Scriptnotes Podcast
Screenwriters John August and Craig Mazin discuss screenwriting and related topics in the film and television industry, everything from getting stuff written to the vagaries of copyright and work-for-hire law.
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After a week of devastating fires in Los Angeles, we’re revisiting John’s conversation with Anna Jane Joyner and Quinn Emmett from Good Energy Stories on how to talk about climate change on screen. They discuss opportunities for writers to inspire change, raise awareness, and capture the environmental concerns of our t
John and Craig look at three extraordinary news stories and ask, How Would this be a Movie? Stories include the United Healthcare CEO assassination, a small town’s process for licensing fortune tellers, and a harrowing I.V.F. mixup. We also follow up on AI, Flightplan’s source material, Craig’s Belfast accent, and answ
John welcomes Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Homeward Bound) to talk about her experience writing animated features, from the parallel processes of writing and production to her paltry paycheck for Beauty and the Beast. They consider the blurring lines between live-action and hyperrealistic CGI,
Live from the Austin Film Festival, John joins panelists Jordan Mechner (Prince of Persia) and Erica Harrell & Desirée Proctor (The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners) for an in-depth discussion on working across movies, tv, comics, plays, videogames and VR. Moderated by Evan Narcisse (Rise of the Black Panther), they disc
Many of the biggest AI models have been trained on film and TV dialogue, and writers are furious. John and Craig explore the legal, ethical and philosophical implications of this revelation, our emotional reactions to it, and offer strategies for picking the right hills to die on. But first, we follow up on the definit
John 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 Yo
