by Write Brothers
Platform:
Windows NT / 2000 / XP, Mac, Mac OS X
(22)8 used & new from $89.99
(Visit the Best Sellers in Writing & Literature list for authoritative information on this product's current rank.)
Write screenplays! Collaborate with your partner! Hear your script performed! Movie Magic Screenwriter won't find you an agent or sell your work, but it enables point-and-poke writers to create an acceptable-looking script, and has enough added goodies to keep an aspiring Hollywood hotshot entertained.
This program automatically formats your script, putting character names, scene headings, and action in the appropriate places. It also does a good job of guessing what you want once you've started writing: filling in a character's name after you've hit the first letter or automatically attending to details such as pagination, MOREs, and other script-writing tasks.
Program creators added templates from actual television-show scripts, so writers can get a glimpse of formatting for everything from Friends to King of the Hill, an invaluable tool for writing spec scripts or just peeking into the working mechanisms of Tinseltown. There are 50 partial scripts in all. Extra bonus--use this program to name your baby after you're done writing a masterpiece. Movie Magic Screenwriter contains the most comprehensive name bank we've ever seen: first names from Abramo to Zola, and every surname imaginable.
This program also allows online collaboration, via voice or text, and can publish scripts on the Internet. There's a production-scheduling function and revision options should your work make it into production. Finally, one old-fashioned touch that we found rather charming in this high-tech, "does everything for you" screenwriting program: it can print directly onto index cards (provided) for writers who prefer to order their scenes like they did in the good old days before computers did everything for us. --Anne Erickson
Fully integrated screenplay formatter, word processor and index card system Spell Checker & Thesaurus Drag and Drop Editing Extensive Importing & Exporting Script Notes Optional Foreign Dictionaries - Danish, Dutch, French, Finnish, German, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish, and UK English Real Time Formatting Production features Auto-Recognitions Tab/Enter Simplicity Script Scanning