Transcribed

John and Craig take a detour to discuss side quests: those smaller tasks that can serve as the building blocks of a character’s journey. How do side quests differ from your hero’s primary goal? What’s the best way to use them? And how can writers make them meaningful?

We then discuss the importance of failure to the artistic process. We also follow up on graphic design for writers, spacing out TV episodes, and a Scriptnotes love story.

In our bonus segment for premium members, John and Craig put on their headsets to to talk about VR.

Links:

• Do Your Worst, Or You Might Never Do Your Best by Bridget Webber
• Why You Need to Fail TED Talk by Derek Sivers
• Artists must be allowed to make bad work by Austin Kleon
• The Museum of Failure
• For Profit: A History of Corporations by William Magnuson
• Kobo Libra 2
• Nine Days on IMDb
• Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
• Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
• Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription or treat yourself to a premium subscription!
• Craig Mazin on Instagram
• John August on Twitter
• John on Instagram
• John on Mastodon
• Outro by Daniel Green (send us yours!)
• Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt with help from Chris Csont and edited by Matthew Chilelli. Our intern is Halley Lamberson.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

UPDATE 7-5-23: The transcript for this episode can be found here.

As we reach our 600th episode, John and Craig welcome back writer and director Christopher McQuarrie (Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Top Gun: Maverick, The Usual Suspects) to continue their decades-long argument on the future of the movies and the forces that power the entertainment industry.

Together they lead a wide-ranging debate on the corporate lure of AI, cultivating movie stars, the bad habits writers have to unlearn, the importance of making genre movies, feeding the Hollywood machine, and the false division between art and entertainment.

In our bonus segment for premium members, John, Craig and Chris discuss the best way to watch movies and the ideal exhibition of sound and picture.

Links:

* Chris McQuarrie on [IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003160/) and [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/christophermcquarrie)
* [The looming threat of AI to Hollywood, and why it should matter to you](https://www.vox.com/culture/23700519/writers-strike-ai-2023-wga) by Alissa Wilkinson for Vox
* [Anker 3-in-1 Cube with MagSafe](https://www.anker.com/products/y1811?variant=42206465327254)
* [Signal](https://signal.org/en/)
* [GoodRx](https://www.goodrx.com/)
* [Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!](https://cottonbureau.com/people/scriptnotes-podcast)
* [Check out the Inneresting Newsletter](https://inneresting.substack.com/)
* [Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription](https://scriptnotes.supportingcast.fm/gifts) or [treat yourself to a premium subscription!](https://scriptnotes.supportingcast.fm/)
* [Craig Mazin](https://www.instagram.com/clmazin/) on Instagram
* [John August](https://twitter.com/johnaugust) on Twitter
* [John on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/johnaugust/?hl=en)
* [John on Mastodon](https://mastodon.art/@johnaugust)
* [Outro](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-the-outros) by Nico Mansy ([send us yours!](http://johnaugust.com/2014/outros-needed))
* Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by [Matthew Chilelli](https://twitter.com/machelli).

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode [here](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/600v2standard.mp3).

**UPDATE 6-20-23:** The transcript for this episode can be found [here](https://johnaugust.com/2023/scriptnotes-episode-600-mcquarrie-returns-transcript).

John and Craig work together to look at team movies and what writers need to be thinking about when they have more than one protagonist. From *Charlie’s Angels* to *The Hangover* and every *Ocean* in between, they break down how to create narrative drive and tension with so many characters, and how to bring them all together in the end.

We also take a look at a new study that compares releasing TV episodes weekly vs. the binge model before following up on tone meetings and TV movies. We then answer listener questions about pitch decks and using translations of public domain works.

In our bonus segment for premium members – Hey! Listen! – John and Craig discuss the best way to set yourself up when you start playing an RPG.

Links:

* [Study: Both Binge, Episodic Release Models Have Their Benefits, but Have to Be Deployed Strategically](https://thestreamable.com/news/study-both-binge-episodic-release-models-have-their-benefits-but-have-to-be-deployed-strategically) by Matt Tamanini
* [Patton Oswalt stands still for an entire scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA90rOwmkJ4)
* [The Hanson Brothers in Slap Shot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUbn5ss8j9c)
* [The Center for Transyouth Health and Development](https://www.chla.org/the-center-transyouth-health-and-development)
* [Holedown](https://holedown.com/)
* [Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!](https://cottonbureau.com/people/scriptnotes-podcast)
* [Check out the Inneresting Newsletter](https://inneresting.substack.com/)
* [Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription](https://scriptnotes.supportingcast.fm/gifts) or [treat yourself to a premium subscription!](https://scriptnotes.supportingcast.fm/)
* [Craig Mazin](https://www.instagram.com/clmazin/) on Instagram
* [John August](https://twitter.com/johnaugust) on Twitter
* [John on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/johnaugust/?hl=en)
* [John on Mastodon](https://mastodon.art/@johnaugust)
* [Outro](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-the-outros) by Heidi Lauren Duke ([send us yours!](http://johnaugust.com/2014/outros-needed))
* Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by [Matthew Chilelli](https://twitter.com/machelli).

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode [here](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/599standard.mp3).

**UPDATE 6-20-23:** The transcript for this episode can be found [here](https://johnaugust.com/2023/scriptnotes-episode-599-group-dynamics-transcript).

John and Craig sit down with legendary writer, director and showrunner Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) to discuss his prolific career and how to make great television. Vince leads us through how he develops a premise, balancing creative surprises with rigorous planning, and his advice for up-and-coming showrunners.

We also discuss re-writing features before following up on the old dancing prospector archetype — only to discover it’s a character Vince has a long personal history with.

In our bonus segment for premium members, John, Craig and Vince get tired of re-runs and ask, which old TV shows do they want to re-boot?

Links:

* [Vince Gilligan](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0319213/) on IMDb
* [Vince Gilligan plays a prospector on Community (S5 E9)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwRzZQGQHd0)
* [Walter Houston’s dance in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pWx7N8gSoY)
* [Dracula’s Kung-Fu Theatre](https://draculaskungfutheatre.com/)
* [Alien Tape](https://www.tryalientape.com/)
* [Today Years Old](https://twitter.com/todayyearsoldig) on Twitter
* [Robot Puppet Sings “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb5y-kY6nVw) by Ben Howard on YouTube
* [Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!](https://cottonbureau.com/people/scriptnotes-podcast)
* [Check out the Inneresting Newsletter](https://inneresting.substack.com/)
* [Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription](https://scriptnotes.supportingcast.fm/gifts) or [treat yourself to a premium subscription!](https://scriptnotes.supportingcast.fm/)
* [Craig Mazin](https://www.instagram.com/clmazin/) on Instagram
* [John August](https://twitter.com/johnaugust) on Twitter
* [John on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/johnaugust/?hl=en)
* [John on Mastodon](https://mastodon.art/@johnaugust)
* [Outro](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-the-outros) by Matt Davis ([send us yours!](http://johnaugust.com/2014/outros-needed))
* Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by [Matthew Chilelli](https://twitter.com/machelli).

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode [here](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/598standard.mp3).

**UPDATE 5-30-23:** The transcript for this episode can be found [here](https://johnaugust.com/2023/scriptnotes-episode-598-the-one-with-vince-gilligan-transcript).