The Real Deal

Have You Ever Wondered... Is that certain book really good? Does that product really work? So have I. From Indie authors and musicians to local products or nationally advertised, I can't tell you the countless products I've bought as seen on TV only to find out that they don't work at my house, the book was really a bunch of hype, the music was not what I had hoped for or a movie was a yawn. If you want an honest opinion, you will find it here. Although I do lots of book reviews, I also check out lots of other products and let you know if they really live up to their ads or their hype. Stay tuned, and check in often. You never know what I'm going to talk about next.

13.8.11

Confused to Clear in 60 Minutes

I had invested in a software program called Final Draft about four years ago. It seemed to be somewhat of an industry standard, or so I thought when I got it. It did what I needed it to do. Having never produced an actual film with it, I didn't really know what others thought of it.
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 program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255

No comments:

Post a Comment