John and Craig welcome screenwriter Mike Makowsky to discuss the process of turning a story from the news into a movie and how he drew on real life experiences to create his upcoming film, Bad Education.

We also follow up on writing with neurological trauma, trailblazing female screenwriters, and answer listener questions on speaking theme vs. subtext.

In our bonus segment for premium members, we talk about our own three page challenges, and why those early pages are so important.

Links:

• Bad Education on HBO April 25th, 2020
• Elizabeth on Twitter wrote to steer my attention to the book When Women Wrote Hollywood: Essays on Female Screenwriters in the Early Film Industry
• Casablance script
• History of the Screenplay Format by Andrew Gay
• Bad Education True Story
• #StitchUsBackTogether organized by Jamarah Hayner
• Epson EcoTank ET-4760
• Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker
• Sign up for Scriptnotes Premium here.
• John August on Twitter
• Craig Mazin on Twitter
• Mike Makowsky on Twitter
• John on Instagram
• Outro by James Llonch (send us yours!)
• Scriptnotes is produced by Megana Rao and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at [email protected]

You can download the episode here.