Scheduling software advice

S

slapshot

Old-school guy here. I have broken down a number of my features the analog way (production strip-board) before reaching out to investors over the years. On a couple of occasions the films got produced, and were re-broken down by an AD, who basically came up with the same results that I did. I have another script that I need to break down before going out for money and would hope to evade the tedium of the analog method. Any suggestions on the best transition from analogue to digital?

Thanks!
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Will Vincent said:
celtx has scheduling tools built in.. that would probably be a decent place to start. It's based directly on the analog strip-board method of scheduling, so it should be very familiar to you.
Click to expand...

I've been trying to get the celtx website to load now for 5 minutes.

WriterDuet has no scheduling software at all.

Adobe story is such a POS that it won't let me put two locations next to each other all i get is a drag and drop error.

So I've been at this for an hour now and I still can't manage to get a simple schedule
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I also use celtx but they have gone to some kooky pay model. My old free one still works but it makes me save drafts with a new version number every time so it is a bit wonky for me now, been so wrapped up in shooting/editing haven't had time to care about it though.

That being said, I draft my "Shooting Script" in celtx and then I import that file directly into an app called Shot Lister to create the actual day to day "Shot List" that I think you are referring to.

So if you wrote in an OVER THE SHOULDER in your shooting script, this app automatically sets up that shot as such in your shot list upon ingesting.

Once it is inside this app you can slide shots around and reorder them as well as assign your time estimates to them, put in lunches, insert non-shot related time sucks (like 'set-ups', SFX and teardowns) and it keeps your daily totals for you as you tweak it of course, so when you see you're up to a 14 hour day you can start sliding shots out of that day until you get it down to 12 or what have you.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
I was just looking for a simple breakdown of what locations, how many pages at each and which characters are present.

I shouldn't have to pay $750 (!! probably why no one has mentioned it) to save myself 2 hours
And I don't need a shot list I will do that manually.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
I give up. I am just going to spend a day and do this by hand.
I'd already be done by now instead of messing with buggy pos software. This is completely ridiculous.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You don't have to use it. There's nothing wrong with doing the whole process by hand. Just like you don't have to shoot with an Arri.

I shouldn't have to pay $750 (!! probably why no one has mentioned it) to save myself 2 hours
Click to expand...

First. If you're only going to use it once, you're right. It's a little silly to go out and buy professional software, the same way it's silly to buy equipment to use once. If you're a once off filmmaker, I agree with you, I wouldn't spend $450 on a bundle. If you were doing this constantly and it's your job (or you want a paid job in the Production dept), it's something you should consider.

Second. $750? You're usually a resourceful person. I would have expected to do a search for a non-bundle version if you were looking to find something cheaper. I'm sure you can afford a hungee. It's slightly older but still works.

http://www.writersstore.com/movie-magic-scheduling-software/
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ehh already 2/3 of the way done now…

Yeah if I were going to pay $100 hell I'd just write my own software to scan a script and do it for me.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm actually working on software that will do just that. It's far from finished (algorithms are done but the UI and output is giving me headaches) but I plan to keep it simple (aimed and indie filmmakers who don't need the MMS behemoth), efficient, and under $50.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top