ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

9 years, 8 months ago - philip stevens

Thank you Paul useful info I'm aware of Celtex and may well give it a go, but i get get caught up as seeing 'final draft' as being all singing all dancing script writing eutopia which will get me to screenplay heaven.... used by professionals within the industry blah blah blah....mmm .food for thought Celtex... Will crack on with my word doc, convert to PDF....until I have the balls to make a desicion....

9 years, 8 months ago - Peter Spencer

Studios no longer need scripts to be in FD to break down for budgets, they do that from pdf these days. FD is very expensive and very poor. As for every professisonal writer using it, very public non-users are John August, Craig Mazin, Rian Johnson and Gary Whitta. Mazin Johnson and Whitta all use Fade In Pro which which is half the price of an FD upgrade, comes with free upgrades, can import and export FD files (when you first load FD9 there are all these warnings it may not open previous versions of itself....) Fade In can do batch watermarking, has a built in link to dropbox, can imprt a pdf and then you can write in the pdf. Also if you do come across and issue in Fade In you can email the developer and he's back to you within hours. A writer I know emailed Fade In asking about the possibility of a radio play template for BBC radio, three days later it was in the software. Try and get FD to do that! Won't catch me anywhere near FD but if people want to pay twice as much for less that's up to them. BTW I was in a similar discussion a couple of weeks ago on FB and a writer said: those guys (August, Mazin etc) can get away with it because they're established, John August's first film, GO, was written in Word. And he is the one who develoed Highland and Fountain. Won't catch him near FD either.

9 years, 8 months ago - Paul Williams

I've used Celtx for years. You can find the free desktop version if you google it and their online studio is very good (yearly subscription). It syncs with free apps can get for the iphone and ipad.

9 years, 8 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

No software will make you a better writer, just help you with formatting! Shakespeare used a quill...

9 years, 8 months ago - Dan Selakovich

Here is a nice long thread that will answer any question you have:

https://shootingpeople.org/discuss/view/216493012458c767bca970c6

9 years, 8 months ago - Paul Campion

Looks like there's another option now as well - Amazon have just launched their own screenwriting software:

http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/amazon-unveils-new-free-screen-writing-app-amazon-storywriter-23-11-2015/

9 years, 8 months ago - philip stevens

It appears it's not a straight forward answer....so many opinions or options....you think a good story with chracter and dialogue would suffice but it goes to show if it's not formatted correctly then it's a none starter ....guess formatting is part of the art of screen writting.....

9 years, 8 months ago - stephen hayes

As a newbie I invested in Final Draft and found it incredibly complicated for no apparent reason..... just like the rest of screenplay writing, and then finally many points are down to personal taste of the reader. At LSF this year a speaker said that BOLD headings were a No NO. An experienced writer told me that it is a BBC standard requirement. I now use Highland by Fountain, it is simple and is only two buttons and great for beginners. Final Draft after sales is rubbish and even their rep at LSF was supercilious and unhelpful because I wasn't buying anything. Look at all the comments, when stripped down there is an actual standard which is basic and simple only to be spoilt by inflated individuals. Regards Steve

9 years, 8 months ago - philip stevens

Can of worms or loaded question

9 years, 8 months ago - Lisa Ray-Jacobs

Hi. I started on Celtex and after my first project I upgraded to FD last year. It's a lot better than Celtex and I have no regrets. The mobile versions are top notch too. I don't know if FD do this systematically, but about half way through my 30 day trial period, they offered me an incredible discount if I were to buy the software within so many days. I did exactly that and although I can't remember the price offhand, it was a really good deal. Worth the spend. Good luck!

9 years, 8 months ago - Dan John Witherall

Celtx is fine. If you can't work your way around it, Final Draft will be no better.

9 years, 9 months ago - Nick Goundry

Hi Philip. As Paddy says, this comes up a lot on SP. The general view seems to be that you can do the job with both free and paid-for software. The important thing is to make sure that the script you send out has no typos and is formatted as closely to industry-standard as possible. The industry standard can change slightly depending on who you send it to, but the information's out there and easy to find.

9 years, 8 months ago - Michael Tabb

I've used Final Draft since the 1990s while going to NYU. As a working professional, studios expect drafts to be submitted in that program so they can break them down as required for preproduction. That said, Amazon Studios also just added a screenwriting template function yesterday that formats for you as well. It's new. There will probably be a couple learning curves along the way, but I figured it's better to know all your options.

9 years, 9 months ago - philip stevens

Thanks guys.....no typo's...jesus, that's my middle name.....not Jesus typos..

9 years, 8 months ago - Dan Horrigan

Agree that CeltX is good for linking up with Apps. But you can also get Apps Final Draft (I think 9 is the latest). It is worth investing in a bit in writing software, the formatting is crucial - poor formatting will kill you every time. You can share docs etc with people - and final draft 9 has features that cover nearly all writing requirements. It will cover you as far as you go. Make the decision! D

9 years, 8 months ago - philip stevens

True words paddy... Think I'll just revert to feather quill, inkwell and begin to scribe....any suggestion on best paper to use....different century same problem ...

9 years, 8 months ago - philip stevens

Thanks Paul and to everyone who has passed on their knowledge and experience, it's been food for thought ...but I've been sawyed by the glam and glitter of final draft....so now my reclusive existence as a writer will be formatted correctly...Just need a story and a sub plot ....any ideas

9 years, 8 months ago - Paul Campion

I think you can do a 30 day trial first.

9 years, 8 months ago - Paul Campion

I couldn't imagine writing a script in anything else, and every other professional writer I've worked with uses it. If you're trying write in Word, then you're probably going to be spending/wasting a lot of time trying to get the formatting right, when you could be letting the software do it correctly and automatically while you concentrate on writing a good story. It also has a lot of extremely useful technical tools specifically for identifying and changing things in your script, revisions markers, page locking tools (essential if you're doing re-writes during production), the ability to compare one draft with another to see what's been changed, as well as character, cast, location and statistics reports all of which I use constantly.

9 years, 9 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Hi Philip,

It's probably worth looking back over these forums, this comes up periodically, and there was a long thread on it recently - some great information in there :)

9 years, 8 months ago - philip stevens

If I never try it, I'll never know .... So on with show....final draft it is....