John August

Tools

A DM’s guide to Roll20

Geek Alert, Software, Tools

Since the start of the pandemic, our regular D&D game — which has always been in person — has shifted to online. We use Zoom to chat, and Roll20 to simulate the tabletop.

I’m comfortable using Roll20 as a player, but when it came time to begin planning my own campaign as a DM, I was stumped. The interface is wildly confusing, and the built-in tutorials aren’t up to the task.

Craig offered to walk me through the process of setting up and running a game. We recorded the whole thing, which is now available as five videos.

If you’re considering DMing a game in Roll20, I strongly suggest you start here. Craig’s a good teacher.

How We Record Scriptnotes, 2020

Geek Alert, Meta, Tools

scripnotes coverMany listeners have asked how Craig and I record our weekly podcast. I wrote about it in 2013, but a few things have changed. So here’s an updated look at our standard operating procedures and gear.

When and what

Scriptnotes producer Megana Rao and Craig’s assistant Bo Shim figure out when we’re going to record. It’s usually a Thursday or Friday, late in the afternoon. Megana and I have usually talked over potential topics, but Craig and I will also text during the week to discuss. If it’s a Three Page Challenge, Megana will send each of us PDFs of the entries she’s picked.

We’re all working off a shared outline in WorkFlowy, which includes the episode number, today’s topics, listener questions, various housekeeping bits, and our One Cool Things. I recently made a template. If there’s anything we need to read aloud — for example, a quote from an article — I usually copy-paste it into this outline.

Since Craig works in Pasadena and I work in Hollywood, it’s not practical for us to be in the room together, so we record the podcast on Skype. This is the part many people can’t fathom — we’re almost never in the same room together. I lived in Paris during 2016 and 2017, yet we kept doing the show pretty much as normal. Whether you’re miles or time zones apart, you can do it.

It takes practice to keep up a conversation when you don’t have the usual physical cues. The first few episodes were rough. But I think the podcast is actually much better with Craig and I being apart; like the audience, we’re only hearing each other’s voice, so everything we’re communicating needs to happen in speech.

I don’t care about hearing myself through the headphones, but if you do, you may want to consider a setup that lets you plug headphones into the mic or mixer. If you let the audio round-trip through the computer, the lag will drive you crazy.

Editing

While Craig and I are talking on Skype, each of us has QuickTime running on our own computers to record only our side of the conversation. (File > New Audio Recording…) When we finish recording, we each save our audio into the same shared Dropbox folder. From there, editor Matthew Chilelli yanks out the audio and marries the two tracks in Logic.

Many podcasts simply record the Skype call, saving the step of marrying the two tracks. But it’s very handy to be able to manage the two sides of the conversation separately. We can edit out background noise and generally keep it much tighter.

As a backup, we have Call Recorder for Skype running. It’s saved our bacon a few times.

Matthew ends up editing two versions of the episode: the normal one and the premium version, which includes an additional segment at the end. When he’s finished — generally Monday at around noon — he’ll put them back in Dropbox. Megana listens to them and writes up the text for the post, along with links and the outro. I sign off, then all that gets added into the files.

Megana then uploads the premium file to our subscription service, where it comes out immediately. She schedules the normal version to come out Tuesday morning.

Nuts and bolts

For hardware, we started with Dan Benjamin’s really useful guide to podcasting gear, but ultimately made different choices over the years. I’ll include Amazon referral links for items available there, but certainly consider local retailers — or items you may already have.

For my mic, I’m using the Shure BETA 87A Supercardioid Condenser Vocal Microphone mounted on a Heil PL-2T boom with some generic pop screen. This mic requires a pre-amp and USB interface, so I’m using the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, which feels like overkill but has been problem-free for many years.

When I’m traveling, I’ve been packing the Samson Q2U Handheld Dynamic USB Microphone instead. It’s really good for the price and simply plugs into USB. When we have remote guests I’ll often drop this mic off at their house if they’re in town, or just Amazon it to them if they’re somewhere else.

For listening, there’s nothing better than the Sony MDR-7506 headphones, which not only sound great but seal well, keeping Craig’s audio from being recorded on my track. I like them so much that I’ll bring them with me on a trip.

Before the pandemic, we were recording more shows in-person at my office using a RØDECaster Pro, which is genuinely terrific. It combines a pre-amp, USB interface and recorder into a single interface. The new Zoom PodTrack P4 looks to meet a similar need and is probably also great. I’ve had a good experience with various Zoom recorders over the years.

For live shows, I’ve generally been recording on the Zoom H6 digital recorder. Even if we’re using audio from a sound board, I’ll still aim the Zoom at the audience to gather crowd noise.

Getting Things Done in a Pandemic

Meta, Projects, Tools

As a screenwriter who works at home, I’m used to having large, shapeless blocks of time. Now that the coronavirus has many people unexpectedly working from home, I wanted to share a tool that’s helped me stay productive.

to do list

It’s a pre-printed sheet of 8.5×11-inch paper folded in quarters. I call it my Daily Plan. You can download the template as a PDF, or customize it in Pages, Word or Google Docs.

I print these up a dozen at a time and leave a stack by my phone charger. Each morning as I drink my coffee, I take one and fill it out.

Since the lockdown began, one of the things that’s honestly most helpful is writing the day of the week at the top of the sheet. Often the only way I can tell it’s Monday versus Saturday is by looking.

Below that is a list of blank lines and checkboxes, a classic to-do list. Here I put the tasks I want to get done, referring to the previous day’s sheet to carry over anything that’s still relevant.

What’s important is that this isn’t just for the must-dos, but also the want-to-dos. For example, playing Animal Crossing. It’s not a reward for getting other things accomplished; it’s its own thing worth putting on the list by itself.

There are a few items printed at the bottom of the list for tasks I do every day. For example, I have a 1,251-day streak going in Duolingo French, and no virus is going to break that. My 2020 goal was to learn how to draw, so that’s another daily task pre-printed on the sheet.

Do I actually draw it every day? No. But it’s on the list as a reminder that drawing practice is something I could and probably should do.

The pre-printed lines are also useful for recurring but non-daily tasks. My dog Lambert needs his teeth brushed every other day, so I scratch the line out if it happened yesterday.

back of sheet

The back of the Daily Plan is my schedule. Pre-pandemic, this was section full of meetings and school events. Yes, these were already in the calendar app on my phone, but marking them down on paper helped me recognize where I had free time to get work done.

My schedule now is basically just zoom calls and hangout sessions with friends. At least I don’t have to budget travel time to get from place to place.

inside of plan

The Daily Plan folds open like a book. Inside, I have an overflow list of tasks, along with a section for notes. For example, how many decks of Writer Emergency Pack we have at the warehouse, or the name of a book I want to order.

I use a proper notebook or the Notes app on my phone for stuff I need to refer back to, but the Notes section is a great place to jot down things that are only relevant today.

inside flap

The Daily Plan also has a peek page, a list of all the projects I’m working on — both official stuff and fun things. It’s printed on the back of the sheet, which ends up underneath the to-do list. As I sit down with my morning coffee, I’ll look through this list to consider whether there’s anything related to those projects that could be done today.

Where this all came from

The idea of a daily to-do list is probably as old as paper and writing.

At its heart, my Daily Plan shares a lot with David Allen’s classic Getting Things Done system, in that it describes work in terms of projects and “next actions.” I’ve used GTD at various times in various ways, both in handwritten notebooks and with apps like Things and OmniFocus.

While GTD works great for many people, I’ve found it inevitably devolves into lists of things I never get done, and eventually stop looking at.

What’s helpful about the Daily Plan is that it’s new each day. I have control over it because I only add the things I want to add. In this way, it more closely resembles David Seah’s Emergent Task Planner. ETP is a little narrowly focused for my taste, and I’ve never found micro-scheduling to work for me.

The most direct inspiration for the Daily Plan came from a habit I’ve gotten into whenever I take a long international flight and find myself with 10 to 14 hours to fill. This unstructured free time used to spike my anxiety. What should I do? Should I read the book I brought? Should I play that puzzle game on my iPad? Should I do Headspace? Which movies should I watch on the seat-back screen?

Beginning last year, I decided to make a Flight Plan before the wheels leave the runway. Once I’m in my seat, I pull out a sheet of paper and list the in-flight movies I want to watch, the things I want to read, and the games I want to play. It takes ten minutes and is honestly transformative. I used to dread long flights. Now I see them as a chance to watch and read and learn. I’ve taken this amorphous blob of time and given it purpose.

The Daily Plan is basically my Flight Plan for ordinary life.

I started using it in January, well before the pandemic. While it’s useful in normal times, it’s proved indispensable in this current age of nameless days when the boundaries between work and home life are blurred. It provides a sense of structure and control.

So if you want to give it a shot, you can download the template as a PDF, or customize it in Pages, Word or Google Docs.

Customize however you like, adding the items you want to do every day, and listing your projects on the peek page. (If your printer can’t handle two-sided printing, just print the first page. You can flip the paper and print it again, or just not worry about it.)

Hit me up on Twitter if you find the Daily Plan useful, or come across innovations you want to share.

Bad Behavior

Episode - 353

Go to Archive

Directors, Film Industry, Follow Up, Scriptnotes, Television, Tools, Transcribed, Videogames, Words on the page

John and Craig discuss the hot new trend of firing jerks from successful TV shows. Why is it happening now like never before? Is there an important distinction between being “difficult” and being a jerk?

We also follow up on listener suggestions for outlining tools, and answer questions about the landscape of feature comedy, the art of biopic postscripts, shopping agreements, and the etiquette around replacing another writer.

Links:

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

UPDATE 6-13-18: The transcript of this episode can be found here.