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The ‘Dune’ Screenplay Was Written in Movie Master on MS-DOS

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Re: The ‘Dune’ Screenplay Was Written in Movie Master on MS-DOS

#101

Post by stinkytaco »

bingohbangoh wrote: post #68
happy_path wrote: post #37

Are we going to see old refurbished devices be sold as distraction-free machines? Does a new market for somewhat-luddite computers exist? I'd like to buy something like the freewrite [1] but cheaper, any suggestions? [1] https://getfreewrite.com/

Alphasmart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaSmart I had a Neo2 for a while. Transferring is weird but it is just a USB keyboard that types whatever is in memory making it future-proof.

I think the Dana has an SD card if that's more your thing. Those things are also pretty indestructible and relatively cheap on ebay.

Re: The ‘Dune’ Screenplay Was Written in Movie Master on MS-DOS

#102

Post by handrous »

jordanab wrote: post #20
folli wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was considering to watch it this weekend. So you advise against it?

It's fantastic. Go see it in Imax if you can. Going to the theaters will help to get part 2 made.

Strongly concur on it being a theater watch, ideally Imax.

The effects are next-level good. You won't see all the detail at home unless you've got one hell of a set-up. There are good sets and costumes, and the CG isn't muddy, cheap Marvel "just good enough not to ruin it" stuff, but is truly good.

It's also very unlikely you have an audio system at home that can keep up. This is both because there's a lot of really good stuff going on in the audio mix that'll fall flat on anything but a stellar home audio setup, and a lot of bad stuff (mostly Nolanesque "wtf did that actor just say?") that'll be even worse.

Acting's good. Big screen doesn't hurt that any, certainly.

The story's Dune. If you like Dune, this is a Dune. That's its strength, and its weakness.

If you liked Blade Runner 2049, 100% for sure catch this in theaters. If you haven't seen Blade Runner 2049, friggin' watch it. It's an idea that seems bad (a sequel to Blade Runner? Oh no...) but turned out perfect.

Re: The ‘Dune’ Screenplay Was Written in Movie Master on MS-DOS

#103

Post by slowmovintarget »

chapium wrote: post #61

I see this as one user, solving a personal issue at the burden of everyone else around them. Seems more like arrogance than zen.

I have to disagree. Script security is often a huge problem. He's solved that by using a program that is unlikely to leak. That was one of the benefits.

You saying the writer was just arrogant feels to me to be the equivalent of saying any artist that chooses to paint with oils instead of acrylics is selfish because acrylic paints are easier to clean.

There is often an association between the medium and the state of flow for someone making a creative work. Seems presumptuous to judge how someone else produces, successfully, when no one else complained about it. He won the Oscar for writing Forest Gump and was nominated for five more. People keep hiring him, so he must be doing something right.

Re: The ‘Dune’ Screenplay Was Written in Movie Master on MS-DOS

#104

Post by j_walter »

causi wrote: post #4

There's something to be said for the focused nature of older technology. If you were to set me the task of writing something long-form, and told me the faster and better I did it the more I would be rewarded, I'd be doomed with a modern laptop or a smartphone. My favorite writing tool is, frankly, an IBM TransNote from 2001.

This is why I do most of my coding in vim...simple and easy. When it comes to debugging I can switch to VS, but when actually coding it is more focused on vim.

Re: The ‘Dune’ Screenplay Was Written in Movie Master on MS-DOS

#105

Post by CarelessExpert »

causi wrote: post #4

There's something to be said for the focused nature of older technology. If you were to set me the task of writing something long-form, and told me the faster and better I did it the more I would be rewarded, I'd be doomed with a modern laptop or a smartphone. My favorite writing tool is, frankly, an IBM TransNote from 2001.

Eh, you can get that distraction-free experience with modern technology if you want it. When I want to focus on writing, I have a Vim setup that gives me a screen with a cursor. I run that full screen, turn off notifications and whatnot, and get to it. And when I'm done I can go back to using my modern technology to do everything else I want with the content, whether it's formatting/typesetting, sharing, etc.

There's really no reason to sacrifice all those additional capabilities at the alter of focus or productivity. Just find ways to use modern technology more effectively.

Re: The ‘Dune’ Screenplay Was Written in Movie Master on MS-DOS

#107

Post by omarhaneef »

slowmovintarget wrote: post #91
omarhaneef wrote: post #84

There are lots of stories about writers who are very productive using an old method: --This dune story, --Game of thrones (asoif) written on wordstar --And of course dozens of writers who still use pen and paper This is what these environments have in common: no or minimal internet to distract you

There are some other characteristics as well. With pen and paper, you can only move forward. That is, your only real option is to complete the draft. You can revise or rewrite when you're typing it in. Neil Gaiman writes this way; fountain pen and notebook for first draft. Cutting material is much less painful. You simply don't type it in. The temptation to go back and tweak what you've written is fairly strong with…

I completely agree, but the inability to edit doesn't explain the advantage (if any) of the wordstar/ms-dos editor crowd.

Re: The ‘Dune’ Screenplay Was Written in Movie Master on MS-DOS

#109

Post by da_chicken »

deanebarker wrote: post #77
Ciantic wrote: post #10

What I like about this is the 40 page limit. He actually considers it a kind of feature, and this arbitrary limit has contributed to his works. One would think that if 40 pages comes to full, the writer would just find a way to extend it, but instead he didn't bother and shortened instead.

I feel like Twitter does this for me. I'll go over the limit on a long tweet, and I'll go back and trim and exchange long words for short ones and remove words that don't contribute anything. The result will fit, and basically say the same thing. I've never had to fundamentally alter the meaning of a tweet, I just make it shorter, which is a healthy writing exercise.

I often find that to be true, too.

However, there are cases where there isn't enough space to articulate an idea. In those instances, I've tended to not Tweet at all.

Twitter is just a poor tool for communication of nontrivial ideas.

Re: The ‘Dune’ Screenplay Was Written in Movie Master on MS-DOS

#110

Post by nonameiguess »

folli wrote: post #11
slibhb wrote: post #8

The screenplay was the worst part of the new Dune movie

I was considering to watch it this weekend. So you advise against it?

The problem with the David Lynch version was it was so edited and short that key scenes were missing, making it confusing as heck to understand what was happening and why if you hadn't read the book. But he kept the internal monologues.

The problem with this newer version is it cuts the internal monologues, so much of the context, history, and character building is gone. But it keeps pretty much every scene. Unfortunately, that also results in a really long movie so you only get the first half of the story, but all the action is in the second half. This is all setup and no resolution.

And I'm not sure how well it would work without having read the book, because I feel you do miss a lot when you don't have the worldbuilding, which is accomplished almost entirely by internal monologues in the book.

It's quite beautiful, though. I expect part II will be a lot better, as Paul's journey with the Fremen is by far the most interesting part of the story, and they barely meet at the end of part I.

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