John August

Geek Alert

Highland and the Kindle are friends

Apps, Challenge, Geek Alert, Highland

Ben Godar uses Highland to read screenplays on his Kindle by [converting PDFs](http://www.bengodar.com/2012/07/john-augusts-highland-and-kindle-are.html):

> Once you drag the PDF into Highland, it will convert it into Fountain – recognizing all the screenplay elements. Export as a Fountain file, then save as plain text. From there, you can get the file onto your Kindle by e-mailing it to your Kindle address, upload using a program like Calibre, etc.

Fountain files are really just text files. You can change the .fountain extension to .txt and Kindle will happily read them.

> The file still won’t look *exactly* like a screenplay on your Kindle. Everything will be left justified. But the line breaks will stay the same, character names will be capitalized… all in all, it will look like a screenplay.

Ben’s solution works, but I’d love to see a little more screenplay formatting. If any clever readers feel like some geekery this holiday weekend, here’s my challenge to you:

**Build a converter that takes a Fountain file and formats it nicely for the Kindle.**

In addition to text files, Kindle understands RTF and HTML/CSS, so one of those might be a good option.

If you make something interesting, email or tweet me a link. I will be delighted to hype anything cool that comes of it.

Fountain, 10x faster

Geek Alert, Highland, Screenwriting Software

We’re keeping Nima Yousefi busy working on Highland, but he’s found time to push a major update to [Fountain](http://fountain.io/), the open-source format and code library that [makes the magic possible](http://nimayousefi.com/2012/06/fountain-update/):

> It came to our attention that on iOS devices the parser’s performance was less than stellar. In fact, it was pretty terrible.

> Long story short, now there’s FastFountainParser. It’s a traditional line-by-line parser and roughly ten times faster than the old one. So, that’s a win.

What this means for screenwriters: Fountain-based screenwriting apps for the Mac and iPad will be much, much faster.

Also included in the package: our libraries for HTML export and pagination.

> It splits large dialogue blocks up across pages, adding the appropriate MORE and CONT’D, and is smart enough not to split in the middle of a sentence.

Fountain is designed to be completely agnostic — you can write Fountain in almost any app that generates text. That said, specialized apps can do amazing things, and we want developers to have a consistent base to jump off from.

I’ve had the chance to try out some of the forthcoming apps. You’re going to love them.

Selling apps in bulk

Geek Alert, Software

A much-loved entertainment company wrote last week, asking for forty copies of [Bronson Watermarker](http://quoteunquoteapps.com/bronson), our PDF watermarking app for the Mac.

In the normal App Store (the one for iPhones and iPads), volume licensing is fairly straightforward. I assumed we could do the same thing for our Mac app.

[I was wrong.](http://www.cultofmac.com/148229/apples-mac-app-store-is-great-for-consumers-but-a-big-problem-for-business/)

Currently, there’s no way for us to do volume licensing through the Mac App Store. At first glance, that seems to be no big deal, since Mac apps (unlike iOS apps) don’t have to be installed through official channels.

We can just send them the app and save the 30% cut Apple would take.

Except:

* That means we’ll have to roll our own serial number system. (Or more likely, just forego it.)

* Without the Mac App Store’s update system, we’ll have to check for app updates another way. (Probably [Sparkle](http://sparkle.andymatuschak.org/).)

* Under the next version of OS X (Mountain Lion), some users will choose the setting that *only* allows apps sold through the Mac App Store.

* We may be left maintaining two (or more) versions of the app.

For this much-beloved entertainment company, we’ll go ahead and make a custom version of Bronson with an update system baked in. Hell, we’ll send it along with cupcakes, because these folks are great.

But we can’t do it for everyone. The costs and hassle are just too high. Apple’s volume licensing situation for third-party apps clearly needs to be fixed.

Hollywood by the numbers

Film Industry, Geek Alert

Give Horace Dediu a bunch of Hollywood data and he’ll make [some great charts](http://www.asymco.com/2012/02/07/hollywood-by-the-numbers/) that test your hunches.

For example, it’s very unlikely to have a $200 million blockbuster outside the summer or Christmas windows:

blockbuster seasons

(That outlier from 2004 is [The Passion of the Christ](http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=passionofthechrist.htm).)

Deidu asks a question I’d never considered: How feasible is it for an outside company to become a major distributor?

> The top five [studios] were earning 64% of revenues in 1975 and the top five were earning 60% in 2011. One of the top five from 1975 is no longer in the running this year (MGM) and one new major was added (Buena Vista, owned by Disney).

> There has been one other notable change: Columbia was acquired by Sony but stayed out of the top 5. Beside Disney there is one new significant entrant in Dreamworks gaining share in the last decade.

> But the prevailing impression from the data is that the incumbents remained as such during the last four decades. There are many small studios but they have not “disrupted” the market by shifting significant revenues out of the hands of the majors.

The same big studios have been dominating the business for *forty years.* That’s remarkable stability for an industry that feels so tumultuous.

Dediu’s [whole analysis](http://www.asymco.com/2012/02/07/hollywood-by-the-numbers/) is worth a look. Or a semester’s study.