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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

#201

Post by kayodelycaon »

deviaan wrote: post #173
kayodelycaon wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a combination of autocorrect and dictation on my Mac. My fingers aren't as accurate as they could be and I can't remember spelling to save my life. It's made writing easier because I don't need to worry about that.

The real solution is to just give people the choice. Everyone's workflow is different enough that there can't really be a "one-size-fits-all" program. I'd be ecstatic if we moved away from being forced to use certain software because so-and-so needs a proprietary file format that only this piece of software supports.

Agreed. The fact that Kindles still don't read epubs is aggravating.

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

#202

Post by lavp »

apricot wrote: post #199
squarefoot wrote: post #196

"on an ancient beige mechanical keyboard" That is an IBM Model M, probably the best computer keyboard ever made; I wouldn't be surprised if besides the software it also played a role in helping to write the screenplay. That keyboard is simply an amazing piece of hardware; I have two, one is dated early 90s and carries a Lotus 1-2-3 v2.2 sticker on it, just to say...

The model M is my favorite keyboard and I own a stash of them large enough to last me for my whole life. That is to say, I own one model M keyboard.

Model Fs deserve a shout too

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

#203

Post by dragonwriter »

dylan604 wrote: post #188
dragonwriter wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The movie is longer than the original and only part of the story is included The original is a dense 200,000 word novel, not the 1984 movie you seem to be referencing, which itself a cut a lot.

Sure, at this point I'm just hoping it doesn't get Hobbit-ed by making shit up to pad the time and introduce characters not in the original material.

> I'm just hoping it doesn't get Hobbit-ed by making shit up to pad the time and introduce characters not in the original material.

Well, its being made into two movies instead of The Hobbit’s three, and the source material is about twice as long as The Hobbit, so I think the risk of that is a lot lower.

3-4 hours film per 100K words is probably reasonable [0], the cureent Dune is still very squeezed where The Hobbit trilogy was...very much not.

[0] E.g., the first season of Game of Thrones, roughly covering the plot of the book A Game of Thrones, and which hewed pretty close to the source but still cut a fair amount, was 9.5 hours for ~300K words of source material.

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

#204

Post by baal80spam »

alistairSH wrote: post #47
folli wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I've read the novel several times over the years, and watched both he 1984 Lynch production and the mini-series several times each. IMO, the new movie is better than both previous screen adaptations. It follows the book pretty closely, only omitting some details, and not adding any McGuffins or other needless new plot points (cough weirding module cough). I certainly have my nits to pick. But, they are truly nits. Fr…

Similarly, over the years I've read the novel in my mother tongue (multiple times), watched Lynch's movie, read the original and finally listened to the audiobook. I have seen Dune today in IMAX 3D and I simply loved it.

As for the missing details, I think what especially hit me was SPOILERS AHEAD the whole JessicaHawat tension is simply not there.

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

#205

Post by Zababa »

anyfactor wrote: post #62

I often wonder this about old tech. What attracts some people to keep using it? Is it the comfort or familiarity or is it minimalism? I sometimes want to feel the experience of my Pentium 1 PC with that rubberdome keyboard and ball mouse. But I know it was a frustrating experience. The mouse didn't work exactly, we had to alt+ctrl+delete every 20-30 minutes. They keyboard felt like jello. The CRT monitor gave us head…

I used to wonder about that too, but then realize that I grew up with Windows XP and already hate with a passion Windows 10 and 11. I've lived through ~15 years of technological change, and still have at least 40 in front of me. That's inspiring me to just switch to vim and a minimalist WM and never look back.

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

#206

Post by joeman1000 »

squarefoot wrote: post #196

"on an ancient beige mechanical keyboard" That is an IBM Model M, probably the best computer keyboard ever made; I wouldn't be surprised if besides the software it also played a role in helping to write the screenplay. That keyboard is simply an amazing piece of hardware; I have two, one is dated early 90s and carries a Lotus 1-2-3 v2.2 sticker on it, just to say...

I think there’s too much hype around the model M. I own one and find it too bulky and loud. It’s a gimmick. Also it has a PS/2 connector, so it’s a pain.

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

#207

Post by GekkePrutser »

kayodelycaon wrote: post #201
deviaan wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real solution is to just give people the choice. Everyone's workflow is different enough that there can't really be a "one-size-fits-all" program. I'd be ecstatic if we moved away from being forced to use certain software because so-and-so needs a proprietary file format that only this piece of software supports.

Agreed. The fact that Kindles still don't read epubs is aggravating.

There's a trick for that. Rename the epub to .png and email it to your kindle address. It'll convert it!

It's weird that Amazon doesn't support epub conversion officially but this trick has worked for years.

Of course calibre is also an option but I usually use this method because it's so simple.

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

#208

Post by perl4ever »

TheRealPomax wrote: post #97
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/

You mean as a new type of mass marketed device rather than someone's hobby business that could fail and they wouldn't be economically impacted? Based on the fact that this is not new in the slightest, and the last 20 years is full of people mocking DOS because it's from an era long gone by but then discovering very specific niche industries or suddenly-well-known individuals still using DOS applications... No. No we…

For many years after OS/2 faded from consumer view, I think there were ATMs that ran on it.

I'm not in the industry, and don't know if there are any more.

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

#209

Post by [deleted] »

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?

[deleted]

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

#210

Post by milesvp »

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…

I met a guy some years back who specialized in rewriting accounting software user interfaces. He was a former accountant, so he knew all the things that accountants needed to do with software and the order things tended to need to happen. He focused a lot on input order flow. He claimed that the reduced cost of data entry easily paid for his services for his clients, and made the people using the software happier too.

You really don’t want someone good with reverse 10-key data entry to constantly be moving back to a mouse and try to click on some random button or input box.

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