Scriptnotes Podcast

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 a…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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 g…

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…

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…

John and Craig welcome author Stu Horvath to look at the rich history of tabletop role playing games. From Stu’s collection of over 2300 RPGs, they look at the evolution of collaborative storytelling…

How do you write science fiction when technology is moving so quickly? John and Craig welcome back journalist and screenwriter Max Read to look at the trickiness of predicting the future, how our ima…

New forms of video creation are coming to disrupt the entertainment industry, but will they succeed? John and Craig look at verticals and Veo 3 to see where we might be heading, and what our industry…

John and Craig welcome back writer, director, and comedian Mike Birbiglia (Don’t Think Twice, Sleepwalk with Me) to take a look at several true news stories and ask, how would this be a joke? Stories…

John and Craig dig through the mailbag to answer some of our trickiest listener questions. They lay out their best advice for first-time feature directors — from picking department heads to making su…

John and Craig look at how writers and their characters handle the obstacles they encounter. They outline proven techniques for solving problems both in life and on the page, why it’s important to se…

John welcomes writer, director and playwright Leslye Headland (The Acolyte, Russian Doll) to ask, why are stage plays so challenging for screenwriters? Using her recent Broadway play Cult of Love, th…

John welcomes writer and showrunner Eric Kripke (The Boys, Supernatural) to look at planning out a multi-season series. They chart Eric’s early career from shorts to showrunner, how he developed Supe…

John and Craig welcome back Aline Brosh McKenna to tackle the issue of idea management. What do you do with all those half-formed ideas and how do you decide which ones to pursue? They share best pra…