I thought I was the only coder doing screenwriting as a hobby... :-) Which genres are you guys writing in?
Fountain – A markup language for screenwriting
11–20 of 51 posts
Re: Fountain – A markup language for screenwriting
#12This 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…
"Am really curious: what's the plan to foist this onto the Hollywood screenwriters?"
Final Draft is the industry standard at the moment, and it has been for 20-odd years. To disrupt it, you could explore certain channels: dedicated websites and communities for writers; USC, NYU, and other film schools; or get studios and and agencies to accept it, which is ultimately where you need to win approval to get adopted as a standard. In any of these scenarios you'd probably need Final Draft import/export compatibility to get started and minimize switching costs.
Re: Fountain – A markup language for screenwriting
#13I thought I was the only coder doing screenwriting as a hobby... :-) Which genres are you guys writing in?
At the moment, weird zero-budget shorts. Vaguely scifi, although I'm shooting a horrorish thing tonight. Most serious plan atm is to try and fundraise to do some early, public domain Philip K Dick stories with a small but non-zero budget.
Re: Fountain – A markup language for screenwriting
#14Somehow I expected this to be a markup language for writing on screen ... and couldn't figure out why something like this exists.
Re: Fountain – A markup language for screenwriting
#15See also: https://github.com/mattdaly/Fountain.js
Re: Fountain – A markup language for screenwriting
#16This 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 I don't think many people have written scripts in plain text since they stopped using typewriters.
Tarantino writes in long hand
http://allwomenstalk.com/interview-with-grindhouse-director-...
Re: Fountain – A markup language for screenwriting
#17This 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.
Re: Fountain – A markup language for screenwriting
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This looks like a standardization of the way that screenwriting is done I don't think many people have written scripts in plain text since they stopped using typewriters.
Tarantino writes in long hand http://allwomenstalk.com/interview-with-grindhouse-director-...
So you're saying he's yet another example of a screenwriter who doesn't use plain text computer files for his screenplays?
Re: Fountain – A markup language for screenwriting
#19As usual, there's a nice Emacs mode for it: https://github.com/rnkn/fountain-mode
Re: Fountain – A markup language for screenwriting
#20This 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 markup language is one that makes minimal change to the user's existing workflow.
XML is terrible. It's not nearly as human-readable as it promises to be, nor is it as computer-readable as it promises to be.