Movie Magic Screenwriter

[sspunisher]

Anyone here use Movie Magic Screenwriter? This is the program I use and I'm just curious if anyone out there uses it too.

[TheRuleofThirds]

Nope, sorry. Just Final Draft here.

[dpaterso]

Yah. I think Movie Magic is pretty damn good software. I've demo'd Final Draft and Sophocles and while they're perfectly useable I find MM has options and settings they don't have. But sometimes that can work both ways, when someone asked me for a full cast/dialogue/location list I had to scribble a quick exec to do the biz.

-Derek
Derek's Web Page - stories, screenplays, novels, insanity. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57/scripts.htm)

[Joe Calabrese]

FD here too

[Boo_Radley]

I'm sampled Movie Magic but still prefer my Final Draft 7.

[The ImagiNation]

Final Draft for me all the way.

[Kiva Wolfe]

I use it and have few complaints, though I have experienced incompatiblity problems with anti-virus software, primarily McAfee. Movie Magic 2000 works best with its software bundle, DramaticaPro and StoryView.

I have been told FD is far superior.

[zagoraz]

Call me cheap. I use the Corel Wordperfect program that came with my laptop. I've never even sampled screenwriting software. I figure if it ain't broke, don't fix it. What's the learning curve like on those things anyway?

[NikeeGoddess]

zag - you're cheap!

[nganok]

I use MM exclusively. Never tried Final draft. I want to say west coasters use FD while easterners use MM.

[sspunisher]

For those of you who use Movie Magic, is there an HTML feature in there where you can get the code so you can make a cleaner post in here?

How do you guys usually post your script samples on the critique board?

[dpaterso]

ssp, when posting pages I save as Formatted ASCII which creates a text file that can be edited in Notepad or similar (i.e. trimmed down to just the pages I want to post) then pasted into a message. In the message editor window, highlighting the pasted text then selecting HTML code will preserve formatting (not perfectly, but it's not too bad).

What this does however is push up the byte count. You're limited to 10k characters per message. All those spaces to the left (extra characters) means there's less room for your pages!

If you simply paste your text into a message without specifying HTML then your text will fall to the left margin (automatic space removal) so there's room in your message for more pages. It's less neat but a more logical alternative.

If I decide to go with the HTML code option for neatness (in theory, to attract readers) then before I do any pasting I'll use an old DOS text editor I have to block-shift text left so there are only 3 or 4 spaces instead of the usual 15 or so. Then again, not everyone is as paranoid as me. And if you're only posting so many pages and you're well under the 10k character limit then maybe you don't need to worry about those extra spaces.

I always select the Preview Post button so I'll see how things will look before I post a message.

I hope that confuses rather than helps. No, wait! Other way round! :)

-Derek
Derek's Web Page - stories, screenplays, novels, insanity. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57/scripts.htm)

[dpaterso]

zag, I don't think there is a learning curve, you just start the program and you're ready to go. You type your story, the software handles the formatting. For example, if you type "ext." the software intuits that you want a slugline and caps the line, making it a Scene Heading element. If you hit the Tab key the software intuits you want to type a character name; as soon as you type the first letter it will check existing character names and offer you a name or list of names that start with that letter; once you type or select the Character Name and hit Enter the software then puts you into Dialogue. Easy, intuitive, fast. Try out the demos:

Movie Magic (http://www.screenplay.com/products/mmscreenwriter/index.html)
Final Draft (http://www.finaldraft.com/)
Sophocles (http://www.sophocles.net/)

Then again, if you're happy with what you're using, then keep using it! You're not obliged to change your method. Before I won a copy of Movie Magic in a contest (and I believe Fate lent a hand) I was happily using MS Word, my clever fingers knew all the right keys to press, I hardly ever had to stop and think what I was doing. Or so I thought. Moving from Word to MM was like moving from a typewriter to a PC.

-Derek
Derek's Web Page - stories, screenplays, novels, insanity. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57/scripts.htm)

[sspunisher]

Awesome, thanks Dpat.

[nganok]

For those of you who use Movie Magic, is there an HTML feature in there where you can get the code so you can make a cleaner post in here?

How do you guys usually post your script samples on the critique board?


Yes. --save as--- HTML publishing- cut and paste onto board in Html tags . it then should come out bold . if not when you post it - it will come out in one straight line - drop me a private line if you still need help.