John August

QandA

Uncomfortable Ambiguity, or Nobody Wants Me at their Orgy

Episode - 141

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Adaptation, Follow Up, QandA, Rights and Copyright, Scriptnotes, Television, WGA, Words on the page

Nothing is cut-and-dried this week. John and Craig talk Game of Thrones rape, allegations against director Bryan Singer and the new report showing the same low employment numbers for female writers in film and TV.

Then, what happens when a writer writes fan fiction for the novel she wrote but doesn’t own? We talk about the weird situation L.J. Smith finds herself in with The Vampire Diaries, and what it could mean for screenwriters.

We’re now taking entries for the special live Three Page Challenge on May 15th. Click the link in the notes for details. We’re delighted to have Susannah Grant as our special guest judge for the evening.

LINKS:

* [HearthStone](http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/)
* IGN on [Cold, Cold Heart](http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/04/25/batman-arkham-origins-cold-cold-heart-dlc-review) Arkham Origins DLC
* [South Park: The Stick of Truth](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006IOAHPK/?tag=johnaugustcom-20) on Amazon
* [Get your tickets now](https://www.wgfoundation.org/screenwriting-events/scriptnotes-summer-superhero-spectacular/) for the Scriptnotes Summer Superhero Spectacular
* If you are attending the show, [submit your Three Page Challenge here](http://johnaugust.com/threepage)
* [Weekend Read](http://quoteunquoteapps.com/weekendread/) and [Highland](http://quoteunquoteapps.com/highland/)
* [Game of Thrones season 4, episode 3](http://www.hbogo.com/#series/browse&assetID=GOROSTGP42365?seriesID=GOROSTGP31734?assetType=SEASON?browseMode=browseGrid/) on HBO Go
* LA Times on the [Bryan Singer lawsuit](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-xmen-director-bryan-singer-accused-of-1999-sexual-assault-20140417,0,5240173.story#axzz30Dlb8J5C)
* The [2014 (and past) WGAw Writers Report Executive Summary](http://www.wga.org/subpage_whoweare.aspx?id=922)
* [Alvin Sargent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_Sargent) on Wikipedia
* [Vampire Diaries Writer Bites Back](http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304058204579495491652398358), from The Wall Street Journal
* [Interrobang](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrobang) on Wikipedia
* All our [One Cool Things](http://johnaugust.com/onecoolthings)
* Preorder xkcd’s [What If? book](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0544272994/?tag=johnaugustcom-20) on Amazon
* [Under the Skin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_the_Skin_(2013_film)) on Wikipedia
* CarboLite [nutrition facts on MyFitnessPal](http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/carbolite-frozen-yogurt-467427) and Yelp on [where to find it in Los Angeles](http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=carbolite&find_loc=Los+Angeles%2C+CA)
* [Outro](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-the-outros) by Scriptnotes listener Adrian Tanner ([send us yours!](http://johnaugust.com/2014/outros-needed))

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_141.m4a) | [mp3](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_141.mp3).

**UPDATE** 5-2-14: The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2014/scriptnotes-ep-141-uncomfortable-ambiguity-or-nobody-wants-me-at-their-orgy-transcript).

The General Meeting

Film Industry

I didn’t write this, but I’ve been in almost exactly this meeting at least twenty times.

—
*by Anonymous*

first person
Hey, come in, come in. Wherever you like. Nice to finally meet you. I’m a big fan. Big fan. You have trouble parking? I know. This place has like a million ways out and only one way in and it’s impossible to find. Like a maze. I know, I know.

Now are you from around here or…? Oh, yeah? Nope, nope… New York, then Boston, then here. About twelve years. On the West Side. Not too far.

So… what do you know about us? Great… well let me tell you. First of all, we’re not like other producers. We don’t have 80 gazillion things in development. We don’t develop. That’s not what we do. If we decide to do something, then we do it. We make movies. We’re in the movie business, not the development business. Plain and simple.

The old days of buying up everything under the sun, that’s not us. That’s not what we do. We have our own money, so we can hire writers and get things going. Then we bring on a director, or we bring on a piece of cast, or we hire an in-house line producer to say, “Hey, this is how much this is going to cost.” Then we take all of that to the studio and we say, “Here’s the movie. Do you want to make this movie, with this script, with this director, with this cast at this amount of money?” Then we go.

Because they’re not looking for scripts anymore. They’re looking for movies. Amy? Donna? To a lesser extent, Stacey. That’s a whole separate thing because they’re dealing with Steven and who even knows what they’re doing over there anymore. But all of them… they’re looking for movies. They want us to bring them movies. And that’s what we do.

With Bumblebunny, that was a piece of material we found, we hired the writers, we worked on draft after draft, we put the package together and we said, “Here you go. Here’s your summer movie.”

Now what’re you working on? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Yep, you don’t have to tell me. Okay, well, let me tell you what we have. Back up for just a second. Let me tell you where we *were* and where we *are*.

Do you know of a property called SLAPPY PAPPY? Why would you, right?

Well, it’s based on a best-selling children’s book and was like the number one show in all of Europe for like five years. And no one over here had heard of it. No one. So we bought it and brought it over here and we gave it to Attanasio who did a pass and then we gave it to McQuarrie who did a pass but no one could crack this thing. McQuarrie even said, “I love this, I love this, I love this… but I can’t solve it. Hahhahah. You know?” And that’s Slappy Pappy which I think you would be perfect for.

Oh, right… it’s about a kid who’s about nine-years-old and he smokes and cusses and is really irreverent, you know, because no one gives a shit in Europe, you know? And anyway, he has this old grandpa who’s always trying to hit him — I mean, we say “spank” we don’t say “hit” — but anyway, the kid finds out about these worm-people who are taking over his town and he has to convince his Pappy this is real but everyone thinks the Pappy is crazy, and he’s crazy, and maybe he is, you know? And that’s Slappy Pappy.

Okay, so what I’ll do is I’ll send you the book and I’ll send you this story document we wrote… I won’t send you any of the drafts because they’ll just… that’s NOT what we want to do, you know? And take a look. And if you spark to it, then we can talk some more.

Listen, this is a personal favorite of the studio’s. It’s their kind of movie and they’re looking for a franchise. They’re begging for this.

Okay, great. Yep, yep, exactly. Okay, did Veronica give you validation up front? Okay… well stop by there and she’ll stamp you. Seriously, terrific to finally meet you. Okay… yep, and we’ll send it over. Thanks!

The accidental set-up

Story and Plot, Words on the page

Talking with writers last week, I pointed out that readers (and ultimately the audience) are always on the lookout for details that answer the question, “Where is this going?”

Often, they literally want to know, “Where is the character headed?”

So any time you refer to a new place — be it “the supermarket,” “school,” or “Boston” — you create a natural expectation that we will visit that place at some point in the story.

Often you mean to set it up: it’s The Emerald City. It’s Wally World. It’s the place where the resolution will happen.

But it’s altogether possible to set up places that you have no intention of visiting. Your hero might say something about how he hears good things about Marfa, Texas. It’s not part of his journey, and not part of this story. He’s just saying it because he’s the kind of character who would say something about Marfa.

But once you’ve put it on the page, it’s out there as a goal. You’ve accidentally punched a location into [Chekhov’s GPS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekhov’s_gun).

I often see this when characters talk vividly about something in their past. The more details you give about a place, the more important we think it is. That raises our expectation higher and higher that we’ll see it in the story.

A final thing to keep in mind about places: the audience often use them as structural signposts. “Well, he’s trying to get to Boston, and he finally did, so the story must be just about over.” That can often help you — we’ve reached the rendez-vous spot — but it can be trouble if you’re hitting that spot an hour into a two-hour story.

Similarly, the audience keeps track of the order of locations. If a character says, “We’ll get pizza at Romo’s and then go to grandma’s house,” we expect to see Romo’s pizza place, or at least some evidence that pizza happened. In a cut, it’s often easy to lose the pizza scene. But if you do, try to get rid of any mention of the pizza so there’s no dangling expectation for a location we’ll never visit.

Falling back in love with your script

Psych 101, QandA, Scriptnotes, Transcribed, Writing Process

Craig and John play marriage counsellor between writers and their scripts, looking at both the first spark of attraction and how to rekindle the flame when the fire has gone out.

There are still some tickets available for the Summer Superhero Spectacular live show on May 15th. Next week, we’ll announce how the Three Page Challenge will work. Don’t send scripts yet.

If you’ve subscribed to Scriptnotes for the back catalog, there’s a bonus panel with John, Kelly Marcel, Linda Woolverton and Scott Neustadter talking about notes and rewrites. You can subscribe at scriptnotes.net and listen through the Scriptnotes app for iOS and Android.

LINKS:

* [Get your tickets](https://www.wgfoundation.org/screenwriting-events/scriptnotes-summer-superhero-spectacular/) for the Scriptnotes Summer Superhero Spectacular
* The bonus panel is available to premium subscribers at [scriptnotes.net](http://scriptnotes.net/bonus-rewriting-and-refocusing) or through the Scriptnotes app for [iOS](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scriptnotes/id739117984?mt=8) and [Android](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.johnaugust.android.scriptnotes)
* Tony Gilroy’s [BAFTA/BFI screenwriters lecture](https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kv3DcXIUaRw)
* Michael Arndt [on setting a story in motion](http://johnaugust.com/2014/michael-arndt-on-setting-a-story-in-motion)
* All our [One Cool Things](http://johnaugust.com/onecoolthings)
* Scriptnotes, Episode 124: [Q&A from the Holiday Spectacular](http://johnaugust.com/2013/qa-from-the-holiday-spectacular)
* Scriptnotes listener Tom LaBaff [draws Scriptnotes](https://twitter.com/TLaBaff/status/454819091669594114)
* [Imprint Revolution](http://www.imprintrevolution.com/) prints our shirts
* There are still select shirt sizes (and a few USBs) left at the [John August Store](http://store.johnaugust.com/)
* [Monument Valley](http://www.monumentvalleygame.com/) is available now for iOS, and soon for Android
* [Nomad](http://www.hellonomad.com/), makers of Charge Key (and Charge Card)
* [The Ultimate Guide to Solving iOS Battery Drain](http://www.overthought.org/blog/2014/the-ultimate-guide-to-solving-ios-battery-drain)
* [Outro](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-the-outros) by Scriptnotes listener Chris Henry ([send us yours!](http://johnaugust.com/2014/outros-needed))

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_140.m4a) | [mp3](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_140.mp3).

**UPDATE** 4-27-14: The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2014/scriptnotes-ep-140-falling-back-in-love-with-your-script-transcript).