John August

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Let’s talk about Nikki Finke

Episode - 93

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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:

* The Daily Beast on [Nikki Finke’s 8 Greatest Freakouts](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/04/deadline-hollywood-editor-in-chief-nikki-finke-s-8-greatest-freakouts.html)
* The LA Times on how [Nikki Finke’s next big story may be her own exit](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-fi-ct-nikki-finke-20130604,0,4915206,full.story)
* Time asks [What’s Next for Hollywood’s Most Feared Reporter?](http://entertainment.time.com/2013/06/06/whats-next-for-hollywoods-most-feared-reporter/)
* The (one and only?) infamous [Nikki Finke headshot](http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlla/files/original/nikki_finke.jpg)
* Gawker on [Why Nikki Finke Never Makes a Mistake](http://gawker.com/5392863/why-nikki-finke-never-makes-a-mistake) and the [commenter edition](http://gawker.com/5501268/why-nikki-finke-never-makes-a-mistake-commenter-edition)
* The Writers Guild Foundation presents [The Screenwriter’s Craft: Finding Your Voice](https://www.wgfoundation.org/screenwriting-events/the-screenwriters-craft-finding-your-voice/) featuring Scriptnotes Live
* [Submit your Three Pages](http://johnaugust.com/threepage) for the Writers Guild Foundation event and let us know you’ll be there
* John’s blog post on [this summer’s two live shows](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-live-in-la)
* [Amazon Storyteller](http://studios.amazon.com/storyteller) from Amazon Studios
* Get your Scriptnotes shirt from [the John August Store](http://store.johnaugust.com/) until June 21st
* [f.lux](http://justgetflux.com/) adjusts your displays for the time of day
* [Kingdom Rush Frontiers](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kingdom-rush-frontiers-hd/id598581619?mt=8) is available now

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_93.m4a).

**UPDATE** 6-14-13: The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-ep-93-lets-talk-about-nikki-finke-transcript).

Screenplays and the iPad mini

Tools

Several folks on Twitter have asked me whether the iPad mini is good for reading screenplays.

It is. It’s really good.

Everything on the mini screen is slightly smaller than normal — annoyingly so in the case of some UI elements — but because screenplays are set at 12 point, the text is plenty big enough for comfortable reading, even when zoomed out to full-page.

The screen isn’t retina, so text isn’t as sharp as it can be on the newer full-size iPad. But the screen is not bad at all, and you’d only notice the difference if you directly compared the devices.

If you’re considering getting the mini to read screenplays, I’d advise you to take a look at it for yourself next time you’re at the Apple store. Scripts for most of my movies are available in the [Library](http://johnaugust.com/library) here at johnaugust.com, so pull up one of the PDFs and see how you like it.

Both Safari and iBooks can handle screenplay PDFs, but for anything more complicated than simple reading, I’d suggest you pick a dedicated app. When the iPad first launched, I recommended [GoodReader](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/goodreader-for-ipad/id363448914?mt=8) as the best PDF reader. It’s still solid — but it’s complicated, and kind of ugly. There are many PDF readers available for iOS, and they’re all cheap, so it’s worth trying out a few to see which you like the most.

Is the iPad mini *better* for screenplays than the full-size iPad? Maybe. It’s smaller and lighter, and much more comfortable to hold for long periods of time. If I were buying something primarily as a screenplay reading device, I’d get the mini. But the truth is, I’m not reading ten scripts a week. For me, my full-size iPad is just fine.

For reading books, I still prefer the [Kindle Paperwhite](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008UB7DU6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008UB7DU6&linkCode=as2&tag=johnaugustcom-20). The sidelit screen is nice, but the main advantage is psychological: it’s *only* good for books, so there’s no temptation to check email or play another game of [Ticket to Ride](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ticket-to-ride/id432504470?mt=8).

Falling in love with plain text

Highland, Screenwriting Software, Tools

Stu Maschwitz explains how blogging led him to get over his need for as-you-type formatting and [embrace plain text](http://prolost.com/blog/2012/7/16/gradually-falling-in-love-with-plain-text.html):

> I’d often find myself battling that little WYSIWYG text window. I’d press Return after some quoted text and it would create another quoted paragraph. I’d press the “quote” button to un-quote the current paragraph, and an extra line would be inserted. I’d try to delete it and now there was no separation between the paragraphs. I’d press “Publish” and the extra line would be back.

> I’d eventually go into the post HTML and try to remove the offending line break, crossing my fingers that I wasn’t destroying something else in the process. After all this, I’d be afraid to touch the WYSIWYG editor again. A typo or broken link would have to be pretty important for me to risk touching this house of HTML cards I’d created.

For his blog, the solution was [Markdown](http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/). For screenwriting, the solution ultimately became [Fountain](http://fountain.io), our joint spec for writing screenplays in any old text editor.

Tools like Markdown and Fountain don’t replace dedicated apps, which can do sophisticated things that would otherwise be very difficult. But too often we’re trying to do too much too soon.

If you’re fighting to get Final Draft to recognize a parenthetical, you’re no longer writing. You’re formatting. You’re a poet picking fonts. You’re a novelist worrying about hyphenation.

Plain text keeps you from worrying about the wrong things at the wrong time.

Using a wiki to outline a screenplay

Tools

Sveta writes in:

> Over the last several weeks I’ve been outlining a sci-fi/thriller piece, and had the hardest time keeping all the information organized. I used Scrivener, then I used the index cards in Final Draft, then I used actual index cards… but there was always too much loose information floating around. I couldn’t find a good way to stay organized.

> Finally, I decided to try a private wiki. And it’s been amazing. The home page is a plot synopsis with acts as headings–and links to a character page when they are mentioned. There are also links to past events, organizations of importance, fictional technologies, etc. Character pages have headings like “Early Life”, “Relationship with xyz”, and in standard wiki style, are interlinked. I also have a tab of snippets, with pages for loose notes, dialogue and ideas I’m not sure I’m going to use yet.

Nothing is overkill if it helps. The only danger I see is that you can spend so much time getting the wiki just right that you never actually write the movie.

I haven’t used it in years, but I remember loving [VoodooPad](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/voodoopad/id404057607?mt=12) for the Mac, which makes for a fast and nimble single-user wiki.

We’re using an industrial-strength [MediaWiki](http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki) for the bible on a very complicated project that involves a number of specialists. It’s been a good way to keep people on the same page over the 15+ months we’ve been in development and production.