When I joined a film makers group, they were ga-ga over Celtx (pronounced Kel-tx) the attractiveness of it that it could be downloaded off the Internet for free and several people were already familiar with it.
I didn't like the idea of having purchased software I wasn't going to be using, but promised I would learn it and switch. I continued writing scripts in FD while minimally dabbling in Celtx. In fact, I had gone so far as to download it, look around, get intimidated and re-open Final Draft. Then, I found Mastering Celtx The Official Guide written by Terry Borst. It seemed to be the needed nudge toward keeping my promise.
The Official Guide is over 300 pages, laid out like a course book, with images of what your computer screen should look like as he takes you step by step thought each feature of the program. I decided to go with it and popped open a window and followed along. It was straight forward and easy to work with.
They explained how to import a screenplay from Final Draft, which I tried. I imported a text document and a text with formatting document. The straight text version imported a lump of text that needed to be untangled line by line. The latter turned out to be the better choice. The first half-page needed to be tweaked to fit the formatting, but amazingly, the rest of it fell right into place. The smoothest import I've experienced so far.
This book is going to become part of my permanent library of reference material and I highly recommend this book if you are using this program. It is clear, concise and I wouldn't be with out it. I went from not understanding too much of the program to complete understanding in less than an hour. Well done, Terry!
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the AmazonVine
No comments:
Post a Comment