718 - No Worries if Not
Scriptnotes Podcast
John and Craig circle back on all the euphemisms and stock phrases that float around Hollywood. Using some favorite examples, they attempt to define and demystify the current industry-speak so everyone is looped in when we come up for air after the holidays. We also wrap-up 2025 with a look at Scriptnotes by the numbers, check-in on Disney’s deal with OpenAI, follow up on that director who scammed Netflix out of $11 million, and answer listener questions on the guilds’ involvement in video podcasts and reps who won’t send out co-written scripts. In our bonus segment for premium members,...
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717 - The Screenwriting Life: The Craft Lessons That Matter Most
Scriptnotes Podcast
In a Christmas crossover event, John and Craig join Meg LeFauve (Inside Out) and Lorien McKenna (Tab Time) on their podcast, The Screenwriting Life. We talk about why rigid structure can miss the point, how theme emerges from character, what fear and denial really look like on the page, and how writers can survive rejection without letting it define them. In our bonus segment for premium members, John breaks Drew’s heart with his lovely memories of Rob & Michele Reiner. Links: podcast , or (now with fewer emails!) Scriptnotes on John August...
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716 - Personality Typologies
Scriptnotes Podcast
on Netflix Mike Makowsky on and (The last time Mike was on the podcast) Alan Sepinwall for The Ringer by Candice Millard from Assassins by Gretchen Rubin by Linda Edelstein by Emily Mullin for WIRED on HBO Max , or (now with fewer emails!) Scriptnotes on John August on and by Luke Foster () Scriptnotes is produced by and edited by . Email us at ask@johnaugust.com You can download the episode . (9:00)
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715 - The Book Launch, Live!
Scriptnotes Podcast
John and Craig celebrate the release of the Scriptnotes Book with a sold-out show full of arguments, games and holiday cheer at Dynasty Typewriter in LA. Slate’s Julia Turner returns to interview John and Craig about the fifteen year journey towards creating the book, and challenges Craig’s dismissal of critics. We also welcome back Ashley Nicole Black (Shrinking, Ted Lasso) to help us get through a fridgeful of leftover questions, and invite three lucky audience members to play our new game: “Somewhat strange lines from Christmas movies.” In our bonus segment for premium members, we...
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714 - Three Page Challenge Live in Austin 2025
Scriptnotes Podcast
John and Craig gather a congregation of writers in St. David’s Episcopal Church for a live round of the Three Page Challenge. They look at three listener-submitted scripts to offer them their honest feedback, face-to-face. They offer suggestions on world building in the apocalypse, making military characters specific, building mystery and suspense, and crafting con-artist logic. In our bonus segment for premium members, we answer questions from our audience on how to know if a script looks correct, what we want to see in the first three pages, using actor names in character descriptions,...
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713 - Your First Produced Film
Scriptnotes Podcast
John welcomes Danya Jimenez & Hannah McMechan, the writing team behind KPop Demon Hunters, to chart their path from film school to first feature. They look at navigating early career difficulties like finding your voice and trying to get reps, their method of building a writing partnership, and how a bad pitch led them to writing one of the biggest movies of the year. We also follow up on breaking in later in life and writing with ADHD. In our bonus segment for premium members, what does Hollywood get wrong about Gen Z? Danya and Hannah share what drives them crazy about how their...
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712 - Something Wicked This Way Comes
Scriptnotes Podcast
John and Craig welcome back Dana Fox (Wicked, The Lost City) for a magical flight through everything that went into adapting Wicked and its upcoming sequel, Wicked: For Good. They look at the history of the project, why it was split into two movies, the process for writing when you’re shooting two movies at the same time, and the exhausting effort it takes for big movies to defy gravity. We also chat with Graham Rowat, the narrator of the Scriptnotes audiobook, follow up on weird movies and cuck chairs, answer listener questions on the limits of torturing your heroes and ask, did the 90’s...
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711 - The State of Pitching
Scriptnotes Podcast
John welcomes back Aline Brosh McKenna (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, The Devil Wears Prada) to ask, what do executives expect from a pitch these days? They look at the typical structure of a pitch deck, how that differs from lookbooks, how pitches have evolved over the years, and best practices for pitching on Zoom. Also, what happened to single-lady sitcoms? If you remember Monday nights in the 90’s, you know what we’re talking about. We reflect on what they did for the culture and how social media and reality TV may be taking their place. In our bonus segment for premium members, Aline tells us...
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710 - What Happened To Weird?
Scriptnotes Podcast
John and Craig look at all the pleasant, normal people around them and ask, what happened to the weirdos? They root out the causes of cultural stagnation, offer potential solutions, and explore the entertainment that still finds a way to be weird. We also look at the tipping point between “wanting to write” and “actually writing,” follow up on printer prices and billboard queens, and answer listener questions on soundtracks, adapting a podcast and feeling ownership over your ideas. In our bonus segment for premium members, we try to remember how we construct our personal narratives,...
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709 - Live at the Austin Film Festival 2025
Scriptnotes Podcast
John and Craig return to Texas for their 11th show at the Austin Film Festival. They welcome writer Pamela Ribon (Nimona, My Year of Dicks) and showrunner Anthony Sparks (Queen Sugar, Bel-Air) to look at what makes character relationships compelling, and how to build a writing career later in life. We also answer lister questions on getting un-stuck in a script, how podcasting has made us better writers, the limits of exposition, using AI for sizzle reels, and where we get the cajones selling a screenwriting book after slagging-off screenwriting books for fourteen years. In our bonus segment...
info_outlineJohn and Craig welcome Brian Jordan Alvarez & Stephanie Koenig (English Teacher) and Jac Schaeffer (Agatha All Along, WandaVision) to join them for a live holiday benefit for Hollywood HEART. They discuss constructing Agatha All Along from blue sky to the Witches’ Road, “protagonizing” a villain, breaking in through YouTube and maintaining a working relationship with your best friend.
We also play a new game, the Christmas Song Three Word Challenge, with former Scriptnotes producers Megan McDonnell (Dark Matter, The Marvels) and Megana Rao (Unstable).
In our bonus segment for premium members, we answer an all-star round of audience questions in maybe the best Q&A we’ve ever had.
Thanks to our fantastic audience, everyone at Dynasty Typewriter, and Hollywood HEART for putting the event together.
Links:
- Hollywood HEART
- Jac Schaeffer
- Brian Jordan Alvarez and Stephanie Koenig
- Agatha All Along
- Fleetwood Mac – Silver Springs (Live)
- English Teacher
- A Spy Movie on YouTube
- Sitting
- My Old Ass
- The Downeaster “Alexa”
- The Later Daters on Netflix
- Sun lamps
- Thin Mint bites
- A Man on the Inside on Netflix
- Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
- Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
- Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription or treat yourself to a premium subscription!
- Craig Mazin on Threads and Instagram
- John August on BlueSky, Threads, Instagram, and Mastodon
- Outro by Matthew Chilelli (send us yours!)
- Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.
Email us at ask@johnaugust.com
You can download the episode here.