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John and Craig ask, how do you keep your period films from being a boring history lesson? They offer ten tips to keep your setting from taking over your story, defining the scope of your research, and...
· 1 hr 3 min 45 sec
John and Craig welcome back producer Megana Rao, who has a question: how do you polish a script before sending it out? From obvious things like typos and title pages to tougher choices like cutting an...
· 1 hr 28 min 54 sec
John and Craig examine how to best use your connections to help yourself and others. They look at ways to identify the strength of a connection, leverage them without being manipulative, the nitty-gri...
· 52 min 57 sec
To celebrate our 700th episode, John and Craig open the phone lines for a live late-night call-in show (recorded at 10 a.m. on a Wednesday). Through the power of Zoom (and YouTube), listeners ask ques...
· 1 hr 4 min 30 sec
Every writer has to pitch themselves, but how do you do it without sounding like a tool? John welcomes back Pamela Ribon (Nimona, My Year of Dicks) for a big talk about small talk and general meetings...
· 50 min 36 sec
John and Craig descend into development hell to look at films that almost but never quite existed. Using both widely-publicized and little-known examples, they examine common patterns that keep movies...
· 1 hr 1 min 49 sec
The Scriptnotes Book is real, and now available for preorder! John and Craig take a look through its 335 pages to explore the topics, guests and deep-dives we’ve assembled from over 1,000 hours of thi...
· 59 min 27 sec
In this compendium episode, John and Craig set their focus on directors — and how to work with them as a screenwriter. They look at the inner-workings of the writer-director relationship, etiquette on...
· 54 min 18 sec
John and Craig welcome back Scott Frank (The Queen’s Gambit, Dept. Q) to offer their best advice to film students and the people who teach them. They look at ways to improve how we educate writers, an...
· 1 hr 16 min 2 sec
John welcomes back Dan Gregor and Doug Mand (Chip n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers, Pretty Smart) to ask, how do you revive a dead genre? Using their upcoming movie The Naked Gun, they look at why the spoof ge...
· 1 hr 3 min 8 sec
John and Craig plant the idea for setups that have the most satisfying payoffs. Different from exposition, setups introduce ideas and concepts to an audience, priming them for a later revelation. They...
· 1 hr 2 min 40 sec
In this craft compendium, John and Craig take a look at everything you need to make your bad guys compelling, memorable, and the perfect antagonist for your story. Using some favorite villains as exam...
· 1 hr 15 min 30 sec
John and Craig welcome author Stu Horvath to look at the rich history of tabletop role playing games. From Stu’s collection of over 2300 RPGs, they look at the evolution of collaborative storytelling,...
· 50 min 27 sec
How do you write science fiction when technology is moving so quickly? John and Craig welcome back journalist and screenwriter Max Read to look at the trickiness of predicting the future, how our imag...
· 56 min 25 sec
New forms of video creation are coming to disrupt the entertainment industry, but will they succeed? John and Craig look at verticals and Veo 3 to see where we might be heading, and what our industry’...
· 1 hr 42 sec
John and Craig welcome back writer, director, and comedian Mike Birbiglia (Don’t Think Twice, Sleepwalk with Me) to take a look at several true news stories and ask, how would this be a joke? Stories...
· 1 hr 5 min 49 sec
John and Craig dig through the mailbag to answer some of our trickiest listener questions. They lay out their best advice for first-time feature directors — from picking department heads to making sur...
· 54 min 10 sec
John and Craig look at how writers and their characters handle the obstacles they encounter. They outline proven techniques for solving problems both in life and on the page, why it’s important to see...
· 1 hr 20 sec
John welcomes writer, director and playwright Leslye Headland (The Acolyte, Russian Doll) to ask, why are stage plays so challenging for screenwriters? Using her recent Broadway play Cult of Love, the...
· 58 min 50 sec