John August

QandA

Confusing, Unlikable and On-The-Nose

Episode - 223

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Adaptation, Follow Up, Scriptnotes, Transcribed

John and Craig look at some of the least helpful notes screenwriters receive, and strategies for dealing with them.

Then it’s a look at novelists who adapt their own books into screenplays, and the pros and cons involved.

In the premium feed over at scriptnotes.net, you’ll find two bonus episodes: the live Three Page Challenge from Austin 2015, and my interview with The Martian screenwriter Drew Goddard for the Writers Guild Foundation.

Links:

* [The Austin Film Festival](https://www.austinfilmfestival.com/)
* Sign up for a premium subscription at [scriptnotes.net](http://scriptnotes.net/) for access to bonus episodes, like this week’s [2015 Austin Three Page Challenge](http://scriptnotes.net/three-page-challenge-austin-2015) and [John’s interview with Drew Goddard](http://scriptnotes.net/drew-goddard-the-origin-story)
* Man Up on [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Up_(film)) and [Apple Trailers](http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/manup/), and writer Tess Morris on [IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2208729/) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/TheTessMorris)
* [2015 Nicholl Screenwriting Awards: Andrew Friedhof](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flcUaT0QhLk&feature=youtu.be) on YouTube
* Follow John’s progress on [his NaNoWriMo profile](http://nanowrimo.org/participants/john-august/novels/the-forest-909268/stats)
* Los Angeles Times on [Melissa Mathison](http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-melissa-mathinson-dies-story.html)
* [Against Subtlety](http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2015/11/against_subtlety_the_case_for_heavy_handedness_in_art.html) from Slate
* Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener [on Project Gutenberg](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11231), and the [interactive, annotated version from Slate](http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2015/10/herman_melville_s_bartleby_the_scrivener_an_interactive_annotated_text.html)
* [The Room Three](http://www.fireproofgames.com/games/the-room-three-2) from Fireproof Games
* [Outro](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-the-outros) by Matthew Chilelli ([send us yours!](http://johnaugust.com/2014/outros-needed))

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_223.m4a) | [mp3](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_223.mp3).

**UPDATE 11-13-15:** The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2015/scriptnotes-ep-223-confusing-unlikable-and-on-the-nose-transcript).

Live from Austin 2015

Film Industry, Follow Up, News, QandA, Scriptnotes, Transcribed, Travel

Craig and John return to the Austin Film Festival for a supersize live show with guests Nicole Perlman and Steve Zissis.

We talk with Nicole about what’s changed in her life after the breakout success of Guardians of the Galaxy, and how she juggles multiple projects.

Steve Zissis tells us how he transitioned from waiter to co-creator of HBO’s Togetherness, and the unusual origin of the show.

Then all four of us play How Would This Be a Movie, looking at #Zola’s adventure, the runaway blimp and the lonely death of George Bell.

Plus audience questions!

Our thanks to the Austin Film Festival for hosting us, and our terrific audience.

You can download the episode here: AAC | mp3.

UPDATE 11-6-15: The transcript of this episode can be found here.

Nobody Knows Anything (including what this quote means)

Film Industry, Follow Up, Psych 101, Scriptnotes, So-Called Experts, Transcribed, Writing Process

Craig and John get to the bottom of William Goldman’s famous quotation about Hollywood, which is so often misapplied. Then it’s a discussion of zombie cars, wind-tunnels, blockbusters, and the paradox of choice.

Finally, we look at the intersection of luck and talent behind a screenwriter’s career, and why struggle isn’t a useful yardstick for much of anything.

Links:

* [Austin Film Festival 2015 panel schedule](https://austinfilmfestival.com/festivalandconference/conference/2015-panels/)
* Karina Longworth’s [You Must Remember This](http://www.vidiocy.com/you-must-remember-this)
* Scriptnotes, 220: [Writers Rooms, Taxes, and Fat Hamlet](http://johnaugust.com/2015/writers-rooms-taxes-and-fat-hamlet)
* [William Goldman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Goldman) on Wikipedia, and [Adventures in the Screen Trade](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0446391174/?tag=johnaugustcom-20) on Amazon
* [The Zombie-mobile](https://medium.com/swlh/the-zombie-mobile-b03932ac971d#.whezv2fps)
* [Least objectionable program](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Least_objectionable_program) on Wikipedia
* [The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0060005696/?tag=johnaugustcom-20) by Barry Schwartz
* [The Selling Your Screenplay Podcast, episode 95](https://t.co/kq6mQdMUZh)
* [Tessy and Tab](http://www.tessyandtab.com/)
* [BuzzFeed Crosswords](http://www.buzzfeed.com/tag/crosswords), and [logic-puzzles.org](http://www.logic-puzzles.org/)
* [Pokémon’s Creepy Lavender Town Myth, Explained](http://kotaku.com/pokemons-creepy-lavender-town-myth-explained-1651851621) on Kotaku

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_221.m4a) | [mp3](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_221.mp3).

**UPDATE 10-28-15:** The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2015/scriptnotes-ep-221-nobody-knows-anything-including-what-this-quote-means-transcript).

Formatting a montage in Highland using Forced Action

Apps, Formatting, Fountain, Highland, Screenwriting Software

A friend was writing a montage today and couldn’t figure out how to get quite the formatting he wanted in Highland:

> If I’m moving quickly in a sequence I’ll frequently write IN THE GARAGE or BACK OUTSIDE or instead of a whole slug line. I want action to go on the next line, with no blank line in between.

> The problem is, it’s interpreting this as a character name, and formats it as such, and the action beneath it as dialogue.

He wrote something like this:
forced action screenshot
In Fountain syntax, that looks like three blocks of dialogue, so Highland was giving him this:

IN THE GARAGE

B.A. works on the van.

OUT BACK

Hannibal and Murdock rig the gatling gun.

IN THE BATHROOM

Face works on his old man makeup.

Fortunately, Fountain has ways to override defaults. In this case, the easiest way to get his desired format would be to force those intermediary sluglines (“IN THE GARAGE,” “OUT BACK,” etc.) to be treated as action.

To do that, start each of them with an exclamation point.
forced action screenshot 2
That keeps Highland from interpreting the uppercase lines as character names, leaving the lines neatly stacked up, just like my friend wanted.

In most cases, you’ll never need to do this, because you’ll generally want the blank line after the “IN THE GARAGE” or “OUT BACK.” Leaving a little more white space on the page helps the reader understand that you’re moving between multiple locations.

Here’s an example from Ted Griffin’s Ocean 11 screenplay:

And during the above rant by Benedict, we view...

MIRADOR SUITE

now empty, Livingston’s monitors still displaying the masked men in the vault.

WHITE VAN

navigating the streets of Las Vegas.

FIVE SEDANS

tailing the van, security goons piled into each, and maybe we NOTICE (or maybe not) the Rolls-Royce tailing them.

TESS

pacing in Benedict’s suite, biting her nails, debating whether to blow the whistle on Danny. ON TV: a newscast of the contentious aftermath of the prize fight.

UZI GUARDS,

bound and unarmed, unconscious to the activity within the vault.

RUSTY’S CELL PHONE

opened and unmanned.

BENEDICT

listens -- the line has gone dead. He hangs up.

The forced action trick can be useful in other cases where you want to override default behavior.

Perhaps you have a time bomb, and you’re using ellipses to indicate the countdown. You write:

screenshot

Highland reads that third tick as a forced scene header, because it starts with a single period. But you can force it back to action with an exclamation point:

illustration-

Both Highland and Fountain are sophisticated enough to catch most edge cases, but we’re always finding new situations in which writers are trying to do something that doesn’t quite match expected behavior. And that’s okay! The screenplay format is a set of shared assumptions, not a straightjacket. If you really need to include something unusual, do it. ((Both Fountain and Highland support extended character sets, including emoji. Final Draft doesn’t.))

You can find all of the possible forced elements in the [Syntax section](http://fountain.io/syntax) of Fountain.io, most of which are supported by the popular apps. (Forced Action wasn’t part of the original spec, so some early apps haven’t included it yet.)

As always, you can find Highland on the [Mac App Store](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/highland/id499329572?mt=12).