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Mar 2025
1h 2m

680 - Writing Action Set Pieces

John August and Craig Mazin
About this episode

John welcomes back Christina Hodson (The Flash, Bumblebee) to ask, how do you to construct a great action sequence? Using examples from three different movies, they discuss what good action looks like on the page, how to keep your reader from getting bored or confused, and why production can sometimes blow your plans to smithereens.

Then it’s a round of How Would This be a Movie?, where we take four stories from the news and pitch how we might adapt them for the screen. Stories include a mysterious painting, a train trapped in a blizzard, a teen who sued his parents, and zombie colleges.

We also follow up on director’s chairs and mammograms, and answer listener questions on side characters and creating a healthy work/life balance.

In our bonus segment for premium members, John and Christina examine the do’s and don’ts of introducing yourself to a stranger through email.

Links:

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

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