Pre Production Tips
Howdy Folks, this is the first of a six part series on pre production full of tips, hints and templates to help you on your way to making your films.So let’s start at the beginning
The Script.
There are a number of software programs that can help you write your script in the correct format. Here is a link at a review of three free ones. The Good Room Blog
The one that I would like to focus on though is Celtx, this is free for the basic module, which actually has quiet a few neat features. Here is the link to Celtx webpage The basic version is the free one and is available for both Windows and Macs operating systems.
Ok let’s take a look at the Celtx software, from the opening page you can decide what sort of script you would like to write for your production, we are going to choose the film option here.
As you can see from the drop down menu (in this image it is marked as Dialogue), you can choose what element of the script you would like to work with and Celtx will place them in the right format for you.
Also along the bottom left hand side, we can click on a specific scene and that will bring you to that scene for editing. On the right hand side you have a place for notes which are attached to the section of the script you are working on.
At the top left we have have a tab that says Master Catalogue this brings you to a page that will allow you to fill in extensive history and biographical note of your characters.
Your script can be saved in a number of options, if you are co-writing the script, you can save you project as a celtx file, *.celtx.(just make sure that all writers have a copy of Celtx). Or if you just need to share your project with others,( like cast and crew, that may not have a version of celtx) you can save it as a PDF file, which most computers will be able to read. As you can see at the bottom of the screen you can also put a title page on your script, which does exactly what it says on the tin. It places at the beginning of the script a title, the author and contact information
Overall Celtx is a very handy script writing tool, particularly that it is free and very easy to use, allowing you to get started immediately and go crazy being creative. It also has a great number of extra features, that can be fun to experiment with like creating Shoot Lists, Storyboards, Production Schedule and Crew lists.