Not Having Much Success

September 18, 2022 6:00 PM

I bought the latest version of Final Draft to put my script into a musicals format. Recently too, I realized that I have to cut at least half of the dialogue to make room for and let the story be told by the 20+ songs the composer has created for the show. So I'm a little overwhelmed. But other than how FD is the industry standard, I can't seem to understand the advantage of it over, say, Celtx, which I used to create the script.

I'm sure I just have to use it more to get more familiar with how it treats tabs and returns, categories, margins, etc. But what is the learning curve? I wonder if I should make my changes in Celtx manually and then import the whole thing into FD. But since I don't know how the copying and pasting will change the formatting, I'm hesitant to do even that. Are the YT videos on how to use FD enough, or do I need to take a class? It's really daunting.

posted by CollectiveMind to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Are you sure Celtx doesn't export Final Draft format files? A friend of mine has written Fade In (https://www.fadeinpro.com/) which I know does and - I'm not a scriptwriter so this is all secondhand - it sounds like Final Draft as a program is pretty lousy compared to newer alternatives and it only sticks around because the format itself is required. (If Celtx doesn't export to Final Draft, I know Fade In imports Celtx files, so I guess you could try that.)
posted by inkyz at 6:09 PM on September 18, 2022

Hi friend, fellow theatre writer here and I recall seeing some of your prior AskMes about this project. Final Draft can be swell for working with things in script format, but (and maybe this isn’t quite what you’re asking) I’d probably say work in whatever software is comfortable for you. Every Director, actor, and other theater person I’ve worked with has been fine getting a PDF or some thing similar. Word Doc, Google Doc— no one’s been that fussed. If I were you I would keep using the software you know and focus on your editing/rewrite tasks. Good luck!
posted by Zephyrial at 6:23 PM on September 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

There is no advantage for you to use FD over Celtx in theatre. As I said in your previous Ask, FD is definitely not industry standard in theatre.

If you are working in film and TV, and various writers need to all be using the same software, then if you are all using FD, that's what you want to be doing.

The main thing is that you are using some clear formatting so other folks know how to read it, and that you can make it into a pdf.

Keep using what is most comfortable for you. In your situation FD is not providing any advantage.
posted by miles1972 at 7:00 PM on September 18, 2022

All good answers above, but a general bit of advice here...copying and pasting isn't a permanent process. Select-All, Copy your Celtx file and paste it into FinalDraft, see what happens. If it's no good, close the FD file without saving and continue your work in Celtx. As always, be sure you have a copy of the original file around in case you accidentally hit Cut instead of Copy and your machine suddenly freezes or goes dead. Believe me, it can happen.
posted by lhauser at 9:35 PM on September 18, 2022

Response by poster: Thank, you, all. I feel like, other than being hammered that FD is the "industry standard," I've been punked by the FD hype.
posted by CollectiveMind at 12:48 PM on September 19, 2022