Connie E. Hall's Lounge Discussions

Sorry, Laurie. I'm going to have to disagree with you. The Scriptnotes podcasts on Final Draft are worth a listen. Also, how many of those hundreds of scripts were in FDX format compared to PDF? How many did you pass on because they weren't written in Final Draft? If it works for you cool, but don't make it sound like you can't work in the industry without it.

Certainly your right to disagree, and as I said, use what you want. I am fully aware of John August and Craig Mazin, and the controversies they foster, thanks. I'm also pretty aware that they don't breakdown scripts for production. My point on formatting is that it is the one component that has the potential to put every writer, regardless of experience, on the same level and it is the one aspect that most scripts that cross my desk fail at.

I would hardly consider the writers of Mulan and Chernobyl controversial. The OP was asking about screenwriting software. Producing is totally different as you know and I'm sure any producer worth their salt would know Final Draft very well. I'm also sure Disney didn't send Rian Johnson's script for Star Wars back because he wrote it in Fade In. Almost all modern screenwriting programs read and write FDX.

I know John and respect what he started with Scriptnotes. I worked at Disney for many years. Mazin is notorious for railroading anyone with an opinion. My answer was to the OP. In that if you are a writer that is fortunate enough to have one of your scripts in production or be asked to work on another in production, it would behoove you to be familiar with the software. Last I checked, FD is the only software that guarantees support to productions -- their contracts and liabilities to productions are enormous.

That sounds like Craig! Thanks for your input.