This morning, Apple Music surfaced a song I hadn’t thought about in years: Pink’s “Never Gonna Not Dance Again,” written by Pink (Alecia Moore), Shellback and Max Martin. The song was released in 2022 and reached No. 99 on the US Billboard Hot 100. I like the song! I think the song could have been […]
QandA
Writing for microdramas, aka verticals
Over the last six months, we’ve discussed microdramas (aka verticals) several times on Scriptnotes. For readers who don’t know, microdramas are a format originating in Asia in which a filmed narrative is broken into very short episodes intended to be watched on your phone. They’re often called verticals because they’re shot to be watched on […]
Constructing a great action sequence
On Scriptnotes, we often explore craft topics, looking at the specific choices writers make on the page. But there’s an obvious challenge when discussing visual storytelling in an audio medium. That’s why for the most recent Scripnotes video, I wanted to revisit my conversation with Christina Hodson on writing action sequences. In this new format, […]
Writing while the World is on Fire
Episode - 676
How do you keep doing creative work when the world is falling apart around you? To sift through the despair and doubt, John welcomes back legendary Scriptnotes guest, writer-turned-psychotherapist Dennis Palumbo. They discuss the many feelings that catastrophic events can bring up in artists, the personal narratives that often inform those feelings, and how to […]
Something’s Coming
Last week, Dwarkesh Patel put words to an uneasy feeling that resonated with me: I think we’re at what late February 2020 was for Covid, but for AI. If you can remember back to February 2020, both the media and the general public were still in normal-times mode, discussing Trump’s impeachment, the Democratic primaries and […]
Movies We Haven’t Seen
I’ve seen 54 out of the 100 films on AFI’s list of all-time greatest American films. Of the ones I’ve missed, there are a few I do genuinely want to see. But will my life or career be negatively impacted if I never see Intolerance (1916)? I doubt it. In episode 637 of Scriptnotes, Craig […]