John August

Resources

INT. THE WOODS – NIGHT

Episode - 181

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Film Industry, Follow Up, QandA, Resources, Scriptnotes, So-Called Experts, Transcribed, WGA, Words on the page

John and Craig pick up loose ends, with follow-up on previous episodes about “friends,” conflict, improv, Kindles, and defibrillation.

Then it’s that Peter Bart episode, which is enough to cause a heart attack.

Finally, we get to some listener questions about referring to collective characters, INT/EXT, deaf assistants and ellipses.

Next week, we hope to have two episodes: a normal one and the NSFW dirty show for the premium feed.

Links:

You can download the episode here: AAC | mp3.

UPDATE 1-29-15: The transcript of this episode can be found here.

Screenwriting.io moves out of beta

Resources

When we launched Screenwriting.io two years ago, we called it a beta, because it was just barely useful.

But in the past 24 months, it has grown a lot. The site now features more than 100 short articles answering basic questions about screenwriting. Each week, we get thousands of visitors.

So today we’re shedding the beta label.

Screenwriting.io is aimed at simple questions like:

→ What is the difference between a script, a screenplay, and a teleplay?

→ Why is the last “w” of WGAw lowercase?

→ What is scale?

→ How do you format a montage in a screenplay?

→ Can scene headers be bold?

These are questions so basic they would feel awkward on johnaugust.com. But they deserve answers.

My mandate to Ryan and Stuart was straightforward: each page should be The Answer. If answering one question raises new questions, new pages should answer those questions.

Stuart handles most of the questions that come into Screenwriting.io. If he doesn’t know the answer, he asks me. Either way, he provides links to information on johnaugust.com and other sites for further details.

So if you have a simple question about screenwriting, Screenwriting.io might be a good first stop. It’s also a handy place to refer newcomers to the craft.

Let’s talk about Nikki Finke

Directors, Film Industry, Resources, Scriptnotes, Software, Tools, Transcribed, Words on the page

John and Craig discuss the polarizing potentate of Deadline Hollywood Daily, then segue into what a healthy entertainment journalism ecosystem might look like.

From there, it’s a discussion of Amazon Studios’ new storyboarding software, which demos well but isn’t likely to change much. It’s a good jumping-off spot for talking about storyboarding in general.

Also this week: T-shirts! Live dates!

Official Scriptnotes t-shirts are available in Umbrage Orange and Rational Blue — but only until June 21st, so don’t delay. You can find them at store.johnaugust.com (or follow the link below).

Two live shows this summer! June 29th and July 25th, both in Los Angeles. Click the links for details.

LINKS:

You can download the episode here: AAC.

UPDATE 6-14-13: The transcript of this episode can be found here.

From Captain Trips to Bowden’s Malady

Genres, Resources

In the spirit of the season, let us say thanks to Wikipedia for this comprehensive list of fictional diseases.

This article is a list of fictional diseases — nonexistent, named medical conditions which appear in fiction where they have a major plot or thematic importance. They may be fictional psychological disorders, magical, from mythological or fantasy settings, have evolved naturally, been engineered artificially (most often created as biological weapons), or be any illness that came forth from the (ab)use of technology.

It’s remarkable how many of these are variants on biological-zombie tropes. I particularly liked how Max Brooks set up the pathogen at the heart of his two zombie books, which the wiki article summarizes nicely:

Upon infection, the victim succumbs to bouts of high fevers, hallucinations, headaches, and vomiting spasms, before being officially declared dead a few hours later as the virus replicates through the brain. Approximately twenty-two hours later, the victim’s corpse reanimates as a zombie.

And no, as of this writing I haven’t seen Contagion yet, or the Walking Dead season finale.

(link via BoingBoing)