I know this is a hot topic and discussed before, but it seems as it is only covers as a personal issue for what people like to use. So my question is, it seems all submission are sent in PDF form does it have to be "so called industry standard" Final Draft as long as it is in the industry stringent standard format. I have heard from some and experienced it self when you creating PDF and save it sometimes the page layout has a very few problems. But would be major to the industry. Buy the way, I love all you writers, we are a different breed and so creative, it's almost a sickness. Get up get down with the sickness. Thanks.
Screenwriting : cetix vs Final Draft by Zergog Sebastian Tovar
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Thanks Kathy. I would like to buy Final Draft but in the trial period of it I couldn't transfer my other scripts properly on to it, and another question is when I turn it into PDF will there be a bunch of unessecary continueds and junk. on Celtix i finemy found the selection where I could avoid this. does Final draft do this. any problems with F.D. that you can tell me about and I will buy it today. but realy how to transfer old sscriptsd onto F.D. thanks again. or anyone who knows these answers thanks.
After reading a certain amount of scripts in script swaps I can tell when someone didn't use Final Draft. There's little things that are off. And if I can tell, a producer or director who's looked at a million scripts will know in the blink of an eye. That's a big gamble in my opinion that they aren't going to cast your script off within seconds because you didn't use the right program. It doesn't matter how well written the story is, if someone sees it's not professionally done they may not even read a word of it.
I've used Celtx from beta when I still had my Windows XP laptop,had my work read and never once did I get chewed out for not having 'proper software'. The BBC, Massify, Circalit and now the venerated Blacklist have all read my stuff because the story was worthy of attention or I bought the review: The second thing's important here because you've paid to have the story, not the justification of text, reviewed.
Thanks all. I went ahead and bought FD and now having a bitchen time downloading it. wish I would have done it while my trial period didn't expire.
Do you need some help? We can get you into a support chat: http://www.finaldraft.com/support/chat-support if you weren't able to register yet someone in sales can give you hand: http://www.finaldraft.com/contact#salesChat
Hm. No mention of the other "industry standard", Movie Magic Screenwriter, used by numerous pros. If Melissa Field's comment is true (and I overwhelmingly believe it to be so), that producers can tell if a script was written in something other than Final Draft, does that also go for Movie Magic? Has it now been degraded to the level of the programs for the ragtag masses?
In celts when I convert to a PDF file my script is so much longer. Is final draft the same way?
Hmmmm, in my celts my script is 112 pages but when I put it in the PDF file from this software it ended up 122 pages????? Bizarre???
I have both on my laptop. Final Draft has a definite advantage. FD spellchecker is more robust, the integration of features is simpler, you don't need to have an online connection to convert to PDF. Celtix is free. I use it for shorts in my 48 hour film group. The majority of people aren't going to buy industry standard software. For the primary reason they aren't seriously committed to screenwriting. Celtix gets the job done. Plus I don't mind sharing a Celtix file if I were to collaborate on a script. When it comes to contest submissions and professional queries Final Draft. I had Movie Magic 2000. It wasn't very intuitive. It probably was decent but I never learned to use it.
I had have both on my laptops but I find celtx the easiest one. Moreover, if someone wants extra features on celtx, the purchase option is always there. So now I have only celtx on my laptop. cheers!!!
Scrivener, Slugline(if you're on a mac), Fade In, and Adobe Story (free or paid) are all vastly superior writing programs compared to Final Draft, Don't waste your money on out of date legacy software. All of these programs create the exact same margins and formatting tools and will produce PDF's that would look identical when read. I'm using Adobe Story currently because it came with my CC subscription and can be shared with a group quite easily though I liked Scrivener's project management style approach as well, don't believe anyone who tells you you need a specific writing program to be taken seriously, it's simply not reflective of the industry today
I moved to FD and never looked back, it's expensive but I find it rock solid. I had cetix crash on me a couple of times (sure it's nothing to do with the software, more my ancient mac lol!).
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One last comment. All the major screenwriting competitions accept pretty much only two electronic formats. The first being .PDF the second .FDX . If any screenwriting software gets the job done for you then the pros and cons doesn't matter. The bottom line is a industry standard professional screenplay. Not the software that produced it.
Thanks to all who commented and gave advice on this subject. I think it was Kathy who wrote the deciphering note that made my choice so thanks Kathy. she said on the defense of Final Draft "I guess this guy didn't get the memo" meaning on submissions without using F.D. they can tell the program used. so I figured if i want to take my writing seriously I had better take my software seriously, since we spend so much time writing and the industry is so difficult to break into why give them another reason to decline our work. Drum Roll Please.... I bought Final Draft 9 and I love the hell out of it, it is so great. found many defects that Celtix let me go wrong on. very easy on the eye and easy to use, great spell checker and so much more. will never use anything else ever. why did it take me so long. best to you all.
that's how we all feel when we bought final draft. can you imagine what screenwriters had to go through using just a typewriter? i shudder to think.
you outline in word. what i do is paste the outline into final draft in action form. then i go over each scene and type in scene headings. works a treat. then add in dialogue and rework the action.