John August

Formatting

Survey up for screenwriting software

Formatting, News

The ongoing conversation about screenwriting software, prompted by the release of Final Draft 7.0, has gotten a lot of readers wondering why a better program isn’t out there. After all, compared with the complexity of editing video or managing a website, simply formatting a script should be cake. It’s just words, after all. And there’s no shortage of good ideas for what the ideal screenwriting software should do.

What’s missing from the discussion is any sense of the real numbers. How many writers use which programs and how satisfied are they? What features matter, and which could you live without? And most importantly, is there really a market for an innovative competitor? The only way to find out is to ask, which is why I set up a brand-new survey. (**Update: Survey was completed in 2004, and no longer online.)

It’s short — it should take five minutes, tops. Once we hit a critical mass of responses, I’ll post the results here for everyone to mull over. In the mean time, do your part.

Met the guy who runs Final Draft

Formatting, Geek Alert

Last night, I co-hosted a benefit for [The Story Project](http://www.storyproject.com/), a very worthwhile organization that promotes teen literary in Los Angeles. One of the guests was introduced to me as, “This is the guy who runs [Final Draft](http://www.finaldraft.com/).”

I resisted the urge to tell him how crappy his latest release was. I’m too polite sometimes.

New Final Draft version 7.0 is…marginally better

Formatting, Geek Alert

finaldraftjpg
My screenwriting software of choice has long been [Final Draft](http://www.finaldraft.com), which is 90% great, 10% maddening and significantly better than any of the other programs I’ve tried — and believe me, I’ve tried a bunch. This past month, Final Draft came out with version 7.0, which was the first major update in a while.

On the plus side, the new version is stable. It hasn’t quit on me, and it hasn’t had the same [refusing-to-launch problem](http://johnaugust.com/2004/when-final-draft-wont-open-under-os-x) the last version had. It doesn’t choke on the previous version’s files, which is a problem I’ve encountered every previous integer-level upgrade.

One nice new feature is the ability to split a document window, so you can see two parts of the script at the same time. You can show one of the panels in scene-navigator view, or as index cards — which can now have two sides. On a big screen, keeping the left panel open to the scene navigator lets me click through to specific sections quickly.

Splitting the screen is helpful, but hardly revolutionary. Many Mac programs — including Microsoft Word — have had split windows for over a decade. Final Draft runs into familiar problems with this setup. If you make a selection in one panel that extends into the region shown in the other panel, the program freaks out. Caveat selector.

I never use Final Draft’s index cards. While in theory it would be great to reorganize your script just by moving some cards around, real life screenplays never work that way. Scenes aren’t Legos, and they can’t be flopped around willy-nilly. In my opinion, better choices for outlining are [Omni Outliner](http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnioutliner/) and [Pyramid](http://www.mindcad.com/). Each of these has free demo versions.

Final Draft 7 is apparently better at exporting .pdf files. That may be new for Windows, but if you’re using Mac OS X, I’d highly recommend using “Print…” and “Save to .pdf” instead. That way, you have all the options of the print dialog box, and you’re guaranteed to get just what the printer would.

There are other features I wish Final Draft had, such as XML export for the web, a clipping bin, and less-aggressive Smart Lists. But on the whole, the program works well for what I make my living doing. And for screenwriters lucky enough to have an honest-to-goodness movie on their hands, the production features alone are worth the price. Final Draft does a very solid job locking pages and tracking revisions, which makes sending out colored pages considerably easier than it has any right to be.

Should you buy Final Draft? Probably. Should you upgrade? That depends. If you’re happy with version 6, there’s really no pressing need. Version 7 isn’t bad, but it isn’t a huge improvement.

Formatting a montage sequence

Formatting, QandA

I was just wondering what is the actual format to cite a montage? Is it similar to:

EXT. MONTAGE – DAY

There are so many images coming from so many different places, how does one cite such a thing as a montage? Thanks for your time and help.

–Mike
North Carolina, USA

A montage is a collection of very short scenes, sometimes only a single shot each, designed to show a series of actions over time. Depending on the needs of the sequence, there are a few different options for how to write a montage in screenplay form.

The easiest example is when all the action is taking place in one location. For instance, say you have a character trying on clothes — the infamous Changing Room Montage. It might read something like this:

INT. CHANGING ROOM – DAY

Holly enters with a massive armload of clothes. Kyle’s eyes bulge. Holly pulls the curtain shut.

MONTAGE

Holly emerges, dressed in different outfits, each more elaborate than the last. Kyle watches in horror and dismay, checking his watch as the madness continues.

And when it’s time to finish, a single line of “END MONTAGE” lets the reader know you’re going back to normal time.

When a montage moves between multiple locations, the situation gets a little more difficult. Often the best choice is to not even say “MONTAGE” and just let it be a series of short scenes — just a slugline and a sentence or two of description. The reader will correctly intuit that there’s a montage occurring.

If all the locations in the sequence fall within one larger location, the most economical choice may be to just change the slugline:

INT. MARY’S HOUSE – VARIOUS ROOMS

MONTAGE as Mary chases after the dog, trying to put in the eyedrops. Every time she has him cornered, he manages to escape, ducking under the coffee table or vaulting over the bed.

My advice is to pick the simplest version that gets the point across. You may find that you’re using two or three different formats in a single script, depending on the needs of each sequence.