An excellent tool for script writers I use

[SSProductions]

Hey guys, I just wanted to recommend a tool that I use that those who take their time with their films will find incredibly useful.

I'm not sure if I've posted it before, but it's a program called Celtx. It's a program that allows you to write scripts using Hollywood layouts very easily: You just choose the type of text at the top (i.e action, shot, dialogue, etc) and it automatically formats it for you.

Not only this, but if you mess up the formatting with one or two button presses you can change the format from for example a screnplay to stageplay.

But it gets even better: Not only can you do this, but you can add in storyboards, scene details, actors, props, and much more as an "Item" on a menu on the left hand side, and it can be edited at any time.

And to top it all off...You can upload your scripts online to the Celtx community, and let people give feedback to your scripts.

Anyway enough of me blabbering on about it, you can check it out here (www.celtx.com), and if you want a bit of help with the features you can watch some detailed tutorials here (http://celtx.com/walkthru).

Even if you dn't heavily script write (like me), check this out, it's only a couple of MB after all. :)

[RJANACONDA]

yes Celtx is teh shizt i dont know what i was doing before. also a trick i learned with the master catalouge feature i can put in all the character data to include but not limited to name description and pictures i use some of the fields to put in the voice actor for that character or if the role is open and i put in the contact info for the VA as well as a status of lines such as complete not recived or if they owe me some redos. it comes in handy haveing all of that stuff in one window.

not to mentions you co do things like pull up all the dialouge for a specific character which comes in handy to let people know how many lines a person has.

there is parts where you can organizes what sets will be used for a scene the whole nine. the list goes on... did we mention it only costs free.99

[SSProductions]

Well it's great to see other members agree with me, and yes, the program is totally free. :)

There is an extra feature you have to pay for, and while I think it's very overpriced for casual users, however it could be very useful for professional script writers. It's a feature called Celtx Studios, and pretty much it makes it considerably easier to write a script if there are more than 2 people working on it.

It lets you create a sort of private online server that a set number of people can have accounts for (currently 44 I believe), and you can upload any scripts you want to the server and let other people read it, improve apon it, add scenes, etc. And you get plenty of space as well: Currently there's a 5GB server limit, but even that can be made bigger by contacting them.

The problem? There's a monthly price of something like $100, so you see my point of overpriced.

But anyway, if you're serious about writing scripts really consider using this, guys.

[BritCanuck]

...There's a monthly price of something like $100, so you see my point of overpriced...

On their payment page, it offers a number of subscription options, based on the maximum number of writers you allow to review and improve your script. You get to choose who can help you, and you can change your contributors from project to project.

5 Seats (you and four other people) - $5/month or $50/year (save $10)

15, 25, 35 and 45 seat options also available.

http://www.celtx.com/pricing.html

http://www.celtx.com/faq.html#studios

Hope that helps.

[Daninsky]

I've been using it once for a TMO Anime movie I was working on, I've been using mostly the Storyboard tool though, but unfortunately my work got erased in a Windows crash.
Always and regularly create backups children!

Haven't given it a closer look since then, I've downloaded a newer version but somehow I can't really get used to it.

[SSProductions]

Well still use it, it's worth it.

And Brit that seems like a much fairer price. :)

[TheFlyingDuDe]

I agree! I´m using celtx for about 2 years now, and I couldnt imagine anything better. =)

[Aemielius]

I guess its what you get used to working with.

I've worked with Celtx some, but Final Draft longer, so its my preferred program.
I used Movie Magick for a bit and liked the cache of character names, but other than that it was a bit bulky and awkward to work with.

Final Draft will do all the reformatting that Celtx does but not the storyboarding, which is just fine with me because I detest storyboarding.

[Killian]

Used Final Draft but found it incredibly prone to crashing (though it might just be me and my ancient PC). Of course, the biggest hit against FD is that it costs, whereas CeltX is free.

[Aemielius]

Agreed, the full version of FD costs, but I never said I use the full version :)
The watermark that the FD demo version prints is very light.
On my primary computer, which is currently in the shop and will be until I can pay for the parts, I had MS Office 2003 and I could cut and paste from FD to MS Word 2003 and not have to tweak anything, formatting stayed true and no watermark on the print.

I also tried Movie Magic for a bit, but the watermark on that free version looked like someone wrote over the pages with a black Sharpie.

However seeing as Killian uses Celtx, I may give a another go. He has yet to give me bad advice.