Celtx, Sophocles, or Movie Magic?

Joe999

Joe999

I want to start using some regular screenwriting software, could use some advice. I would like to choose between Celtx, Sophocles, or Movie Magic. I have read negative things about Final Draft so that is not on my list. Cost is not an issue though I know Celtx is free, but I can get Sophocles or Movie Magic at academic pricing making the cost worth it if the software does what I need.

A few months ago I had been using Celtx but stopped when it was buggy and had an error in the page count; yesterday downloaded the newer 0.977 version and it is buggy as hell also, could not install on one of my PCs, and today put it on another PC and tried to import and 80 page screenplay in text file format and it choked at 80% of the import and froze up. One thing I like about Celtx is that it allows exporting a screenplay to text or html-- something NOT allowed by Sophocles.

I have been working on my feature screenplay using Sophocles beta (newest version), because that is what my Mentor uses and recommends. But today I noticed that there was no option to export or save my screenplay in any other file format other than sophocles proprietary file format (.scp) and that really really bothers me. I do not care to be held hostage to a proprietary file format, I just do can not believe that Sophocles will not export to a .txt or .rtf file format. For that reason alone I am inclined to pass on Sophocles. I am hoping someone here who has a paid version of the new Sophocles can comment on the lack of export feature. I can copy the screenplay from sophocles by highlighting it then pasting into a plain text file, then importing that text file to whatever (Celtx, Movie Magic), except as I said Celtx choked on the large text file when I did this.

Movie Magic looks good but I have not tried it. Does it allow export/save_as to something generic, like text or rich text? If so, and if not buggy (I guess I should download the trial version), I could see myself going that route. Addundum: I just checked the site for movie magic and it says it exports to rich text format .rtf so that is a really good selling feature for me.

Any help or advice appreciated.
 
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Celtx 2.0 - the best out there

Hi,

This might be a late response, but thought of registering my POV on this.

Have been using Celtx 2.0 for the last one year or so. It is by far the finest screenwriting/creative writing software for Mac and PC.

The bugs (if there ever were any) are history. Your files are saved locally on your hard drive. It is only if you sign up for Celtx Studio that you get the option of hosting your files on their server and then collaborating with other people.

Besides giving industry-standard screenwriting tools, it offers customisable breakdowns, production scheduling, storyboarding tools, multimedia notes and a host of other features. The best part is that when you start a project, your screenplay, multimedia notes on every scene, storyboard, breakdowns, schedules etc. all co-exist on different tabs in the same file.

It is free, no-obligation, and calls for donations to fight malaria and not for software development.

Get on board today. I have a feeling, that in the next five years Celtx will become as ubiquitous as iMovie. Even there people used to hesitate in the beginning and now award-winning indie-flicks are being cut on it. Well, at least before Apple decided to screw it all up with the new version! But that's another story.

Another thing - Celtx offers templates for all kinds of creative writing film, stageplay, Audio Visual treatments, comics, prose, Radio plays etc.
 
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Celtix FTW I guess. Haven't had any problems so far. And the fact I can save it automatically on PDF is great. Especially when I want to compare different drafts of the script.

Oh yeah, and free is good in any language. Especially in the micro budget film world.
 
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Also just checked out Celtx, and as far as I can see it supports about everything the other 'expensive' packages have..
Also Celtx works for all platforms and available in different languages, so that's also a good thing..

One of the things that might be missing is an export/import function for other formats like final draft or something, but ofcourse there are maybe more things that could be better, but hee at least you can ask for a feature to be added, or if you really want to and know how to program, you can add it yourself (or extend it like you can with firefox), so you can add your own features as they provide the sourcecode..
 
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SuperDre said:
Also just checked out Celtx, and as far as I can see it supports about everything the other 'expensive' packages have..
Also Celtx works for all platforms and available in different languages, so that's also a good thing..

One of the things that might be missing is an export/import function for other formats like final draft or something, but ofcourse there are maybe more things that could be better, but hee at least you can ask for a feature to be added, or if you really want to and know how to program, you can add it yourself (or extend it like you can with firefox), so you can add your own features as they provide the sourcecode..
Click to expand...

Contrary to some beliefs, Celtx CAN export to PDF...it's just tricky to find. You have to click on the little tab on the bottom of the page. I'm a computer geek, and it took me a while to find it.
 
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M1chae1 said:
Contrary to some beliefs, Celtx CAN export to PDF...it's just tricky to find. You have to click on the little tab on the bottom of the page. I'm a computer geek, and it took me a while to find it.
Click to expand...

Really? Cause on mine it's on the top under the MASTER CATALOG tab when you hit TYPE SET. I found it pretty easily and I'm very computer illiterate.
 
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