John August

Video

Video from Rancho Mirage Q&A

Education, How-To, Strike, Video

Synthian Sharp, one of the nicest folks I met during the strike, took it upon himself to tape my [Q&A in Rancho Mirage](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2009/speaking-in-rancho-mirage). He now has it online at Vimeo, where you can also download a much beefier 934MB version.

This talk was very much geared towards a general audience. While there were some film students, most of the crowd was over fifty. We spoke more about the career than the craft of screenwriting.

I showed five clips. Weirdly, I didn’t pick one from The Nines, but I did show one scene from Scott Frank’s Minority Report that had my fingerprints on it.

At 112 minutes, it’s quite a time commitment. If you’re skipping around in the video, here’s the rough order of what I talk about:

* How I got started
* Go
* DC
* Charlie’s Angels
* Minority Report
* Big Fish
* Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
* God (the short film on The Nines DVD)
* The Nines
* Audience questions

Thanks to The Friends of the Rancho Mirage Public Library, Palm Springs International Film Society, and moderator Deborah Dearth. And of course Synthian for putting this up.

Writing better action

How-To, Scriptcast, Video

A new screencast (scriptcast?), a little shorter than the [previous one](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2009/scene-description).

In the audio, I say “parallel action,” but a better term would be parallel structure: You’re lining up sentences to omit the subject. Action sequences tend to benefit from these staccato word bursts.

Not great news at Blockbuster

Film Industry, Video

Last week in my [post about Redbox](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2009/redbox-video-and-economics), I reminded readers that video retailer Blockbuster is always rumored to be circling the drain, yet somehow always survives. So I wouldn’t count it out. However…

Yesterday, they filed with SEC, noting “substantial doubt” about their [ability to continue](http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/displayfilinginfo.aspx?FilingID=6529771-95381-162916&type=sect&dcn=0001193125-09-073613):

> The risk that we may not successfully complete this refinancing and obtain the related amendment of certain financial covenants included therein, and/or the risk that we may not have adequate liquidity to fund our operations as a result of not meeting our projected financial results, even if the refinancing is completed within the time and upon the terms contemplated, raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.

That’s a very long sentence.

I’m not rooting against Blockbuster. If they’re going to fail, I’d rather they do it at a time when the economy was healthy and their many employees could find jobs. But I’m curious what happens if they do go under.

That’s a tremendous number of used DVDs suddenly flooding onto the market, and a huge DVD buyer that suddenly disappears.