John August

Projects

Tech Starts, Time Stops

Big Fish, Broadway

I’m in Chicago, where it’s the first day of tech rehearsal for Big Fish. Lights, sound, sets, props, costumes, VFX — everything has to be painstakingly tweaked and coordinated. In film terms, it’s like production and post-production happening simultaneously.

In other words, it takes a while.

Quite fittingly for a day of slow motion, EW.com has the [exclusive first listen](http://popwatch.ew.com/2013/03/18/listen-to-a-song-from-new-big-fish-musical-exclusive/) at a song from our show: Time Stops. It’s a duet between Norbert Leo Butz (as Edward Bloom) and Kate Baldwin (Sandra), written by Andrew Lippa.

If you’re familiar with the movie, you can probably guess where this song takes place, but I won’t spoil how it actually emerges in the scene. Suffice to say we’ll be spending many hours of tech getting it just right.

From book to movie to musical to commercial

Big Fish, Broadway

My college professors will be happy to know that roughly 20 years after getting my advertising degree, I finally wrote a television commercial. This 15-second Big Fish spot is airing in Chicago now:

To be fair, I didn’t write those words as advertising copy — they’re actually from the script. Our hard-working marketing team put it all together, using music from Andrew Lippa’s amazing score and voiceover by Bobby Steggert, who plays Will.

Reminder that if you’re coming to see Big Fish in Chicago — on any night in the run — [tweet me](http://twitter.com/johnaugust) or [email me](mailto:ask@johnaugust.com) your date and seat. I will endevour to come by and say hello.

Performances begin April 2nd. As of this morning, there are still some of the [special $26 balcony seats](http://johnaugust.com/2013/big-fish-previews-and-special-unlock-code) available for the first four shows.

Big Fish previews, and special unlock code

Big Fish

In movieland, it’s exciting to see an early cut of a film. You get to be one of the first people with an opinion: what’s amazing, what needs work, and what should probably get cut altogether. You can’t buy a ticket for an early screening — you have to be invited, or recruited by a clipboard-wielding twentysomething in front of Arclight.

[big fish poster](http://www.ticketmaster.com/Big-Fish-Chicago-tickets/artist/1781632)

Theater works differently. Right from the start, you can buy a ticket to see a new show. When Big Fish starts previews April 2nd in Chicago, anyone can come. It’s not a test screening — it’s the real show. You bought a ticket, and we’re giving you everything we’ve got.

But because we stage the show again night after night, we can tweak small and big things: jokes and lyrics and songs and scenes. Every night is different, if only because real live people are performing it.

Live theater is great, but it’s nerve-wracking for me. Every night has wild cards, from technical snafus to medical emergencies in the audience.

Like any filmmaker, I’d love to see some friendly and healthy-hearted faces in those early audiences, so last week I asked the producers if I could get a special discount code for blog readers and podcast listeners.

They said yes.

**For the first four performances (April 2-5), you can use the special code SCRIPT to unlock $26 balcony seats.** (They’re usually $70.)

You enter the special code on the first screen with the seat map. Once you enter SCRIPT and click OK, the balcony seats become available at the special price.

[big fish seat map](http://www.ticketmaster.com/Big-Fish-Chicago-tickets/artist/1781632)

[Click here](http://www.ticketmaster.com/Big-Fish-Chicago-tickets/artist/1781632) for all the available shows. (Or just Google ‘big fish chicago’.)

And when I say I’d like to see you, that’s not just lip service.

If you’re coming to see Big Fish in Chicago — on any night in the run — [tweet me](http://twitter.com/johnaugust) or [email me](mailto:ask@johnaugust.com) your date and seat. If I’m not putting out fires, I’ll come by and say hello.

I’ll also probably ask you about whatever scene I’m wrestling with at the moment. That’s the cool thing about seeing something first: you get to have an impact on what happens next.

So if you live in Chicago or the road-trippable vicinity, grab some friends and be among the first to see the show.

Rhythm and Blues

Episode - 80

Go to Archive

Big Fish, Film Industry, QandA, Scriptnotes, Transcribed

John and Craig talk homesickness and daddy issues before diving into a discussion on what Rhythm and Hues’s bankruptcy means for the film industry — and similar scenarios screenwriters might face down the road.

Opening the listener mailbag, we answer questions about shop-around agreements, naming minor characters, filmmaker bios, and “being brilliant.”

There’s a special Scriptnotes discount code (SCRIPT) for the first few performances of Big Fish in Chicago. In the podcast, I say that you use the code at checkout, but that’s wrong: use it in the very first screen at Ticketmaster to unlock the balcony seats at a special $26 rate. (Regularly $70+.)

LINKS:

* [Big Fish in Chicago](http://www.ticketmaster.com/Big-Fish-Chicago-tickets/artist/1781632?tm_link=seo_bc_name) at Ticketmaster
* [Green Scream: The Decay of the Hollywood Special Effects Industry](http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/03/oscars-vfx-protest/)
* [How to handle a phone meeting](http://johnaugust.com/2008/how-to-handle-a-phone-meeting)
* [Unfinished Scripts](https://twitter.com/UnfinishedS)
* [What’s the difference between Hero, Main Character and Protagonist?](http://johnaugust.com/2005/whats-the-difference-between-hero-main-character-and-protagonist) on johnaugust.com
* Play [EyeWire](http://eyewire.org/) and help map the brain
* OUTRO: Big Fish prologue by Andrew Lippa

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_80.m4a).

**UPDATE** 3-15-13: The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-ep-80-rhythm-and-blues-transcript).