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:

• Christina Hodson


• That New York Times article with John and Christina


• Bamboo Director’s Chair


• Birdigo on Steam


• Action samples: Aliens, The Bourne Identity and Rise of the Planet of the Apes


• David Koepp’s Jurassic Park screenplay


• David Benioff’s Troy screenplay


• A Man of Parts and Learning by Fara Dabhoiwala


• When a Deadly Winter Storm Trapped a Luxury Passenger Train Near the Donner Pass for Three Days by Robert Klara


• A U.K. Teen’s Parents Sent Him to Ghana. He Took Them to Court. by Lynsey Chutel


• Zombie colleges? These universities are living another life online, and no one can say why by Chris Quintana


• Mike Birbiglia


• The Onion in print


• Padraic Murphy’s Research Department


• Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!


• Check out the Inneresting Newsletter


• Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription or treat yourself to a premium subscription!


• Craig Mazin on Threads and Instagram


• John August on Bluesky, Threads, and Instagram


• Outro by Vance Kotrla (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 3-24-25: The transcript for this episode can be found here.

The post Writing Action Set Pieces first appeared on John August.