Movie Magic Screenwriter question

DGW

DGW

Well-known member
I am looking for a more robust script creation program and am currently evaluating the new version 6 of Screenwriter. It seems to be more than capable of my needs but I thought I'd ask if any of you scriptwriters use it and have any comments or different recommendations. Thanks!

EDIT: Using MAC OSX 10.4.11
 
Love MMS. Search this forum for it and you should see lots of posts about it. MMS and Final Draft (FD) are the two major contenders. I would say download the demo trial versions of each and give them a good test run. I love the look of MMS, but my main gripe is the tiny font for its index card feature; however, I had a lengthy telephone conversation a few months ago with the President of the company that makes MMS and let that request be well known (he was shocked that that font could not be changed as it can in FD, as I listened to him talk to his nearby software programmer about this); he said there is a major upgrade coming soon for MMS, so hopefully that will solve that issue. Give the trial versions a spin!
 
Love the customizable outline feature of MMS. Dunno if FInal Draft has this or not. MMS had it first which is why I went with it.
here's what I'm working on now.

I like to do
ACT (blue)
VINGETTES (15 minute segments or mini acts, salmon)
SEQUENCES (burnt orange)
SCENES (yellow)
(btw, I'm not a page number slave, though I do take it into acount. Mostly I just put the page numbers on the Vignettes as I write to just keep a sense of how long those beats / sections are.)
lmtfmms.jpg

Each outline section is toggle-able to open to embedded levels and if you click on the outline sections it takes you to that part of the screenplay. I opened up down to the scene level in SEQUENCE 1. "END OF THE BEGINNING" but they all open down to that level. The scene and act outline steps came stock, the Vignette, and Sequence steps, I added.
(also - Dept.'s Sheila and Joe's shared line "check around back" prints next to each other so it's clear that they're said simultaneous, it just looks weird before you print it or make a PDF)
 
I prefer Movie Magic's outlining over Final Draft. FD really doesn't have an equivalent mode, except for the note card view where you can write in a summary for each scene heading.

However, Final Draft is much easier when it comes to actually writing the script than Movie Magic, which has some aggravating quirks.


In MMS, I still can't figure out how to easily delete / change an (O.S.) or (V.O.) etc. in a character's name. Once you have entered it, it is uneditable without deleting the entire line containing the character's name, which isn't even easy in itself if the program feels it is going to create a speech without a character's name attached. You have to create a duplicate of the character's name above the line you want to change, and only then will it let you delete the line you want to delete.

Has anybody found an easy way to do that? It pisses me off.
 
You just type a left parenthetical "(" after the character name, even if you've already put (O.S.) or (V.O.) there and O.S. or V.O. will dissappear and it will ask you O.S.? V.O.? Add as Text? or Nevermind?

Pretty easy. You initiate the change by typing part of what you'd have to type there anyway.

Probably you're just used to the commands in Final Draft?
 
Jack Daniel Stanley said:
You just type a left parenthetical "(" after the character name, even if you've already put (O.S.) or (V.O.) there and O.S. or V.O. will dissappear and it will ask you O.S.? V.O.? Add as Text? or Nevermind?

Pretty easy. You initiate the change by typing part of what you'd have to type there anyway.

Probably you're just used to the commands in Final Draft?
Click to expand...
Thanks. That worked.

In Final Draft the extension was treated like normal text, so you could click on, highlight, change, delete the extension as needed.

I think Final Draft is little more intuitive when it comes to the actual typing. It seems to feel more like MS Word.

But MMS kills Final Draft in the outlining, so I'm trying to use MMS more.
 
Thanks for the info. I'll check out all of them. Right now I'm getting the hang of MMS but I haven't figured out a way to set the dialog in RED on a default basis. I can change the color on the fly, but I seem to have to do this for each set of lines I type. Anyone know how to make the dialog default in a color? I would also like to make the actors names default to something other than black, but I couldn't find anything in preferences to do this (other than for scene, outline, etc.).
 
I've tried that but there is no option for color, only font style and size. I click Dialogue on right side and all available options appear in the pane to the left...no color that I can find.
 
DGW said:
Thanks for the info. I'll check out all of them. Right now I'm getting the hang of MMS but I haven't figured out a way to set the dialog in RED on a default basis. I can change the color on the fly, but I seem to have to do this for each set of lines I type. Anyone know how to make the dialog default in a color? I would also like to make the actors names default to something other than black, but I couldn't find anything in preferences to do this (other than for scene, outline, etc.).
Click to expand...
This isn't exactly what you want, but you can choose Format >>> Mark One Character's Dialogue..., which brings up a list of all the characters, and you can choose a character and click OK and then all of that character's names and dialogue are turned red.

Once you finish typing your script that would probably be the fasted way to turn all of the names and dialogue to red, but it doesn't give you any choice about the color or only making the dialogue red and not the character names.
 
Jack Daniel Stanley said:
Hmm. Yeah looks like no color option there.

Just curious - why do you want different colors for different elements?
Click to expand...

I am really only interested in having the dialogue stand out from the script. I was using MovieWriter which did this and it seemed easier and faster to make dialogue changes on the fly without them being blended in with the other actions.
 
agcohn said:
This isn't exactly what you want, but you can choose Format >>> Mark One Character's Dialogue..., which brings up a list of all the characters, and you can choose a character and click OK and then all of that character's names and dialogue are turned red.

Once you finish typing your script that would probably be the fasted way to turn all of the names and dialogue to red, but it doesn't give you any choice about the color or only making the dialogue red and not the character names.
Click to expand...


Thanks..that is probably sufficient.
 
Just a note, as everyone brings this up with NLEs . . .

The professional world is near-entirely Final Draft. Which doesn't mean you shouldn't use MMS if you prefer it, just be aware.
 
David Jimerson said:
Just a note, as everyone brings this up with NLEs . . . The professional world is near-entirely Final Draft....
Click to expand...

Just curious-- how do we know that, viz are there some statistical figures somewhere to back that claim up, or is it just more of an anecdotal observation of writers you have encountered?
 
Just thought I'd let you all know that I purchased MMS version 6. I did the trials of that and Final Draft and both programs more than meet my needs. I just found the MMS interface a bit nicer and easier to use. Thank you all for your guidance and recommendations.
 
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