August 19, 1999
LIBRARY / SCREENWRITING SOFTWARE
Small-Screen Help for Budding Filmmakers
By ERIC A. TAUB
omputer programs to help
screenwriters have been
around for more than a decade, since writers began dropping
the I.B.M. Selectric typewriter in favor of the Apple Macintosh. But in
the last few years, they have come to
include not only simple aides but also
complex systems offering, like the
hyperbolic movie industry itself,
bloated promises that you'll soon be
writing a blockbuster with ""passionate themes"" and ""unforgettable
characters.""
Of all writers, those who create
film and television scripts strike out
the most. Scripts often sell for the
wrong reasons: The writer is a
friend of a producer. The writer has
persuaded a star to participate.
Projects that are universally disliked are suddenly loved once money
is committed.
Screenwriters know that even if
their films are produced, most of
what they write may never be heard
or even read, buried under a mountain of rewrites or hidden in a sea of
descriptive action meant to capture
the imagination of one of the scores
of people who will have to sign off on
the sale.
Unless you're part of the tiny fraternity of screenwriters who can sell
a script based on a two-sentence
idea, you must create a story that a
reader -- whether a low-level employee, studio executive, agent or
star -- immediately finds compelling. You must quickly show that the
characters are complex and fresh,
the situation unique and intriguing,
the dialogue biting and germane.
If you're looking for the equivalent
of a digital dishwasher, a program
into which you can dump all your
words and receive a clean, finished
script, don't waste your time. Writing programs do not evaluate dialogue and narrative. Anyone who has
used a grammar checking tool in a
word processing program knows
that until computers become as intuitive as HAL, it's an impossible goal.
Rather, all these programs try to
help the writer think more critically.
Through varying approaches, each
tries to give rules for character development, conflict, plot and resolution, while the user enters information or answers multiple-choice questions about the intended story. Some
programs can be mastered in a few
minutes; others require days.
If you insist on software that features the latest in computer graphics, choose your program carefully.
Several packages remain mired in a
1980's style, using fixed, primitive
screen layouts and built on inflexible
databases that tend to crash.
Has a screenwriting program, like
a word processor, become a de rigueur tool for the budding filmmaker? Of course not. In fact, some of
these programs seem to exist on disk
for no other reason than that they
can: a book version of the same material would often suffice. However,
if you find that some constant, critical prodding helps you think more
rigorously, then each of the four programs examined here is worth a
look. All are available through the
Writers Store in Los Angeles
(writersstore.com).
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