John August

Directors

What’s Next

Episode - 111

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Broadway, Directors, Film Industry, Follow Up, Los Angeles, News, Projects, Scriptnotes, Transcribed

John and Craig discuss what it feels like to finish a project — the combination of excitement and relief, joy and sadness — as Craig advises John which project he should write next now that Big Fish is set to open.

In film news, a new fund aims to back films directed by women, while Los Angeles appoints a new film czar with considerable studio experience.

All this, plus Craig recounts how he nearly saw John take a fist to the face.

Links:

* [Lobot](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lobot)
* LA Times on the [Gamechanger Film Fund](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-film-fund-gamechanger-female-directors-20130926,0,4152777,full.story)
* LA Times on [LA’s new Film Czar](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-garcetti-appoints-sherak-film-czar-20130926,0,6798783.story)
* [Patti Lupone stops the show to yell at a photographer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WruzPfJ9Rys) on YouTube
* [Box](http://www.botndolly.com/box) by Bot & Dolly
* [Rear projection effect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rear_projection_effect) on Wikipedia
* Big Fish production designer [Julian Crouch](http://juliancrouch.com/portfolio/Welcome.html)
* Big Fish’s [Ryan Andes](http://ryanandes.com/), and [on Twitter @AndesRyan](https://twitter.com/AndesRyan)
* [Blind soldier uses tongue device to ‘see’](http://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/mar/15/blind-soldier-tongue-sight) at The Guardian
* [Outro](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-the-outros) by Scriptnotes listener Matthew Chilelli

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_111.m4a) | [mp3](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_111.mp3).

**UPDATE** 10-4-13: The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-ep-111-whats-next-transcript).

How screenwriting style changed movies

Directors, Film Industry, Follow Up, Words on the page

Intrigued by a question asked at the live Scriptnotes NYC event, Tim Nicholas wonders whether the change in screenwriting style has affected [how scenes themselves work](http://somenotesonfilm.tumblr.com/post/62715721616/billy-wilder-physicality-screenwriting):

> A lack of “scenic density” is typical of what Bordwell calls the “intensified continuity style” that dominates post-60s Hollywood movies. Also characteristic of this style is less attention paid to blocking actors. Wide shots that allow actors to use their entire bodies as instruments of expression are less common, and filmmakers frequently default to one of two options for staging conversations: the “walk and talk” (think The West Wing) or the “sit and deliver” (see the previous link).

> Previously I’d thought of this as a directorial trend — Bordwell cites the proliferation of multi-camera shooting as one of its primary causes. Could it be that separate developments in screenwriting, with their own unique causes, also have an important role to play?

Nicholas uses Billy Wilder’s The Apartment as an example.

Attempting to answer the question during the live show, I proposed that part of why Wilder can go on for paragraphs about physical details is that he himself is directing the scene. But that’s at most a half-answer; Wilder’s scenes are more specific regardless of who is behind the camera. It’s not just blocking. The scenes themselves work differently.

Nicholas makes the case that something is lost in the modern, highly-compressed style:

> A contemporary screenwriter might condense those nine sentences to something like “Margie shoots straws in Bud’s direction, but he fails to notice them, even as they hit his bowler and cheek.” And one can easily imagine how this would be shot. The key thing missing would be allowing the action the time to take place. The trend today, first in screenwriting, then in directing, and finally in editing, is to replace the *depiction* of an action itself with the presentation of the *idea* of an action.

To me, that’s a terrific insight that speaks not only to filmmaking but most of popular culture. Increasingly, we replace the object with the reference, and the action with the outcome.

Risky Business, and the choices you make

Directors, Film Industry, Psych 101

Jake Malooley tracks down writer-director Paul Brickman, who more or less [vanished after Risky Business](http://www.salon.com/2013/09/02/risky_business_director_some_people_like_the_visibility_i_dont/):

> Just 34 when “Risky Business” was released, Brickman directed just one other feature, the 1990 bomb “Men Don’t Leave.” The alchemy that made the filmmaker’s arrival so enduring — elegant direction atypical of coming-of-age films; sparkling adolescent dialogue; the use of Tangerine Dream’s propulsive, hypnotic score — makes his lack of output over the last three decades all the more surprising.

Brickman is candid about his ambivalence towards Hollywood and the choices he might have made. He wanted to make more movies. It just didn’t happen.

I’ve seen smaller versions of Brickman’s story many times, including in my own career: success brings heat; heat brings opportunities. But taking advantage of those opportunities is much more difficult than it seems. Pick the wrong project and your heat is wasted. Knowing this, it’s easy to get paranoid and avoid picking any project — and your heat gradually dissipates.

Luckily, a screenwriter can afford to be wrong more often than a director. A screenwriter can write four movies a year. A director is prolific if she directs one.

In the case of Brickman, a director is notable for only directing two films over the course of a career.

Scriptnotes, the 100th episode

Directors, Film Industry, Meta, Producers, Scriptnotes, Story and Plot, Transcribed

John and Craig are joined by Aline Brosh McKenna and Rawson Thurber for the 100th episode of Scriptnotes, recorded live at the Academy Lab in Hollywood. It was a great night with an amazing audience.

We discuss the origins of the show, the rise of the Screenwriter Plus, and that Slate article about Save The Cat! which so many listeners had mentioned. It’s such a big show that we’re splitting the audience Q&A into a separate episode.

This episode has more swearing than most, so parents beware. You might not want to play it in the car.

Huge thanks to The Academy for the event, sponsored on behalf of the Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting.

LINKS:

* The Academy [Nicholl Fellowships](http://www.oscars.org/awards/nicholl/) in Screenwriting
* [Aline Brosh McKenna](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0112459/) on IMDb, and her [first](http://johnaugust.com/2012/the-black-list-and-a-stack-of-scenes) and [second](http://johnaugust.com/2013/how-screenwriters-find-their-voice) appearances on Scriptnotes
* [Rawson Thurber](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1098493/) on IMDb
* Go see [We’re the Millers](http://werethemillers.warnerbros.com/) on August 7th!
* Slate’s article on [Save the Cat!](http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/07/hollywood_and_blake_snyder_s_screenwriting_book_save_the_cat.single.html) (and Stuart’s [review of the series](http://johnaugust.com/2012/in-which-stuart-reads-the-save-the-cat-books-and-tells-you-what-he-thought))
* [Makers: Women Who Make America](http://www.pbs.org/makers/home/) on PBS
* [Scriptnotes](http://johnaugust.com/podcast): A podcast about screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters
* The classic [Pilot G2](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001GAOTSW/?tag=johnaugustcom-20) and the brand new erasable [Pilot Frixion](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009QYH644/?tag=johnaugustcom-20) on Amazon
* [Stuart](https://twitter.com/stuartfriedel), [Ryan](https://twitter.com/ryannelson) and [Nima](https://twitter.com/nyousefi)
* Outro by Scriptnotes listener Mike Timmerman

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_100.m4a) | [mp3](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_100.mp3).

**UPDATE** 8-4-13: The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-ep-100-scriptnotes-the-100th-episode-transcript).