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script breakdown question


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My wife Jean (a set decorator) and I are each breaking down different scripts for our upcoming jobs and we thought of something we would like to be able to do with a PDF of a script. We would like to be able to assign a set to each scene so that once complete you could easily see that scenes 12, 17, 45, 47 and 80 are all in "Sam's apartment" and you could easily view just those pages of the script. Similar to the way you put photos into albums in iPhoto. Then you could just click on the Sam's Apartment album and view the scenes that take place there.

Any ideas? Is this maybe a functionality of Final Draft?

We use Apple computers.

Thanks,

R

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I know that is really easy to do in the cross-platform program Celtx, but that software isn't industry-standard (yet). I would assume that Final Draft has something similar.

Adobe has a product called "Story" coming out that is web-based and might lead to a new workflow..

It would be nice if the UPM, AD or whomever could hand out reports like that to department heads...

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I haven't used FinalDraft in years so I don't know what features-functions there are beyond script writing and composition. Mariner Software has a program called Montage that is really quite good but has gotten very little industry penetration. Montage does have really good import-export routines for FinalDraft documents (but you would still have to deal with some sort of conversion from the .pdf you have to a full FinalDraft document and this may not be possible).

From the Mariner Software site, here are some features described that could accomplish what you propose:

View your script from every angle

Viewing your script from different perspectives is critical. Montage provides several different views: Live outline view, script view, character view, locations view, research and notes view, and tasks view. Our pride and joy, the live outline view, allows you to write your script unlike any other screenwriting software by helping you make scenes, add characters to those scenes, and take notes, without actually writing the script. And to top things off, Montage Smart Views even allow writers to visually filter the script to the desired content, based on criteria.

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Final Draft does have a "Reports" feature that allows you to sort by "location". It then gives you a breakdown of the locations by name, number of times that it is listed and the page numbers in the script.

If you get a PDF you will have to probably copy and save it to a text file then import it into Final Draft. I'm not sure if the most current versions of the program can import PDF files?

I've attached a photo for reference.

RL

post-284-130815086956_thumb.jpg

post-284-130815086956_thumb.jpg

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Thanks Richard. If I could get the functionality I'm looking for in Final Draft that would be best as I could probably get a copy of the script in Final Draft from production if I asked. That said, Montage looks pretty interesting too and would also require getting a Final Draft copy of the script. It seems to me that much of the functionality of Montage is already available in Final Draft.

A UPM friend suggested Movie Magic Scheduling from Entertainment Partners which looks fantastic but is kind of overkill for me (as well as $499).

I guess it's time to download these programs and try them out during their trial/refund periods.

R

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