John August

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Optioning a novel, and the golden age of television

Episode - 25

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Books, QandA, Scriptnotes, Transcribed

For their 25th podcast, John and Craig tackle listener questions.

How does a screenwriter option a novel he wants to adapt? John has optioned two novels — one through a studio, and one on his own — while Craig recently optioned his first. In each of these cases, we found the psychological aspects to be just as important as the legal ones.

When can a writer say he “wrote” a movie — particularly if there are other credited writers? John and Craig disagree a bit here, with John trying to draw the distinction between “worked on” and “wrote.”

Finally, should an aspiring writer focus on television or features? The answer from two feature writers may surprise you. Or not: television is pretty damn good these day.

Links:

* [Finding out if a book has been optioned](http://johnaugust.com/2007/book-optioned)
* [The Hero from Otherwhere](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1838431.Hero_from_Otherwhere) by Jay Williams
* [What’s That Book?](http://www.whatsthatbook.com/)
* [Big Fish, a Novel of Mythical Proportions](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1616201649/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=johnaugustcom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1616201649) by Daniel Wallace
* [Summer of the Monkeys](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0440415802/?tag=johnaugustcom-20) by Wilson Rawls
* [How I Became a Famous Novelist](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0802170609/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=johnaugustcom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0802170609) by Steve Hely
* INTRO: [The Gary Coleman Show](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZQSPfTq42M) opening credits
* OUTRO: [I Wanna Dance with Somebody](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weBTm5pH3rw) by Adrian Glynn

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_25.m4a).

**UPDATE** 2-22-12: The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2012/scriptnotes-ep-25-optioning-a-novel-and-the-golden-age-of-television-transcript).

The Brotherhood of Screenwriters

QandA, Scriptnotes, Transcribed

John and Craig open up the listener mailbag to answer questions about formatting lyrics, foreign dialogue and title trademarks. We also dive in to discuss overall deals, which are common in television but quite rare among feature writers.

Also this week: The launch of the plain text screenwriting format Fountain, and John’s love for the all-singing, all-dancing, Superbowl-sized NBC network promo.

There’s also brief discussion of some sporting event that happened two Sundays ago.

Links:

* [NBC’s “Brotherhood of Man” promo (updated link)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJuAvwtmXuw)
* [Fountain](http://www.fountain.io)
* Where to [send a question](mailto:ask@johnaugust.com)
* INTRO: [Fresno opening credits](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lIAZiTI56I)
* OUTRO: [Wessex Boy](http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/england-keep-my-bones-deluxe/id439592119) by Frank Turner

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_24.m4a).

**UPDATE** 2-16-12: The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2012/scriptnotes-ep-24-the-brotherhood-of-screenwriters-transcript).

In defense of Liz Lemon

Television

Linda Holmes worries that 30 Rock has [infantilized Liz Lemon](http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2012/02/09/146626983/the-incredible-shrinking-liz-lemon-from-woman-to-little-girl):

> Over the course of six seasons, Jack has been fully transformed into a condescending, all-knowing daddy, and Liz has been fully transformed into a needy little girl who is eternally terrified of displeasing him. She’s always had a grudging respect for him, but now she simply reveres him and trusts his judgment more than hers. She was once frazzled but smart, harried but competent, capable of wrangling a bunch of crazy people and then slumping at the end of the day, exhausted but minimally victorious. Now, she’s just dumb, incapable of making her own decisions, and her relationship with Jack is entirely out of balance.

I disagree. Holmes is cherry-picking her Liz/Jack moments to make her case.

While there’s always been a paternal dynamic to their relationship, over the last season or two we’ve seen Jack relying on Liz for emotional support while dealing with corporate changes and marriage. He’s stopped referring to her as a mentee and started calling her a friend.

Is their friendship weird? Sure. But he’s her boss, and that’s comedy.

This season’s [fifth episode](http://www.hulu.com/watch/324194/30-rock-today-you-are-a-man#s-p1-so-i0) centered on contract negotiations between Liz and Jack:

JACK

(crying into his hand)

I want to be a baby again!

LIZ

No, no, no! Look, you won! I’ll sign whatever! Just don’t cry. Daddy doesn’t cry.

JACK

Do you know why I lost earlier? Because of our friendship. I want you to have everything, and that made me make a mistake. In other words, I lost because of emotion, which I always thought was a weakness, but now I’ve learned can also be a weapon.

[...]

LIZ

Wow. After six years, there’s still room for growth in this friendship.

That last line was delivered with a wink and a nod to camera, as if Fey had already read Holmes’ critique. (Or a set of network notes.)

Rewatch the pilot. It’s not great, as Tiny Fey is happy to point out. 30 Rock only found its groove once they committed to the fact Liz wasn’t the nice, normal girl surrounded by crazy people. She’s deeply odd herself, and not just in flashbacks.

Still: We want good things to happen for Liz Lemon, because we like her. But she’s not Mary Tyler Moore. The question isn’t whether she’s going to make it after all — partly because it’s not at all clear what “making it” would entail. The healthiest thing for the character would be to run far, far away.

But then there wouldn’t be a show.

Pricing FDX Reader

FDX Reader

After a long gestation, Final Draft has announced that their official iPad app, Final Draft Reader, will be available for sale [next week](http://www.finaldraft.com/products/mobile/reader/).

fdx reader iconTheir app is a lot like our app, [FDX Reader](http://quoteunquoteapps.com/fdxreader).

In fact, the only reason we made our app is because we needed to read Final Draft files and their app didn’t exist. So the question now is how to position our app vis-à-vis the official one.

At least on paper, their app does more than ours:

* Production drafts (colored pages, locked pages)
* ScriptNotes
* Searching
* Multi-page title pages
* Printing with AirPrint

All of these things are useful. The question will be whether the official app does enough things *better.*

One advantage: Final Draft Reader should be able to exactly match page breaks (and page numbers) with the desktop version. We come very close with FDX Reader, but we’ll never hit them exactly. Page breaks aren’t part of the file, but rather an internal calculation. We don’t know Final Draft’s math. They do.

I suspect many users will be disappointed that Final Draft Reader apparently only supports .fdx files, and not the older .fdr files.

That surprised me. We don’t support .fdr either — and at least half of our support emails come from users confused why we don’t. In our case, it’s because we can’t decipher Final Draft’s old, proprietary binary format. Final Draft can, but has chosen not to.

They’re going to be answering a lot of emails on this topic. ((I’ve encouraged Final Draft to come out with a free conversion utility. I’ve offered to make one — and that offer still stands. (Same with Screenwriter’s .mmsw format.) It’s difficult to build a converter for these binary formats, but to me that makes it even more essential. In 20 years, nothing will open these files.))

Perhaps the biggest difference between our app and the official one: Final Draft’s Reader *only* works on the iPad. Our FDX Reader is universal and works on the iPhone (and iPod Touch) as well.

What to charge
—-

Final Draft hasn’t announced their price yet, which has led to speculation on Twitter about how much they’ll charge, with guesses ranging from $19.99 to $49.99.

Meanwhile, we’re currently priced at $4.99. As I [wrote in December](http://johnaugust.com/2011/fdx-reader-updated-on-sale), I suspect we’ll raise our price once their app comes out.

That seems counter-intuitive. Wouldn’t staying at our current price — or going even lower — pull more sales away from the official Final Draft app?

Probably, but I don’t think that’s a worthy goal. If Final Draft Reader is good, I want it to succeed.

In general, I think prices for good software — particularly specialty software like screenplay readers — should be high enough that companies can earn money developing and supporting these apps. That shouldn’t be a radical idea, but the race-to-bottom pricing of the App Store has conditioned buyers to think that anything more than 99 cents is too much.

Honestly, the only reason we can make and support FDX Reader is that I make a good living as a screenwriter. That’s what keeps the bills paid. We’re not bringing in enough money to pay Ryan what he’s worth, let alone Nima.

Psychologically, whatever price Final Draft chooses for their app will become the new baseline. If their app costs $20, ours looks like a bargain at $10. No doubt we would lose some sales, but I suspect we would earn just as much or more.

At a certain price point, ((What is that magic price point? If you have an opinion, let me know on Twitter: @johnaugust)) FDX Reader becomes expensive enough that a buyer comparing the two apps might decide, “Screw it. I’ll just buy the official one.” That’s okay. I want people to choose the app that best serves their needs.

We consider FDX Reader done. We’ll continue to sell it and support it with bug fixes, but most of our energy is going towards [Fountain](http://fountain.io), [Bronson Watermarker](http://quoteunquoteapps.com/bronson), and soon-to-be-announced magic.