WriterDuet

I’m back again with a newbie review of another scriptwriting program! As always, I AM NOT a professional reviewer. I’m just some guy that likes to write and explore my options. As with the previous two, I’m writing this based on the basic functionality that I use these applications for.

From their website:

“SIMPLE AND POWERFUL
The best script writing software for content creation, editing, outlining, and real-time collaboration.”

I’m sure the term “best” is subjective, because all of them say this. Or at least most do. Maybe it’s many? Anyways. WriterDuet is primarily web-based where all your work is done within your browser. The core interface is white on dark grey (as you’ve read time and again, a big win in my book) where you either start a new project or open a saved one. Again, all stored within their cloud. As with the others, I started with importing a fountain document from Llama Drama Studios to test its ability to read it. No post-editing required after the import.

Nice.

That means I can get to work, writing away. When starting a new project, you can choose the format and whoo-boy do they have a few templates to choose from. Thirteen to be exact. Whoa. To a Cro-Magnon like me, I don’t know the difference between some of these. Screen to stage, multi-cam to single-cam sitcoms, VR, right-to-left, graphic novel. So. Many. Options. I went with screenplay since it’s a format I’m familiar with (mostly) and at least half of the other options are Pro-level only. Then I began!

Shifting from line types was easy and intuitive right out the gate. You have a bunch of enu items on the left that brings up the many features it has, including a menu with line types and text tools. So if you want the next line to be a character, click on it and boom. Done. It builds your cast as you go, with an autofill feature when you start to type in a character’s name, it provides a drop-down. Typing an open parenthesis auto-generates a parenthetical (which I found super useful while writing in terms of keeping the flow going) that you don’t even have to close. Type it in, hit enter, you’re back in the dialogue.

One of the neat things I liked about WriterDuet is the desktop-to-mobile switching. They have a downloadable app for iOs and Android and you can leave your script in an open tab on your computer, walk away and unlock your phone and pick up where you left off. I’m not much of a mobile scripter (especially since I don’t have my mountains of notes and notebooks with me everywhere I go. Sort of. Okay, maybe not accessible everywhere I go. Shush. Don’t judge me.), but I gave it a whirl when I closed the laptop and stowed it for the night and wanted to keep writing in bed before rolling over to sleep. WriterDuet auto-saves after every couple of minutes of inactivity, but I can’t seem to find if you can change the frequency. It also generates a downloadable backup and offers to save it to your desktop at the same time. Haven’t messed with it yet.

They offer a free plan which gives you 3 scripts to write, no limitations on length, time, etc. They have three paid plans, Plus adds in unlimited projects and unlimited co-writers, Pro gives access to Pro tools, analytics and a desktop application and Premium provides MultiColumn tools and templates, something called ReadThrough and AutoTranslate.

All in all, it’s a great writing application and I breezed through my scriptwriting with minimal stops and starts due to a formatting blunder or mix-up (whether me-made or glitch). It has a lot of the same additional features that KIT Scenarist and Arc Studio Pro provide like cards, mind maps, and collaboration tools. This is definitely one to consider.

Cost: Three scripts for free, $7.99 USD to $15.99 USD per month, depending on the plan

Website: https://www.writerduet.com

KIT Scenarist

Happy Sunday everybody! I have just finished another episode for my podcast series, Boston Harbor Horror Presents, with another scriptwriting application I wanted to review for you. As a reminder, I AM NOT a professional reviewer by any means, and I am basing my review on only the formatting functionality that I’ve used in all the different apps I’ve tried. With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s get down to business!

From their website:

“KIT Scenarist is a program for creating screenplays which oriented at international standards in the field of film production. The program is a full-featured studio for creating stories from the birth of the idea and before the transfer of the script to production.”

KIT Scenarist is a Russian-based screenwriting application developed by Dimka Novikov Labs. It is free to download and use, and offers paid cloud service to aid in online collaboration for fairly reasonable prices. There are several promising features, like the mind map, that I may delve into next season. I’m a chaotic mess, so I haven’t transcribed my notes into a digital format unless I need to share them with someone. I’m a fan of writing pen on paper, so the majority of my non-Internet information for my show and writings tend to be scattered in Moleskines on my desk and in my bag.

But I digress.

The interface is clean and easy to use. Like Arc Studio Pro, it’s default mode is white text on a dark grey background, which I’m a fan of. Dark mode for the win! For testing purposes, I exported a script from Llama Drama Studio in fountain and imported it into KIT Scenarist and it required nearly no additional modification on my part. This time, I started writing a fresh episode in KIT Scenarist, as opposed to finishing one I had earlier started with Arc Studio Pro. The typing speed was flawless with no lag between keystrokes and the type appearing on screen (an issue I experienced with Arc Studio Pro), the transitions from Scene Heading, Character, Action, Dialogue, etc. was easy to manage and navigate and I really liked how each scene was automatically loaded onto a sidebar to the left for ease of reference. One feature I particularly liked with this application is that it automatically gives you a run-time for the script in the top right corner of the application. You can also choose to add other counters, so I checked the boxes for pages and word count as well. After finishing my writing, I’m at the top of page twenty, with 3,674 words and a runtime of 19 minutes and 25 seconds, which for an audio drama producer is great as it gives you a good general idea of how long your episodes are going to be. I haven’t found any faults as of yet, although my focus is more on the automatic formatting and ease of use of an application versus tons of bells and whistles. The closest items of a negative note for me is spending money for the collaboration within the app (although the cost is small in comparison to others), and the base of the app being in Russia. Nothing against the Russian people, but being U.S. based myself, I’m wary and hesitant of providing any information of a financial or personal nature to that nation for…reasons.

Geopolitics aside, I think KIT Scenarist is a great program for AD scriptwriting and I look forward to utilizing its other features in my next project.

Price: Free, cloud services in order to collaborate are paid per month of use, i.e. $4.99 USD for one month, $9.99 USD for two months and so on up to $52.99 USD for one year.

Website: https://kitscenarist.ru/en/index.html

Arc Studio Pro

So, I got a wild hair that pushed me to try out different script editors for my audio drama scriptwriting. Thus far, I’ve used CeltX, Trelby, Drama Queen, Fade In and Llama Drama Studio. I decided to look at what else is out there and found a couple more that I haven’t tried, so I’m giving them a shot. I’ll write an episode of my podcast, Boston Harbor Horror Presents, in each of them and see how they shape up. I am, BY NO MEANS, a professional reviewer, nor am I doing this on behalf of any company. Also, when it comes to a lot of the bells and whistles that come with these programs, I haven’t used them. For a peek behind the curtain, I utilize Moleskine and similar-style notebooks for all my initial ideas, notetaking, and fleshing out the overall narrative for each season. I also utilize Microsoft OneNote for digital record and note keeping so I can share with collaborators (if and when there are any). So, for my purposes, the scriptwriting software is specifically for formatting options and ease of use. I’ve downloaded Arc Studio Pro, KIT Scenarist, Scrivener and opened a Writer Duet account. Today I will be talking about Arc Studio Pro.

From their website:
”Arc Studio Pro automatically formats your screenplay to industry standards, even if you don’t know what they are. It’s super-easy to use for beginners and fully-customizable for pros.

Fully automatic, industry standard page layout and text formatting

Import and export Final Draft, PDF, and Fountain

Use intuitive shortcuts to format your text perfectly and effortlessly

The most advanced autocompletion on the market: Character names and sluglines automatically completed for you, for faster typing and consistent naming.

Elements are chosen for you based on what's most likely, and can be configured.”

I will go step-by-step through my process in using this software. The website was easy to navigate and the download and install was quick and seamless. Creating a new project is fairly straightforward: you can import a script that’s fdx, fountain, pdf and Word, or create from scratch. Since I had already written over half the episode I was going to work on tonight, I decided to import it. I exported the original script as fountain from Llama Drama (which ran a format similar to UK stageplay with everything left-aligned) and imported it into Arc. When I loaded it up, Arc re-formatted it to the typical center-aligned film script we’re used to seeing. It also captured all of the actions I had in place, read scenes and divided them into easily accessible cards, and read and organized all the characters for me as well.

Writing in the main screen was simple. I used the Tab key to quickly switch between Scenes, Actions, Characters, Parentheticals, and Dialogue; and the default color scheme is black with white text which is a preference for me (I use Dark Mode on everything that has it). Everything is autosaved within the app and it runs backups to your computer at regular intervals (which you can adjust). The downside I noticed was that the cursor speed seems a bit laggy. Almost imperceptible, but I sometimes caught myself over-backspacing what I, or that the text was showing up slightly after I was done typing them.

All in all, I wouldn’t mind continuing to use it, and I may explore its features more fully on my next project.

Price: Free for basic functions and 2 scripts, $59.00 USD per year for the full version.

Website: https://www.arcstudiopro.com/