John and Craig hint at the best ways to tease expectations in their discussion of foreshadowing. They take a look at popular examples, the difference between foreshadow and symbolism, and techniques for executing it well.

We answer listener questions on bad premieres, bad bosses, and good home theatre set-ups. We also double-down on on our pro-spoiler platform, using scientific research to explain how spoilers benefit audiences.

Finally in our bonus segment for premium members, we analyze the death of the DVD commentary and Craig’s role in its reincarnation.

Links:

• Calgary Stampede
• Get our new 10th Anniversary T-Shirts
• USC’s Peter Stark Producing Program Taps Ed Saxon & Nina Yang Bongiovi For New Leadership Roles
• Story Spoilers Don’t Spoil Stories
• Spoiler alert: spoilers make you enjoy stories more
• Jurassic Park Foreshadow Scene
• Tapping Into the Brain to Help a Paralyzed Man Speak for the NYT by Pam Belluck
• Chicken Police Game
• Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
• Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription or treat yourself to a premium subscription!
• John August on Twitter
• Craig Mazin on Twitter
• John on Instagram
• Outro by Michael Karman (send us yours!)
• Scriptnotes is produced by Megana Rao and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.