Scriptnotes Podcast Review

The Pitch:

Screenwriters discuss screenwriting, TV, and film.

The Product:

Scriptnotes is a weekly podcast hosted by John August (Big Fish etc) and Craig Mazin (The Last of Us etc), with deep dives on all things related to screenwriting and storywriting. If this sounds a little niche and inside baseball, it’s because it is. However, with almost 600 episodes, and some pretty impressive writing credits behind them, they gotta be doing something right, right?

It turns out that yes, two people who make a living crafting stories, can be quite engaging as podcast co-hosts. There are of course extremely industry-specific topics that will leave outsiders a little reluctant to push play. But there are also the little nuggets shared from their personal lives, and, even better, moments of Hollywood/Industry tidbits that can be gleamed from even the most dense-sounding episode.

Where the podcast really shines is in the interview episodes. These are titled “The One with…” and have recently featured the likes of Patton Oswalt and Sarah Polley. Here, the hosts play their roles perfectly, switching seamlessly between carefully teeing up insightful questions backed by their vast knowledge, and going full on enthusiastic pop culture fanboys.

Episodes clock in around the hour mark, and you’ll probably come away having learned something each time. Even if that something is that screenwriting actually is a lot more work that it seems, and maybe you’ll keep that movie idea about an unlikely group of characters in a co-work space banding together to fight off a zombie hoard in your back pocket for now.

Can You Sleep To It?

Perhaps.

Recommended Episode:

The Patton Oswalt episode is fun and full of writing advice. It’s a good starting point.

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