John August and Craig Mazin
20 episodes listed below
Screenwriting craft without the mystique.
Scriptnotes treats screenwriting as both craft and job, moving from scene mechanics to Writers Guild negotiations without changing gears too hard. The tone is warm, dry, and practical, with room for banter before the work begins.
PRESS PLAY
Scriptnotes is a screenwriting show with a working-writer rhythm: some housekeeping, a few dry jokes, then a practical problem placed on the table. Recent episodes cover transitions, endings, beats, scenes, free work, Oscar nominations, bad movies, and the business machinery around scripts. The show is not precious about craft. It will name a familiar rule, test it against actual scenes, and then replace it with a more useful question. Is the audience safely delivered at the end? Is the long shot fascinating enough to justify its length? Does the scene still work when nobody is talking? Those are the kinds of questions it returns to. The tone is warm and conversational, but the advice is often blunt. Writers are encouraged to write movies they would actually pay to see, to notice when unpaid labor becomes exploitation, and to think clearly about what a short film proves. The show also has a broad industry lens. Writers Guild negotiations, adaptation choices, Hollywood development habits, casting sides, law enforcement stories, physical media, and studio attempts to copy past hits all show up as part of the same ecosystem. Encore and compendium episodes give it a layered feel, with older conversations resurfacing because the problems have not expired. Interviews stay grounded in process rather than celebrity. Drew Goddard talks through the move from beats to scenes and the discipline of action without dialogue. Natalie Mustiata and Alessandra Singh discuss how an Oscar-nominated short can signal voice, taste, and execution. Producer Drew Marquardt appears as a recurring organizing presence, assembling excerpts and joining conversation. The show’s appeal is its refusal to make writing sound magical. It treats screenplays as designed experiences, built from choices that can be argued, revised, and made clearer.
Made for: For screenwriters, filmmakers, and serious film watchers who want practical craft talk tied to real industry conditions. It especially suits people who like examples, process, and candid discussion of the business around writing.
What sets it apart: Scriptnotes pairs granular scene-level craft with a lived understanding of Hollywood work, from Writers Guild negotiations to adaptation choices. It is as comfortable discussing a denouement as it is calling out the economics of free creative labor.
A podcast about screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters, featuring bonus content only available to premium subscribers.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Scriptnotes turns screenwriting decisions into clear, usable craft lessons grounded in scenes, structure, revision, and the realities of making films.
Scriptnotes makes screenwriting legible as a sequence of choices, from turning story beats into playable scenes to deciding how a film should release its audience at the end.
A Martian airlock turns beats into scenes, and suddenly your dialogue habit has nowhere to hide.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded craft lesson on when a transition earns its keep.
This episode returns to Scriptnotes episode 89 from May 2013 and treats transitions as a craft problem, not a bit of decoration. John and Craig keep testing the same visual moves - clouds drifting, a long shot of someone walking toward camera, a teen in the passenger seat with…
A loose Q&A that keeps turning adaptation talk into practical scene-level judgment.
Scriptnotes folds a Northwest Screenwriters Guild Q&A into a lean craft session, with John August and producer Drew Marquardt talking through adaptation, character, and the old question of when fidelity matters less than what the story needs.
A practical look at endings, denouements, and why the last minutes matter.
Episode 729 treats endings as workmanship rather than mystery. Built from earlier clips on farewells, denouements, and the way endings shift in production, it keeps returning to Casablanca as the clean example: a finish that feels complete without pretending to close everything…
A practical, scene-level discussion of how screenwriting choices shape the final cut.
Scriptnotes episode 728 treats a familiar craft question as a working session on how beats turn into scenes, and how scenes change when dialogue drops away.
A dry tour of the business habits that keep bad movies alive.
An Encore from May 2015, this episode frames bad movies less as taste failures than as business outcomes. John and Drew begin with the plain irritation of revision workflow, where the Highland Pro feature is pitched as an easier way to handle shared notes instead of starred…
A practical look at free work, leverage, and when an opportunity stops sounding like one.
Scriptnotes episode 727 treats free work as a question of leverage, judgment, and where a favor starts to turn into pressure. John August and Craig Mazin move from the ethics of asking writers to work without pay to the familiar terrain of agents, managers, producers, and the…
A practical look at turning an Oscar nomination into a next step.
The Oscar nomination is the hook, but the episode is really about what comes after it. John talks with Natalie Mustiata and Alessandra Singh about how a breakout short can work as proof of concept and proof of execution, and how it can show the kind of project a filmmaker is…
A playful craft session that keeps turning odd premises into usable screenwriting questions.
Scriptnotes folds a strange mix of topics into a focused craft conversation: Connections, then a stretch of ideas that moves from tampons and millennials to ISIS and collegiate squash, followed by listener questions and follow-up.
Henry Eliot walks Paris, Lisbon, and Cambridge to unlock classic novels with expert guests.
Kevin Young and a guest poet close-read one archival New Yorker poem per episode.
John brings back episode 89.
Episode 730 starts with leftovers.
Episode 729 opens with a handoff.
Beats become scenes.
Bad movies rarely begin with bad intentions.
727 opens with a question that sounds simple until it isn't.
An Oscar nomination creates heat.
Episode 725 starts with skunk spray, because of course it does.
John August starts with introductions, then brings in Joachim Trier to unpack how Sentimental Value lets the audience meet Nora.
A finished script brings up the awkward next question.