On Final Drafts
A brief post here, on final drafts and Final Draft.
First, only because I'm writing about Final Draft, I thought about something I saw recently that gave me a laugh. I was covering the manuscript of a new Carl Hiassen kids novel, and on the cover page, at the bottom, he had written: First Final Draft. He knew as well as anybody that it ain't the final draft until the ink has dried on the pages (or in our case, until the light has reacted on the celluloid). Funny.
Now, on to the real purpose of this post. There's been much talk abounding in the scribosphere about Final Draft versus Movie Magic Screenwriter as the preferred program for screenwriters. There have even been some interesting new programs to hit the market, such as celtx. I, however, have always used Final Draft, though I'm still using a woefully outdated version. So for a little while now I've been thinking about an upgrade.
Now I know that I could easily switch to MMS, but I'm just used to FD, and have always been pretty satisfied with it. The reason I want to upgrade is so that I can make use of some of the even better features, and also to ease collaboration. Still, the complaints that everyone has been voicing about FD7, its bugginess, and the poor tech support has gotten me somewhat worried. So I'm thinking, maybe I should just get a copy of FD6. It would still be an upgrade to what I've been using, but from what I hear, people didn't experience quite so many bugs in it.
Thoughts? Anyone know where I can get a copy of FD6, if I should decide to?
Tags: Final+Draft, final+drafts, Movie+Magic+Screenwriter, celtx, Carl+Hiassen
First, only because I'm writing about Final Draft, I thought about something I saw recently that gave me a laugh. I was covering the manuscript of a new Carl Hiassen kids novel, and on the cover page, at the bottom, he had written: First Final Draft. He knew as well as anybody that it ain't the final draft until the ink has dried on the pages (or in our case, until the light has reacted on the celluloid). Funny.
Now, on to the real purpose of this post. There's been much talk abounding in the scribosphere about Final Draft versus Movie Magic Screenwriter as the preferred program for screenwriters. There have even been some interesting new programs to hit the market, such as celtx. I, however, have always used Final Draft, though I'm still using a woefully outdated version. So for a little while now I've been thinking about an upgrade.
Now I know that I could easily switch to MMS, but I'm just used to FD, and have always been pretty satisfied with it. The reason I want to upgrade is so that I can make use of some of the even better features, and also to ease collaboration. Still, the complaints that everyone has been voicing about FD7, its bugginess, and the poor tech support has gotten me somewhat worried. So I'm thinking, maybe I should just get a copy of FD6. It would still be an upgrade to what I've been using, but from what I hear, people didn't experience quite so many bugs in it.
Thoughts? Anyone know where I can get a copy of FD6, if I should decide to?
Tags: Final+Draft, final+drafts, Movie+Magic+Screenwriter, celtx, Carl+Hiassen
posted by Fun Joel | 6:25 PM
5 Comments:
I am using FD6 and love it. It has never failed me. I like what I see in MM too and used a trial version for awhile. For doing specs I didn't see much difference between them (for what I do with them). The only issue I had with MM and never followed it up was how to take out the dialogue (more) and (cont'd) brackets. I prefer to not use them and I have ti configured that way in FD. I see FD6 on ebay, but you have to read the fine print because most of them are academic version
Sounds good. So tell me, what would be the practical difference to me if it is an academic version?
Academic is the same thing, they just discount the purchase if you can prove you are a student or a faculty member somewhere..I am currently seeing if a forged teacher certificate is cheaper on ebay than the software (smirk)
I updated from Final Draft 7 to 7.1 from the website and now I've had no problems with bugs and what not. I'm keeping my fingers crossed though...
If you can find a copy of version 6 anywhere, buy it. Even if they have supposedly ironed out the bugs in 7, there are still various aspects of the designed functionality in 7 which really grate my cheese, such as the inability to work in Speed View mode (which I work in ALL THE TIME), and the inability to open and close the Scene Cards as a separate window (in FD7 you have to split the screen between script and scene cards using a frame, which is MASSIVELY irritating and user-unfriendly).
Short answer: suck it and see. You can always download a free trial version from www.finaldraft.com.
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