The State of Screenwriting Software
Thursday, June 17, 2010 at 10:38PM Every day, those of us involved in film and video post-production use some truly amazing software. Applications that transcode video, present complex changes in real time, and allow us to transform our images from footage into filmmaking. We manage terabytes of data, we reverse-engineer camera motion by tracking a million moving details, and we create entire worlds using nothing but mouse clicks.
So I’m always a bit surprised at how what seems to be such a simple task by comparison, putting words on a page, has perennially been handled in a way dissatisfying to so many writers.
Final Draft
Final Draft ($249 MSRP, $186.68 from Amazon) is the gold standard, if you take that analogy in the direction of gold being an outdated, unwieldy encumbrance, the continued practical significance of which is more imagined than real. Every “real” screenwriter uses Final Draft, and Final Draft’s .fdx file format is as close to a lingua franca as exists in Hollywood.
Final Draft is an essential tool for films in production because of its industry-standard revision management and compatibility with popular scheduling software, but over the years it has often been less than a joy to use for actual writing. If you used it on a Mac, Final Draft was always the app that made you most painfully aware of Apple’s willingness to start fresh with a new operating system. Final Draft sometimes felt like it was running in an invisible Macintosh Plus emulator ported to Linux and running in OS X’s X11 environment. Even as recently as version 7, Final Draft would only sporadically display screenplay text with an anti-aliasd font.
In fairness, the current version 8, which I was just forced to upgrade to thanks to Snow Leopard, is pretty good. It’s aesthetically minimal and feels like a good, native Mac app. But without wanting to discount the many complex features that Final Draft has under the hood, let’s remember that its main task is to place the letters that you type on the screen, and format them like a script—which, by definition, excludes anything not possible using a 100-year-old typewriter. Even in version 8, some aspects of this simple task remain buggy. I find that I can wind up with lower-case letters in a character name depending on the mood of the (admittedly quite handy) auto-complete feature. Similarly, I don’t know if it’s a feature or a bug that I can occasionally type lower-case letter into a Scene Heading.
But the thing that absolutely flabbergasts me about Final Draft is that, after all these years, it still reflects not one ounce of understanding of how screenwriters think about organizing their work.
Almost every screenwriting application has a “notecards” feature, where scenes are displayed as virtual 3x5” notecards that can be color coded, annotated, and rearranged. This is meant to to emulate the age-old screenwriter’s practice of avoiding actual work by dicking around with 3x5” notecards.
The problem is that Final Draft, like most screenwriting apps, assigns one notecard to each slugline, rendering the entire idea completely worthless. When writers use cards, they might break things down as far as one scene per card — but a scene usually contains multiple sluglines.
;)
In this single page from The Bourne Supermacy (Tony Gilroy, Brian Helgeland screenwriters), there are five sluglines. Every page in this tense action scene is like this—cross-cutting between Bourne and the Treadstone assassin, moving from setting to setting, punching in for crucial details. In Final Draft, each of these sluglines becomes an index card:
;)
Which is not at all how a writer would use cards. This entire eight-page scene would probably be one card called “CAR CHASE - KIRIL TRIES TO KILL BOURNE.” Or, for another writer, maybe the chase would be broken up into a few cards. BOURNE SEARCHES THE BEACH TOWN FOR MARIE, CAR CHASE - KIRILL PURSUES BOURNE AND MARIE, KIRIL SETS UP HIS RIFLE, etc.
The point is, sluglines and index cards have nothing to do with one another. In order for index cards to be of any use, they must be able to contain an arbitrary amount of screenplay.
Which brings us to…
Scrivener
I’m skipping over Movie Magic Screenwriter… oh wait, let’s not skip them entirely—just take a gander at this screenshot, which I just today pulled from their website. Wow. Anyway, on to Scrivener—the best screenwriting application in existence, and without even trying to be.
Scrivener ($39.95) is a Mac-only app developed by a frustrated novelist who wanted a better writing tool for himself. He does all the coding himself and you can expect a prompt reply from him on his company’s forum if you have ideas for improvements or if you’ve found a bug.
I know, crazy.
The catch is that Scrivener is a general-purpose writing app, with a few screenwriting features thrown in. It offers the basic formatting features, but makes no attempt at street-legal pagination, or managing a character list, or tracking revisions.
Which is so great, because it lets you Just Write.
I could write a hundred love letters to Scrivener, but the one feature I’ll focus on today is the notecards. They are notecards done right. You can—get this—put as much or as little script in one notecard as you like. I never would have dreamed we even had such revolutionary technology.
Not only that, but you can have nested sets of cards. A card can contain more cards.
Whoah.
If that sounds like files and folders, then you’re getting it. In fact, the best feature of Scrivener’s notecards is that you don’t have to view them as notecards. You can always see them as a hierarchy of folders on the side of your screen.
What you see here is the method of screenplay organization described in Blake Snyder’s Save The Cat. While everyone agrees on Acts I, II and III (yes, they do), different writers have different ways of breaking up what happens in each act. Scrivener lets you nest as many folders deep as you like, creating your own template, which you can load in at the start of a new project. At every nesting level, the folders can also be viewed as cards.
;)
What this buys you is the ability to organize by cards at a high level and at a macro level—where cards become scenes. Real scenes, not sluglines. Scenes the way a writer thinks about scenes.
It’s so awesome that it takes a little time to get used to, but it’s worth it.
The only problem is that at some point, if you’re writing a real screenplay that will be read by real people, you have to leave the Scrivener party, put on a tie and maybe even pants, and show up for work at Final Draft. You need pagination. You need revision tracking. You need MOREs and CONTINUEDs (I guess). I respect Scrivener’s stated goal to not allow their creative writing app to sprawl into a full-fledged movie production tool. Scrivener is for writing. And man, it works. It’s almost like the guy who created it is a writer or something.
So I write this in the hope that Final Draft takes a stab at a folder or notecard system that makes one lick of sense. If you don’t, someone else will. In the meantime, I’ll continue to work in Scrivener for as long as I can before sobering up and looking around for where I left my pants.
Reader Comments (74)
So,
I guess, no Windows, huh?
there is a free app like this for windows users called Quickplot- its old and no longer supported by the developer, but its free.
http://www.unknownscreenwriter.com/download/
I wonder why you haven't mentioned Celtx? It has great functionality and it is free.
True, but its notecards have the same failing as Final Draft's.
Interesting post, thanks. I won't take you to task on the three act structure.. (ahem, read John Truby for excellent analysis that obviates the need of a 3 act structure :) )
Also worth mentioning is Celtx which is free and has most of the features of Final Draft, but I think has a better Index Card system. There is also a very cheap add on called Plot View which allows you to view individual story strands laid out in index card form as well. Not as good as Scrivener it would seem, but somewhere in between.
here is some additional info on Quickplot and a screengrab
http://www.zzippeddskripptzz.com/software.html
Thanks Ed. Although you'll notice that it still makes the mistake of thinking that sluglines are a useful level of detail in an overview.
Have you ever tried any of the Mariner Software tools ("Montage" and "Contour") ? I haven't but they also seem reasonably inexpensive etc.
scrivener is why i recommend aspiring authors either to buy a mac or use a hackintosh. I know so many authors who like it...
and it does script formatting too?
I always liked the idea of Story View. It's doesn't seem to be available anymore though. But I really like the way you can visualize the whole script and zoom in and out.
Screenshot:
http://www.toptenreviews.com/i/rev/scrn/large/254-story-view3.jpg
Review:
http://creative-writing-software-review.toptenreviews.com/story-view-review.html
I havn't used Montage proffesionally (and I'm not a pro scriptwriter), but I've tried it out, and from what I can see, it has a heap of nice features when it comes to scriptwriting, including "correct" formating etc.
Just chiming in to say, Celtx is a fantastic alternative to FinalDraft esp. as its free! Its my screenwriting software of choice.
Scrivener is excellent and inexpensive. I initially became interested because it let's you write full screen on a black background to avoid distractions (something I find irritatingly missing in most word processors). After using it and watching the great tutorials I realised it could do so much more. The folder structure and outlining are great but so is being able to bring in ref files including images and split the screen between notes and drafts. I think it also exports Final Draft as well.
Why was Adobe Story omitted?
This looks like the best of the bunch out there:
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/cslive/story/
I wholeheartedly applaud that mentality: "I can't seem to find a tool that fits my needs, maybe it doesn't even exist... I'll create mine!"
everybody should be like that, we would have many more awesome tools around
as for me, my DoF/FoV calculator was born that way (needed something simple that would work on any device, no matter if it's iphone, android, nokia, PC of Mac)
http://www.similaar.com/dof.php
and of course my original search engine, too... (what a great idea that was... ah, if I had got it working just one year earlier...)
http://www.similaar.com/search.html
Celtx offers 2 modes for the cards.
If you click on "Show Script" it uses the slug lines like Final Draft.
If you disable that you can use the cards like in Scrivener.
Frank
Celtx does have two different views for the index cards, but it still organizes them by slugline. Same problem.
A warning about QuickPlot: http://shedofdelights.blogspot.com/2008/05/warning-about-quickplot.html
Because I hate macs with a violent passion, I have searched high and low for screenwriting software on the PC that does index cards and outlining properly. As far as I can tell, it doesn't exist.
I'm surprised that Stu skipped right over Movie Magic, though. Its latest version actually comes much closer to getting it right than Final Draft does. Still not right, but closer.
You forgot to mention Adobe Story, which is making great progess since it's beta release.
I'd also like to point out Writers Cafe: http://www.writerscafe.co.uk/
I haven't used Scrivener, but Writers Cafe seems quite similar. It does some really sophisticated stuff with index cards, including nesting, and has rudimentary screenplay formatting built in. Also the capacity to store your research and notes and so forth. Worth trying.
I find Celtx attractive because it's free and has a loyal following. It is frightening to read that some people on the forums cannot open their saved projects and have lost material. Also, it's perplexing that it cannot center a script when in fullscreen mode.
Scrivener is where it's at.
Another vote here for Writers Cafe.
http://www.writerscafe.co.uk/
This is primarily a "writing program" with some really cool screenwriting features tossed in. Its index-card-sorting system is different from the other programs, but I like it better than any of them. Check out the Storyline Mode. It has a nice folder hierarchy with four levels to drill-down (Part/Chapter/Scene/Card).
It's also a tool developed by one guy from the simple need for a good story-writing program. I've emailed the developer a couple times with misc. questions, and he's gotten back to me same-day every time.
It's very light-weight, Mac-Windows-Linux compatible, pretty cheap ($35-$45), and can even run from a thumb-drive.
I'd recommend it very highly.
Scrivener is definitely best of breed for writing, and while I prefer it for screenwriting as well, I'm pleased to see some more recognition for this app.
As Stu notes, Scrivener is a First Draft kind of app. It does support export ("compiling") to a number of formats, including Final Draft, so it has a place in virtually every workflow. Unfortunately, my experiments with exporting from Scriv to FD have met with minor formatting errors, the sort that lead to some tedious cleanup. You won't be round-tripping your scripts; that's for sure.
We're coming soon. And we're going to change your mind about screenwriting software.
Celtx is decent which is what I use. It does have limitations (though not quite as limited as suggested as you can use a second slug-line free card setup but admittedly not as elegant.
However, the fact that Scrivener is Mac only is a big problem. If you work 100% solo, cross-platform is not a big issue. But for anything involving more than a you, cross-platform quickly becomes a Must Have. Certainly an "DV Rebel" feature requires cross-platform and IMO, Sciverner's lack there is far more critical fail issue than the index card/slugline issue.
Sciverner is niche product i.e. spec script tool - but it's not real a filmmaking tool. I I know I'm stating the obvious, but screenwriting is not like novel writing - it does not create the final result. It's merely a starting outline for a much larger, longer process.
At best, you start in Scrivener and export to something more practical once anyone else needs to be involved. Plus, Celtx dev team keep improving that app, so no reason it can't match or exceed Scivener feature by feature.
Or perhaps the Fade In Pro people are reading this and making notes:)
Never liked Celix much, don't exactly know why. It seemed like all the akward things about Windows rolled into one. But it is free. Scrivener exchanges with Final Draft 8 and the upcoming version is supposed to be pretty well integrated and allow back and forth smoothly. So if you like write in scrivener you should be able to do the out put in Final Draft and still be able to make changes in Scrivener.
Another one that might deserve a look is StoryO. It's more of an organizational tool that just a writing tool but for screenwriting there are some nice features. For those asking about Screen Magic, did you look at the screen grab? I'm big on function over form in tools but at some point the pure ugliness of the UI has to affect the function of the tool and it looks like they left that point a long way back.
I looked at Contour and Storymill. Contour was the most interesting but both are much more about laying out the bones than writing the story. Contour in particular doesn't get much beyond Blake Snyders Beat sheet (though they use a different system). So for out line work, IF you work with their paradyme it's a help but not much if you don't.
With all of the fantastic tools now available to help us with shooting and post, the writing process (and its tools) are, in my opinion, woefully inadequate. (Don't even get me started on Final Draft - it barely works as a word processor.) I still haven't found a piece of software that successfully handles the non-linear aspect of structuring a story (and idea spit-balling). I've tried them all (I'm a fan of Scrivener but it still has some limitations that bug me). I've had a concept for a screenwriting software for years but lack the programming network/contacts/money to make it happen.
I would also add that, the knowledge and understanding of what it takes to write a truly engaging, well-constructed story is becoming a lost art form. It's, by a long shot, the hardest part of the filmmaking process - and the least sexiest. The dismal state of the box-office has nothing to do with the high-gloss of production and everything to do with the script was written on a napkin (if it was committed to paper at all). The one company who seems to consistently understand how to construct a good story is Pixar. I've yet to see one of their films that hasn't worked. Even the experimental Wall-E was successful from a story-telling standpoint - owing much of it to silent-era storytelling techniques.
Stephen v2, while Scrivener is Mac-only, the files it makes are cross platform. It exports everything you could imagine, including Final Draft files.
To those pointing out that Celtx is free — that's lovely. But $50 is indistinguishable from free to anyone even remotely serious about screenwriting. If you write at Starbucks you spend more than that per month on bad coffee.
I'm not saying Celtx isn't great, but its price is not its best feature.
Adobe Story is very exciting to me. I'm using it on a collaborative project right now and loving it. I think the development team at Adobe will read this post.
Fade In, I'm leaving your free ad here, so plan on sending me an NFR when you're ready.
Norman — I think it's abundantly clear that I couldn't agree more that the best software comes from a personal need.
We are in sync!.
For the past few days I have tested all screenwriting software for the mac. Scrivener won my heart too because of its cards as you mentioned. I hope that an ipad version comes soon.
I have seen horrible apps for windows and cant understand how writers can actually use them without dying in disgust. It is like having floating windows in after effects all over again!
Uhh...maybe you should have looked more into MM Screenwriter than simply grabbing a screenshot from the site.
SCW lets you organize your screenplay exactly the way you rave about in Scrivener. With the new Outliner feature on the side you can break up the script any old way you want. It works exactly the same way as the hierarchy of folders you posted above in addition to allowing you to add as much granularity to the project as you want. You can track acts, sequences, scenes, beats -- whatever matches up with your writing style.
The best part of course is that once you've outlined it according to your favorite paradigm/theory you can start writing it all within the same program. This is how I've been doing it for years with nary a problem.
I would suggest downloading the demo of MMS6 for Mac (because, of course, everything looks better on a Mac -- trust me that screenshot you posted isn't even close) and trying it out for yourself. I think you'll be happy with what you find.
I've tried Final Draft and I felt it is a crap. Then, I tried Celtx and I fell in love. It's free, one can write script, add comments, use index cards, develop characters, block, storyboarding, and many other things. Very nice piece of software.
Thanks Jim, that's great info about Movie Magic Screenwriter. Maybe if we're lucky its creators will take note that creative people actually care what things look like. That screenshot is how they are representing themselves, how they are selling their product. I took one look at it and ran for the hills.
There's another interesting package out there called Movie Outline that has some very clever ways of visualizing and organizing your screenplay. But the Mac version is a shoddy port of the Windows original, and I just can't get past how fugly it is.
Am I being superficial? Or do I just care a lot about the user experience of an app that I'm going to stare at for hours on end while trying to do my best creative work?
I completely do the same thing Stu, if a product looks outdated or clunky I assume that it is and take off for prettier pastures. Not that things that are ugly don't work, they just tire my eyes, distract me and end up hindering my work.
I've yet to find an outline tool inside a script processor that can run with StoryView. Write Brothers has decided to rebrand it as "Outline 4D"... I guess that seven years of version 2.0 made it look stale and putting it in a shiny new package was easier than coding a version 3.0. I snark but it is kind of hard to see any other motivation.
I put down my thoughts in a mini-review of it back in 2005 that hasn't changed - and won't until they actually change the program and not just the name (okay, they did change it enough to import Movie Magic version 6... that is it).
Reveiw of StoryView 2.0
As an outliner, it is on a different level than anything else that I've tried. It may well be overkill for most people but if your outlining needs aren't being met by anything else- then you might want to spend a couple days with manual learning to make StoryView ne Outliner 4D do what you want to do.
As for ugly to look at? A pretty flower in a vase beside your computer or a nice painting behind it might suffice to distract from that ancient GUI and give you a more aesthetic overall ocular experience.
Stu, I totally agree with you 100% about UX and its contribution to the end product of creative endeavors. I have no idea why they're using those sets of screenshots to represent themselves.
This is the closest thing to what I look at everyday: Screenwriter screenshot. That thing on the left is what they call the NaviDoc and is the basically the same thing you're looking for as far as hierarchal structure goes. You can see I have it broken down by Acts, then Sequences, then Scenes -- but you can add as many levels as you want. You can collapse or expand depending on what you want to focus on.
The other cool thing is that they commissioned someone to come up with a new and improved version of Courier that prints beautifully (strong, not wispy like some versions of Courier) and looks great on-screen. The program is really a joy to use -- letting you basically just concentrate on the story.
Btw, you were nice enough to let me have a "death" scene in one of your "Killer" films back during the CalArts days, so I'm stoked that I can give back and hopefully turn you on to something that may help you out creatively. Hope it helps!
Of course, I just realized I'm blocking any hot-linking to images. The direct link is here:
http://storyfanatic.com/shared/aliens-example-scw.jpg
Sorry for the confusion.
Wow, you skipped over Movie Magic's because of a screenshot? That's pretty short-sighted, especially because it's flexible. Most of the time it looks(and acts) just like FInal Draft, except you can tag all your production items(FX, characters, etc) and import it into Moviemagic Scheduling/Budgeting pretty seamlessly.
Saves LOTS of time when moving into production.
Have you seen Script Pro for the iPad yet? Any reviews on it??
Logline is in Beta. I've tried it. It's a web-based screenwriting app and a fresh take on the screenwriting process.
It's basically an environment in which you can "see" and manipulate the story structure yet also fill in the formatted details of your script. I can't go back to Final Draft after using it.
After some playing around, I gotta put in another vote for Movie Magic Screenwriter. It does exactly what Stu's talking about. Plus everything Final Draft does. And if you don't like the look of it, it's fully customizable.
Celtx, Celtx, Celtx!
Celtx is free and as good as the grossly overpriced Final Draft (I've used both). Don't bother wasting money on any other program.
I guess I'm the odd man out here, since I like to write in Word.
It does formatting and keyboard shortcuts and I can work much faster in Word than Final Draft.
I've found that using cards inside a computer program doesn't work as well for me as actual physical cards that you can copy paste.
Like the late Blake Snyder used to point out, part of the attraction of working with cards on 'the board' is that you get to step away from your screen for awhile and that helps you get in another mood.
But I agree that Scrivener sounds very nice. Too bad it's mac only. I've got too much Windows only stuff on my computer that I enjoy using (like Fusion) to switch now.
I'm with Sander de Regt. Word (o, woe) works. One wall of office covered with cork. Stack of cards from Staples. Bangity bang bang … scripts get written. Three sold so far (none produced).
It helps to have a dog in the room.
I anyone planning screenwriting software for the iPad?
Even a stripped down version of something that can read and spit out a Final Draft compatible document would be great...
Initially, as long as your script is properly formatted and you can output it as a pdf file, you should be fine. If a script actually gets into production then you will want to have Final Draft or Movie Magic Screenwriter, for budget/scheduling purposes. As for organizing a script, I outline on legal pads. I understand that Woody Allen just writes stuff down on whatever scrap of paper happens to be in reach. Ultimately, what matters is that you have something important to say, that you create wonderful characters, and that you tell your story in an interesting and unexpected way. I wish more folks would focus on those things. No software or computer, no matter how fancy, can turn you into a good writer.
This is turning into the old Autodesk Maya looks like crap but works kind of discussion. I stopped using maya 2 years ago although it worked just because of how it looked.
Celtx looks a bit crappy to me and MM Screenwriter is like a joke.
What do i use now? Modo and Scrivener.
And Yes, nuke 4 looked like crap too and they did many movies with it but until nuke 5 i would have never even dared to use it.
Looks matter. I wonder how many of those who say looks dont matter are MAC users?
Sent from my Mac.
Isaac Botkin provides a handy word document as a template for creating basic beat sheets.
Script is just one small part of the pre-production software pipeline. How well do these programs export to storyboarding and scheduling software?
Movie Magic exports nicely to their scheduling software and I believe Gorilla's scheduling software works with FInal Draft. Having said that, I still use CeltX because while the other programs are better, they aren't $100 to $200 dollars worth of "better".
Amazing. You skipped screenwriter for a screenshot? I liked your initial description of FD for mac because I had all those problems in V6. I moved over to MMSW and never looked back. As the gentleman before me posted, it has all the bells and whistles you are complaining FD doesn't have as well as being an easy - native- upload for the industry standard production software. Sorry to say you missed the boat on this one. Do yourself a favor and go download the demo.
If the lovely folks at Movie Magic don't think people shop for screenwriting apps based on screenshots, then why do they put them up?
I don't apologize for caring about how things look. Write Brothers need to know that those crappy screenshots scare people away. But it's not just that — MMSW is an object lesson in bad UI design. It reminds me of the Google approach — include every feature and refine none, rather than, say, the Apple approach (which frustrates many, but I prefer), which is to include only those features that you can refine to perfection.
But I'm not stubborn — I will take another look. In fact, I've been poring over their site today. Interestingly enough, I can't find a single Mac screenshot, or single bit of anti-aliased text. Impressive.