John August

Software

One-step deals, and how to read a script

Episode - 66

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Film Industry, Scriptnotes, Software, Transcribed, WGA

Craig and John take a break from writing scripts to talk about how screenwriters should read scripts. Paper or iPad? Single or double-sided? And how do you keep track of your notes for future conversations?

Then it’s a session of roleplaying and maximum umbrage as we look at the logic and fallacies behind one-step deals for screenwriters.

Cleansing our palette, we look at Skyfall. Spoilers, folks. Spoilers!

Craig closes the podcast with a remembrance of his friend, screenwriter Don Rhymer, who died last week after a long and wittily-observed battle with cancer.

LINKS:

* [Fade In](http://www.fadeinpro.com/) screenwriting software
* [Fountain](http://fountain.io/), a plain text markup language for screenwriting
* Brett Terpstra’s [Systematic podcast, Episode 20](http://5by5.tv/systematic/20) with David Wain
* adult swim’s [Childrens Hospital](http://video.adultswim.com/childrens-hospital/)
* [FDX Reader](http://quoteunquoteapps.com/fdxreader) for iOS
* [Final Draft Reader](http://www.finaldraft.com/products/mobile/reader/) for iOS
* [GoodReader](http://www.goodiware.com/goodreader.html) for iOS
* [PDF Expert](http://readdle.com/products/pdfexpert_ipad/) for iOS
* [Myers-Briggs Type Indicator](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator) on Wikipedia
* The Myers & Briggs Foundation’s page on [where to take the MBTI](http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/take-the-mbti-instrument/)
* The WGA [Showrunner Training Program](http://www.wga.org/content/default.aspx?id=1190)
* LA Times on [Don Rhymer’s passing](http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/30/local/la-me-passings-20121130#mod-a-body-after-first-para)
* Don’s cancer blog, [Let’s Radiate Don](http://radiatedon.com/)
* Todd Downing’s [breakdown](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25S-hXFqLB4) of the Skyfall theme song
* INTRO: [Strawberry Shortcake Intro (Italian)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_QEIF28nVI)
* OUTRO: For Your Eyes Only/Skyfall, arranged and performed by John August

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_66.m4a).

**UPDATE** 12-7-12: The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2012/scriptnotes-ep-66-one-step-deals-and-how-to-read-a-script-transcript).

Bronson Watermarker 1.5 adds image support and new styles

Apps, Bronson, Software

bronson iconWe launched [Bronson Watermarker](http://quoteunquoteapps.com/bronson) in January with a straightforward message: Bronson makes it easy to create personalized PDFs.

We’ve sold well, in no small part because the Mac App Store featured us on the front page for much of that time. (Thanks, Apple!)

Potential buyers often email us. By far the most common question we get is, “Can your app watermark photos?”

The answer: no.

But shouldn’t the answer be yes? Now it is.

Bronson Watermarker 1.5 — new in the Mac App Store today — adds support for photos and images, including JPEGs, PNGs, GIFs, BMPs and TIFFs. Not only can you watermark these files, you can resize them at the same time.

bronson photo

Whether you’re sending out one file or 100, each will be labelled with the recipient’s name.

We’ve also added two new watermark styles: Lower Right and Header. Lower Right is especially handy for blog images, while Header works well for individualizing handouts when you don’t necessarily need the protection of a full-on watermark.

PDFs and images come in all different shapes, so we re-did our math to make diagonal watermarks feel right no matter what the aspect ratio.

While we were at it, we freshened up the UI. (Try us in full-screen mode on Lion.)

Bronson Watermarker 1.5 is a free update, [available now](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bronson-watermarker/id481867513?mt=12) through the Mac App Store.

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.

FDX Reader updated, on sale

News, Software

fdx reader icon[FDX Reader](http://quoteunquoteapps.com/fdxreader), our app for reading Final Draft scripts on the iPad and iPhone, has been updated to v1.1.4. It’s in the [App Store now](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fdx-reader/id437362569?mt=8&ls=1).

This version offers a significant performance bump on the iPhone (especially the iPhone 4S), fixes a place-saving bug on the iPad, and includes a new Settings bundle to help with troubleshooting.

To celebrate six months of release, we’ve **dropped the price to $1.99 through Monday, December 12th.** (After that, it goes back to $4.99.)

While we’ll continue to release minor bug fixes, I suspect this will be the last major release of FDX Reader. Here’s why:

* Final Draft itself is [working on an iPad app](http://www.finaldraft.com/products/ipad/) (a reader, not an editor). They’re promising support for revisions, locked pages, and a lot of features that are honestly a bear for us to implement even with Final Draft’s relatively open file format. I suspect their app will be priced higher, as it should be.

* FDX Reader is as good as it needs to be. We created the app to meet a real need — there wasn’t a decent way to read a script sitting in Dropbox — and now that need is filled. Every app can be better, but endless tinkering carries an opportunity cost: all the new things you’re not working on. Which is important, because…

* We’re working on new stuff. We have two Mac apps we’ll be releasing early in the new year, and a new iOS app after that.

If you haven’t tried FDX Reader yet, this is the cheapest you’re going to see it. We’ll never drop the price to free, or 99 cents. (In fact, once Final Draft’s official app comes out, I suspect we’ll price ours just a notch below theirs.)

If you’re already an FDX Reader user, check your App Store updates. The new-and-not-quite-last version is waiting for you.