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screenplay software

Travis

Misanthrope of the Mountains
Travis
Joined
Mar 31, 2007
Messages
24,133
Are any of them worth it? I know I spend a lot of time trying to keep my scripts formatted properly using regular word processors. It really kills your flow when you got something going.
 
Travis said:
Are any of them worth it? I know I spend a lot of time trying to keep my scripts formatted properly using regular word processors. It really kills your flow when you got something going.
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I have always used Word macros mapped to F keys to format slugs, scenes, dialog, and character names. I never saw enough extra value in the specialty software packages to justify their cost.

People obsess about formats. As long as you are using Courier (or Times) on white paper and your slugs, scenes, dialog, and character name indents correspond to the usual values, you are okay.
 
Try Lyx and use the Hollywood template. It has pre-defined styles for screenplay stuff (Dialogs, scene changes, etc.)

Installing on Windows can be a pain, but the installer provides good assistance. I use Lyx on Linux to write anything that needs a clean, consistent format. OpenOffice and Word are more for "freestyle" stuff - short text and lots of funky formatting. For long text where I need to concentrate on content, nothing comes close to Lyx.

DO NOT try to format things like you would in Word. Lyx doesn't work that way (though you can force it.) Use the templates and the formatting styles they provide. Once you stop trying to manually set fonts and sizes and tabs, and just let the program worry about it for you, the work will go MUCH faster.

The drawback is that if you don't like the style it takes an act of Congress, two miracles and a drunken night after a caffeine bing to change the templates.

PS:
Lyx provides PDF export, so you can send to people via email and they can read, no problems with funky file formats.
 
I just type 'em up in any 'old format in Word. If someone wants 'em in some other format, I just re-format at necessary.

If it's a long script, I would build a macro do it for me.

But, few people are ever interested in looking at my scripts, so usually it doesn't matter.
 
Travis said:
Do they say if it's worth it? What are it's key features?
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Pretty much but they aren't really impartial because they've been using the software for years (apparently it is the industry standard). I've used past versions so I don't know how the new one is (v. 8) but from the reviews I've read online the main complains are a laggy spell checker. It sounds like your main need is for templates or an easy way to format scripts. I read up on that free alternative and it seems to have many of the same features of FD. I would check that one out and see if it fits your needs because FD is not cheap.

They have a free demo but I don't know what the limitations of it may be:

http://www.finaldraft.com/downloads/demo-final-draft.php
 
Anybody know whatever happened to Sophocles? The screenwriting program, not the old Greek guy. When I was playing around with screenwriting, Sophocles was hands down the best software you could buy. And incredibly cheap, too.
 
Travis, Celtx is good because it's free and user friendly. Final Draft is the industry standard, though, and has the price tag to prove it. I've also had good experiences with Movie Magic Screenwriter.

I'd say that whatever software you use, make sure that it comes with pdf conversion capabilities. If you ever send your script around to people, they will expect it to come as an Adobe file, not in whatever software you've used to actually write it.
 
Travis said:
Do they say if it's worth it? What are it's key features?
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Key feature is industry recognizability, to be honest. But I'm assuming that's not what you meant. I'd say its key feature is that it does a lot of the work for you as you write -- assuming what character is going to speak next, switching elements automatically (character name to dialogue to action line, etc.). It's the software of choice for working writers because it makes the writing process quicker.

I'd highly recommend against trying to write in Word.

Policenaut said:
Pretty much but they aren't really impartial because they've been using the software for years (apparently it is the industry standard). I've used past versions so I don't know how the new one is (v. 8) but from the reviews I've read online the main complains are a laggy spell checker. It sounds like your main need is for templates or an easy way to format scripts. I read up on that free alternative and it seems to have many of the same features of FD. I would check that one out and see if it fits your needs because FD is not cheap.

They have a free demo but I don't know what the limitations of it may be:

http://www.finaldraft.com/downloads/demo-final-draft.php
Click to expand...

The FD demo lets you read a script that's been written in FD, but it doesn't let you actually write and save your own document.

Checkmite said:
Anybody know whatever happened to Sophocles? The screenwriting program, not the old Greek guy. When I was playing around with screenwriting, Sophocles was hands down the best software you could buy. And incredibly cheap, too.
Click to expand...

Never heard of it, myself.
 
I tend to write free hand using multi colored pens (anyone here remember pens?:))and my margins are always full of little doodles and notes of different ideas that come to me, which I then convert into FD once I get to the rewriting stage.

It may seem like a slow painful way of working, but personally I find sitting at a PC with Internet access too distracting, and I also find FD formating pretty fiddly to use when I am in full creative mode, although that might just be because I am not used to it.

If you are going to be submitting your scripts to anyone, then they are pretty much going to expect them to be in the FD format, so yes it is useful for that, but during the creative stage I just want to get my ideas down onto paper quickly, before they disappear from my tiny mind.
 
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