Screenwriter and author John August

A DM’s guide to Roll20

September 5, 2020 Geek Alert, Software, Tools

Since the start of the pandemic, our regular D&D game — which has always been in person — has shifted to online. We use Zoom to chat, and [Roll20](https://roll20.net) to simulate the tabletop.

I’m comfortable using Roll20 as a player, but when it came time to begin planning my own campaign as a DM, I was stumped. The interface is wildly confusing, and the built-in tutorials aren’t up to the task.

Craig offered to walk me through the process of setting up and running a game. We recorded the whole thing, which is [now available as five videos](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa3qqbMuNy-r-ZvH7UiX_OyW03ymY6axK).

If you’re considering DMing a game in Roll20, I strongly suggest you start here. Craig’s a good teacher.

Questions! Or You’ve Got Moxie

Episode - 466

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September 1, 2020 News, Scriptnotes

John and Craig tackle their overflowing mailbag to answer some long-delayed listener questions on subtext, divorce, set decoration, and more!

We also follow up on news about management companies and how this affects writers.

Finally, in our bonus segment for premium members, we’ll talk about headshots and our experiences getting our photos taken.

Links:

* [Pete Micelli/Steve Cohen Management Launch Adds WME’s Rich Cook, UTA’s Roussos, Fox, Mckinnies, Moorhead To CAA’s Whigham, Sullivan, Bugliari, Cooper](https://deadline.com/2020/08/pete-micelli-caa-agents-jack-whigham-mick-sullivan-david-bugliari-michael-cooper-new-production-mangement-venture-1203021172/)
* [The Great Agency Exodus: Top Reps Flee the Majors As Management Civil War Looms](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/the-great-agency-exodus-top-reps-flee-the-majors-as-management-civil-war-looms)
* [After Agency Exodus, New Firm Pitches Investors On Star-Driven Production “Cash Cow” (Exclusive)](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/after-agency-exodus-new-firm-pitches-investors-on-star-driven-production-cash-cow)
* [Batman Teaser](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blN6BrhVKyU)
* [Mike Selinker on Twitter](https://twitter.com/mikeselinker/status/1297590513730650112)
* [Zionor Swim Goggles](https://amzn.to/2EFZghH)
* [Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything](https://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/tashas-cauldron-everything)
* [Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!](https://cottonbureau.com/people/scriptnotes-podcast)
* [John August](https://twitter.com/johnaugust) on Twitter
* [Craig Mazin](https://twitter.com/clmazin) on Twitter
* [John on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/johnaugust/?hl=en)
* [Outro](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-the-outros) by Rajesh Naroth ([send us yours!](http://johnaugust.com/2014/outros-needed))
* Scriptnotes is produced by Megana Rao and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode [here](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/466standard.mp3).

**UPDATE 9-8-20** The transcript for this episode can now be found [here](https://johnaugust.com/2020/scriptnotes-episode-466-questions-or-youve-got-moxie-transcript).

Let’s make a Fountain block for WordPress

August 27, 2020 Geek Alert, Projects, Scrippets, Software

Way back in 2008, I [announced a plugin for WordPress](https://johnaugust.com/2008/scrippets-are-go) that made it easy to insert short bits of screenplay-like material into a blog post.

EXT. HOUSE -- DAY

Max is checking his mail when he spots neighbor FRANK crossing the street, heading his way.

Shaking his head...

MAX

I thought we talked about this, Frank.

FRANK

(drunk)

I was born naked and I’m not changing now.

I called these chunks “scrippets.” This plain-text format ultimately became [Fountain](http://fountain.io), which in turn became the basis of [Highland](http://highland2.com) and other screenwriting apps. ((One of the coders who put together the WordPress plugin was Nima Yousefi, who has now coded nearly everything we’ve made.))

The Scrippets plugin still works — you can [install it today](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-scrippets/) — but WordPress has moved on to the concept of “blocks.” These are discrete elements of a post that can do specific things. You can find blocks for [code syntax](https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-editor/blocks/code-block/), [tables](https://wordpress.org/support/article/table-block/), and even [poetry verse](https://wpcompendium.org/create-posts/verse-block/).

There should be one for Fountain.

If you’re a WordPress coder who’d like to tackle this project, here are some thoughts to get you started.

1. Visit [Fountain.io/developer](https://fountain.io/developers) and the [GitHub](https://github.com/nyousefi/Fountain) for implementations of the parser.
2. While I’d love to support the whole Fountain spec, I’m not convinced title pages and headers/footers make sense for this use case.
3. Notes and synopses are super useful. We’ll want to style them so they’re visually distinct.
4. Forced elements are very important. Blog posts often center on weird edge cases, and international users may need to force character names like @黄.
5. Ultimately, it’ll be best if there’s one “official” Fountain block plugin, but if multiple people decide to tackle it, my team and I can help coordinate.
6. This would be presumably be GPL licensed. This is for the good of the internet, not any one company or person.

So if you feel like giving it a shot, go for it! You certainly don’t need our permission.

If you have something you’d like us to see, or a question we can answer, write ask@johnaugust.com

General meetings don’t have to be general

August 21, 2020 Film Industry, Pitch Session, Producers, Psych 101

I like this [advice from Jeff Nathanson](https://www.wga.org/news-events/news/connect/ask-a-mentor-make-your-meetings-count):

> It took me well over a decade to realize that general meetings are only general if I allowed them to be. And so, I changed my approach. I figured as long as I’m putting on a clean shirt and meeting with people who have the ability to hire me, I might as well try like hell to get a job.

> I started to prepare for every general as if it would be my last. I would tailor a short pitch for specific executives (even when I was told not to pitch an idea). I would do my research, find out what movies they had in production, what scripts they were struggling with.

> I asked questions, tried to cut through the general conversation and discuss passion projects. I asked studio executives about obscure titles they had in their library. And suddenly I started walking out with scripts under my arms, books to read, magazine articles they had optioned.

This approach makes even more sense in the age of Zoom. You need to be able to move pretty quickly from chit-chat to what you’d like to write, be it a property they control or something of your own.

This isn’t the time for a full pitch, but rather to frame an idea. “I really love heist movies. I’m working on one set on a super tanker. I’ve gone deep down the rabbit hole of research on it.”

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