John August

Follow Up

Second Draft Doldrums

Episode - 199

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Film Industry, Follow Up, News, Rights and Copyright, Scriptnotes, Story and Plot, Transcribed, Writing Process

Craig and John discuss finding your way back to your story — and your enthusiasm — when writing your second draft. Craig has tips and suggestions. John has sympathy and war stories.

This week, we also discuss ageism and authenticity in Hollywood, the Mr. Holmes lawsuit, and unsung screenwriter heroes.

The 200th episode will be streaming live on the internet! Follow us on Twitter to get details about when we’ll be recording, and where to find us.

Links:

You can download the episode here: AAC | mp3.

UPDATE 5-29-15: The transcript of this episode can be found here.

The long and short of it

Film Industry, Follow Up, One Hit Kill, Producers, QandA, Scriptnotes, Television, Transcribed, WGA, Words on the page

John and Craig dig into the listener mailbag and take questions on TV producer credits, jealousy over other writers’ success, writing tight vs writing long and plenty of other follow up.

It’s a jam packed episode worthy of a long commute.

We also have information on the card game we playtested in LA a few weeks back. It’s called One Hit Kill, and you can see some of the artwork and play our mini-game at onehitkillgame.com now.

Links:

You can download the episode here: AAC | mp3.

UPDATE 5-7-15: The transcript of this episode can be found here.

Poking the bear

Film Industry, Follow Up, News, QandA, Scriptnotes, So-Called Experts, Transcribed, WGA

This week, Craig and John discuss recent events that seem custom-designed to make Craig furious.

An anonymous screenwriter promises to tell you the secrets of Hollywood, including the unspoken dress code. A London-based film production company wants to buy your script — but they want you to pay for some notes first.

But it’s not all bad news. The WGA East has organized the writers at Gawker, so we talk about why and whether it’s a good idea. We also look at GLAAD’s latest report on LGBT representative in feature films.

Links:

You can download the episode here: AAC | mp3.

UPDATE 4-24-15: The transcript of this episode can be found here.

You can’t train a cobra to do that

Directors, Follow Up, Formatting, News, QandA, Scriptnotes, Words on the page, Writer Emergency, Writer Emergency Pack

Craig and John discuss backup plans, camera directions, and becoming so good they can’t ignore you. Plus we answer two listener questions about specificity in scene headers and how to indicate that a script is intended for animation.

This episode was actually recorded before 191, but through the magic of editing refers to things that hadn’t yet happened. You won’t be confused because you’re clever. You’ll be fine.

Links:

You can download the episode here: AAC | mp3.

UPDATE 4-10-15: The transcript of this episode can be found here.