How I Roll

I've touted Celtx before, and while it does not have all of the nifty features of Movie Magic Screenwriter 6 or Final Draft 7, it is a very worthy script editor that is worth your time whether you are on a budget or easily have the finances to pick up a more expensive package.

I have used both Screenwriter and Final Draft extensively in the past--with FD as my primary script writing tool since I preferred its interface to Screenwriter. About a year and a half ago as it became noticable that Final Draft was not coming out with any updates soon, I was turned on to Celtx, a free tool for screenwriters and playwrights. I began my own "play a day" experiment, based on Suzan Lori-Parks 365 project. Unfortunately, I was not as dedicated (or talented) a full-time writer as Parks. But it proved to be extremely useful to me.

The "plays," if they could be called that, spanned quite a range of strange ideas that I have daily. Everything from Federico Garcia Lorca being placed on trial by the characters in his plays before his untimely execution to a fictive recreation of August Strindberg, Stanislaw Przybyszewski, Carl Ludwig Schleich, Juel Dagny, and Edvard Munch enjoying time at The Black Piglet to a rather lively (and moronic) parody of Ibsen's works entitled "Hedda Shot the Wild Duck Outside the Doll's House, Mista Gynt". It even included Gogol's Inspector General...though he actually made an appearance in this play. To get an idea of how bad it was, how's this:

INSPECTOR GENERAL

It seems there are numerous skeletons in your closet, Mrs. Alving.

She flutters downstage center.

ALVING

Not skeletons...

(tremulous whisper)

Ghosts!

Anyway, the main reason that I initially enjoyed Celtx was because it has a clean workflow. Final Draft's is simple as well, and Screenwriter 2000's seems cluttered by a necessary but unwieldy interface. Celtx's interface has gotten more complex over time. Compare:

The project library is a nice feature when it comes to working with different versions of a script or something akin to a television series or webisode guide. It takes up a fair bit of screen real estate, but is a nice feature for larger projects. For a base script, however, it can be largely wasted space.

The central workspace is where you write your script. You have all of the basics needed to write any type of document you like, though it is not a fully fleshed-out word processor (and was not necessarily designed to be one). A nice addition that was not available when I was first using it is the dual dialogue button. This is a staple that I use in Screenwriter and Final Draft often, and it was sorely missed when I started with Celtx.

The central interface also has a series of buttons on the bottom of the screen which allow you to view the script in different ways. The Script button is your basic draft writing template (similar to draft mode in Word). The Typesetting button is more like a print preview (Print view in Word). The scratchpad allows you to write notes in certain sections. The index card view is nice for production management should you be writing a screenplay or workshopping your play. The title page is pretty self explanatory, though I still am somewhat irritated that there is a separate area for it in all of the programs. This irritation stems from script standards, however. The Cast button shows you the different cast members that speak in a scene. And finally, the Reports button allows you to view different reports (duh) such as scene elements and notes and such. Unfortunately the reporting is not anywhere close to Final Drafts report generation, but good things come to those who desire it (or write it themselves).

The right sidebar can be moved into or out of frame and is mainly there to provide organization of media, notes, and scene breakdown information. I haven't used it much and usually keep it hidden. I only had it open in that screenshot as an example.

One of the nicest features of Celtx is its web services. You can not only save the script locally, but on the Celtx site. You can also share it with others for collaboration. It is not as streamlined as Final Draft or Screenwriter's collaboration features, but it is a nice addition. All of them could take a lesson from Google Docs and Word 2007's collaboration features.

365 Days / 365 Plays

Price: $14.82

(4 customer reviews)

90 used & new available from $0.01

I know that no one reads this site, and I don't really expect them to. It's just a place where I blather about stuff. What I'm going to blather about for an instant this time is how much my cast rocks. They're pretty awesome anyway.

I worry about how well I'm doing, but my actors are doing extremely well! There's the bumps that every rehearsal process seems to have, but things are on the up-and-up...which is good since we open next friday and have an audience on Wednesday! Here's a couple of pictures from early-on in the rehearsal process.

(more...)

Dionysus was watching last night at auditions because I was blessed with some wonderful talent! Now all I have to do is select people, notify people, get a set up, kick out the show and let actors do their jobs! I'm pretty excited!

Boise Weekly Article by Michael Corrigan.

Quite a lot of props in that review, all around. Let's keep it that way!

Michael Corrigan is a long-time patron of the arts, and fellow thespian himself. He teaches in the Speech Communication and Rhetorical Studies department at Idaho State University.