| Scriptnotes | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Presentation | |
| Hosted by | |
| Genre | TV & Film |
| Language | English |
| Length | 35–120 minutes |
| Production | |
| No. of episodes | 617 (as of October 31, 2023[update]) |
| Publication | |
| Original release | August 30, 2011 |
Scriptnotes is a weeklypodcast that began airing on August 30, 2011.[1] It is billed as "a podcast about screenwriting, and things that are interesting to screenwriters."[2] The podcast is hosted byscreenwritersJohn August andCraig Mazin, with new episodes released every Tuesday.
The podcast has featured appearances from many notable people in the world of film and TV, includingRian Johnson,David Benioff andD.B. Weiss (the showrunners ofGame of Thrones),Aline Brosh McKenna,Dana Fox,Rachel Bloom,Jennifer Lee,Riki Lindhome,Natasha Leggero,Alec Berg,Kelly Marcel,Rawson Marshall Thurber,Richard Kelly,Chris Nee,Malcolm Spellman,David Wain, andJason Bateman.
Scriptnotes episodes are available for free up to 20 weeks after their initial airing. Back episode archives and bonus episodes are available to premium subscribers atscriptnotes.net. Transcripts of all back episodes are available for free, and are usually posted within one week of the episode's initial airing.
August, who had been writing his popular eponymous screenwriting blog since 2003, developed an interest in podcasting and its potential to extend the work he had been doing to help the screenwriting community. He approached Mazin via email in June 2011 with the idea of producing a screenwriting podcast together. Despite being largely unfamiliar with the medium, Mazin agreed out of a desire to talk about screenwriting without writing about it, as he had been doing for a number of years on his blog, The Artful Writer.[3] The inaugural episode of the podcast was released 30 August 2011.[4]
Aspiring screenwriters are encouraged to send in three pages of their screenplay – almost always the first three – to be critiqued. The scripts vary widely in tone, style and genre. Links to the screenplays are provided in the show notes so listeners can read them and then listen to the critique. Typically three are tackled in one show. The three-page challenge is a particularly useful segment for screenwriters as it provides sharp insights into unproduced screenplays; lessons easily applied to a writer's own project. The segment was first announced with a call for submissions in episode 45[5] and the first critiques debuted the next week in episode 46.[6]
One Cool Thing is a weekly segment that occurs at the end of each episode. John, Craig and their guests will each give a plug to something or someone they deem cool. The cool things vary greatly. The segment dates back to May 2012, when August officially started it at the end of episode 35.[7] Since then he has been a faithful participant. Mazin's participation was suspect for a time, most notably during a six-week stretch that began in August 2012, but since then he has overcome his umbrage-tinted glasses and regularly found something in the world worth praising every week.
In this newer segment of the show, John and Craig pull a few current stories from the news and discuss if and how those stories could be adapted into feature films. The discussion often includes brainstorming possible genres and approaches a perspective writer could take with the story, discussing how to collapse or expand the details of the story to fit a feature film, and determining which of the week's stories, if any, have any serious potential as a future film. The segment debuted in episode 201, when the stories includedscandals in FIFA, theLarge Hadron Collider, and sexual assault on college campuses.[8]
A number of episodes have been dedicated to deep dive analyses of individual films. The first such episode, in January 2013, featuredRaiders of the Lost Ark. Subsequent episodes have looked atThe Little Mermaid,Frozen,Groundhog Day,Ghost,Unforgiven andThe Addams Family.[9]
The podcast has a number of recurring themes, particularly in how the hosts interact with one another.
At the beginning of every podcast, August uses a 'straight' introduction, while Mazin uses a silly or mechanical voice.[10]
Craig tells anecdotes about himself that emphasize how he is lazy, unprepared, and frequently late. In contrast, John appears productive, organized, and punctual.[11]
In line with their personas of Mazin being the lazy one and August being the organized one, plus knowledgeable about technology, Craig mocks John by calling him a robot. This includes accusations that John has no emotions and no heart.[12]
Craig is the more emotionally expressive of the two podcasts hosts. When he delivers impassioned speeches, John will typically agree with him on content and then transition into the next item on the agenda. Because of John's focus on pacing and transitions during the show, Craig has christened John "Segue Man."
Craig's deep-throated alter ego appears multiple times in the Scriptnotes catalogue; brought on by John's accidental double entendres. "Sexy Craig" is a master of the love-making arts and at making John notably uncomfortable.
For five years up to episode 259, Stuart Friedel was August's assistant, and the producer and original editor of the podcast. With the exception of episode 259, Friedel's voice was never heard on the podcast. The hosts would frequently talk about Stuart, and the work that he did for the show, including reading and selecting scripts for the Three Page Challenge.[13]
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the showrunners ofHBO's fantasy dramaGame of Thrones, appeared on a live version of the podcast in February 2016. They spoke about the poor reception to the show's original pilot episode, and how it was largely reshot following a screening of the episode to Mazin and other screenwriters.[14]
On episode 129, August and Mazin welcomedFinal Draft CEO and co-founder Marc Madnick and then-product manager Joe Jarvis. Their visit was in response to negative comments made about the software on previous episodes ofScriptnotes, and came out of Madnick's desire to discuss what he perceived as misconceptions about both the software and the company.[15]
Instead, Madnick offered a revealing look into—as described by the Accidental Tech Podcast—the company's shortcomings, management's apparent feeling that they should make "[their] problems your problems," and the "severe technical debt" Final Draft has ignored for far too long, resulting in out of date, difficult to update, and unnecessarily expensive software.[16]
In response to the episode's controversy, filmmaker and software developer Kent Tessman pointed out that a possible reason many of Madnick's excuses were met with pushback is that, simply, "there might be technical people listening".[17]
As part of Scriptnotes's 2014 Summer Superhero Spectacular live show, August and Mazin played a game with guestsAndrea Berloff,Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely andDavid S. Goyer. Each was randomly assigned a superhero and asked how they would adapt the character for TV or film.
Talking aboutShe-Hulk, Goyer said:
I have a theory about She-Hulk. Which was created by a man, right? And at the time in particular I think 95% of comic book readers were men and certainly almost all of the comic book writers were men. So the Hulk was this classic male power fantasy. It’s like, most of the people reading comic books were these people like me who were just these little kids getting the shit kicked out of them every day... And so then they created She-Huk, right? Who was still smart... I think She-Hulk is the chick that you could fuck if you were Hulk, you know what I’m saying? ... She-Hulk was the extension of the male power fantasy. So it’s like if I’m going to be this geek who becomes the Hulk then let’s create a giant green porn star that only the Hulk could fuck.[18]
The day after the episode's release, Alan Kistler of The Mary Sue wrote about these comments as well as Goyer's take on Martian Manhunter. His summation:
So to recap. She-Hulk is just a sex power fantasy rather than a character with agency who from the beginning went down a different path than her cousin, The Hulk. Martian Manhunter being the last survivor of a race which died out on Mars over a thousand years ago is goofy, but putting him Area 51 and using the same plot as many alien visitor movies is not. And God forbid superheroes embrace some goofiness and absurdity. [sic][19]
This prompted Michael Cavana fromThe Washington Post's Comic Riffs to reach out toShe-Hulk co-creatorStan Lee for a response.
When Lee, as writer, co-created She-Hulk with artist John Buscema (the character debuted in February of 1980, in Savage She-Hulk #1), he was absolutely focused on his gamma-green superheroine having brains. Lee tells The Post’s Comic Riffs this evening, in response to Goyer’s words: “I know I was looking for a new female superhero, and the idea of an intelligent Hulk-type grabbed me.”[20]
During his freshman year atPrinceton University, Mazin was roommates with future junior U.S. Senator and 2016 presidential candidateTed Cruz. Mazin has been open about his dislike for Cruz,[21] and on episode 113 said:
And, you know, I want to be clear, because Ted Cruz is a nightmare of a human being. I have plenty of problems with his politics, but truthfully his personality is so awful that ninety-nine percent of why I hate him is just his personality. If he agreed with me on every issue, I would hate him only one percent less.
Mazin's comment was picked up byThe Daily Show,[22]The Huffington Post,[23]Texas Monthly,[24]The Telegraph,[25]The Sun Times,[26] and more.[27][28]
Mazin does not hold back on his disdain for Carson Reeves and his Scriptshadow blog, which reviews both professional and amateur scripts, including one of August's rewrites of a possible tentpole movie for20th Century Fox. Per August, though the review was positive, the studio went 'ballistic' and it was taken down.[29] Mazin broached the topic again on episode 186 (March 3, 2015), citing Reeves' negative review of theBirdman screenplay as an example of why Reeves' opinions are misplaced, unnecessary and unwelcome, consideringBirdman went on to win six Oscars at the 2015 ceremony, includingBest Director andBest Original Screenplay.[30]
Mazin broached the topic a third time on episode 291 (March 07/2017) after Reeves called out 2017 Oscar winnersMoonlight (Best Adapted Screenplay), andManchester by the Sea (Best Original Screenplay) as terrible screenplays that any of the 10,000 WGA members could have scripted. Mazin's issue was that Reeves should have written them himself if that's the case, then went on to call Reeves an 'idiot' suffering 'delusions of grandeur' since Reeves had expressed his views on a public blog and not in a private conversation.[31]
Live events for the podcast have been sponsored byThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,[32] theAustin Film Festival,[33] and the Writers Guild Foundation.[34][35]Scriptnotes has also produced a crossover episode with TheNerdist Writers Panel podcast.[36] They also host a yearly live show to benefit the non-profit organization Hollywood Heart.
Scriptnotes has received positive reviews.[37][38] As of January 3, 2018, it has an average rating of 5 out of 5 stars on podbay.fm, with 1045 users weighing in.[39]
It was ranked as one of the 11 best movie podcasts byMTV.[38]Esquire selected the podcast as one of its 13 favorite podcasts of 2016, writing "Whether you're an aspiring screenwriter or a plain old movie fan,Scriptnotes offers a unique insider's perspective into the business".[40] It was listed among the week's best radio byThe Guardian in September 2017.[41]Vulture called the show 'highly influential' for screenwriters.[42] In a 2016 interview withThe Wall Street Journal, actor and directorElizabeth Banks revealed thatScriptnotes was her favorite podcast.[43]
The podcast has been discussed byVanity Fair[14] andThe Washington Post, among others.[20]
The most recent 20 episodes of Scriptnotes are available for free on all podcast services, including iTunes,[44] as well as viajohnaugust.com. Back episodes and bonus segments are available throughscriptnotes.net for $4.99 per month.[45]