Re: Screenplay formatter?

--- In [email protected], dmccunney <dennis.mccunney@...> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Dec 26, 2008 at 2:10 PM, daleblizz <daleblizz@...> wrote:
> > --- In [email protected], dmccunney <dennis.mccunney@>wrote:
> 
> >> 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.
> 
> Oh, good.
> 
> >> 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).
> 
> It makes life easier, and I can create files I'll work on in WS on any PC.
> 
> >> > 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.
> 
> Sounds like the cut-down version is strictly a formatter without the
> text creation/editing features.  That would be fine by me.  I come
> from the Unix world, where the paradigm is one tool for each job, and
> it's assumed the program you use to create your text and the one you
> use to format it will be different.
> 
> > 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.
> 
> Sure, and I don't have a problem with it.  Specialized tools are more
> expensive, and must be.  But if you're trying to make money
> screenwriting, you need one badly enough to justify the cost.  And
> it's a deductible business expense, so...
> 
> >> > 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.
> 
> Perl originated on Unix, and it's designed to manipulate text files in
> arbitrary ways.  It has extensive features for matching patterns and
> performing edits on the patterns it matches.  You could probably write
> a full screenplay formatter in Perl.

Hello Dennis,

The Palm emulator I'm using keeps burping when I try to load WordSmith, so I'll have to 
work with that on a real Palm.  The one thing I have noticed is that when I try to paste into 
WordSmith with Teikei, it requires an extra step. I select the text in Teikei, hit the Enter 
key and it does nothing, until I do the extra step of pasting it.

I've been throwing a lot at my leaky brain -- so I'll see if I can find out what's going on, 
later.

Thanks again.

---
Dale




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