Movie Magic / Final Draft format issues

maddogmike

maddogmike

Member
[FONT=verdana,arial][SIZE=-1] My writing partner just got Final Draft and wanted to move a screenplay over from Movie Magic.

He exported an RTF document from MM, then imported it into FD. Final Draft now reads the script as 9 pages longer.

So what's different? Same indents, same font and font size, b[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=verdana,arial][SIZE=-1]ut there's less lines per page in Final Draft. [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=verdana,arial][SIZE=-1]Basically, it's putting more space at the bottom, which makes the page break sooner.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,arial][SIZE=-1]
So which program should I trust? I'm assuming Final Draft, since that's the industry standard. Has anyone else noticed this issue?[/SIZE][/FONT]
 
Exactly why I don't use either. Even celtx goes whacko.

Trust the one that looks cleaner and keeps you within the page limit. It's really comes down to personal preferance.

I've noticed FD will also do a double space before slugs, which I feel is a waste of a good line. Do that 200 times and you lose a page or two of screenplay.

For me? I still use Word cuz what you see is what you get. It aint prestigious, but it's the cleanest I've seen.

And, I feel too many writers use these script-writing programs as a crutch. Just pop in a few ideas and presto! Another reason I won't touch it. Others swear by them.

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www.alexwhitmer.wordpress.com

www.guerro.wordpress.com
 
Ironically, I agree with you. I'd rather use Word.

When we started writing together, he was in love with Movie Magic, so I went along with it. I really hate it though. I love all the shortcuts I use in Word, and cutting and pasting is a lot easier.

The advantages of Movie Magic and Final Cut are the add-ons, I suppose. notecard view, character sorting, and tie-ins for budgeting and scheduling.
 
maddogmike said:
Ironically, I agree with you. I'd rather use Word.

When we started writing together, he was in love with Movie Magic, so I went along with it. I really hate it though. I love all the shortcuts I use in Word, and cutting and pasting is a lot easier.

The advantages of Movie Magic and Final Cut are the add-ons, I suppose. notecard view, character sorting, and tie-ins for budgeting and scheduling.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind, Final Draft DOES NOT SUPPORT older version of its software. You may find yourself unable to open your own scripts one day unless you spend another 200 bucks on their latest version. They'll never tell you that of course. I found out the hard way. Movie Magic apparently runs the same scam.
 
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