705 - Short Films and Existential Threats
Scriptnotes Podcast
John August
4.8 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 23 September 2025
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
John and Craig discuss short films: what makes a great short, when should you make one, and what should you realistically expect out of it? We also update our predictions on whether the career of "screenwriter" can survive potential global catastrophes.
We then answer listener questions on staff writer wages and using URLs in a script.
In our bonus segment for premium members, John and Craig talk intermissions and why more movies should have them.
Links:
- Remembering Sundance Institute Founder, Robert Redford
- John's post on Robert Redford
- Digital Dungeons and Dragons Die
- Tally to vote for Scriptnotes Live Shows
- Scriptnotes Episode 334, Worst Case Scenarios, Transcript
- Maccy App
- DEVO Documentary on Netflix
- Megana Rao on Instagram and X
- 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 Luke Davis (send us yours!)
- Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.
Email us at ask@johnaugust.com
You can download the episode here.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, this is John. We recorded this episode on Friday afternoon. In it, we talked about ABC's |
| 0:05.5 | decision to indefinitely suspend Jimmy Kimmel for his comments in the wake of the Charlie |
| 0:09.7 | Kirk assassination. Then, on Monday afternoon, ABC announced that Kimmel would be coming back to air on |
| 0:15.4 | Tuesday. We decided to leave this segment as recorded because the broader implications are still |
| 0:20.4 | the broader implications. |
| 0:22.4 | I'll be honest, the first half of the episode is a little grim because how could it not be? |
| 0:27.4 | But then in the second half, I promise we do get into short films and other evergreen topics. |
| 0:31.9 | Enjoy. |
| 0:35.4 | Hello and welcome. My name is John August. |
| 0:37.8 | My name is Craig Mason. And you're listening to Episode 705 of Script Notes. It's a podcast about |
| 0:43.2 | screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters. Today on the show, what is the |
| 0:46.8 | platonic ideal of the short film? And why should anyone make one? Then we'll revisit our |
| 0:51.6 | 2018 forecast of existential threats and update our predictions. |
| 0:55.3 | Oh. |
| 0:55.7 | Plus, we have a listener questions. |
| 0:57.5 | Drew is off traveling the world this week. |
| 0:59.2 | Luckily, we convinced ScriptNotes legend, Megan Rao, to fill in for him. |
| 1:04.0 | Megan, welcome back. |
| 1:05.0 | Thank you. |
| 1:05.8 | You never really left, but now you're actually behind the control award rather than just as a guest. |
| 1:10.4 | Yes. |
| 1:14.2 | I'm afraid I am revealing how desperate I am to hang. |
... |
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