John and Craig head north to host Scriptnotes Live in Seattle. They welcome Emily Zulauf to discuss the process of pitching projects at Pixar, creating stories with heart out of pure misery, and when to admit you “don’t have it” and start over.

We also hold our own Open Writing Assignment and play a game with the audience to create two new movie pitches. Then we answer questions about theme and why you should move to LA.

Thank you to the Northwest Screenwriters Guild and TheFilmSchool for hosting us!

Links:

• Thank you, Northwest Screenwriters Guild and TheFilmSchool for making this event happen!
• And thank you to our incredible guest: Emily Zulauf!
• Scriptnotes, 225: Only haters hate rom-coms with Tess Morris
• Michael Arndt on Endings
• Amy Poehler as Joy in INSIDE OUT
• The Man In the High Castle
• Exit The Game
• Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
• T-shirts are available here! We’ve got new designs, including Colored Revisions, Karateka, and Highland2.
• John August on Twitter
• Craig Mazin on Twitter
• Emily Zulauf on Twitter
• John on Instagram
• Find past episodes
• Scriptnotes Digital Seasons are also now available!
• Outro “Jazz Waltz” by Matthew Chilelli (send us yours!)

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.