The maczot today is Montage for $70.
I am not a scriptwriter and have no way of knowing whether this is a good deal or not. Does it play well with Scrivener? Any advice? I know that celtx is free and has been discussed elsewhere in this forum.
Apollo16
If you are into scriptwriting and don’t want to wait until FD8 is upcoming - FD7, despite its age, is still the reference - go for it. Personally, I would like Montage if it wouldn’t be so colourful - a bit distracting, I think. Maybe they have changed it, I tested V1.0. And, just to mention it, Final Draft is most certainly more expensive.
Before I upgrading to FD8 I will try Montage again, just to be on the safe side.
It is a good deal – more than half off.
Some Montage notes:
First and foremost, Final Draft is still the industry standard when it comes to screenwriting. That’s a distinction, though, that doesn’t mean as much these days. If you’re sending a script to someone, you can do so as a PDF, so it doesn’t matter what app you use to get there. Final Draft’s advantage comes at the time of production, as it’s the app most producers use to break a script down. But even then… see point 3.
Keith has implemented Final Draft support for Scrivener that works flawlessly (as far as I can tell). Final Draft is also releasing a new version 8 in May (?), and they actually mention Scrivener in their newsletter (as in, “plays well with…”) From what I’ve read in these forums, Keith has had a good experience in working with FD – and the information they’ve provided about their new version is indeed very promising.
That said, man, I sure do like Montage. With the release of 1.5, it is now a mature app, and it looks and acts in a much more “Mac-like” fashion than Final Draft 7 (which looks and acts like a very old Mac app right now). Since Montage imports and exports FD files, it should work well with the new Scrivener beta. (Others: I’m right about this, right? I’ll try it when I get my laptop back, and I’ll let you know.) See this page for more information about the app itself.
I think you need to weigh your needs and budget. I honestly think you can get by very nicely with Montage, in the same way that you can get along with Pages and export to Word when you need to. And at $70 – that’s very little money for a full-blown screenwriting app. Bottom line: Montage works, and works very well. Mariner is an excellent, diligent, creative developer with a good sense of the Mac world. I’ve used Montage a lot, and I love it.
BUT… FD 8, again, looks very interesting, especially for Scrivener users. I have not beta tested it, nor do I have an inside information, but both Keith and FD have dropped some hints that FD 8 + Scrivener may well be an incredibly powerful package for screenwriters. At $229US, it’s very expensive, so your big concern is going to be budget. (You can buy FD7 now and upgrade free.)
I have both Montage and FD7, and I will be upgrading to FD8 without question. If I were a new screenwriter with limited cash, I’d buy Montage at the MacZot price, and I’d sleep well. But if you’re looking for the “working professional” option, it looks like it will be hard to beat FD8.
P.S. Lord Lightning, who should be along soon, knows a lot about this stuff, including celtx. Wait for his advice.
Lord Lightning will tell you to go for Movie Magic Screenwriter. 