John August

QandA

The Brotherhood of Screenwriters

Episode - 24

Go to Archive

QandA, Scriptnotes, Transcribed

John and Craig open up the listener mailbag to answer questions about formatting lyrics, foreign dialogue and title trademarks. We also dive in to discuss overall deals, which are common in television but quite rare among feature writers.

Also this week: The launch of the plain text screenwriting format Fountain, and John’s love for the all-singing, all-dancing, Superbowl-sized NBC network promo.

There’s also brief discussion of some sporting event that happened two Sundays ago.

Links:

* [NBC’s “Brotherhood of Man” promo (updated link)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJuAvwtmXuw)
* [Fountain](http://www.fountain.io)
* Where to [send a question](mailto:ask@johnaugust.com)
* INTRO: [Fresno opening credits](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lIAZiTI56I)
* OUTRO: [Wessex Boy](http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/england-keep-my-bones-deluxe/id439592119) by Frank Turner

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_24.m4a).

**UPDATE** 2-16-12: The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2012/scriptnotes-ep-24-the-brotherhood-of-screenwriters-transcript).

In defense of Liz Lemon

Television

Linda Holmes worries that 30 Rock has [infantilized Liz Lemon](http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2012/02/09/146626983/the-incredible-shrinking-liz-lemon-from-woman-to-little-girl):

> Over the course of six seasons, Jack has been fully transformed into a condescending, all-knowing daddy, and Liz has been fully transformed into a needy little girl who is eternally terrified of displeasing him. She’s always had a grudging respect for him, but now she simply reveres him and trusts his judgment more than hers. She was once frazzled but smart, harried but competent, capable of wrangling a bunch of crazy people and then slumping at the end of the day, exhausted but minimally victorious. Now, she’s just dumb, incapable of making her own decisions, and her relationship with Jack is entirely out of balance.

I disagree. Holmes is cherry-picking her Liz/Jack moments to make her case.

While there’s always been a paternal dynamic to their relationship, over the last season or two we’ve seen Jack relying on Liz for emotional support while dealing with corporate changes and marriage. He’s stopped referring to her as a mentee and started calling her a friend.

Is their friendship weird? Sure. But he’s her boss, and that’s comedy.

This season’s [fifth episode](http://www.hulu.com/watch/324194/30-rock-today-you-are-a-man#s-p1-so-i0) centered on contract negotiations between Liz and Jack:

JACK

(crying into his hand)

I want to be a baby again!

LIZ

No, no, no! Look, you won! I’ll sign whatever! Just don’t cry. Daddy doesn’t cry.

JACK

Do you know why I lost earlier? Because of our friendship. I want you to have everything, and that made me make a mistake. In other words, I lost because of emotion, which I always thought was a weakness, but now I’ve learned can also be a weapon.

[...]

LIZ

Wow. After six years, there’s still room for growth in this friendship.

That last line was delivered with a wink and a nod to camera, as if Fey had already read Holmes’ critique. (Or a set of network notes.)

Rewatch the pilot. It’s not great, as Tiny Fey is happy to point out. 30 Rock only found its groove once they committed to the fact Liz wasn’t the nice, normal girl surrounded by crazy people. She’s deeply odd herself, and not just in flashbacks.

Still: We want good things to happen for Liz Lemon, because we like her. But she’s not Mary Tyler Moore. The question isn’t whether she’s going to make it after all — partly because it’s not at all clear what “making it” would entail. The healthiest thing for the character would be to run far, far away.

But then there wouldn’t be a show.

How to write Groundhog Day

Books, Film Industry, Genres

I’ve only just started reading Danny Rubin’s [How to Write Groundhog Day](http://www.howtowritegroundhogday.com/), but it’s promising enough that I think many screenwriters will want to take a look at it this weekend.

It’s [available on Kindle](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0072PEV6U/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=johnaugustcom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0072PEV6U) and Nook, on sale for $9.99 today.

Rubin walks the reader through the genesis of the idea — and all the other ideas competing for his attention. The ebook includes a lot of marked-up pages from his initial notes and drafts. Most of these are readable on a traditional Kindle, but it’s one of the rare titles that actually works better on an iPad.

Groundhog Day is nearly 20 years old, but still feels very contemporary in terms of high-concept comedies, with its simple-but-clever premise and curmudgeonly fish-out-of-water protagonist. My only caution to readers is that even though we keep making variations of this movie (c.f. Click, Liar Liar, A Thousand Words), the film industry itself has changed, so descriptions of the business and process might not reflect current reality.

Shine on, you Kubrick theorists

Directors, Follow Up

When I [criticized](http://johnaugust.com/2011/cinematic-geography-and-problem-of-genius) Rob Ager’s analysis of spatial impossibilities in The Shining, I didn’t realize the extent of [wild theories about Kubrick’s film](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/movies/room-237-documentary-with-theories-about-the-shining.html?_r=2&src=me&ref=movies):

> “Room 237,” the first full-length documentary by the director Rodney Ascher, examines several of the most intriguing of these theories. It’s really about the Holocaust, one interviewee says, and Mr. Kubrick’s inability to address the horrors of the Final Solution on film. No, it’s about a different genocide, that of American Indians, another says, pointing to all the tribal-theme items adorning the Overlook Hotel’s walls. A third claims it’s really Kubrick’s veiled confession that he helped NASA fake the Apollo Moon landings.

Of course, we’ll never know Kubrick’s true intentions, because he’s dead.

*Unless he isn’t.*