John August

QandA

The Little Mermaid

Episode - 92

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Scriptnotes, Story and Plot, Transcribed

Craig and John spend an entire episode discussing and dissecting 1989’s THE LITTLE MERMAID, looking at both its structure and scene work.

The first of Disney’s modern animated musicals, The Little Mermaid established the template for how these films are supposed to work. While it’s not perfect, it’s an ideal film for looking at how heroes and villains articulate their goals, and how screenwriters quickly establish a world and its conflicts.

Join us as we discuss useless sharks, lovable dogs and possibly the best I Want song ever written. (And don’t underestimate the importance of body language.)

LINKS:

* Scriptnotes, Episode 73: [Raiders of the Lost Ark](http://johnaugust.com/2013/raiders-of-the-lost-ark)
* Wikipedia on [Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Mermaid) and [Disney’s 1989 version](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Mermaid_(1989_film))

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_92.m4a).

**UPDATE** 6-10-13: The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-ep-92-the-little-mermaid-transcript).

Sounds teenagers make

Words on the page

James Harbeck analyzes some of the common annoying sounds in [teenage speech](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY2R_K3NFPo&feature=player_embedded).

What’s interesting to me is how difficult many of them are to write in dialogue. I often find myself placing them in scene description or another character’s parenthetical.

MARY

You’ll get another 4S. You don’t need a 5.

(off Caleb’s whiny gasp)

Yeah -- next time, don’t try to Snapchat your junk in a hot tub.

Mason and Finley

Dead Projects, Projects, Television

The 22-year old twins at the center of my 1999 TV show D.C. were named Mason and Finley. I picked those names because they sounded like a brother and sister who came from some money — or at least the kids of English professors. I pictured them solving mysteries as teenagers.

I also picked those names because they were rare. I’d never encountered any actual people with those names.

Now the country is lousy with Masons. For 2012, it’s the [#2 name in America](http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/), steadily climbing from #64 in 2000.

And while Finley isn’t exactly common, it has grown quite a bit. In 2005, it was the #986 name. For 2012, it’s #349. (Still, the only Finley I’ve met in real life is an eight-year old boy in my daughter’s French class.)

D.C. lasted only seven low-rated episodes, so I can’t take any credit for these names rising in popularity. But it’s interesting to realize that names chosen for their relative obscurity may not stay that way.

For the hero of Chosen, I picked Asha. Right now, it’s ranked #978, but in a world full of Emmas and Ellas, it feels like the kind of name that has room to grow.

(The scripts for D.C. are available in the [Library](http://johnaugust.com/library).)

Bechdel and Batman

Genres, Scriptnotes, Story and Plot, Transcribed

It’s a week of pondering other people’s opinions. First, Craig and John take a look at the Bechdel Test: is it a useful metric for screenwriters, or just meaningless checkbox-ticking?

From there, we dive into David Wong’s analysis of troubling superhero lessons. Are these just updated versions of the classic myths, or do they say something specific about modern times?

Finally, we heap praise on screenwriter Justin Marks’s article on what it’s like to be a working writer who is mostly unproduced.

LINKS:

* [The Hangover Part III](http://www.hangoverpart3.com/) is in theaters now!
* [CinemaScore](http://www.cinemascore.com/)’s official site, and [on Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CinemaScore)
* The [Bechdel Test](http://bechdeltest.com/)
* John’s 2010 blog post on [Women in film](http://johnaugust.com/2010/women-in-film)
* [The 5 Ugly Lessons Hiding in Every Superhero Movie](http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-5-ugly-lessons-hiding-in-every-superhero-movie/) by David Wong
* [My Life as a Screenwriter You’ve Never Heard Of](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/my-life-as-a-screenwriter-520979) by Justin Marks
* Wikipedia’s [list of common misconceptions](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions)
* Esha Khare’s [twenty-second phone charger](http://in.news.yahoo.com/indian-girl-invents-device-charge-phone-20-seconds-153130999.html) (via [Ryan Conroy](https://twitter.com/RyConTiki/status/337409509569994752))
* OUTRO: The Clique’s [Superman](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjASX8ugl_E) covered by Rob Lamber

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_91.m4a).

**UPDATE** 5-31-13: The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-ep-91-bechdel-and-batman-transcript).