Podcast Episodes
Back to Search701 - Connections
Season 15 Episode 701
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-gr…
Published on 6 hours ago
700 - The Live Call-In Show
Season 14 Episode 700
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 que…
Published on 1 week ago
699 - How to Talk About Yourself
Season 14 Episode 699
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 meeting…
Published on 2 weeks ago
698 - Movies that Never Were
Season 14 Episode 698
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 movie…
Published on 3 weeks ago
697 - We Wrote a Book!
Season 14 Episode 697
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 th…
Published on 4 weeks ago
696 - A Screenwriter’s Guide to Directors
Season 14 Episode 696
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 o…
Published on 1 month ago
695 - Advice to a Young Film Student (with Scott Frank)
Season 14 Episode 695
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, a…
Published on 1 month, 1 week ago
694 - Reviving the Spoof Movie
Season 14 Episode 694
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…
Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago
693 - Setups That Don’t Feel Like Setups
Season 14 Episode 693
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. The…
Published on 1 month, 3 weeks ago
692 - Crafting the Perfect Villain
Season 14 Episode 692
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 exa…
Published on 2 months ago