WEHT Sophocles?
A reader from Belgium writes:
I am a dedicated user of Sophocles. Indeed, my new film, its breakdown, call sheets, budget and whatnot have been generated with that software, which I find the best, most complete, film-minded and reliable that I have ever used (and I used or tried about everything that is out there since I started working with computers, which is way back in 1981). The only drawback for a Belgian writing in Dutch or French is that it has no foreign language spelling checkers, but that is a minor hindrance compared to its many well thought out features.
However, some weeks ago, after an annoying crash, I needed to do a major overhaul of my PC on which the software is installed and suddenly the Sophocles version that I use (which is the most recent Beta version) turned out to be “non activated” – meaning that one can do everything except print whatever one needs. Activating the software presents no problem usually: you contact the maker, and a special code is mailed to you instantly, which you have then to type into a “script” page.
Then disaster struck: every trace of the Sophocles home page (www.sophocles.net) had disappeared from the surface of the Internet. And if a few days ago there were still some urls in that direction mentioned on search engines like Google (even if they delivered only web page not found error messages), now even those remnants have vanished. In semi-desperation (semi, because my producer-partner’s copy is still in perfect running order on his pc, so it’s not a matter of a Beta version being discontinued), I tried first to mail to the software support address where the messages came back as undeliverable. Then I tried to contact the maker himself, Tim Seehan, whose mail address I happen to have. There the messages were not returned, but not answered either. However, judging there are no posts as yet about this almost science-fiction like disappearance, and the recent remnants on the Net, this vanishing act must be quite recent.
Now my question: do you or one of your readers perhaps have any idea of what is going on? I would be most grateful to know this, because the software is truly a pleasure to use – on all levels of filmmaking.
– Harry Kümel
I poked around and found a few discussions, but no definitive answers. Anyone out there know the scoop?
Sophocles is/was a screenwriting program for the PC that had additional features some users loved. (I tried it out using BootCamp for the Mac, but never found a need for it.) There are alternatives, but it’s always distressing when a program you rely on goes AWOL.
It’s also a good argument for open file formats.
Articles
January 8th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Wow… there’s a lot of speculation out there. Don Bledsoe at scriptnurse.com posted this link to a very interesting discussion forum. Nobody seems to know what’s going on:
http://cdeemer2007.blogspot.com/2008/04/sophocles-again.html
Wikipedia (obviously not where you want to go for definitive answers) says they closed down their customer support early in ‘08?
January 8th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Wherefore art thou, Sophocles?
Oh, wait, never mind.
January 8th, 2009 at 10:48 am
Here’s the latest info that is known
http://messageboard.donedealpro.com/boards/showthread.php?t=42407
I’ve been a happy Sophocles users for years, but this year my Christmas present was the competitive upgrade to another program.
My best wishes go out to Tim and I’m very sad to see such a promising program disappear.
January 8th, 2009 at 10:53 am
According to the all knowing wikipedia:
“There has been speculation that on March 21, 2008, Sophocles was purchased by a third party.[2] By late April 2008, its website was shutdown, and Tim Sheehan, the software’s creator, could not be reached for comment.”
January 8th, 2009 at 11:05 am
Jefe, I had the exact same thought (re: wherefore)!
January 8th, 2009 at 11:12 am
John – slightly tangential, but it makes me warm and fuzzy inside when people outside the software industry say stuff like “open formats”. Best of luck to the questioner – it looks like Celtx might be able to snag some users if it offered Sophocles import.
January 8th, 2009 at 11:38 am
I’m one of those computer nerds who checks things into version control software every day. And every day I export a text copy before I do it. There will be some work to get things up to speed on new software, but with text you don’t need to worry about tracking down an old copy of Sophocles or Scriptor (or even Final Draft 7 in the year 2020.) Text format will be around forever. And I suppose I wouldn’t be too worried if I had .pdf copies instead of text. But I only check pdf’s in for major versions, not daily.
Even open source celtx uses a binary format. I thought for sure it would use some XML, but it’s also a crazy indecipherable binary format. Maybe if I had the source code I could reverse engineer it. But that does no good if the site disappears one day and I didn’t have the source in advance.
So save your junk as a text file or pdf. They’re as close to open formats as you can get.
January 8th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
these people seem to know a little bit about the company, but still not definite answer. http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/mboard/viewtopic.php?p=6864&sid=2a249cf96f745fb520697edc98ede6f1
i googled sophocles crack. it’s not really legal, but it will get done what you need to do if you have version 1.1. i guess you use your own moral code.
http://www.crack.ms/cracks/s_7.shtml
January 8th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
@Grant: Actually a celtx file is just a zip file that contains the data in rdf and html format. So even if celtx goes the way of Sophocles (which is highly unlikely since celtx is open source), you can salvage your scripts.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Completely off topic (apologies) but I’m hoping Harry’s reading the comments. Happy memories about the days when we weeded through the mess that was the initial release of Win95. Would love to get back in touch. Karel
January 8th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Any ScriptWare users out there? The last time I called their customer service # it was some dude’s cell phone. I used to have ScriptWare on a PC (which landed in the dumpster when I switched to Mac) and still have some old scripts in that format that I would love to convert over to Final Draft for revisions, etc.
January 8th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Hey, nice! I’m a big fan of Harry Kumel!
I hope you’ll get things working!
Greetings from Belgium!
January 8th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Along the lines of the ‘crack’
for those of ambiguous morality, you can get the entire program here.
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4293989/Sophocles.2003.Scriptwriter.DateCode.2005.04.20-EMiNENCE
January 9th, 2009 at 10:14 am
Two questions… What is “WEHT”? And John, what program do you use to write your scripts then?
January 9th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
@kristan. WEHT means “what ever happen to” i believe what happened was that he was using it and it was registered and fulling working. Then his computer crashed. When it was restored he was not able to use the full program.
January 9th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
@Kristan: Yes, WEHT = What Ever Happened To
Such as, WEHT Loni Anderson?
I’m using Screenwriter, and still Final Draft for stuff that was already written in that.
January 9th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
@edraid–I am not morally ambiguous, well not much, but I much appreciated the link. Sophocles was my first screenwriting program-I bought it-and was forced to abandon it when a producer bought me Final Draft to use on a script he optioned. I’ve since switched computers and was frustrated when I tried to move it over and couldn’t get an activation key. Now I’ve got it and I remember why I liked it: Navigator on the side which actually takes you to the scene when you click on it and has space for synopsis and notes right in the panel. Built in Thesaurus. Quick pop up character report which includes all characters and number of scenes, lines and words they each have. Quick reports on character relations in chart and strength of relationship form–good for weak outliners like myself. Plus good import from htm formatted scripts. I exported the script I’m in the middle of on Final Draft as an htm and it imported flawlessly into Sophocles–importing anything into Final Draft usually ends in a big mess for me. Plus when you export as PDF, allows you to choose to add a sidebar outline. I believe I’m going to finish this one on Sophocles.
January 9th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
Sophocles was a pretty cool program — when I was of questionable morality, aka broke and unable to afford screenwriting software and too lazy to format a Word doc — I started using Sophocles, due to the fact it was fairly easy for a person that knew nothing about cracking software … to crack that software, so it’s fairly easy to get around the protection if you’re motivated for anyone that has been locked out — Eventually, I did pay for the software, which was a still a steal at the price, it was less than 100 bucks at the time… way cheaper than the Final Draft and the other one I can’t remember at the moment — Script-somethin…
I’m a Mac user, I’ve always been a Mac user — I used Sophocles with Virtual PC for years and came to do something I never thought I would do — love something soooo PC–
I stopped writing for a few years and kind of moved on from screenwriting software, but noticed a few weeks ago when I went looking again that Sophocles.net had disappeared — I figured that people of ‘questionable morality’ had finally driven the developer out of business, I felt bad for the two years I used it without paying my fair share.
Here’s to hoping the guy sold his software for a bundle and is has found a place under a little umbrella, on some lone beach.
January 10th, 2009 at 2:40 am
OMG, John! When did you switch to Screenwriter?! Could you write about your experiences while switching? I could have sworn you said somewhere on this blog you tried it, but ultimately chose Draft! BTW, what kind of outlining software do you use?
January 10th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Thanks amelia and John!
January 21st, 2009 at 7:47 am
Hello, I thought you might be interested in this article in Jnaury 21’s Chronicle of Higher Education, “Hello Worlds: Why humanities students should learn to program,” by MATTHEW KIRSCHENBAUM at http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i20/20b01001.htm?utmsource=at&utmmedium=en. {I can’t help myself, as a librarian and a reader of your blog, I have to recommend writings that I think you’d find interesting. ;-)
January 21st, 2009 at 8:05 am
P.S. I must remember to proof before I send. Sorry for the typos–it should read:
Hello, I thought you might be interested in this article in January 21’s Chronicle of Higher Education, “Hello Worlds: Why humanities students should learn to program,” by MATTHEW KIRSCHENBAUM at http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i20/20b01001.htm?utmsource=at&utmmedium=en. {I can’t help myself: as a librarian and a reader of your blog, I have to recommend writings that I think you’d find interesting. ;-)
February 9th, 2009 at 6:55 am
I question the current validity of “ambiguous morality” under these circumstances. I am personally opposed to pirated software. While I do consider the price of some programs ridiculously out of reach, it doesn’t mitigate the software company’s right to ask such exorbitant licensing fees or my moral responsibility to pay it if I want that software. That’s what lead me to Sophocles in the first place. It was affordable. So, like many, I paid for a legal license to Sophocles in good faith and came to love the interface. It was so smooth and well thought out with clever extra features. I even contributed my 2 sense as part of the beta testing. So for Tim to walk away and leave us, who were honest up front and paid, completely without the ability to renew/restore the software on other machines, I find that morally reprehensible. I was able to download and install the free trial to Final Draft at the time and frankly, it didn’t hold a candle to Sophocles. Since learning of Sophocles’ demise, I’ve tried Celtx but it’s so clunky in comparison. Now my notebook HD is in its final days of existence and I’m freaking out trying to decide how to save my work. This is the price of honesty?