Speaker 1: Today we're talking about screenwriting software and this is not going to be a review where we're pulling up each of these Softwares and going through and here's what this does. That's not the purpose of this What we want to do is just one make you familiar with what's out there Give you some guidelines about how to choose the right software for you And we're gonna start off by dealing with some misconceptions and things about Software and what you have to do or what you should be doing as a screenwriter So hopefully this is all going to be helpful. There's a lot of links below. One of those is a document that's just kind of a summary of some of the things I'm going to talk about and some things that you might find important if you just want to look at that. There's also links to all of the software packages that we're going to be talking about. So if you want to review each of them on your own, you are able to do that. None of those are affiliate links. I'm going to be giving you some recommendations. I'm going to give you some of my opinions. I'll tell you what I use, what I have used, and we'll kind of go through all those. But I just want to make you aware of the options. I want to make sure that you are making good choices. If you're finding value, please be sure to like subscribe Make a note in the comments. What software have you used and what do you like that might help some other people? Also find some things if you got questions, be sure to leave them below too. Alright, let's not waste any more time. Let's jump in There is a big misconception about software what you have to use and what you should use and all that stuff So let's deal with that first the industry standard standard software, if you will, the industry standard way you have to deliver your script is a PDF, a PDF, not a final draft file, not a movie magic file, even though both those software websites kind of imply that that's what it is, not Celtics, a PDF, a PDF is what people want. That's what you're going to deliver. They don't care how you wrote it. They don't care how you got to it. They want to read a PDF. So whatever software you're using, as long as it will export a PDF, you're going to be just fine. So the trick then really is to find software that fits you. That's really one consideration to think about. And all the pieces that make up you, what are the factors that are important to you? What do you write on? Do you write on a laptop, a desktop, a tablet? Different software works better with different ones of those. What about a PC or a Mac? Maybe you prefer one over the other. Maybe you want something with a lot of tools. Maybe you just want to write. I just want to write. Maybe cost is a factor. So you're like, I want the best software with the most tools for the lowest amount, preferably free would be better. Some of you might have like, no, I've got disposable income. I'm fine. Like what should I use? What do people use? So we'll kind of talk about all those things as I go through the software that we're going to mention. keep in mind and one consideration that you need to just kind of mentally make sure that you're you're wrapping your head around is that software is a storytelling tool. It's just a tool. It's the exact same as if you were to go to the store and you're wanting to buy a hammer, right? That's a tool but this hammer weighs different than this one or the handle is shaped a little different or this one's heavier than this one. Like there's lots of versions of hammers just like there are with software. Now 20-30 years ago that wasn't the case with screenwriting software and you were mostly typing on a typewriter and things like that but now you've got lots of choices so you want to pick the one that suits you and just keep in mind it's just a tool it's just a tool don't heighten the importance of it in that ooh if I don't if I'm not using this specific tool then I'm not a legitimate screenwriter that's not true professional screenwriters use all these tools that we're going to talk about so all these different softwares people have used we're gonna deal with free software first, and then we'll get to the paid versions in a moment. The first one with free software, we've got to talk about Fountain. Fountain is not even really a software. It's a markup for a text editor. So all you've got to do is have a text editor or open up a document in Microsoft Word or even Google Docs, and as long as you're formatting in a specific way, if another software program will read a Fountain file, it will read how you've written it. Now there might be some things that don't always transfer, but if you've written 100 pages, it's easy to go in and fix a few things than to have to reformat the whole thing. So if all you have right now is a text editor, you can just use that, and you can use the rules with Fountain, and there's a link below. Again, lots of links below. So if I mention a software you think, oh, I'm kind of interested in that, click on the link, learn about it, and make a good decision. Okay, another free one is Trelby. Trelby is an open source software that people who like screenwriting and coding wanted to use and they wanted something just for screenwriting, so that's a really great option, especially if you want to help improve the product. If you like coding a little bit, it's like, hey, I like screenwriting, I like coding. Maybe you want to look at Trelby because it's an open source and you kind of help make it even better. The next free version I want to talk about, actually the next two, they have a free version and a paid version. The free version of this next one, Highland 2, is actually really good. And the main difference is there are just, it's got all the same features, but it doesn't have as many variants of those features. So the free version might have three sample formats, whereas the full version might have 14 or 15 different formats that you can choose, or templates that you can kind of choose to work within. The free version of Highland 2 though is really great if you're just trying to get a script out. One of the reasons that Highland 2 is made is just to focus on the screenwriting. No bells and whistles, but a really good software that helps you just write the story, just get the story down. It's kind of like the next development after Fountain. So Fountain is like, just focus on story and use a text editor. And then there's Highland too, which is like, no, no, no, here's some software that you can use, but we're just still focusing on the story because we just want to tell a good story. One of the benefits with Highland is if you'd like to write novels or short stories, there are some really good templates for that. So you can write screenplays or novels, whatever, you can use the same software to do both. and it's really helpful with that. The next free version is Celtics. Now, Celtics does have a paid version and really all the features are in the paid version. The thing with Celtics is yes, it's free, but you can only work on one project at a time. So when you're done with that project, you gotta delete it and you have a whole new project. So that might be problematic for many of you. So that's kind of the drawback with the Celtics free version. Another free version that most people don't know about is StudioBinder. Now StudioBinder has software within it, it's totally free. But if you're not familiar with StudioBinder, they do a lot of things that are helpful to smaller productions. So independent films, student productions, music videos, commercials, things like that. If you have a smaller production, StudioBinder is really great at planning your shoot. So it has all kinds of things like call sheets and breakdowns and storyboards and strip boards and all kinds of stuff that you can use for production. So if you're interested in production or you're writing your own stuff and you're shooting it, so you write your short film and you shoot it, you might wanna look at StudioBinder, Ultimately, whatever you write it in, bring it into StudioBinder and let it help you do some of the other things that will actually help make your productions a lot better. The last free software I wanna talk about is Rider Solo. Rider Solo is a free version of Rider Duet, and I'll get to that in a second. But it's really great. You download it, it's free, boom, you can start using it literally within like two minutes, and it's great. It's very basic, so you can do some simple outlining with scene headings and what's in the scene is making little index cards and stuff that you can move around. You can navigate some stuff. It's very basic, it's very simple, but it's really great and it's easy to use. So this is actually one of the software, the packages that I use. I have it on all of my computers. So if I'm just trying to write something or figure something out, I can always open it up and pull it out and then I can pull it into other things that I'm, the other software that I'm using and I can manipulate it there if I wanna do that. Okay, those are the free versions. Once you get up to the paid versions, you start to get a little more features and that's really the main difference. The free versions, they don't really have many features. You have some limitations on the number of projects you can work on. If you try to export a PDF, it's going to have a watermark on it because they want you to pay for the software. There are some drawbacks to the free versions. The Rider Solo one is a really great version. If you're just looking for a free version, that's a really good one to go with. Let's talk about the paid versions and we're going to start with Celtics. This is one of the ones that people like to talk about, ooh, it's great because it's free but it's also paid and it seems very affordable month over month. The issue is if you have Celtics for two years and you're paying the monthly fee for two years, it is easily the most expensive software everywhere. If you are wanting to watch your budget, Celtics is probably not the best option for you. One of the things Celtics does though is it does have some basic production things. It's also got some game development software, so if you're trying to write a video game or develop a video game, it's really helpful with that. So Celtics is a great way to work on your script, work on a game script, work on production stuff. A lot of companies that produce their own videos in-house will end up using Celtics because they have a lot of people using a lot of things. They're paying for a subscription anyway, so they can kind of roll that in. That's where Celtics gets used a lot, but a lot of people really like it. I personally don't like it, it just doesn't suit me, it doesn't suit my style, so I'm personally not a big fan of it. And I don't like the cost, I don't like the fact that it's quickly the most expensive software and because I'm writing year after year, it would be expensive for me to have, so there's better options for me. So I just, I avoid Celtics. Next, let's talk about Movie Magic Screenwriter. Movie Magic Screenwriter used to be the big daddy on the block. Movie Magic is the first screenwriting software that I actually had. I was able to get a cheap copy And I used that for many years many of my early drafts are movie magic And I really loved using it. I was learning so it was really helpful at learning things It had some other tools and things that was helpful for me to Start thinking about how to create a story and working around story So I really like movie magic's got a soft place in my heart It is still one of though the more expensive ones out there and their upgrades are are a little bit So you got to pay for the upgrades as well so it just starts to be a little expensive. The other thing is they started creating things and they would take features out or move things around and put them in other software. So MovieMagick works great if you also have Dramatica Pro, so now you can like work back and forth and it's just, I just don't like it because I want something that's just, I'm gonna focus on screenwriting and that's what I wanna do. I wanna write a story, I just wanna write that. I don't need all the other stuff and I don't need to buy other software to go with it. So even though it's got a soft place in my heart, I still stay away from UbiMagic now. Next is the current big daddy on the block and that's Final Draft. One of the things you'll hear is people say like, oh, Final Draft's an industry standard. Well, yes and no. A lot of people use Final Draft. A lot of people have Final Draft. It makes it easier for everybody to use Final Draft because a lot of them have Final Draft. So that's one reason why it's pretty popular is because a lot of people have it. It's not necessarily because it's the best. Now, are there a lot of good things about it? Yes, and there's lots of tools. There's mind mapping, there's outlining, there's note cards, there's collaboration. You can do speech to text where you're talking and it just transcribes what you're doing. It's got all the kinds of bells and whistles, which is great. For me personally, I don't use all that stuff. So I'm like, why am I paying $250 for a bunch of stuff that I just don't use? So for me, it doesn't make sense because I just wanna work on my script and I want some basic outlining tools, that's it. I don't need all the other bells and whistles that Final Draft has. One of the questions you might have then is, well, but what if somebody wants my script in Final Draft format? Like they want a FDX file, like how am I supposed to get them that? And the thing is, the answer is that several of the paid software actually lets you export a Final Draft file. So you can export a Final Draft file, send it to somebody, they can work with it, they send it back to you, you re-import it into your software and you can still see it. So you don't have to have Final Draft. So if anybody's telling you you have to have Final Draft, unless they're paying you money and telling you that, you don't worry about it, don't listen to them. You can manage without having to have Final Draft. I've managed for several years without having Final Draft perfectly fine. The next paid version drops the price. So if you start looking at prices year after year, you've got Celtics and Movie Magic and Final Draft They're all, you know, 250 or more. If you gotta buy an upgrade, Final Draft Movie Magic, those are around 300. Celtics, 300. It starts to get really expensive. So these next ones drops significantly. So now we're below $100 for sure. And the next one is Scrivener. And Scrivener is a really great software. It's focused primarily on writing. I wanna just write the script. So it doesn't have a whole lot of bells and whistles. It's also not that expensive. You can have things that's just for your Mac or just for your PC, or you can buy a different thing for your tablet, or you can buy a bundle that's both. So if you've got different machines or different types of machines or different types of hardware, you can kind of make it work pretty easily with Scrivener. The next paid one is Rider Duet. A Rider Duet, there's actually kind of three tiers. So you have the paid full version of Rider Duet. You have the free version of Rider Duet, which has the features of the full version, but there's things like watermarked or there's limits on how many drafts you can have. And then there's the free, very free version, which is Writer Solo, which we talked about in the free version. So, and that one is completely free. So there are these three different ones. So, but the Writer Solo doesn't have all the features that the other, that Writer Duet has. One of the things that Writer Duet has is the collaboration and the online cloud-based file system. So when you're saving stuff you can save it in the cloud. You can work on it anywhere on whichever Tablet thing open up your tablet work on it saves the cloud go home open up your laptop work on it there Whatever it is. So that's one of the benefits of it. It's not a bad program at all. It's actually really great It's really simple and it's very simple to writer solo, which I actually use so Writer duet might be a really great option I would recommend if you're interested in writer duet try the writer solo and see if you like the interface see if you like it And then maybe start progressing through the free version of writer duet into the paid version of writer duet The last one is the one that I use. I really love it. It is fade-in Pro There is here's one of the things that I really love about it. I don't have to pay for upgrades ever I've had it for the last four years four and a half years, I think I think, and I've never had to pay for an upgrade. It's great, phenomenal. I love it. It does everything I need it to do. It's not distracting. It's got some of the outlining tools, some of the planning tools that I like to use, but it's not overwhelming. It's just great. I love it. And I can integrate it with my tablet, so I can write on my tablet, so I can integrate it with the cloud. It's mostly a file-based thing, So you have to format that for Dropbox and things like that, but most of the paid software allows you to do that or have that option. And the price is right. It's less than a hundred bucks and that's it. You pay that, you're done. You don't ever have to pay anything again. So I haven't paid for anything for Fade In for the last several years. I just, I really love it. So that's a pretty quick overview of a lot of the software that's out there. Let me give you some suggestions and some recommendations. And again, all the links for all these software packages are below, so you can go to the sites, you can look at them, investigate them yourself. Again, they're not affiliate links. I'm not getting anything for this. I'm just trying to give you a very candid opinion about what's good, what's bad about them, what I like about them, what I don't like about them, and hopefully that's gonna be helpful to you. Okay, so if you are into short story writing, novel writing, and screenwriting, Highland 2. That's probably the best version. The thing is, it is a free version, but then you can pay for the upgrade. It's $50 for the upgrade. It's very worth it if that's what you're into. That way you can use the same software you're working on your novel. You can still use the same software working on a screenplay. It's really great. You get comfortable with it. Highly recommend Highland 2. If you are doing a production of some kind, so you're writing it and directing it, writing it and producing it, you are making the thing, then it's really dealer's choice as far as software, but you probably ultimately wanna really think about StudioBinder. StudioBinder has a lot of great tools for production and the screenwriting part that's free is worth it. The hard part with StudioBinder is you can't really export your files into other screenwriting software. You can import almost all of them, but exporting is a little challenge. So you might want to start with something else, write it, import it into StudioBinder, go make your movie. So if you're not familiar with StudioBinder, you should look into that. If you're just like, I just want the free version, then I would go with Writer's Solo. Again, it's one I use and I'm not saying to use it because it's one I use. I'm saying it's the easiest one to use, it formats it right, it's very simple, it's great. And you can download it and start using it and just try it out and see if you like it. But that would be the one I would recommend at least as far as the free version goes. As far as the paid version, I would also, again, I'm biased, right? I'm biased, this is the one I use, but I love Fade In Pro. It does everything I need it to do. It doesn't have all the extra bells and whistles, so I'm not paying for a bunch of stuff that I don't use. and it's affordable. It's super affordable. So if you're wanting to spend some money, like, hey, I want something and I just don't wanna have to worry about it, Fade In Pro is a great way to go. It exports final draft files. I've done that and got them back. It's fine. Now, you still may say, yeah, but Jake, I still wanna do final draft. Then do final draft. You know, final draft is a really good program. It does what you need it to do. It's got lots of bells and whistles. There's lots of things. You have to kind of finagle and get it to look like what you want. So you just gotta know you're gonna have a whole lot of stuff that you are not really using. And that's okay if that's fine with you. I just don't personally like to pay for stuff if I'm not gonna use it. So if I was using all that stuff, I'd totally pay for it, but I'm not using it, so I don't wanna spend the money to pay for it. And the downside with Final Draft is you gotta pay for the upgrades. Here might be a suggestion though. If you really want Final Draft, you're like, I just gotta have it. I'm not a professional legitimate screenwriter if I don't use Final Draft, not true. but I really want final draft. So here would be my recommendation is there are tons of contests out there. Now, a lot of contests aren't really great as far as helping your career along, but some of the prizes that go with those contests are not too bad. So a lot of contests actually have as one of their prizes for any of their top finishers, a free version of final draft. So even if the contest only costs you 50 bucks, if you've got a really great story, you place in the contest, you're gonna get a version of Final Draft. So you got a $250 software for 50 bucks, or for nothing if it doesn't cost you anything to enter the contest or the competition. So that might be a really good way to do it. Another one is just to wait till you sell something and use the money to go buy it. So that would be another thing. If somebody's like, hey, I need this in Final Draft. It's like, okay, pay me first. I'll go buy Final Draft. I'll convert it and here you go. Or if you just have another version, like Fade In or one of the other paid versions, you can just export it as a Final Draft file and they'll be fine. Hopefully this has been helpful to you. If it has, please like, subscribe, bell. Again, there's lots of information below, links, just all kinds of stuff. So please feel free to comment. What software do you use? Let people know. Like, hey, I use this, I use this, and here's why. Don't just say like, oh, I use Final Draft because that's the industry standard. If you write that, I'm gonna give you a thumbs down. Like, no, it's not the industry standard. PDFs are the industry standard. So if it'll export a PDF, you're fine. Any of these software, they will do that. And because you're a writer, because you're trying to tell a story, when you tell a story, tell a story that matters. See you later.