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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

#121

Post by jordanab »

dylan604 wrote: post #45
jordanab wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I was so disappointed after spending like 12 hours watching this film to it ending without telling the complete story. Never mind the Part 1 title card at the beginning. I just assumed they were going to expand upon the story not cut it into pieces. Then to find out that they didn't already green light the rest of the story being made. WTF? Who does this in today's movie universe? We get the full story approved to ma…

I'm sorry that you feel that way. I was already aware of the fact that it was both half a film, and that the second part wasn't green-lit yet. Despite of this, the film completely lived up to to my expectations.

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

#122

Post by mrweasel »

dgritsko wrote: post #67
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 distinctly remember an assignment from college where there was a 12-page limit on the report for a machine learning assignment. Some people freaked out over this - "12 pages isn't even enough for me to finish describing the problem!" And the professor's response was essentially "If that's true, then you are writing the wrong report." Brevity is the soul of wit indeed, and having these sorts of constraints can defin…

We had to write “real” research article, and was limited to 14 pages. One article was selected for a conference, meaning that we had to trim it down to 6 or 8 pages, I don’t recall precisely. That was a difficult writing assignment.

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

#123

Post by jerf »

GekkePrutser wrote: post #43
stuff4ben wrote: post #5

On the one hand, as a technologist, this pisses me off because we've advanced so far in the field of word processing. Autocorrect, holding more than 40 pages in memory, cut/paste, etc. Why does this Luddite persist in the old ways?!?!?! But as a writer who knows the pains of distraction... maybe he's on to something?

I don't view autocorrect as an advancement to be honest. It causes more issues than it solves IMO. On a phone it's ok to have it because typos are so frequent but on a PC I'd never use it.

That sounds like a good YouTube skit.

"Mad Libs, you must ride the desert sandwich. If you do not, the Firemen will not respect you."

"Fedora Thad, someday you will inherit the Hackneyed empire. Don't let the emperor's Streaker forces intimidate you."

"The Slice™ must flow."

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

#124

Post by Guest42 »

deanebarker wrote: post #65
Guest42 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had similar experiences with green screen enterprise manufacturing software. It had a remarkable amount of features that were accessed via nested command sequences that didn't take too long to learn, and could easily handle 800 users simultaneously with no lag or interruption.

I watched some order takers at a food service company a few years back. They worked in a green screen program -- not sure if it was DOS, or some terminal. The speed at which they worked was unreal. Their hands never left the keyboard. They knew where everything was, and they could literally retrieve any information in less than one second, both due to the speed their fingers worked on the keyboard, and the responsive…

Agreed, it's as though all features were organized carefully into a B tree that became polished over the years.

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

#126

Post by h0l0cube »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #36
h0l0cube wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have to give them a hard copy. They have to scan it and then put it in their computers and then I have to work through their computer because you can’t even email mine or anything.

Surely someone can write this fellow a program to convert to ASCII and a USB floppy drive to move the files, or better yet, an SD card IDE drive for his old PC.

He could probably have used a modern PC with internet connectivity too. I'm guessing convenience wasn't the point. (If it's a machine from the 90s, it might not even have USB.)

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

#127

Post by Arrath »

weird-eye-issue wrote: post #99
falcolas wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, even if I'm reading on my Kindle, my phone is still doing all that. I can DND my phone, but then it would have the same effect if I'm reading on the phone.

On Android, DND still pops up notifications and stuff. Anyone know if there is any easy way to turn that off? I get so distracted and that certainly doesn't help

Airplane mode? Turn it off?

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

#128

Post by uncletaco »

CarelessExpert wrote: post #105
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…

Sounds like he just wants to open a program, not build his life around it.

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

#129

Post by [deleted] »

uncletaco wrote: post #128
CarelessExpert wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Sounds like he just wants to open a program, not build his life around it.

[deleted]

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

#130

Post by dylan604 »

jordanab wrote: post #121
dylan604 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was so disappointed after spending like 12 hours watching this film to it ending without telling the complete story. Never mind the Part 1 title card at the beginning. I just assumed they were going to expand upon the story not cut it into pieces. Then to find out that they didn't already green light the rest of the story being made. WTF? Who does this in today's movie universe? We get the full story approved to ma…

I'm sorry that you feel that way. I was already aware of the fact that it was both half a film, and that the second part wasn't green-lit yet. Despite of this, the film completely lived up to to my expectations.

That's part of the problem. It wasn't a disaster, so I'm actually interested. Admittedly, it's a personal problem.
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