John and Craig go back to the beginning to examine the mechanics of the flash-forward opening — or as it’s known on this podcast, the “Stuart Special.” They look at what makes a strong flash-forward, when to avoid them, and how to pay back the narrative debt they incur.
We also follow up on the Scriptnotes survey and answer a massive grab-bag blitz of listener questions including the potential pitfalls of child protagonists, “unfilmable” elements, and how to end a scene.
In our bonus segment for premium members, how do you socialize at Hollywood parties? We’ve made all the mistakes so you don’t have to.
Links:
- The script for episode one of Chernobyl
- Scriptnotes episode 493: Opening Scenes
- Greta Gerwig’s Little Women screenplay
- The Sheep Detectives
- Scriptnotes episode 731: Avoidance and Other Anti-Quests
- Sorkinisms – A Supercut by Kevin T. Porter
- My journey to the microwave alternate timeline by Malmesbury
- Solasta 2
- Get your copy of the Scriptnotes book!
- Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
- Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
- Become a Scriptnotes Premium member, or gift a subscription
- Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube
- Follow Scriptnotes on Instagram and TikTok
- John August on Bluesky and Instagram
- Outro by Nick Moore (send us yours!)
- Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.
Email us at ask@dev.johnaugust.com
You can download the episode here.
UPDATE 5-13-26: The transcript of this episode can be found here.