Welcome to a brand new episode of The Flickcast, a pop culture podcast about stuff nerds love. On this week’s show Chris welcomes guest Ashley Warren to talk about a whole bunch of stuff they love.

A small example of this includes writing and her writing process, her love for Dungeons & Dragons, what it means to be a DM’s Guild Adept, working from home, creating official D&D content, saving the world and a whole lot more.

It’s a big episode chock full of insights, thoughts and ideas. Plus, they manage to have some fun along the way too. Hope you enjoy it.

And be sure to check out all of Ashley’s work at her website ScribeMind, the RPG Writers Workshop, the DM’s Guild and find her most recent project Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden wherever D&D adventures are sold.

Thanks for listening.

WARNING: This episode may contain discussions about COVID-19, mental health and quarantine. We understand not everyone is in a place to talk about or hear discussions surrounding these issues. Please do what’s best for you. Stay safe everyone.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, Instagram or, yes, even Facebook. Or shoot us an email. We don’t mind.

Photo: Wizards of the Coast

Opening and end music by Kevin MacLeod under Creative Commons License

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On this episode Chris and Joe move on from Horror and Halloween into a hell of a different kind: development. That’s right, this week the boys go deep into the filmmaking process and discuss how the sausage is made. In fact, they even talk about what’s inside the sausage before it gets stuffed into those tasty tubes.

Damn, now we want sausage. Or donuts. That metaphor works too. Anyway, this week’s episode gets into all the aspects of filmmaking including the development and pre-production process, production and a bit about post and distribution as well.

Believe us, it’s way more interesting than it sounds. No, really. And yes, they also discuss a lot, well, you know, more. It’s another great episode. Thanks for listening.

WARNING: This episode contains discussions about COVID-19, mental health and quarantine. We understand not everyone is in a place to talk about or hear discussions surrounding these issues. Please do what’s best for you. Stay safe everyone.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, Instagram or, yes, even Facebook. Or shoot us an email. We don’t mind.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

If you read that headline, you may be confused. What exactly is Amazon Storyteller? Well, it’s a new service from Amazon Studios that allows writers to turn their scripts into storyboards, complete with characters and dialog.

This new storyboard can then be shared with others for feedback. The new service launched today, but is currently in beta. The best part, it’s free.

“We’ve found that many writers want to see their story up on its feet in visual form but find it harder than it should be to create a storyboard,” said Roy Price, Director of Amazon Studios. “Storyteller provides a digital backlot, acting troupe, prop department and assistant editor—everything you need to bring your story to life. We want to see great stories turned into movies and television shows and we’ll continue to develop new features and tools that help people develop great stories.”

Want to know more? Here’s how it works:

Storyteller begins by scanning a movie script that has been uploaded to Amazon Studios. It identifies the scenes, locations and characters from scene descriptions, and “casts” them from a library of thousands of characters, props and backgrounds. Filmmakers can recast or change locations, or they can upload their own images.

We like many things in the world of movies, tv, comics and pop culture. The content of this post will include several of those. What could it be?

It’s a video. And in this video you’ve got geek icon Wil Wheaton reading from a new novel called Gun Machine by the extraordinary Warren Ellis featuring artwork from the amazing Ben Templesmith. In short, if you like any of the things we like, this video will have something for you.

Probably more than one thing. Enjoy and you’re welcome.

Check it out below.

There are few actors as ‘hot’ as Ryan Gosling right now, the man has the work load of Ryan Reynolds with the industry cred Micheal Fassbender. Now he is looking to capitalize on that sizzle by making his directorial debut with How to Catch a Monster.

The film is neither a gritty noir about catching a serial killer, or a light-hearted sequel to How to Train Your Dragon, it is actually a dark fairy tale. Variety has the story, along with a former Gosling co-star who has been tapped for the lead:

Ryan Gosling will make his directorial debut with the dark fairy tale he wrote “How to Catch a Monster,” with Christina Hendricks set to star… [The] Story is set against the surreal dreamscape of a vanishing city and centered on a single mother of two being swept into a macabre and dark fantasy underworld while her teenage son discovers a secret road leading to an underwater town.

Wow, not at all what you might expect from the normally very serious actor. Conceptually it sounds a bit hectic, but if Gosling is half as good of a writer as he is an actor than there is a fair shot he can pull it off. A film like this will hinge on tone, so we will know very quick what kind of directing chops Gosling has. Also any film that casts the lovely Christina Hendricks as the lead already gets a +1.

This project is one we will be keeping a close watch on as it develops, so keep tuned to The Flickcast for any new updates.

For screenwriters in Hollywood and elsewhere, the usual software tool for writing that million dollar screenplay is Final Draft. The software has been around for years, is used by most every TV and film production, and currently sits at version 8.0.

Of course, now that devices like the iPad are so popular, many writers (myself included) are wishing for a version of Final Draft that will run on it. I’m pretty sure that piece of software is coming. The pent up demand is there, it’s just a matter of time before it’s satisfied.

In the meantime, the makers of Final Draft have seen fit to release the Final Draft Reader application for the iPad. And while it isn’t a fully-featured screenplay writing app, what it does do, it does quite well.

Final Draft reader does pretty much what you would think. It allows you to read Final Draft formatted screenplays on your iPad. This may not seem like a big deal until you throw in the added benefit of being able to make notes on said screenplay that also, when the file is opened in the full version of Final Draft, are right there with the rest of the script.

With the “found footage” movie Chronicle making so much money at the box office, especially in relation to how much it cost, it was pretty much inevitable a sequel was going to be made. Fortunately, Fox seems to be playing this one smart and has brought back Max Landis, the writer of the first Chronicle, to pen the sequel.

In case you’re not familiar with Chronicle, it featured actors Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell and Michael B. Jordan playing three high school friends who gain superpowers. Unfortunately, as cool as that may sound, things don’t go exactly as they hoped.

Soon, the trio find their lives going out of control and friendships tested as they explore the dark side. Didn’t they ever see Spider-Man? Great power, great responsibility, that kind of thing? Kids today.

Anyway, Landis will reportedly be working on the sequel as his next project after recently selling projects to both Ron Howard and Disney. Fox is looking at a 2013 release for the Chronicle sequel.

It may seem like an odd choice for a company famous for its books with all the pictures, but Marvel has announced they will be taking their most famous superhero creations and putting them into a brand new format: prose novels. The first of these novels will tell the story of Civil War, Marvel’s “event” from a few years back.

From the official press release:

“Releasing our most acclaimed graphic novels as prose fiction not only allows us to reach a different audience with these stories, but also gives us a chance to bring those readers back to the comics that started it all,” said David Gabriel, Senior Vice President of Sales, Marvel Entertainment.

“Civil War is easily our best-selling graphic novel of the past decade and certainly one of the most influential in recent memory, so it was the perfect launch title for this new line. Not only will you get all the action that Mark Millar and Steve McNiven delivered in comic form but no fan will want to miss the new wrinkles we’ve added in this novel. ”

Well then, there you go. You really can’t blame Marvel for trying to find a way to make more money off of its comic book properties. After all, the comic book business is not doing that well and they already have these stories just sitting there so, why not?

Anyone got a problem with it? Sound off in the comments.

Even though this is technically a blog, we like to think of ourselves primarily as writers here at The Flickcast. Many of us have even been paid to write over the years and you can bet that pretty much everyone here has one or two screenplays, comic books or other literary works they are currently working on. It’s just the nature of things.

So, when the Writer’s Guild of America announces the nominations for outstanding writing for Television, we take notice and bring you all the details. That’s especially true when the top nominees are shows we really like.

One such show is Showtime’s freshman drama Homeland, which received 3 nominations including best drama series, best new series and best episodic drama. Homeland tied with perennial favorites Modern Family, Breaking Bad and Boardwalk Empire for the most nominations.

In addition to Homeland, Game Of Thrones, The Killing, New Girl and the Matt LeBlanc comedy Episodes all received nominations with Showtime getting a first time record of six for its shows. You may be wondering where Mad Men is in all of this?

Sadly, as the fifth season of the show was delayed, it didn’t make the cut for eligibility for this year’s awards. That’s probably okay as it gives a few other shows, like Homeland and Game of Thrones, a chance to shine. Can’t have Mad Men taking up all the awards, now can we?

The winners will be announced at the 2012 Writers Guild Awards on Feb. 19, 2012, at simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York. Click through for the full list of nominee.

If you’ve never read Brian K. Vaughn’s comic series Y: The Last Man, you’re really missing out. It’s very well written and has enjoyed tremendous popularity.

So much so, in fact, that it’s one of the reasons Vaughn ended up as a writer for ABC’s LOST for several seasons. Now, it looks like Vaughn’s TV writing career is going to continue.

According to Deadline, he has been signed to write Showtime’s drama series adaptation of Stephen King’s 2009 novel Under the Dome, from DreamWorks Television. According to the report, Vaughn was chosen after a long search by the show’s producers and will begin writing the adaptation immediately.

In case you’re not familier with the story, the supernatural thriller concerns locals at a Maine vacation spot who battle one another when a force field suddenly surrounds their town and cuts them off from the rest of the world. Yes, it takes place in Maine. Try to contain your surprise.

To be honest, this is not my favorite Stephen King novels. However, Vaughn is one of my favorite writers so hopefully he will bring his trademark wit and style to the project. The series expects to begin filming early next year for a debut sometime next Fall.

One of the most useful applications I use every day on the Mac has now arrived for Windows. That’s right Windows-using writers Scrivener is now available to you.

No matter if you’re writing the next great American novel (something for National Novel Writing Month perhaps?), research paper, script or any long-form text document that involves more than hammering away at the keys until you’re done, Scrivener, made by the fine folks at Literature & Latte, can help you get your work done. The multi-featured program excels at helping you collect research, bring order to fragmented ideas and avoid shuffling index cards in search of that elusive structure.

Scrivener can help you from the moment an idea comes into your imagination until the final finished pages are output. In short, it pretty much does everything for you except the actual writing.

Unfortunately, that will still be up to you. The rest you can leave to Scrivener.

As someone who uses this app daily (the Mac version) I can safely say it really helps me get my work done. Without it, I would be back to posting index cards to cork boards and trying to make things work that way. I like the 21st Century’s technological advancements and I like Scrivener.

Scrivener requires Windows XP, Vista, or 7 (32 or 64 bit). 1GB RAM; 1ghz Processor; 100mb disk space; 1064 x 786 screen.

If you’re an aspiring screenwriter, a veteran of multiple TV shows or pretty much any kind of entertainment writer, you’ve probably heard of, and most likely use, a piece of software called Final Draft. The screenwriting program has become industry standard on TV series and feature films and has helped writers bring their ideas to life for many years.

Currently, the program is on version 8 for Mac and Windows, which is great. However, many writers who use the program every day have been asking for a version that works on Apple’s iPad and patiently waiting for the company to develop one. Well, it seems that wait is over as the company has announced plans to release a version of its software for the iPad, iPhone and other iOS 4 devices.

Exact details and features of the iPad version of Final Draft are still a bit vague. However, according to the company the iPad and iPhone version of the app, dubbed Final Draft version 8 mobile, will “work with Final Draft version 8 FDX files and allow you to make edits and notes on the go for greater mobility. Plus, you can easily move the same script from iPad or iPhone to desktop and back.”

Sounds pretty cool to me. Guess I won’t be selling my iPad after all. Expect to see Final Draft version 8 mobile sometime this Spring.