Version 3 Review by Sean Kennelly for Creative Screenwriting Magazine
"Movie Outline 3.0 does a terrific job of helping writers organize their development process from beginning
to end and has effectively raised the bar in the screenwriting software arena."
Version 3 Review by Carl Hose for Writer's Journal Magazine
"I've used just about every screenwriting program on the market, and I can tell you now, without reservation, that my screenwriting software of choice is Movie Outline."
"If you're an aspiring screenwriter looking to get that first script under your belt, Movie Outline's focus on outlining and character work could help get your script off on the right foot, possibly saving you hundreds of pages of rewrites."
Movie Outline 3.0 is a complete development to finished screenplay package. It contains all of the steps necessary to create a story and write it in proper screenplay format, all in one piece of software.
The software's feature layout is simple and effective. You will not need to spend hours and hours learning how to use the program. Getting up-to-speed is a breeze.
Some of the things we liked best about this program are the tabs devoted to general story notes, character development, story tasks, and the reference library.
Let's face it. Very few writers start writing at Fade In and push on through without stopping until they get to Fade Out. We stop, start, stop, jump ahead, jump backward, and restart all over again. Most writers, particularly in the beginning stages of developing their screenplay, have a few scenes planned, some characters in mind, maybe a great ending, but it can be difficult to keep all of these disconnected items straight and in one place.
The notes and story tasks tabs are very useful for these random items that may not have a place. So anytime you are developing a new script idea, just open a new project file and place all of your thoughts into the notes section. Then you can begin filling out your outline. When you are ready to start writing, just go to the "Script" tab and bang it out. You never need to leave the program.
If you are looking for an effective, all-in-one screenwriting solution to take you from ideas, to outline, to final draft, we suggest you take a close look at this program.
Movie Outline v2 Review by Screentalk Magazine
Want To Make A Scene? Breaking Up Can Be So Hard To Do
But, it needn't be.
Sometimes when you have an idea for a movie
you need to break down the story to see how
strong it will stand on its own. But what happens
when you want to break it up? Build on it?
The Internet has changed how we can
approach the genesis of storytelling-including
the building and the structuring of our ideas. The
paramount consideration of this process is being
able to outline the structure of the story in a way
so that the many parts suggest the makeup of not
just a story, but a great story. Some enjoy the
process of writing on-the-fly, they start writing on
the page and see where it takes them, while
others like to plan beginning, middle, and end
(not necessarily in that order) even before they
write FADE IN:
For those of us who like to use a framework to
organize and develop our ideas there are a variety
of ways of outlining, from using index cards to
software specifically formatted to break down an
idea. If you're looking for ease-of-use then you
needn't look any further than Movie Outline 2.0
by Darc Production Ltd. They've designed and
developed a simple story outlining program that
you'll be using well within the first 30 minutes of
downloading a copy from their homepage.
Because the whole writing process proved to be a lot more lengthy than
he wanted, Darc Productions' CEO Daniel Bronzite (screenwriter of Long
Time Dead) decided he needed to use something that could speed
things up as well as strengthen his story structure. When it came to meeting
with producers and development executives he had
to write outlines/treatments to get commissioned work.
"This, at first, was a bit of a pain because I had to think
a little bit more about the planning," reflects Daniel. "But
then what began as a necessary evil turned out to be a
very effective process and ultimately meant that when it
came to writing the screenplay I already knew the entire
structure, character arcs and story progression since I had
planned it all out in detail for them. Now, I step-outline all
my work before jumping into the screenplay. Unfortunately,
using my regular word processor slowed me down since
it was not specifically tailored for the job, and there was
no software on the market that did this for me without
complicating the process unnecessarily. That's why I
developed Movie Outline."
The simplicity starts when you want to plan and outline
the idea into a story. After you open the program, you fill
in your movie title, genre, theme, and synopsis. You write
the scene headers (much like you would your screenplay
with INT. FRANK'S PLACE - DAY). Then, you can fill in the
action of that scene (Frank's house is a mess. The maid
hasn't been seen for 18 months and.). It can be as short
or long as you like.
The software also offers ready-to-use examples of movie
features in the desired genre of your writing, so if you want
to flesh out a scene or two in the action genre, you can
pull up a Die Hard outline alongside your script to compare
it against.
Version 2.0 now offers more useful functions in structuring
and presenting your outline. PowerView incorporates the
use of color-coding to structure the acts within the story.
This will give you a good idea/overview on the number of
scenes used within whatever act.
You can also see where your characters come in and out of a scene with
a "find" feature called SmartSearch. For example, there might also be a
time where you want one of your characters to appear and do something,
or an event you're writing the "cause" on, but haven't got around
to putting in the "effect." And if you're not
ready for that "effect" scene yet and think
you will have a hard time remembering it in
a month's time, you can just add it to the
Story Tasks window, so you have a list of
things to do.
Got a writing partner you want to share
your outline with? Movie Outline 2.0 allows
you to convert it to HTML so you can save it
as a web page for viewing in all the
colour and layout you want. You can choose
TXT, PDF, and RTF as well.
Overall, the strength of Movie Outline 2.0
lies in its simplicity for ease of use. Everything
you need to do or see is mostly on the screen
in front of you. It's one of the few writers'
software tools where I was comfortably upto-
speed in the first few minutes of creating
and outlining my story.
Alan Lakein said, "Planning is bringing the
future into the present so that you can do
something about it now." Now is as good a
time to do something about outlining your
next movie as ever.
Paul Watson
Screentalk Magazine
Movie Outline v1 Review By Carl Hose
It was designed to be a simple, effective tool for outlining your movie, and that's exactly what it is.
Movie Outline opens to a work space mostly devoted to the outline itself. You type in the heading for your
scene and then there's a place to type in the scene description. Your scenes then appear to the right, under
the Outline tab. The outline tab lets you view your scenes in outline form, highlight specific scenes, and
rearrange the order of the scenes. In addition to the Outline tab, there is a Project Info tab, a Notes tab, and a Reference tab. The Project
Info tab lets you record and store the title of the project, author name, genre, theme, and a log line or
synopsis.
Unique to Movie Outline is the Reference tab, which displays outlines and analyses of produced movies in two different views (outline or scene description), allowing you to
check the pace of your story against successful produced films. The outlines for Die Hard,
There's Something About Mary, Good Will Hunting, Scream, When Harry Met Sally and
True Romance come with Movie Outline, and you can buy plugins for several other movies at Movie Outline's web site.
If you're a screenwriter looking for
a simple, effective way to outline your story before you begin your script, you won't do better than Movie
Outline. This is a program I'm excited about. I highly suggest you take a look at it.
