John August

Story and Plot

Wet Hot American Podcast

Episode - 146

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Directors, Follow Up, QandA, Scriptnotes, Story and Plot, Transcribed

Writer-Director David Wain joins John and Craig to talk about the long journey to bring They Came Together to the screen (on June 27th), the changing nature of spoofs, and the seminal summer camp film Wet Hot American Summer.

We also touch on the origins of the three act structure, getting started right out of film school, and the odd financing of Legends of Oz.

Links:

* [David Wain](http://davidwain.com/), and on [IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0906476/) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/davidwain)
* [Being Gay at Jerry Falwell’s University](http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/04/being-gay-at-jerry-falwells-university/274578/), from The Atlantic
* [They Came Together](http://www.theycametogether.com) is in theaters and On Demand June 27th
* [Wet Hot American Summer](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005EYLFOW/?tag=johnaugustcom-20) on Amazon
* [Caught in the acts](http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2014/05/18/caught-in-the-acts-2/), from David Bordwell’s website on cinema
* [Legends of Oz Investors Believe Hollywood Conspiracy Destroyed Film](http://www.cartoonbrew.com/business/legends-of-oz-investors-who-each-paid-100000-believe-hollywood-conspiracy-destroyed-film-99641.html), from Cartoon Brew
* THR on [Amy Adams’ Story of Your Life selling to Paramount for $20 Million](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cannes-amy-adams-story-your-704004)
* [Voice Dream](http://www.voicedream.com/), a text to speech app for iOS
* [Fountain.io](http://fountain.io/)
* [Ian Helfer](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0375043/) on IMDb
* Get tickets now for the [Black List Live! read of Stephany Folsom’s 1969: A Space Odyssey, or How Kubrick Learned to Stop Worrying and Land on the Moon](http://filmguide.lafilmfest.com/tixSYS/2014/xslguide/eventnote.php?notepg=1&EventNumber=9107&utm_content=buffer89d0e&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer) on June 14th, part of the LA Film Fest
* [Hopscotch](https://www.gethopscotch.com/), a coding for kids app for iOS
* [Childrens Hospital](http://video.adultswim.com/childrens-hospital/), [Newsreaders](http://video.adultswim.com/newsreaders/index.html), and [Superjail!](http://video.adultswim.com/superjail/index.html) (which returns on June 14th) on adultswim.com
* [Outro](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-the-outros) by Scriptnotes listener Mike Timmerman ([send us yours!](http://johnaugust.com/2014/outros-needed))

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_146.m4a) | [mp3](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_146.mp3).

**UPDATE 6-3-14:** The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2014/scriptnotes-ep-146-wet-hot-american-podcast-transcript).

The Angeles Crest Fiasco

Scriptnotes, Story and Plot

Screenwriter Kelly Marcel joins John and Craig to play Fiasco, resulting in a tale of art, murder and sexual blackmail in the Hollywood Hills.

This extended, unlike-all-before-it episode will probably be polarizing, but it was a chance to explore story in ways that you can’t do in abstract. In Fiasco, plot really does come out of character choices.

This episode is filthy. If this were a cable drama, it would be TV-MA DSLV. If that makes you more or less likely to listen, trust your gut. (There’s no nudity. It’s radio.)

Our thanks to Kelly Marcel for hosting. Next week, we’ll return with a more conventional episode.

Links:

* Kelly Marcel on [IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0545150/), and on Scriptnotes episodes [115](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-back-to-austin-with-rian-johnson-and-kelly-marcel), [123](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-holiday-spectacular) and [124](http://johnaugust.com/2013/qa-from-the-holiday-spectacular), and the recent [WGF Bonus Episode](http://scriptnotes.net/bonus-rewriting-and-refocusing)
* [Fiasco](http://www.bullypulpitgames.com/games/fiasco/) and [on Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1934859397/?tag=johnaugustcom-20)
* [Hollywood Wives](http://www.bullypulpitgames.com/wiki/index.php?title=Hollywood_Wives) by Jobe Bittman and [other Fiasco Playsets](http://www.bullypulpitgames.com/wiki/index.php?title=Fiasco_Playsets)
* Rawson Thurber on [IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1098493/)
* Richard Kelly on [IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0446819/)
* [Colin Jost](http://colinjost.com/), and on [IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1906042/)
* John’s [teaser tweet with images of the cards](https://twitter.com/johnaugust/status/462350436763070464)
* Fiasco on TableTop with Wil Wheaton: [Set-up](http://geekandsundry.com/shows/tabletop/tabletop-fiasco-set-up/), [Part 1](http://geekandsundry.com/shows/tabletop/fiasco-alison-haislip-bonnie-burton-and-john-rogers-join-wil-on-tabletop-ep/), and [Part 2](http://geekandsundry.com/shows/tabletop/fiasco-alison-haislip-bonnie-burton-and-john-rogers-join-wil-on-tablet6/)
* [Angeles Crest National Forest](http://www.fs.usda.gov/angeles)
* [Zoom H4N recorder](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001QWBM62/?tag=johnaugustcom-20) on Amazon
* [Outro](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-the-outros) by Scriptnotes listener Betty Spinks ([send us yours!](http://johnaugust.com/2014/outros-needed))

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_142.m4a) | [mp3](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_142.mp3).

Because of the length of this episode and the cost involved, there will not be a transcript of episode 142.

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.

Michael Arndt on setting a story in motion

Story and Plot, Writing Process

In this animated lesson, Michael Arndt explains some of the things he learned while working on the screenplay for Toy Story 3.

When I saw this video, I immediately wondered what it was from. It’s clearly professionally made, so why is it on some random guy’s YouTube account?

I emailed Michael Arndt, who wrote back that it was originally a bonus feature on the [Blu-ray for Toy Story 3](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004RKXW0E/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004RKXW0E&linkCode=as2&tag=johnaugustcom-20). He gave me his blessing to link to it.

> I’m aware the model I set up here applies imperfectly to TS3 itself. (It applies much more cleanly [for example] to TOOTSIE, which I consider one of the best comedy first acts of all time.) The broader point is that the emotional fuel for your first act break is largely set up in your inciting incident — and that is something that does apply to TS3.

Disney and/or Pixar own the copyright on the video, so they could pull it down. But I hope they won’t. This kind of lesson celebrates what’s made their films so successful, and deserves wider exposure.