John August

News

The Kindle is not good for screenplays

Follow Up, Formatting, Geek Alert, News

Many friends and readers have written to ask, so I thought I’d bump this note out of the comment thread. The new Kindle is terrific for books. But it doesn’t yet handle formatted text like screenplays well at all.

This is a sample of Go, converted from pdf:

kindle screen

(I’ve gotten roughly the same results when sending it in Word format.)

Are you an unemployed coder? A wanna-be web entrepreneur? Are you Nima?

Consider this a call to adventure. I’m envisioning a web service to which you could submit (or email) a screenplay pdf (or text file) and have it sent to your Kindle, nicely formatted. Charge a nickel for it, or just do it for free until Amazon buys you out.

Top 10 movie bad-asses

News

MTV’s Movies blog asked me to come up with my choices for best movie bad-asses, which I took to encompass both heroes and villains. You can see my list [here](http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2009/02/05/john-august-picks-his-top-10-greatest-movie-badasses/).

Alaska: The Satchel Boy

Directors, News, Television


Alaska: The Satchel Boy from John August on Vimeo.

Thinking about director [Kim Manners](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2009/kim-manners), I wanted to share a scene of his I really loved from the 2003 pilot for Alaska. Kim loved a gunfight, and I felt lucky to watch him put it together.

As a wrap present, Kim gave me Connie’s crayon drawing, nicely framed. It’s hanging in my office, over my TV.

Kim Manners

News, Television

Director Kim Manners passed away on Sunday. He was a staggeringly prolific television director and producer, whose many credits included Supernatural, The X Files and the original Charlie’s Angels. He also directed the pilot for Alaska, which is how I met him. I liked him instantly. He felt like a cowboy, which made him the perfect guy to shoot a show about the wild frontier.

“Two cameras, no waiting!” he’d holler with delight as he found a spot to grab a simultaneous close-up. After a take, he’d glance over at me. Did I want another take? I could always find something I’d tweak, but Kim was smart enough to understand that TV doesn’t dick around getting everything just so. You make your days so you can make your show.

The series didn’t get picked up, and everyone went their separate ways. Yet of all the directors I’ve sat next to, I probably learned the most from him over those twelve cold days and nights in Vancouver. I regret not having the chance to tell him that.

By the accounts I’ve read, he was doing what he loved quite close to the end. That’s something we should all get. My sympathies go out to his family and the folks at Supernatural.