John August

Search Results for: notes on notes

People still buy movies

Episode - 72

Go to Archive

News, Scriptnotes, Three Page Challenge, Transcribed

With last week’s news that home video stopped its free-fall and actually grew a little bit in 2012, John and Craig discuss whether studios might ease off on one-step deals and other development austerity measures.

But while one bloodbath has been averted, this week’s batch of Three Page Challenges is particularly gruesome — but also pretty good.

Craig is too stubborn to admit that John’s workflow for generating both starred and clean PDFs is vastly smarter and better, but since John writes these episode blurbs, he gets the last word. Victory!

John also has a shocking announcement that changes everything: He’s become a single-spacer.

All this plus Craig’s encomium to his new car in this week’s Scriptnotes.

SPECIAL NOTE: We’d love to know a bit more about you, so if you could please answer a few questions at [johnaugust.com/survey](http://johnaugust.com/survey), we’d be super-grateful.

LINKS:

* Digital Entertainment Group’s [Year-End 2012 Home Entertainment Report](http://www.dvdinformation.com/pressreleases/2013/Year_End_2012%20cover%20note_FINAL_1.8.13.pdf)
* [Frankenweenie](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005LAIIA8/?tag=johnaugustcom-20) four-disc set on Amazon
* LA Times on Wal-Mart’s [disc-to-digital service](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2012/04/disc-to-digital-at-wal-mart-is-simple-if-you-know-your-vudu.html)
* Three pages by [Al Ibrahim](http://johnaugust.com/Assets/AlIbrahim.pdf)
* Three pages by [Keith Groff & Jonathan White](http://johnaugust.com/Assets/KeithGroffJonathanWhite.pdf)
* Three pages by [Nick Keetch](http://johnaugust.com/Assets/NickKeetch.pdf)
* Three pages by [P.K. Lassiter](http://johnaugust.com/Assets/PKLassiter.pdf)
* Tesla [Model S](http://www.teslamotors.com/models)
* The WolframAlpha Blog on [what Craig can do with that hour John saved him](http://blog.wolframalpha.com/2012/11/02/what-could-you-do-with-an-extra-hour/)
* [The Scriptnotes Survey](http://johnaugust.com/survey): A minute of your day. A lifetime of good karma.
* OUTRO: [Electric Car](https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/here-comes-science/id328953349) by They Might Be Giants on iTunes

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_72.m4a).

**UPDATE** 1-18-13: The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-ep-72-people-still-buy-movies-transcript).

Sprints, marathons and migrations

Broadway, Psych 101, Television

This week, I’ve been working on a feature, a TV pilot and the stage musical of Big Fish. It’s gotten me thinking about the nature of different forms of dramatic writing.

Writing a TV pilot is a **sprint**. It’s only about sixty pages. You can easily write an act a day. Sure, there are outlines and notes and rewrites, but everything happens incredibly quickly, and if you can’t write fast you shouldn’t write TV at all.

Writing a feature is a **marathon**. You might have a few sprints along the way — the first act, those last ten pages — but it’s ultimately a bit of a slog. Like a long-distance runner, you have to pace yourself and accept the page-after-page, scene-after-scene grind. When it come time to actually make the movie, it’s the same experience: seemingly endless, but the finish line finally comes. Just like many sprinters can’t run a marathon, many TV writers struggle when facing a feature.

Writing a stage musical is a **migration**. Race analogies fail. You’re covering distance, but there’s no real finish line. Like pioneers crossing the plains, you may have a destination in mind (Broadway), but you’ll be making many stops during the trip, setting up camps that may turn into towns, before eventually hitting the trail again. Along the way, people will come and go from your little community. And if you finally reach your original destination, that’s still not the end of the journey. You’ll go back on the road with other stagings of the show. As a writer, you have to make peace with the unfinishability of a musical.

As I mentioned on the podcast, one of the goals for this year is to accept that I’ll probably be writing some form of Big Fish for the rest of my life.

I suspect other art forms have a similar sprint/marathon/migration triad:

* You can sprint through a short story, while a novel is a marathon, and a franchise like Harry Potter is a migration.
* “Rapper’s Delight” is a sprint, *Paul’s Boutique* is a marathon, and hip hop is a migration.
* One painting is a sprint, a gallery exhibition is a marathon, and cubism is a migration.
* In coding, perhaps that Flash game is a sprint, Karateka is a marathon and building Gmail is a migration.

If you think of others, by all means [tweet ’em](https://twitter.com/johnaugust).

Unless they pay you, the answer is no

Los Angeles, QandA, Scriptnotes, Transcribed, WGA

John and Craig return from the holidays to look at the WGA nominations, the perennially high costs of movies, scene headers and acceptable fonts for treatments.

Two reader questions ask how to get career stuff started before an LA move. Are any of the contests worth the bother? Does a great review on the Black List open doors for a writer living in Jerusalem?

Also discussed: resolutions, accepting long time horizons, and not counting chickens.

If you’re listening on the site — or just track-by-track in iTunes — do us a favor and hit Subscribe on [our iTunes page](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/scriptnotes-podcast/id462495496). It helps us figure out how many people are new listeners and how many are listening to back-catalog tracks. Thanks!

LINKS:

* 2013 Writers Guild Award [nominees](http://www.wga.org/awards/awardssub.aspx?id=1516)
* [Chaparral Pro](http://www.identifont.com/show?2E3)
* [Baskerville](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baskerville)
* The johnaugust.com [library](http://johnaugust.com/library)
* Austin Film Festival’s [screenplay and teleplay competitions](http://www.austinfilmfestival.com/submit/screenplayandteleplay/)
* The Academy [Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting](http://www.oscars.org/awards/nicholl/index.html)
* About the [Black List](https://www.blcklst.com/about/) screenwriting service
* [Quebec City](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_City) on Wikipedia
* [Poutine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poutine) on Wikipedia
* [Cheese curds](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_curds) on Wikipedia
* [Coffeescript](http://coffeescript.org)
* [Maple, the computer algebra system](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maple_(software))
* OUTRO: [Sabado Merengue](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsmyoT2DhnY) by Cabaret Diosa

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_71.m4a).

**UPDATE** 1-10-13: The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-ep-71-unless-they-pay-you-the-answer-is-no-transcript).

Best of Outlines, Agents and Good Boy Syndrome

Film Industry, How-To, Scriptnotes, Transcribed

Craig and John start the year with a look back at three very early episodes not currently on iTunes, discussing outlines, agents and the Good Boy Syndrome.

Thank you for all the great ratings and reviews on iTunes. If you haven’t already left one, why not let it be the easiest resolution ever? You can leave one [here](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/scriptnotes-podcast/id462495496?mt=2).

LINKS:

* Scriptnotes, Episode 3: [Kids, cards, whiteboards and outlines](http://johnaugust.com/2011/kids-cards-whiteboards-and-outlines)
* Scriptnotes, Episode 2: [How to get an agent and/or manager](http://johnaugust.com/2011/scriptnotes-episode-2)
* Scriptnotes, Episode 8: [The Good Boy Syndrome, and whether film school is worth it](http://johnaugust.com/2011/the-good-boy-syndrome-and-whether-film-school-is-worth-it)
* INTRO: Theme to [The Remnants](http://vimeo.com/2755105) by John August
* OUTRO: [Swiss Top Secret Drum Corps](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJVdnMAGIt8) at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo 2009

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_70.m4a).

**UPDATE** 1-6-13: The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-ep-70-best-of-outlines-agents-and-good-boy-syndrome-transcript).