http://abc.go.com/shows/once-upon-a-time)
* NBC’s [Grimm](http://www.nbc.com/grimm/)
* CW’s [Ringer](http://www.cwtv.com/shows/ringer) and its non-credible [boat scene](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAmIOPW_1Ow)
* Fox’s [New Girl](http://www.fox.com/new-girl/)
* [Dungeons and Dragons, 4th Edition](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editions_of_Dungeons_%26_Dragons#Dungeons_.26_Dragons_4th_edition)
* John Rogers’s great [D&D comics](https://shop.idwpublishing.com/dungeons-and-dragons-1-5-subscription.html)
* The [Marvel Super Heroes RPG](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Super_Heroes_(role-playing_game))
* [Daisy wheel printers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_wheel_printer)
* Intro: [NBC Fall Promo, 1980](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-00NHiBMXL0)
* Outro: [Russian Unicorn](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjaZNYSt7o0) by BLS

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_06.m4a).

UPDATE 10-11-11: The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2011/scriptnotes-ep-6-how-kids-become-screenwriters-transcript).

How The Sopranos killed The Godfather

Television

Peter Aspden remembers when TV wasn’t art, and certainly wasn’t something to [talk about seriously](http://www.slate.com/id/2304569/pagenum/all/):

> When I was growing up in the 1970s, the lowliest form of cultural consumption was to stay home and watch television. All other art forms, any other art forms, were fine. To have made the effort to leave the house, travel to a temple of culture and see a performance or exhibition was proof of a refined engagement with the arts. To slouch on a sofa and be in thrall to a grotesque diet of cop shows, quizzes and soap operas was to opt out of culture altogether. […]

> How different things are today. At the beginning of the 21st century, there is nothing sharper in the cultural firmament than American television writing. You don’t have to brave the multiplex or pay exorbitant theatre ticket prices to watch the most compelling drama, the most scabrous satire, the most committed actors. […] The ultimate act of cultural immersion used to involve going to see a Polish mime troupe in a downtown warehouse that couldn’t afford its heating bills. Today, it is to sink into a DVD box set for an evening of home-comfort transcendence.

It’s an oft-made point, but: the main reason you don’t find many big-budget feature dramas — or even breakout indie dramas — is that cable television has sucked away that audience. It’s a vicious circle: feature dramas tank, which makes studios even more reluctant to greenlight them, so the audience who would see them stays home and enjoys another excellent season of Mad Men.

But for writers, it’s not altogether bad. If you wanted to make a story like The Godfather today, would you do it as a feature or an HBO series?

Sure, I’d love for Hollywood to make more serious feature dramas, but I wouldn’t give them up for the outstanding series we have on TV right now.