Re: Screenplay formatter?

--- In [email protected], dmccunney <dennis.mccunney@...> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Dec 26, 2008 at 2:41 AM, daleblizz <daleblizz@...> wrote:
> > --- In [email protected], dmccunney <dennis.mccunney@> wrote:
> >
> >> How big is the average screenplay?
> >
> > Doing a quick check on 110 page screenplays in .txt -- they're about
> > 175k.  But you wouldn't necessarily need the whole thing in your Palm
> > or in one file.  32k is enough for around twenty pages, which is more
> > than enough for one writing session.
> 
> Okay, I thought that might be the case, though you would still face
> the issues o merging that session with the full screenplay on the
> desktop/laptop.

Fortunately that part is easy with Movie Magic Screenwriter.  As long
as it recognizes the formatting you can paste additional pages at the
end (or anywhere in the screenplay) and it's happy.  
 
> >> I use and love WordSmith, and I'm tickled that screenwriters use it,
> >> but I'm not sure I'd want to try crafting a screenplay on a Palm OS
> >> PDA.
> >
> > I got one screenwriter hooked on it.  He works several jobs, set
> > designer, cameraman and screenplay writer.  Sometimes he has idle time
> > and wanted to know if there was something smaller than a laptop that
> > he could write on when he had a few minutes.  I had an extra Palm III
> > a Palm keyboard and Office Depot sold out some packs of Handmark
> > Wordsmith cheap.  He keeps it in coat pocket and writes whenever he
> > has time.
> 
> I got Wordsmith way back for my original Handspring Visor Deluxe, and
> have continued to use it.  It hasn't been updated in years, but it's
> still the best program I've on Palm OS for *creating* text that isn't
> a Memopad document.  Extant "office" solutions like Documents to Go
> implicitly assume you are creating the file on a desktop/laptop, and
> will view and edit on the handheld.  With my PDA and a Palm folding
> keyboard, I can often live without a laptop.  To make life more
> convenient, I use a trick.  I put a copy of the DOS command line
> converter for Wordsmith documents on the SD card in the WordSmith
> directory.  When I have a file I'll want to work on on the PDA, I Save
> As in RTF format to the card with a USB card reader, then run the
> converter from the card to convert the file to the format WS uses.  I
> reverse the process going the other way, so I don't need to have
> WordSmith installed on the PC I'm using.

Thanks, I'll try that.  And let my brother know.  He does most of his
writing on his "IBM" Workpad C500 (black Palm M500 with a different logo).
 
> > He's written over ten screenplays on it and he's got other
> > screenwriters in LA doing the same thing.
> 
> Cool.  I know a few novelists who use WordSmith for the same reasons.
> 
> > There's a company "ScriptRight" http://www.scriptright.com/ that sells
> > a formatter for Pocket PCs and claims that they'll have a version for
> > Palm soon.  (The problem is they've been saying that for around three
> > years now.)
> 
> Unless they get inspired by Palm's new "Nova" OS, supposedly debuting
> at CES, I wouldn't hold my breath.  Too many folks see the market
> going elsewhere.  The new owner of Launcher X (the best alternative
> launcher I have seen for Palm OS product) just popped up on a Launcher
> X support board talking about a windows Mobile version and looking for
> beta testers.  He just doesn't see the revenue in developing for Palm
> OS these days.
> 
> > So there is a market -- probably not very big one, but screenplay
> > formatters aren't a huge market even for desktops and laptops.
> 
> And are consequently fairly expensive.

Unless you know where to look. One of the two biggest formatters
(Movie Magic Screenwriter) sells for around $200, which IS expensive
for a glorified word processor.  But they also sell a cut-down version
that does the exact same job of formatting (with a different file
extension name) and doesn't have the production features (which a
screenplay writer working on a spec script doesn't need anyway).

The cut down version sells for $35 to $40 and changing the extension
at the end of file makes them completely compatible with the expensive
version.

But you're right -- low sales volume equals higher cost, if it's being
done for a profit.  There's no way to get around that.

> >> What sort of problems are encountered dumping a WordSmith file into a
> >> screenplay formatter?
> >
> > If you're careful you can avoid most problems.  For example if you
> > capitalize in the all right places the the screenplay formatter will
> > recognize most of what's supposed to be a scene heading or a character
> > name or an action paragraph.
> >
> > The problem is sometimes you get in a hurry to get something down and
> > you don't get all the picky stuff right.  Then you need to go back and
> > correct it, before you paste it into the screenplay formatter or
> > correct it after the formatter gets it.
> 
> I'd look at "post-processing" the the text to correct such things
> before dumping it to the formatter.  Something like a Perl script
> might do an effective job of fixing errors before formatting.

I'll take a look into that too.  Thanks.
 
---
Dale



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