John August

Transcribed

Creating Empathy for Your Characters

Episode - 624

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Scriptnotes, Transcribed

In this compendium episode, John and Craig look at how we can best articulate our characters’ inner lives and get the audience invested in them. They discuss the intricacies of point of view, finding truthful emotional states, and why it’s so important for your characters to be liars.

How do you engage an audience’s empathy? What makes an audience cry? What emotional response breaks their trust? Why is point of view important, and how can it be manipulated? How can lies be used to drive a character to emotional authenticity? And what is the best way to reveal your character’s secrets?

In our bonus segment for premium members, John and Craig talk single-use characters and crown the greatest day-player of all time.

Links:

Email us at ask@dev.johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

UPDATE 1-30-24: The transcript for this episode can be found here.

A Very Special Christmas Episode

Scriptnotes, Transcribed

John and Craig are joined by the ghosts of Scriptnotes past and present (Megana and Drew) for a festive competition: discussing the perils of studio bake-offs — pitting writer against writer for one coveted job — while simultaneously judging three of LA’s finest holiday cookies.

We also look at Netflix’s recently released viewership data, follow up on homonyms, AI coverage and voting, and answer a listener question on the definition of a drafts. But first, we investigate the origin of a very useful word that’s new to John and Craig.

In our bonus segment for premium members, we travel to holidays past to discuss the best presents we ever received — and the gifts that got away.

Links:

Email us at ask@dev.johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

UPDATE 1-19-24: The transcript for this episode can be found here.

The One with Christopher Nolan

Scriptnotes, Transcribed

John welcomes writer and director Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Inception) to discuss experimentation, subjectivity and adaptation as they take an in-depth look at his screenplay, Oppenheimer.

They explore Chris’ writing process, how to make non-linear structures work, finding the story in real-life events, being kinetic on the page, the importance of embracing editing, and why theme can be a tricky thing.

In our bonus segment for premium members, Chris and John muse about the difficulties of dream sequences — and what makes them work.

Links:

Email us at ask@dev.johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

UPDATE 1-16-24: The transcript for this episode can be found here.

How Would This Be a Biopic?

HWTBAM, Scriptnotes, Transcribed

John and Craig look at several notable figures in the news and ask, How Would This Be a Biopic? They examine the lives of Henry Kissinger, Sandra Day O’Connor, George Santos, Rosalynn Carter, and Sam Altman to see which are best suited for the big screen, and declare once-and-for-all the proper way to pronounce “biopic.”

We also follow up on VFX and AI, the two-column format, inner monologues, and Melissa Mazin sets the record straight on her role at Thanksgiving.

In our bonus segment for premium members, John and Craig speculate about which event in history had the biggest negative impact on human civilization.

Links:

Email us at ask@dev.johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

UPDATE 12-18-23: The transcript for this episode can be found here.