Fountain – A markup language for screenwriting • Hacker News Board

Re: Fountain – A markup language for screenwriting

#31

Post by trentbigelow » Sat, Oct 31, 2015, 7:45 PM UTC

borplk wrote: post #17

This is very interesting to me from the point of view that it's like a great combination of programming and another discipline. I wish I knew enough about other fields so that I could create things like this. But my lack of in-depth knowledge in other topics prevents me and I don't know how to come across these things on my own.

Applying this to other fields is a really interesting idea. Prescriptions need a better markup. What about fitness tracking entered via plain text (in email or text to app)?

Re: Fountain – A markup language for screenwriting

#32

Post by trentbigelow » Sat, Oct 31, 2015, 8:00 PM UTC

Wonder if blakeross used this to write up his awesome Silicon Valley Script?

http://blakeross.com/SiliconValleyS03E01.pdf

Re: Fountain – A markup language for screenwriting

#33

Post by wj » Sat, Oct 31, 2015, 8:06 PM UTC

sedeki wrote: post #11

I thought I was the only coder doing screenwriting as a hobby... :-) Which genres are you guys writing in?

I used to write mostly comedy scripts (tone similar to Get Shorty) but only ever produced one (extremely low-budget) feature-length film which was more of a modern noir.

Still have numerous scripts that I want to finish (who has the time?) but my hobby took a turn a bit and I created Moviestud.io (http://www.moviestud.io) to help me produce that film. It supports Fountain import. :)

National Novel Writing month starts tomorrow which would be a great time to scratch that screenplay itch!

Re: Fountain – A markup language for screenwriting

#34

Post by tzm » Sat, Oct 31, 2015, 8:24 PM UTC

trentbigelow wrote: post #32

Wonder if blakeross used this to write up his awesome Silicon Valley Script? http://blakeross.com/SiliconValleyS03E01.pdf

Seriously good script.

Re: Fountain – A markup language for screenwriting

#35

Post by danneu » Sat, Oct 31, 2015, 8:30 PM UTC

borplk wrote: post #17

This is very interesting to me from the point of view that it's like a great combination of programming and another discipline. I wish I knew enough about other fields so that I could create things like this. But my lack of in-depth knowledge in other topics prevents me and I don't know how to come across these things on my own.

I noticed some choose-your-own-adventure games on Steam (Zombie Exodus, Tin Star) built with ChoiceScript[0], a markup that seems to build into a full interactive game deliverable complete with state tracking and html forms for user input/prompt.

[0]: https://www.choiceofgames.com/make-your-own-games/choicescri...

Re: Fountain – A markup language for screenwriting

#36

Post by wj » Sat, Oct 31, 2015, 8:55 PM UTC

Joeboy wrote: post #7

The awesome thing about this is that it lets you use git. It's a shame your chances of finding a co-writer who can use git are negligible. I wonder what Final Draft etc do about version control? Another thing: I wish I could work out a free, no-nonsense way of turning fountain into pdf on Linux. I've been going via html, which works OK but feels a bit dirty.

Out of curiosity, what do you envision your fountain > pdf program to look like? When you say html are you exporting fountain to html and printing view your web browser?

Re. your first point I think a lot of writers date their scripts as their version control. Final Draft does have a limited revision tracking system. At this point I think most screenwriters just pass on PDF documents rather than .fdx or printed pages.

Re: Fountain – A markup language for screenwriting

#37

Post by dunham » Sat, Oct 31, 2015, 9:12 PM UTC

trentbigelow wrote: post #32

Wonder if blakeross used this to write up his awesome Silicon Valley Script? http://blakeross.com/SiliconValleyS03E01.pdf

He used "Scrivener (2.60.5)" to write that one. (Run pdfinfo on the file to see this.)

My understanding is that they're not crazy picky about what you use to write the script as long as the output on paper/PDF is in hollywood standard format. (Layout, typewriter font, heading formats, etc.)

At work, we've written a system that parses scripts from PDF files that is being used for breakdown, script analysis, and sides generation by quite a few movies and tv shows.

Re: Fountain – A markup language for screenwriting

#38

Post by xaduha » Sat, Oct 31, 2015, 9:58 PM UTC

iamsohungry wrote: post #20

digital_ins wrote: post #3

This looks like a standardization of the way that screenwriting is done, rather than a revolutionary change in the way screenwriting is done. When I opened the .fountain file, I half-expected to see XML litter the place :-D I could see myself writing a screenplay using this - and a really positive thing is that it imposes a framework on how I should be writing one. (I've tried multiple times, believe me) Am really cu…

> This looks like a standardization of the way that screenwriting is done, rather than a revolutionary change in the way screenwriting is done. Yes, and this is exactly how a standard should be. A markup language is the text equivalent of a user interface. It's well-known that good user interfaces for an existing task work with users' previous workflow, even to the point of including skeuomorphs as cues. A good marku…

It didn't promise anyone anything. It's a direct descendant of SGML, there were existing tools and use cases, you know.

Re: Fountain – A markup language for screenwriting

#39

Post by egypturnash » Sat, Oct 31, 2015, 10:53 PM UTC

borplk wrote: post #17

This is very interesting to me from the point of view that it's like a great combination of programming and another discipline. I wish I knew enough about other fields so that I could create things like this. But my lack of in-depth knowledge in other topics prevents me and I don't know how to come across these things on my own.

Make friends who do things with little relation to programming. Help them make tools to do whatever they do.

Fountain, for instance, credits that seem to be pretty evenly mixed between people who make films and programmer types. Including a few who have a foot in both worlds. And it came in part out of a screenwriting app one of those filmmakers and one of those programmers was making.

Re: Fountain – A markup language for screenwriting

#40

Post by toyg » Sun, Nov 01, 2015, 12:52 AM UTC

runevault wrote: post #24

petegrif wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is absolutely NO incentive for anyone to change. The valued added (if any) is not large enough to change established practices.

Not totally true, based on everything I've heard FD is a pile of crap that chugs, crashes, and can eat your file. Mind you that hasn't stopped it from remaining on top for now, but I would not be surprised if it stops being the default in the next 5-10 years.

From a cursory read of its website, it looks like a pre-internet app, basically a glorified text editor. There are zero network-enabled features. The only groupware-oriented feature is coloring pages differently if someone else edits the document. There is plenty of scope for disruption here.

The only "key feature" they have is that everyone in Hollywood uses FD. They say so themselves on their website! The "Key features" screen does not list any actual feature, it's just a list of variations on the concept that "everyone in Hollywood uses FD". In that sense, the main challenge is clearly political rather than technological.