John August

Transcribed

Frozen with Jennifer Lee

Episode - 128

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Directors, Scriptnotes, Story and Plot, Transcribed

In the tradition of the Raiders and Little Mermaid episodes, John and guest host Aline Brosh McKenna discuss and dissect the award-winning, record-setting, paradigm-shifting Frozen. But this time, we have the writer on hand to answer our questions.

Jennifer Lee not only wrote Frozen, she co-directed it. She talks us through all the twists, turns, and happy surprises on the journey. We go scene-by-scene and song-by-song to look at how it works and how it changed during development.

It’s an episode full of spoilers. But it’s also totally PG, so if your kids want to listen, let ‘em.

Craig will be back next week with an all-new episode and no recollection of what happened.

Links:

You can download the episode here: AAC | mp3.

UPDATE 2-1-14: The transcript of this episode can be found here.

Women and Pilots

Directors, News, Scriptnotes, Television, Transcribed

Carolyn Strauss, executive producer of Game of Thrones, joins John and Craig to discuss female directors and the death of pilot season. In one short hour, they solve all the intractable problems facing the film and television industry. (Not true. Not even remotely.)

Craig and John also recount the previous Sunday’s inaugural all-screenwriter dungeon crawl. It was Craig’s first D&D ever, and John’s first time DM’ing in 20 years.

Links:

You can download the episode here: AAC | mp3.

UPDATE 1-24-14: The transcript of this episode can be found here.

Punching the Salty Ocean

Scriptnotes, Three Page Challenge, Transcribed

John and Craig took a look at Final Draft 9 and the futility of Twitter arguments before launching into three brand-new Three Page Challenges.

Links:

You can download the episode here: AAC | mp3.

UPDATE 1-17-14: The transcript of this episode can be found here.

Egoless Screenwriting

Film Industry, News, Psych 101, Scriptnotes, Transcribed, WGA

It’s a week of big egos as Craig and John take a look at when (or whether) filmmakers will be able to pull a Beyoncé and surprise-release a feature film, and what Mrs. Carter’s tussle with Amazon and Target means for the future of retail DVD.

Then we dust off an old blog post on “egoless programming” and find it has a lot to recommend for screenwriters. Finally, we look at the lawsuit over The Expendables because it’s crazy town.

Links:

You can download the episode here: AAC | mp3.

UPDATE 1-10-14: The transcript of this episode can be found here.