Award Sounds

Celtx

The New Haven project uses Celtx for screenwriting. I was all set help out in some other areas of production, when I received a warning from the project-lead. Essentially, although Celtx allows for multi-user collaboration, it doesn't facilitate it at all. In fact, it gets in the way.

One person creates a project file, uploads for sharing within the project team. Another team member downloads the project. Both update the project. The last one to sync the project overwrites the work of the other. Bad move.

It's a shame. Celtx has a lot of potential. If it weren't for the multi-user issues, it would be ideal for independent movie-making. It includes tools for capturing scripts, characters, locations, settings as well as props, CGI, vehicles, etc. Most (I'd say all, but I haven't confirmed that) are cross-referenced. I like the ability to be able to add a character in one scene, use the same character in a few other scenes, then run a report showing all the scenes that the character appears in. That's useful.

Zhura

I noticed a reference to Zhura when looking at the Celtx forum about multi-user issues. The interface looks a bit simpler than Celtx's and it doesn't look to have the depth of functionality. On the plus side, it's reputed to have much better multi-user functionality. On the negative side, it's currently a web-only application. So you can't add to your script while you're off-line. The team behind it are testing off-line access.

Any others?

Plotbot is another free application. Not one I've used, but I'll give it a go at some point.

Updates

If I find any more information, I'll update this page. If Celtx adds multi-user access, then please let me know if I haven't already written about it. That'll be the key for me to get involved and use it more.