John and Craig plant the idea for setups that have the most satisfying payoffs. Different from exposition, setups introduce ideas and concepts to an audience, priming them for a later revelation. They look at the sleight of hand required to have your setups deftly planted, take root in your audience’s mind, and grow into something delightful.

But first, we look at the new California tax credits, the 2025 WGA annual report, follow up on AI and VFX, postmodernism, and verticals. We also answer listener questions on music videos and outing yourself to potential employers.

In our bonus segment for premium members, John and Craig look at the New York Times’ new list of the 100 best movies of the 21st century. We all know Craig loves pitting movies against each other, so there’s definitely no umbrage here.

Links:

• The Best Movies of the 21st Century by NY Times


• California lawmakers approve expanded $750-million film tax credit program by Samantha Masunaga for LA Times


• WGA Annual Report – employment and earnings, residuals


• Michael Graves


• How ReelShort CEO Joey Jia Used a Chinese Trend to Disrupt the U.S. Entertainment Industry by Chad De Guzman for Time Magazine


• Sundance Labs


• Sabrina Carpenter – Manchild


• DJ Snake, Lil Jon – Turn Down for What


• Madonna – Vogue


• a-ha – Take On Me


• Riz Ahmed – The Long Goodbye


• Phil Collins – Don’t Lose My Number


• 30 minutes with a stranger by Alvin Chang for The Pudding


• Chris Perkins


• Mike Birbiglia’s top ten movies of the 21st century


• Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!


• Check out the Inneresting Newsletter


• Become a Scriptnotes Premium member, or gift a subscription


• Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube


• Craig Mazin on Instagram


• John August on Bluesky and Instagram


• Outro by Spencer Lackey (send us yours!)


• Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

UPDATE 7-23-25: The transcript for this episode can be found here.

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