John August

Follow Up

Spring Cleaning results

Follow Up, Meta

spring cleaningI’m making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS. It’s hard to overstate my satisfaction with our first-ever spring cleaning challenge. Readers have spotted issues with roughly one-third of our 1,440 posts, which we’ll be resolving over the next few weeks.

We’ll be keeping the spring cleaning flags available another week or two, but I consider the contest portion complete. More than 40 different users submitted reports. Thanks to all of them.

In the end, our top ten spring cleaners caught 92% of the bugs:

Name Flagged Posts
Lauren Ocean 104
Tyler Leisher 89
Jared 59
Patrick Bowman 45
Peter 43
Ryan Stauffer 39
Matt 34
Chris 15
Mike 10
Shaun McKinnon 8

Lauren Ocean and Tyler Leisher were the top two throughout, pulling far ahead of the pack. They’ll both get Related Schwag Prizes, with Lauren getting first pick.

What people found
—-

The biggest issue readers encountered was [link rot](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_rot). Many utilities can detect when a link is dead, but it takes human eyes to recognize when a functional link is now pointing somewhere unintended, such as a general catch-all page. This often happens when a domain is sold, or the underlying CMS changes.

In most cases, we’ve simply removed the bad link. Other times, we’ve found a better source for what was there.

A thornier issue was what to do with posts that were out of date. A one-sentence post from 2008 explaining that I was [too sick to picket](http://johnaugust.com/2008/condition-marginal) doesn’t seem have a lot of value. No reader is likely to find that useful on its own. But as part of the larger context of [all my posts about the WGA strike](http://johnaugust.com/strike), it has some historical value. So I’ve kept it.

Some older posts had formatting issues arising from a long-ago change in character encoding. These are the happiest problems, as global search-and-replace can work wonders.

What’s next
—-

Several users wanted the opportunity to rate articles, so that other readers might come across the “greatest hits.” That’s certainly something we’ll try.

It’s also clear that the site’s blogginess can make it harder to find answers to very basic questions, like “How long is a screenplay?” I have some ideas for addressing this Screenwriting 101 material in ways that won’t dumb down the site for normal readers.

Sincere thanks again to everyone who participated in helping polish the site.

One sample, cont’d

Follow Up, Television

Several readers questioned my advice to [write a TV spec](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2011/when-you-only-have-one-sample#comments):

> I’m just curious as to why you suggested they write a TV script, since he had mentioned the only thing they’d written is one feature and I saw no mention of an interest in writing for TV.

TV scripts are shorter and faster to write. Jason and his writing partner need more writing samples, stat. This will be a quicker way to get something else on paper that shows their chops.

But in a bigger sense, *of course* they should consider writing television. So should every aspiring screenwriter. In 2011, the best writing happens in TV, not features. There are more opportunities, and better finished products.

Across the board — one-hours and half-hours, network and cable — we’ve never had this kind of quality. Why would you sit out?

Agents and managers are looking for clients that can work. While staffing is tough, television quadruples the number of chances to get their clients gainfully employed. Yes, there used to be a bias against hiring TV writers for features. I think that’s all but evaporated. Many if not most screenwriters play in both sandboxes.

So unless Jason and his writing partner are features-or-bust, they should be thinking television in addition to features.

New dates for Anatomy of a Script

Big Fish, Follow Up, News

Because of a travel situation, I had to swap dates for my [Anatomy of a Script](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2011/anatomy-of-a-script-series) session on Big Fish. I’ll be coming two weeks later.

__March 16:__ Will now be Mike Werb & Michael Colleary on Face/Off (screening at 4:45 pm)

__March 30:__ Will now be me talking about Big Fish (screening at 5:00 pm)

Winnie Holzman (Wicked, My So-Called Life) and Robin Schiff (Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion) are hosting on behalf of the Writers Guild Foundation.

[Tickets](https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/155452) should still be available.

If you purchased tickets for the original date, and now can’t make it, call 323-782-4692. Sorry to reschedule. I promise it’s a really good reason.

Young vs. new

First Person, Follow Up

A reader follows up about [yesterday’s post](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2011/looking-for-more-first-people):

> Just wondering if you meant “young women directors,” or “NEWCOMER women directors.” Because of course women have been so underrepresented, many of the new ones aren’t young in years anymore. And there’s nothing ageist in any of the other categories.

I meant young. I’m curious about the experience of women who make films in their late teens and early 20s. We hear a lot about the equivalent male directors, enough that the occasional distaff exception (e.g. Lena Dunham) is genuinely newsworthy.

But the point is well-taken: “young” is often used in Hollywood when “new,” “green” or “inexpensive” would be better choices.

This actually happened, I swear, at lunch in 2001:

FAMOUS PRODUCER

Let’s see, what else. Oh! We just got the rights to (interesting project).

ME

I saw that in the trades. Congrats.

FAMOUS PRODUCER

Studio’s really excited. They see it as a franchise. Starting to look for a writer.

ME

It’s a tough one. It’s out there. I think I’ve seen every episode.

FAMOUS PRODUCER

(realizing)

Oh, you’d be great. Obviously. But I think we’re going for a younger writer.

A beat.

ME (V.O.)

I’m thirty.

The producer meant “less expensive.” Mostly.

Since a screenwriter’s price tends to rise with his credits, and it takes years to build those credits, young writers tend to be cheaper. They’re paid less because they have less of a track record.

In a moment of unusual candor, the producer could have said, “We’re looking for an inexperienced writer — or better yet, a team — with maybe one produced credit who will work tirelessly and bend to the studio’s will, without complaint, all for right around scale.”

But she didn’t say that. She said, “young.”