698 - Movies that Never Were

John welcomes back Liz Hannah (The Post, The Girl from Plainville) to discuss how to construct and communicate setting in a script. They talk about the balance between establishing a sense of space while avoiding the beginner’s mistake of over-blocking. We also follow up on accountability groups, last looks, and French composers. Then, we answer listener questions on revisions and getting your Hollywood Card revoked. In our bonus segment for premium members, John and Liz consider how to explain screenwriting to your kids (and others). LINKS: Bob The Musical has a Director! Download Weekend Read on the App Store Oxo Carbon Steel Pan Dehv Candle Company Apply for a student license for Highland Pro! Interested in being our new UI/UX designer? More info here! Preorder 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 Scriptnotes on Instagram John August on Bluesky and Instagram Liz Hannah on Instagram Outro by Spencer Lackey (send us yours!) Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli. Email us at [email protected] You can download the episode here.

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 how to balance the reality of the era with what’s relevant to audiences today. We also follow up on navigating industry connections and answer three period-appropriate listener questions on transitions across time, accurate dialogue, and how to handle historical sensitivities on the page. In our bonus segment for premium members, John and Craig get into some toil and trouble as they give their rankings of the most iconic witches. Links: Apply for a student license for Highland Pro! Interested in being our new UI/UX designer? More info here! Mel Gibson rant at Joe Eszterhas caught on tape by Ben Child for The Guardian Episode 129: The One with the Guys from Final Draft Episode 314: Unforgiven Episode 674: The One vvith Robert Eggers Marielle Heller’s Episode 212 and Episode 394 Standard Thermal (And a summary by CEO Austin Vernon) Panthalassa The Concept C Is the All-Electric Sports Car Kick-Starting Audi’s Design Future by Jason Barlow for Wired Countdown on Amazon Prime Video Rank these iconic witches! Preorder 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 Scriptnotes on Instagram John August on Bluesky and Instagram Outro by Whit Morliss (send us yours!) Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli. Email us at [email protected] You can download the episode here.  

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 and transitions, they look at what to consider on a final pass so you can email your script with confidence. Then it’s another round of the Three Page Challenge, where we look at three listener-submitted scripts to offer our honest feedback on what’s working and what could use another pass. We also follow-up on advice for general meetings. In our bonus segment for premium members, what makes a great score? We look at the function of the soundtrack for feature films and how to work with composers. Links: Follow along with our Three Page Challenge selections! The Thin Place – “Pilot” by Katie Seward, Sunset Paycheck by Holden Potter, and Levelling Up by Sylvia-Anne Parker Submit to the next Three Page Challenge Megana Rao on Instagram and X Fixed-do vs. movable do solfège How to Tell if Something is AI-Written by Hollis Robbins Mark Halpin 2025 Labor Day Extravaganza Pageant of the Masters Preorder 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 Scriptnotes on Instagram 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 [email protected] You can download the episode here.  

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-gritty of approaching others for a favor, and the important ways to be generous in return. We also look at the good news in the WGA’s 2025 Screen Compensation Guide, follow-up on creator pay through streaming services, and answer listener questions on how to tell if you’re improving something, and whether having kids changes our storytelling. In our bonus segment for premium members, John and Craig piece together their feelings on modern LEGO sets. Links: Scriptnotes Book is now on Goodreads! Scriptnotes 700 on YouTube Episode 645 with Meredith Scardino Vimeo on Demand Kanopy WGAw Screen Compensation Guide NYT Connections Pips 50 Things I Know by Cate Hall Preorder 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 Scriptnotes on Instagram John August on Bluesky and Instagram Outro by Spencer Lackey (send us yours!) Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli. Email us at [email protected] You can download the episode here.

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 questions about rewrites in post, avoiding traps as a production designer, changing characters in a rewrite, and advice on leaving the entertainment industry. We also welcome back familiar faces from Scriptnotes history for a brand-new segment, “People, Places and Things,” where we look at movie stills and ask how we might describe them on the page. Also for debate, what is the boundary between “spoiler” and “what’s happening in culture”? In our bonus segment for premium members, we keep the videophone lines open for more listener questions on juggling multiple projects, preparing alt lines for production, and whether studios option projects just to kill them. You can (and should!) watch the entire episode on our YouTube channel. Just search for Scriptnotes Podcast. While you’re there, give us a Like and a Follow. Links: Watch episode 700 on YouTube! Stuart Friedel, Megan McDonell, and Megana Rao Weapons The Hunting Wives on Netflix Vince Gilligan YouTube video Our Back to School collection on Weekend Read Play along with People, Places and Things: Woman one, woman two, man one, kid duo, oceanside, house, and city. Scriptnotes Episode 399: Notes on Notes Spike tape Bridge Base Online Preorder 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 Craig Mazin on Instagram John August on Bluesky and Instagram Outro by Matthew Chilelli (send us yours!) Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli. Email us at [email protected] You can download the episode here.

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. They offer practical tips on what to expect, how to get people to open up, navigating NDAs, staying true to yourself, and organically moving the conversation away from the weather and towards your work. We also look at a pernicious effect of underemployment (starting with a prompt from Ryan Knighton,) and answer listener questions on alternating POV, reusing adjectives, and giving your story beats cause and effect. In our bonus segment for premium members, we get meta as we discuss the modern podcast landscape and next era of Scriptnotes. Links: Scriptnotes Episode 700 – LIVE Pamela Ribon My Year of Dicks Rental Family trailer Japan’s Rent-A-Family Industry by Elif Batuman for The New Yorker 37 Seconds Good conversations have lots of doorknobs by Adam Mastroianni Real Time Lightning Map Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT) Who Is Watching All These Podcasts? by Joseph Bernstein for NYT Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt! Check out the Inneresting Newsletter Become a Scriptnotes Premium member, or gift a subscription Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube Craig Mazin on Instagram 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 [email protected] You can download the episode here.

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 frozen in script form. We also follow up on solar storms, writer education and genres people should see at least one of. We then answer listener questions on writing empathetically, late-career stamina, non-English dialogue, multi-part movies, and the Scriptnotes theme itself. In our bonus segment for premium members, if John and Craig were never paid to write in the screenplay format again, would they still do it? Links: Preorder the Scriptnotes Book! Birdigo on Steam Aurora by David Koepp Pale Flower Deep Red Suspiria Hands on a Hard Body American Movie Wonderland Hands on a Hardbody the musical Cure Pulse Moft magnetic wallet stand Total Party Skill podcast Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt! Check out the Inneresting Newsletter Become a Scriptnotes Premium member, or gift a subscription Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube Craig Mazin on Instagram John August on Bluesky and Instagram Outro by Steve Pietrowski (send us yours!) Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli. Email us at [email protected] You can download the episode here.

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 this podcast, creating what is sure to be your favorite bathroom book. Then it’s another round of How Would This Be a Movie?, where we look at four stories in the news to see whether they’re ripe for adaptation. Stories include a mother taking on the revenge porn industry, a wife navigating her husband’s longtime crush, a government worker who was secretly recorded on a date, and the potential destruction of solar storms. We also answer a listener question on current filmmaking technology. In our bonus segment for premium members, what is kindness? John and Craig talk through what sets this undervalued quality apart from niceness and other traits we mistake for kind. Link: Preorder the Scriptnotes book! Send your pre-order receipt to Drew at [email protected] A Mother’s Revenge as told to Christina Cauterucci for SLATE Charlotte Laws’ fight with Hunter Moore, the internet’s revenge porn king by Carole Cadwalladr for The Guardian Help! My Husband’s Manic Pixie Past Has Become a Full-Blown Threat to My Sanity, Dear Prudence column for SLATE SNL’s What’s That Name An Offhand Remark About Gold Bars, Secretly Recorded, Upended His Life by Lisa Friedman for NYTimes The Unseen Fury of Solar Storms by Henry Wismayer for Noema TRMNL Steve Ballmer: Developers The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered Birdigo Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt! Check out the Inneresting Newsletter Become a Scriptnotes Premium member, or gift a subscription Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube Craig Mazin on Instagram 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 [email protected] You can download the episode here.

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 set, how to communicate notes from pre-production through post, and outline the qualities of the “perfect” director. We also offer advice to a first time director, looking at how to prep a project, how to run a set, working with actors, and how to inspire a crew to make the best movie possible. In our bonus segment for premium members, Drew joins John back in 2025 for advice about casting, and what to do when actors pass on your project. Links: Episode 4 – Working with directors Episode 176 – Advice to a First-Time Director Scrappy HyperCard Mount Wilson Observatory John’s shorts God and The Remnants Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt! Check out the Inneresting Newsletter Become a Scriptnotes Premium member, or gift a subscription Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube Craig Mazin on Instagram John August on Bluesky and Instagram Outro by Nick Moore (send us yours!) Segments produced by Stuart Friedel. Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli. Email us at [email protected] You can download the episode here.

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, and offer advice to an aspiring development executive. We also look at the intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivations of characters in Scott’s new series, Dept. Q, follow up on the decline of sex in movies, and ask, what genres of movies should people see at least one of? In our bonus segment for premium members, John, Craig and Scott take a broader view of education in America to see what they’ve learned and what they would change. Links: Dept. Q on Netflix Scott Frank Scott’s last time on Scriptnotes, Episode 476: The Other Senses Everyone Is Beautiful And No One Is Horny by RS Benedict for Blood Knife Scriptnotes 639: Intrinsic Motivation Antimemetics: Why Some Ideas Resist Spreading by Nadia Asparouhova Elmore Leonard’s Perfect Pitch by Anthony Lane for The New Yorker Richard Price’s Street Life by Kevin Lozano for The New Yorker McDonald’s AI Hiring Bot Exposed Millions of Applicants’ Data to Hackers Who Tried the Password ‘123456’ by Andy Greenberg for Wired Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt! Check out the Inneresting Newsletter Become a Scriptnotes Premium member, or gift a subscription Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube Craig Mazin on Instagram John August on Bluesky and Instagram Outro by Nico Mansy (send us yours!) Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli. Email us at [email protected] You can download the episode here.