alt.screenwriters

The bleeding edge of screenwriting and media convergence

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Written by tborst

June 26, 2014 at 10:32 pm

News on the Screenwriting Tools Battle Front

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It seems like an eternity since the last update of Final Draft, but in fact it’s only (!) been 4 years — which is an eternity in a time when Firefox and Chrome seem to update nearly weekly.

During this time, Celtx has developed a suite of (semi-)integrated screenwriting tools; Adobe has developed Story as part of its Creative Cloud; screenwriter John August and others have developed the Fountain markup language as the foundation for a number of new authoring tools; cloud storage has become de rigueur due to Dropbox and other services; and script composition on the iPad and other tablets has become increasingly desirable.

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Written by tborst

August 5, 2013 at 4:39 am

Google Glass/Augmented Reality Storytelling

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What is the future of storytelling and screenwriting when media content is developed using Google Glass, and also distributed via Google Glass?  Some first explorations via the Glass Creative Collective, as glasses go out to the top film schools in the country. Whether Google Glass emerges as the actual technology, or whether it quickly becomes irrelevant and a dead-end, this clearly suggests a new chapter in media convergence. To be continued…

Written by tborst

July 31, 2013 at 12:00 am

Posted in screenwriting

Videogame Dialog Scripts

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As this is primarily an archival site for the decade+ of alt.screenwriters columns published in the WGA trade magazine Written By, I don’t get around to posting on this much (since I teach undergraduate screenwriting full-time, have two book blogs to maintain, and still work as a professional screenwriter, time permitting) — but I’ll direct the reader to a new post about videogame dialog scripts on the End to End Game Development book blog.

A reminder here that my earlier book, Story and Simulations for Serious Games, also discusses videogame scriptwriting. Today’s professional screenwriter should be able to move between film, TV and interactive media — and knowing how to format narrative for any of these platforms is a basic piece of knowledge to have.

Written by tborst

July 30, 2012 at 9:45 pm

Screenwriting discussed on MASTERING CELTX blog

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Mastering Celtx has its own blog, and recent posts have included discussions of screenwriting for documentaries and videogames.

More posts on the nuts and bolts of screenwriting (as they relate to Celtx) are scheduled. For scriptwriters working on the “bleeding edge” of media convergence, this is definitely worth investigating.

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Written by tborst

July 3, 2011 at 3:36 am

MASTERING CELTX Officially Released

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Mastering CeltxThe day of Mastering Celtx‘s official release has arrived.  Find the book on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble, or just about any other online book vendor you prefer. You can walk into a brick-and-mortar Barnes & Noble or Borders and also order the book for pickup.

Can’t get enough of Mastering Celtx? Check out the book’s blog and Twitter feed. Love to hear what you think.

Written by tborst

May 25, 2011 at 6:25 am

MASTERING CELTX Twitter feed

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Written by tborst

May 22, 2011 at 3:04 pm

MASTERING CELTX Available for Pre-Order

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Mastering CeltxMy new book Mastering Celtx is being published by Cengage Learning, and can now be pre-ordered at any of your favorite booksellers (brick-and-mortar, and online).

alt.screenwriters has always been about exploring new developments in screenwriting.

Celtx describes itself as an all-in-one media pre-production tool. For years, novice and professional screenwriters have had to spend a good chunk of change for either Final Draft or Movie Magic Screenwriter in order to compose and distribute professional looking screenplays. Celtx is open-source and free.

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Written by tborst

May 8, 2011 at 4:27 am

New Developments

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Written by tborst

March 26, 2011 at 5:12 am

Interactive Films

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In the mid- and late-’90s, a variety of companies experimented with interactive filmmaking — from in-the-theater type experiences with audience remote controls, to CD-ROMs and DVDs.  None of these experiments yielded mainstream success, and interactive films largely retreated from the media landscape in the past decade.

Interestingly, the iPad may trigger a new wave of experimentation with interactive filmmaking, and the device might offer just the right kind of form factor for this kind of storytelling.  Check out the “making-of” video for “Touching Stories”, a collection of 4 short interactive films made by Tool of North America, a production company specializing in creating branded video content.

Written by tborst

July 1, 2010 at 3:08 am

Posted in screenwriting

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