John August

John

What an undergrad degree is worth

Education

From today’s [USA Today](http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/college/2009-08-30-college-costs-recession_N.htm):

> Darla Horn, 26, acknowledges she didn’t give much thought to the cost of college when she enrolled at State University of New York in Purchase. […] Because she didn’t qualify for financial aid, she took out student loans, graduating in 2005 with a double major in journalism and anthropology and more than $80,000 in debt.

That’s way too much debt for an anthro-journalist. But is it too much for an engineer? Is it too much for an actuary?

When I was buying a house, the rule of thumb was that you could afford a home three to four times your annual income. It feels like there should be an equivalent rule of thumb for how much you can spend on your education versus average salary of your studied profession. Or, hell, a web calculator.

In a few minutes of Googling, the closest I could find was this:

> **Don’t take out more student loans than what you expect to make in the first year.** This rule of thumb puts a reasonable upper limit on how much in student loans you should take out, which is a good thing, but doesn’t paint the whole picture.

There are some jobs (like screenwriting) in which starting salary is almost impossible to predict, and others (like law) in which salary goes up quickly based on experience. But rules of thumb are helpful *because* they simplify things, and this one seems a good start.

By this measure, an actuary could take out about $50,000 in loans, while an electrical engineer could feel okay taking on $55,000 in debt. Darla, meanwhile, should have capped her loans at $33,000. (All salary estimates from [PayScale](http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Actuary/Salary).)

What often gets lost in these discussions is that relatively few students end up paying full freight. For four-year, private American universities, the [average tuition discount rate](http://www.nacubo.org/Research/News/Newly_Released_NACUBO_Tuition_Discounting_Survey_Report_Shows_Rates_Remain_Stable.html) for fall 2007 was 39.1%. The price on the sticker isn’t necessarily the price you pay.

But if you’re looking to study a low-paying field, do Future You a favor by being honest about the cost.

How I Became a Famous Novelist

Books, News

book cover
Add this book to your late-summer reading: How I Became a Famous Novelist,
by Steve Hely. It’s fast, funny, and will likely become the next movie I write and direct.

Here’s the official press release, with additional commentary:

> LOS ANGELES, CA (August 3, 2009) – Filmmaker John August has optioned How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely through his company Quote-Unquote Films. August optioned the hilarious novel with an eye to adapt and direct. The novel, published by Grove/Atlantic, has garnered excelled reviews across the board and was Amazon’s July 2009 title of the month.

The great reviews include one by [Janet Maslin in the NY Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/13/books/13maslin.html), who quotes so many funny lines from the book that you might worry she’s spoiling it. She isn’t. She can’t.

Hely’s book has an unbelievably high joke-to-page ratio, the literary equivalent of a 30 Rock episode. (Which seems fitting, since Hely is now a writer on that show.)

> The book tells the story of Pete Tarslaw, an ambitiously underachieving college grad who writes a shamelessly maudlin and derivative Great American Novel for the sole purpose of upstaging his ex-girlfriend’s wedding. When the book becomes a bestseller, he finds himself sucked into a strange coterie of mega-authors and their attendants.

I wrote that summary, but it omits something that makes reading the book so worthwhile: excerpts from all the other mega-authors’ books, such as *Teeth of the Winged Lion* by Nick Boyle. It’s hard to write well, but writing badly well is a special talent.

The book also features special publishing-related miscellany, such as this [fake New York Times Bestsellers list](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/marketing/abna/Hely-NYT-list.pdf), which even includes “Great Fish.”

> On the title, August said “It’s the funniest thing I’ve read in a really long time. Like Go, it’s about thinking you have the system all figured out, realizing you don’t, then faking it. Characters who do the wrong things for misguided reasons are the heart of comedy.”

Let’s break down my quote.

First, I restate that the book is funny, in case that gets dropped out of any stories based on the press release.

Second, I refer back to an earlier comedy I wrote, because a lot of folks might think of my credits as being more funny-peculiar than funny-ha-ha.

Finally, I try to restate the premise in a way that seems more universal: it’s not a funny book about books; it’s a funny book about a guy on a journey.

> Why he bought it himself: “It’s the kind of book I could hear studios saying is too smart. I knew I’d spend many meetings convincing them that it wasn’t nearly as smart as they thought it was. So I’d rather just give them a script so they can see what it is.”

There’s stuff in the book that’s funny only because it’s in a book, such as those great excerpts. The danger is that a studio exec reading it says, “Well, that part’s not cinematic.” And it’s true, some parts won’t translate as a movie.

But the premise, the characters and the plot of the book all translate really well. It’s better for me to show what I *can* do in a script than focus on what I can’t bring over from the book.

> Ken Richman, Esq, negotiated on behalf of August with Anna DeRoy of WME handling the novel.

It’s the first book rights I’ve bought since Big Fish in 1999 — and technically that was Sony buying it for me.

In case you think that this was all Hollywood-insider dealmaking, let me talk you through the process.

In May, I was in New York, working on a yet-to-be-announced project. The hotel I was staying at had USA Today, which I don’t normally read. But I happened to spot [this article](http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2009-05-06-summer-books-hely_N.htm) describing Hely’s soon-to-be-published book, and thought it sounded funny.

So I tracked down Pete Tarslaw’s blog on Google, figured it was probably Hely, and emailed asking for an advance copy:

> hey steve hely, can I get an advance copy of your book?

> By description, it sounds very, very great.

> — John August, the screenwriter

> ps. I will also pester you on Facebook.

He sent me the book. I read it the next day. A week later, I met with him at Susina, the coffeeshop featured in The Nines. Lawyers started talking, and eventually we got a deal in place. (So yes, there was Hollywood dealmaking. But it came very late in the process.)

As far as making a movie, that process is just starting now. I’ll be writing a draft, and then figuring out the how/when/where/who.

In the meantime, read his book. It is available pretty much everywhere, but it’s [cheap on Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0802170609?ie=UTF8&tag=johnaugustcom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0802170609) ($10.98), and only [$8.80 on Kindle](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002DR48HY?ie=UTF8&tag=johnaugustcom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002DR48HY).

Now that’s a gunfight

Genres, Words on the page

I’m busy working on Preacher, and it’s no spoiler to say that it features a gunfight or two. Last night, I [twittered to ask](http://twitter.com/johnaugust/status/2627321991) what people’s favorite gunfights were, Western or otherwise.

I got a lot of replies, but one name that kept coming up was Michael Mann. He consistently finds ways to send thousands of bullets flying while acknowledging the rules of physics. ((I have nothing against impossible gunfights like in The Matrix, Equilibrium or Wanted, but I’m trying to keep to keep this one a bit more grounded.))

I haven’t seen Public Enemies yet, but this clip shows the feeling he creates:

But when you’re talking about Michael Mann gunfights, you really have to discuss Heat. Here’s the showstopper:

I looked up Mann’s [screenplay for Heat](http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/Heat.pdf), to see what that looked like on the page.

Mann uses a lot of sluglines and short sentences to create the tempo of the fight. It’s chaos, and that’s reflected in the writing. He’s inconsistent with scene headers, and not especially concerned with establishing geography.

It doesn’t matter: action writing needs to create the feeling of an action sequence, not choreograph each bullet.

Bosko’s moving 90 degrees to the right, crossing the street. There would be no, there was no, and there never is any, warning. Neil Hanna and Schwartz with 12- gauges OPEN FIRE. World War III ERUPTS. Now we hear distant POLICE SIRENS.

CHRIS

is hit in the neck.

NEIL’S

FIRING 3-SHOT BURSTS that blow up Schwartz and a lamppost and hit a woman who falls over her shopping cart, shrieking. Hanna’s behind the lamppost.

BOSKO

across the street with his AR-180, opens up on the station wagon which takes HITS. A BLACK AND WHITE slides sideways and COP #1 with a shotgun runs across the street hollering at kids who stop and stare and drop school books.

COP # 1

Drop! Drop down!

CERRITO

over the station wagon roof FIRES a BURST at Bosko, then swings onto Cop #1 and fires, killing him. Cerrito jumps into the wagon.

THE STREET – WIDE: A BUS

The driver panics and slams on his brakes and his bus full of people stalls in the combat zone between Bosko and the wagon.

BOSKO (O.S.)

(screams)

Get the bus out of here...

NEIL

shielded by the green bag of money which has taken hits, FIRES at Hanna and backs to Chris.

HANNA

pulls Schwartz to cover.

CHRIS

dazed – holding his bleeding neck while Neil FIRES into the parking lot...

PARKING LOT

...hitting Casals getting out of his car. Casals sits down as if stunned.

MAN

pulling his car out of the lot ducks behind the wheel and crashes it into a parked car.

EXT. BANK – CERRITO

CERRITO

(to Neil)

C’mon! C’mon! C’mon!

Neil can’t rake it through the incoming FIRE from Hanna and Cop #2 to the station wagon and Cerrito and knows it.

NEIL

(to Breedan and Cerrito)

Go!! Go!!

ON STATION WAGON

Breedan floors it.

HANNA

re-emerges, kneels and PUMPS SHOTS into the station wagon.

BOSKO

rounds the bus with the AR-180 and OPENS UP

STATION WAGON

draws everyone’s FIRE. Breedan ducks and pilots it through the gauntlet.

NEIL

has taken off down the sidewalk, supporting Chris. TIGHTEN. He runs in among crowds of civilians. He knocks over a man, breaks through. People are screaming, staring, shocked.

INT. STATION WAGON – BREEDAN

getting BLOWN APART by Hanna, Bosko, and Cop #2 falls over the wheel and then is thrown back.

EXT. STREET – STATION WAGON

tires are BLOWN OUT.

It spins across the street on steel rims and crashes sideways into a parked car on the east side of Hawthorne.

INT. STATION WAGON – CERRITO

shot three times, holds his abdomen and bails, returning FIRE. Breedan, like a rag doll is half over into the rear seat and still being hit by more rounds. We HOLD on David Breedan. He’s dead.

CUT TO:

EXT. SIDE STREET – CERRITO

east up a side street past people who stand on their lawns and stare – traumatized.

WIDER

Bosko and Cop #3 chase Cerrito. Cerrito FIRES a long BURST. They can’t fire back because of the people.

CUT TO:

EXT. SAFEWAY – TRACKING NEIL + CHRIS – DAY

and the money – running, skipping and dodging past all manner of pedestrians, newspaper coin boxes, fruit vendors and parking meters. People dodge, scream and fall down. It’s chaos.

TRACKING HANNA

a half block behind, chasing Neil – pushing through the same people.

HANNA

(shouts at pedestrians)

Get down! Get down!

EXT. SAFEWAY PARKING LOT – NEIL + CHRIS

Neil – supporting Chris – throws a lady, who was getting out, back into her Olds Cutlass. He dumps Chris and the money in the back seat and turns on Hanna.

NEIL

extends the collapsible stock braces on the roof for accuracy and FIRES over the roof of other cars and through people at Hanna closing in 5o yards away.

CUT TO:

EXT. SAFEWAY – HANNA + CIVILIANS

who panic. SHOOTING. Windows EXPLODE. A lady holds her ears and shrieks. A newspaper coin box SHATTERS. A man’s bag of groceries explode milk and eggs everywhere. He goes down.

HANNA

doesn’t have a clear shot and drops, dragging people down with him.

NEIL

behind the wheel – burns rubber pulling out of the lot over curbstones and through a fence into the alley.

For another example of scripting a gunfight, I’d point you back to the Alaska pilot. You can see the gunfight [here](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2009/alaska-the-satchel-boy), and read the script in the [Library](http://johnaugust.com/library).

Variant cover artwork

Formatting, QandA, The Variant

questionmarkSince you released “The Variant” independently, how’d you get the nifty cover art?

— Michael
Washington D.C.

The image comes from [stock.xchng](http://www.sxc.hu/), a photo by [Marja Flick-Buijs](http://www.sxc.hu/profile/Zela) of the Netherlands. I did the type myself. The face is Myriad.

Because Amazon scales the artwork incredibly small for some views, I fattened the type used on the Kindle version so that it would remain legible.