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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

#151

Post by danpalmer »

handrous wrote: post #102
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.

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…

Best thing about IMAX for me was the sound. Big screen is great, and helps with the sense of scale of the ships which are stunning, but the stand-out element for me was the ornithopters – their sound design was so good, worth watching in IMAX just for that.

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

#152

Post by pxc »

shiomiru wrote: post #147
contingencies wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux console gives me the same feeling. It's partly the font, partly the focus (no interruptions), partly the lack of latency. OSX + iTerm2 is so damn laggy vs. Linux even on worse hardware. It just sux when you have to, you know, input Chinese or open a PDF. Gotta say though, Dune was a disappointment to me, having grown up with Dune 2 on MSDOS. The old Dune had, you know, deeper characters. There's nothing like ea…

> It just sux when you have to, you know, input Chinese or open a PDF. Don't know about PDFs, but for Chinese IBus works just fine with XTerm.

I don't generally use PDFs for super fancy stuff like forms with JavaScript or whatever, but I generally find that KDE's Okular and GNOME's Evince work perfectly well for my needs. Acrobat Reader is a fucking hog by comparison and I loathe waiting for it to start up when I'm on operating systems where it's the standard.

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

#153

Post by pxc »

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…

> 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.

It could be that the screenwriter used to use that MS-DOS program back in the day, and already knew and liked it, had a well-developed workflow around it, etc. Then running it on DOSBox or an old machine you happen to have lying around makes perfect sense imo.

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

#154

Post by pxc »

dragonwriter wrote: post #117
zeteo wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In terms of sheer productivity for an uninterrupted, expert user it's hard to beat the pre-Windows office suites. Yes it would take you weeks if not months to master WordStar or Lotus 1-2-3 and it was quite expensive and not everyone in the company could have it on their machines. But those who did would leave today's Google Docs users in the dust for any data entry task longer than 15 minutes.

> In terms of sheer productivity for an uninterrupted, expert user it's hard to beat the pre-Windows office suites. There basically aren't pre-Windows office suites. There are pre-Windows standalone productivity software products, but agglomeration of this into office suites is mostly a post-Windows phenomenon.

That's an interesting distinction. Do you think that maybe the agglomeration you describe is one of the reasons that post-Windows office tools seem to have worse productivity?

I've never used old office software, but I could imagine that each office application being distinct allowed them to focus user interfaces on the exact use cases of each product, instead of trying to build on least-common-denominator metaphors that can be shared between office products of different kinds.

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

#155

Post by cygx »

dylan604 wrote: post #53
kgwxd wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think if you've read the book, it's a good watch. But the movie does very little character building, or maybe it tries to do too much of it too fast. Without the preset idea of what the characters are about, I could see how the movie might be a bit flat.

Too fast? The movie is longer than the original and only part of the story is included. How much slower can they make the story playout?

The rough cut of Lynch's version clocked in at over 4 hours, and the intended cut (which never saw the light of day) was supposed to be almost 3 hours long.

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

#157

Post by CarelessExpert »

pxc wrote: post #153
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…

> 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. It could be that the screenwriter used to use that MS-DOS program back in the day, and already knew and liked it, had a well-developed workflow around it, etc. Then running it on DOSBox or an old machine you happen to have lying around makes perfect…

> It could be that the screenwriter used to use that MS-DOS program back in the day, and already knew and liked it, had a well-developed workflow around it, etc. Then running it on DOSBox or an old machine you happen to have lying around makes perfect sense imo.

Absolutely!

But I wasn't responding to the article. I was responding to the original comment, which stated:

> There's something to be said for the focused nature of older technology.

My response and point was that this isn't somehow precluded with newer technology. That is, if what you're getting out of older technology is "focus", you can get that with newer tech without having to sacrifice other capabilities.

If what you're getting out of older technology is "familiarity" or "nostalgia" or "joy" or something similarly aesthetic, then obviously, keep on keeping on. :)

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

#158

Post by stinkytaco »

justin66 wrote: post #137
stinkytaco wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For DOS specifically, there is a market. So much of one that I can buy PCs with FreeDOS preinstalled. DOS, specifically, is used in many embedded applications that do not require multitasking (digital display boards, point of sale systems, etc.). That's not exactly addressing the question, but one of the things that makes a successful business is finding a niche and exploiting it and though there may not be a mass ma…

Who sells new hardware with FreeDOS support? That's cool.

Until fairly recently, Dell. However, I can't find that option anymore when specing a new PC, so perhaps I'm wrong about that. I think HP does as well.

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

#159

Post by zeteo »

dragonwriter wrote: post #117
zeteo wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In terms of sheer productivity for an uninterrupted, expert user it's hard to beat the pre-Windows office suites. Yes it would take you weeks if not months to master WordStar or Lotus 1-2-3 and it was quite expensive and not everyone in the company could have it on their machines. But those who did would leave today's Google Docs users in the dust for any data entry task longer than 15 minutes.

> In terms of sheer productivity for an uninterrupted, expert user it's hard to beat the pre-Windows office suites. There basically aren't pre-Windows office suites. There are pre-Windows standalone productivity software products, but agglomeration of this into office suites is mostly a post-Windows phenomenon.

There were some attempts but yes you're correct that pre-Windows you wouldn't normally get word processors, spreadsheets etc. from the same software vendor. (You could get them bundled by the hardware vendor/distributor sometimes.) I was using the term "suite" loosely, as in - typical combinations of software products (regardless of author) that were used in an office.

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

#160

Post by goto11 »

flatiron wrote: post #38
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.

they really did a number with this. they are getting regular old joes to ask other people to go to the theaters on HBOs behalf. i really gotta figure out how they did that, its pretty remarkable.

It is called "word of mouth" and is essential for the success of a blockbuster.
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