Script Studio
1.0.6Screenplay writing software for screenwriters (was Movie Outline).
Overview
Script Studio (formerly Movie Outline) is a writer's toolbox for screenwriters, playwrights, and novelists. It helps you plan your story outline, develop characters, structure your narrative, and professionally format your movie script, stageplay, TV show or manuscript. It was developed by a produced/screenwriter to take the complexity out of the script- and novel-writing process, allowing you to focus on your story while the software handles the formatting and pagination.
Its design is based on the principle of step-outlining, which allows you to plan and build your cinematic structure scene-by-scene, or your novel chapter-by-chapter. You can color-code your structure into acts and sequences, use templates such as "The Hero's Journey," and compare the progress of your own story side-by-side with scene-by-scene breakdowns and analyses of 12 successful Hollywood movies
Features
- Outline and Structure - Plan your story beat-by-beat, drag-and-drop scenes or chapters to re-organize your narrative, and color-code your structure.
- Character Development - Create in-depth, three-dimensional character profiles, analyze dialogue, and develop their story arcs step-by-step.
- Movie Reference Library - View scene-by-scene breakdowns and analyses of successful Hollywood movies and compare your story structure and pacing with the pros.
- Easy Script Formatting - Let Script Studio professionally format your script to industry standards as you type so you can focus on the story.
- Manage Notes and Ideas - Keep track of character ideas, plot points, draft script scenes and research in a global Scratch Pad, and build a checklist of story objectives in Story Tasks.
- Versatile Word Processor - Includes screenplay, stageplay, teleplay, and musical layout templates, and dedicated Novel Mode.
What's new in Script Studio
Note: Script Studio is a paid upgrade from Movie Outline. View full upgrade info <\br>Now requires OS X 10.10.5 or later running on a 64-bit Intel processor
- 64-bit update
- Movie Reference Plugin Bundle now available via App Store in-app purchase or Script Studio web store
- Bug fixes
- Feature improvements
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12 Script Studio Reviews
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Yes. I like so many others (or so few) paid full price and now it is down to a third of that price - correctly priced now. That was huge buyer dissonance. Just can't win with this app.
Oh, jennymarieholmes, yes I did contact their support folks - as I said. I provided them with all the detail they asked for. They treated me like I had some disease that i was infecting them with. They were not rude but they were perfunctory and clearly locking me out. I tried to help and they turned that enabling space into a combative arena. Not me. They accused me of lying. I have the evidence. QED therefor they are lying.
Not a great way to engender customer loyalty Nuvotech. It is silly, juvenile and very short sighted to accuse someone of lying particularly when all that person did was alert other potential customers of an extant, proven and admitted fault. It is very short sighted to create buyer dissonance.
This is a REVIEW site Nuvotech. It is not a PR opportunity site for Nuvotech or any other app creator. Reviewers on this site merely relate their direct user experiences as truthfully and accurately and in a detailed way as they are able. If the experience is good then the review is good. If not then ...
The negative reviews are the result of genuine negative experiences. You do not own this site and you can not shape reviews here to gloss your products - particularly by accusing a reviewer of lying. That is bullying. We owe Nuvotech NOTHING on this site - other than accurate reporting of our user experiences. What are you on about - several of the reviews here appear to be genuinely endorsing your app. If they are genuine then there is real balance. You can't expect five stars from every reviewer - particularly when it has been pointed out that other apps do almost exactly what Script Studio does, better, cheaper and without glitches.
Let me start by explaining that what works for one writer does not necessarily work for another and that this is just my personal opinion. The features I like might be the features another writer doesn't so please do what I did and try various apps and also with a working project. That's the key because just trying a demo without a focus doesn't really give you a true insight into its pros and cons. I was working on a new feature spec and used this to trial Script Studio.
Aside from all the superficial stuff (like the design and icons etc) what was important to me was the story planning and the formatting. Don't get me wrong, it's actually very pleasing on the eye, especially the Night Mode option but that kind of thing doesn't concern me.
So I managed to create a beat by beat outline of my story very quickly using Script Studio's outlining feature which basically lets you create each story beat chronologically and then gives you the ability to move them around as needed either by drag and drop in the outline list or in the index card feature the software calls "Step Cards".
This for me was the primary differential between Script Studio and those other apps I mentioned, especially Final Draft which was slightly more expensive than Script Studio. They only let you outline by "scenes" and planning a story outline before writing the script is almost possible but not really. At least, not the way I like to do it.
I will say that Scrivener is probably the better of the other apps I tried in terms of features for writers and having the ability to collate notes, ideas and research but it's a little all over the place for me and certainly not as focused for screenwriters as Script Studio.
After writing my outline (well, the first ten beats of it because that's all the demo allows) I moved over to the script section and started on the screenplay. The automatic formatting worked like a charm and I found the process very fluid. I had a few ideas for character arcs along the way but decided to note them down in the Scratch Pad instead of using Script Studio's Character Spotlight and Story Arc feature because I don't really do that stuff until rewriting and even then not so much.
On the whole I think it's an excellent and intuitive app with huge potential, only perhaps let down by the price tag but then again, I guess you get what you pay for. It has many features I found extremely useful like the Scratch Pad and PowerView act structuring, and some like FeelFactor (story engagement graphs) which seems cool but again probably not necessary until a rewrite or if you stumble upon a pacing problem.
I'm still in the middle of writing my spec and enjoying the process but if I run into anything else worth mentioning I'll tag on some comments at a later date but so far so good!
We are the developers of Script Studio and don't normally like to get involved with online reviews but unfortunately felt we had to step in on this occasion due to the reviewer blatantly lying about our product and support.
When the reviewer contacted us a couple of weeks ago we replied immediately and requested that he register his software purchase with us in order to receive free technical support and also to reply back with some more details about the bug he reported.
He never replied or registered and since then we have contacted him again and still have received no response.
The bug he mentioned did actually exist but was fixed in the 1.0.2 update back in October. The thing is, because he never replied or registered he did not know about this and we could not help him.
It is a shame when users decide to vent on third-party sites but more of a shame when they lie.
If anybody has any questions about our software we are always happy to help and pride ourselves in our first class support and response time.
Thank you.
Unfortunately their first release of Script Studio had some terribly nasty bugs. Like really nasty, text deleting bugs that would cause pages of text to disappear and left me leaving the original review but after numerous email exchanges with their tech support, they have pushed a couple of updates that seemed to have eliminate the problems of version 1. Now that its back to being in good working order I have definitely become a fan again.
What's included in the update is a panel of "story tasks and scratch pad." Is this worth the update? For me, it definitely is. From my earlier projects, I tend to have folders filled with text files and pages that can easily get lost in the shuffle, even in the digital world. Having a place to keep those in order is pretty great. Now when I go back to a project, I pop open one application and everything is housed in one spot.
All in all, this software was created by someone who put the process of story analyzing and screenwriting all under one domain and it's very, very well done. Now if they could add a horizontal timeline, they'd have the perfect beast!
So, yeah, it has been a bit of a yo-yo ride with the move from Movie Outline 3 to Script Studio.
My rating went from 5 stars to 0 stars but with the most current version it's back to 5 stars.
You can update to this new app from within Movie Outline 3.
Have you looked at looked at Story Planner or even Log Line or story Skeleton. If you had you would have to at least be honest about the comparative price of this app.
I am always wary of five star wow about interfaces in the comments on MacUpdate - particularly if there is not even a hint of real world use.
It sounds like you are more in love and starry eyed than a real hard nosed writer giving real and trustworthy feedback on an app after really using it.
Pretty interfaces alone are not worth five stars - they are one part of the user friendliness of the app - not the complete functionality of the app itself.
If you don't give genuine feedback people won’t trust what you write.
At the end of the day the readers of these reviews can simply download a free trial and see for themselves. So, in answer to your original question..."yes" this is a genuine review as are my reviews of other apps on this site. And "yes" it had the wow factor for me personally for the reasons I gave.
FYI: I am not interested in getting into a conversation with you about this so please understand that I will not respond to anything else you have to say about my review.
http://www.thestickingplace.com/projects/projects/mackendrick/stepoutlines/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=509&v=d94gXrlDcNY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CwDeqPPjOs
What is a Step Outline
“Steps” are “events” in a timeline of your characters’ histories in your story. Which means that each step in a step outline can consist of more than one scene in your eventual screenplay. So a Step Outline is a writer's sketch (an illustrator would use simple pencil sketches ).
Benefits of Step Outlining
By creating a step outline, you will create a much stronger story structure than you would have by simply sitting down to write a 90-page script and seeing where it takes you. And most importantly, you will save a whole lot of time in the rewriting stage of your project.
Why Step Outline
There are a few different writing software options that accommodate Step Outlines so adroitly - Script Studio is among the best because it folds in so many other writing functions - such as character development and so on. But at the end of the day you can use any word processing or screenwriting software to make a step outline. Scrivener and Fade In are among the best.
What Does a step Outline Look Like?
It looks like a series of paragraphs, each separated by a single white space. But little tricks in Step Outlines, such as writing a scene header at the top of each paragraph to help you to organise your thoughts and remember what has happened earlier in the story. This process is actually formatted in Script Studio - it is meant to work that way and has a core function to set it out perfectly.
Synopses of Action
What you write into those step outline paragraphs is important. Think of them as synopses of the action which occurs in a larger scene, or in several smaller, connected scenes. You don't include dialogue. Script Studio helps you to be economical in your writing, and try to get the general idea down as quickly as possible and move on. It stops you wasting time nitpicking every little detail.
For the first pass, just get the ideas down.
How to use your Step Outline
Count your pages. Assuming you have set your document format with 1-inch margins all around, and you are using a 12-point type (preferably Courier Nuvo), and you have numbered your pages, then you are doing it right. So, count your pages. If your total is somewhere between 12 and 15 pages, then you have a step outline which will most closely translate into a 90-page script.
Once you are thinking in terms of story steps you are truly thinking in terms of plot and plot points. And that is where I take my Script Studio work back to Scrivener (for novels) or FadeIn (for screenplays).
At the moment is about the buggiest software I have ever put on my computer and the company are still a bit defensive about their new baby. That said, I think I'll persist with it to help me with character development and step outlines but do my actual writing in Scrivener or FadeIn.
Oh, of course, Alexander (Sandy) McKendrick is actually Alexander (Sandy) MacKendrick. A brilliant teacher.
My point about cost (Priced at around $200) is framed by Script Studio's main competitors - Log Outline - $25. Fade in - $80. Scrivener - about $50 to $60. Montage - about $30 and the freshend-up Contour at about $40. All of them just as useful and feature complete as Script Studio.
Whereas Script Studio thinks it is in the same ball park as the stupidly priced Final Draft at $200, or Power Structure (which has not been updated since 2014. or the equally up itself Screenwriter at about $200.
http://loglineapp.com/#simple
You would be daft to buy this when FadeIn is now available for about a quarter of the price of this dinosaur.
However while this is a version 1 release, it really is still in beta and crashes regularly and feels like it is made up of bits tacked together. For example, clicking between the major functions, 'Story Arc and Character Spotlight' flicks the entire app out and then back on again. It is downright spooky.
If you have invested in the very overpriced Movie Outline then this is not worth another investment of the same amount just to have the fonts issue fixed. For all practical purposes, this is just Movie Outline tizzed up in a new ball gown. You just can't disguise it's tired old body, no matter how much lipstick you whack on it.
Oh, and it only gives you two uses. So if you really need to run it on three or four different computers you can't. They say this is to ensure it is not Pirated - now it that is not looney logic in the time of Trump, I don't know what is.