It's one of those questions that gets debated endlessly round the screenwriting campfire.
Once upon a time, as a Mac Guy, the first program I bought was Final Draft. That was back at version 4. Far enough back that it came on diskettes. I dutifully upgraded to vers. 5, vers. 6 and vers. 7 -- which was a horribly buggy program that was so bad that I went back to 6 for a whole year-- but not before I spent hours calling California from location in South Africa in a vain attempt to get the damn thing to work.
But at the time, there was nothing to be done, really. Screenwriter on the Mac was worse. As a port from the PC version of the program, it crashed a lot, it was ugly, counterintuitive to the Mac experience and just didn't feel right.
But usually, the showrunner's taste kind of decides what you're going to use. And so it was that I found myself on a few shows in a row that used Screenwriter. And I came to understand some of the why's behind the AD's claims that Screenwriter was just more production-friendly.
Then the company that made Screenwriter got sold. And finally, after years of dragging heels, the major upgrade to Screenwriter arrived. And it was GREAT.
So I haven't really used Final Draft 7 much in the last couple years.
Til this story editing gig I started.
Well, let me tell you, after the two and a half hours I had this afternoon I am now ready to declare that Final Draft has grabbed the brass ring in the #fail sweepstakes -- in a classic move of software co. arrogance I like to call, "Our security needs trump your needs as a paying customer."
I tried to launch my program at 2:11 p.m. It told me my program had become deactivated. This has happened before, though I had no idea why.
It offered me the ability to online activate or manual activate. Online activation: no dice. So fine, then...manual. Clicking manual activate brought up a screen giving instructions on a Challenge Code. Presumably, one was supposed to call a number and get a response code. It said, "You must have this screen open." Okey dokey.
Call the number. Nope, no automated line. Just the general customer service line. Standard voice shovelware instructing you to check the website, or instructions for the challenged on how to find certain things on the menu. One thing that there definitely wasn't, was an ability to hit "0" and speak to a human. Uh oh. Bad customer service #fail number 1 and 2.
1) The number the program tells you to call is wrong.
2) The number you do get doesn't allow you any way to talk to a live person.
The 888 number and the Long Distance 818 number go to the same place. So no joy there. So now I have to hunt around on the Final Draft website to try and find the customer service number. It's not easy to find. Like a lot of smaller software companies, they're loathe to get you to actually call them -- they'd much rather try to pawn you off on the knowledge base.
It's now about 2:30. I have a three hour window this afternoon to work on notes for this script.
Finally find a number. Call it. Get somebody on the line who is so supremely unconcerned -- with that standard, "yeah whatever" software guy tone that you just want to hit him with the high frequency zap -- and what do you know, the "system is down."
So now there's no way to activate the program. Not til the server's back up. #fail number 3. Guy says it's probably that I'm not running the latest version of the program. I know it's the latest version of 7 that was released. I hope to God the guy's not suggesting that I was supposed to have bought vers. 8 because the likelihood of that now is looking somewhere south of the Oscar nomination for the Olsen Twins.
Try to do something else for a bit. Finally call back. At this point, I'm wondering, "what happened to the automated response line?" Good question -- because at no point am I ever asked for the challenge code. Instead, guy resets something on his end and asks me to online activate. I do.
The program crashes.
At which point he says those immortal words, "Are you on a Mac?"
Weak. Weak. Weak Sauce. #Fail 4.
Relaunch the program again, this time the online activation goes through. First guy I spoke to had NO idea why my computer would spontaneously "lose" an activation, but to this guy it's no great mystery.
See, I upgraded to Snow Leopard.
Yup.
I was supposed to guess that I should deactivate the program first, you see. Because, of course, the first thing that the customer should always think about is the software company's anti-piracy security gauntlet. #fail 5.
So yeah, apparently the first guy I talked to, with the attitude, who intimated that, you know, I must be some sort of idiot by suggesting that the great program would lose its activation hasn't been paying attention on the smoke breaks. # fail 6.
I express my frustration, and the fact (it's now past 4pm) that my window of time to work is closing fast, and I've had to pay for two long distance phone calls to get this stinking thing working again and the guy I'm talking to practically yawns his lack of caring, "I'm the bottom of the totum pole here, what do you want from me?"
Yeah, that's what he said. #fail 7.
So I speak to a manager. The manager assures me that hundreds of people have a wonderful customer service interaction with Final Draft every week. I point out that I've been here before with this same problem, and how come they have this whole Challenge and Response folderol that doesn't work? And how can it possibly be efficient to have an authorization system that gets nuked every time you upgrade your system? And the answer? They're working on that, as well as a brand new activation system, and all sorts of other stuff...
...and they've just released Final Draft 8.
But yeah, he admits, Final Draft 7 did suck when it was released.
Mmm hmm.
By contrast the last time that I had to talk to Screenwriter customer support, I was on the phone for about 37 seconds. Now, I had to type this instead of getting back to the script because how profoundly unfair would it be to try and give someone notes in this frame of mind?
Why should your corporate security trump my ability to use the program I've legally bought from you?
No answer.
Why have you not fixed the "upgrade activation bug" before now?
We're working on it.
Do you think this is a good customer service experience?
Hundreds of people are satisfied. I get those calls too.
Oh. Great. #fail. #fail. #fail.
Well, Final Draft, you won't be seeing my money for Version 8. As a veteran of the last time you issued a new program, and of the botched and sloppy and slipshod customer service interactions right to the end of the Version 7 product cycle, let me just say that I will *never* use FD on a show where I've got any juice at all, nor will I recommend it in the future to students I lecture to, or newbies I host, or any of my union members who engage on the age old subject.
Your product is shoddy, but it's your customer service that's truly the pits.
All around #fail.
But hey, Good luck with Version 8!
And if you're a screenwriter looking for a program to help you, please let me kindly direct you to this link. Believe me when I say, in the long run, it's the only one you'll ever really need.
22 rumbles:
You've seen the light...finally!
Hahaha...excellent recap of what sounded a lot like my last FD experience in, like, 1996!
Movie Magic Screenwriter ever since.
My experience is very much yours. I was a happy Movie Magic user, got on a project that wanted Final Draft, it was the buggy one. Went back to MM and the production end liked it better.
There was much FAIL to savour, there, McG~!
About 10 years ago when I was starting out in TV I asked a sales guy: Can Final Draft eat (read & incorporate as an FD script) Movie Magic (then ScriptThing)? He answered, No. I asked, Can ScriptThing eat Final Draft? Yes, he said. So I bought ScriptThing and felt covered.
It is the only screenwriting software I have ever used. I have used it on perhaps 10 computers (always buying used Apples). Have had all my technical problems (sometimes in total panic mode: I'm going to camera, tomorrow: how do I remove asterisks from one color of script issue ago - that sort of stuff) dealt with instantly.
I believe I have always spoken to the same guy, Ken Haberman somewhere in Burbank, and he has always been patient and the problem has always evaporated. The last time I called I felt kinda guilty - I hadn't purchased anything from them during the 10 years since ... so I will buy Screenwriter 6 when I get a gig cuz 10 years is a good, long haul.
Honestly, why would anyone choose Final Draft.
Hmmm. I am having no troubles with FD, but I haven't upgraded to Snow Leopard yet.
The last time I used Screenwriter was 4.8, back in, I think, 2004 or 2005, and it was massively teh suck. It was like having to use Windows on my Mac. It made me want to kill people.
So when exactly did SW stop sucking on the Mac?
Brother, you gotta read, man:
Then the company that made Screenwriter got sold. And finally, after years of dragging heels, the major upgrade to Screenwriter arrived. And it was GREAT.
The major upgrade. When it arrived, it was fine. Vers. 6. Now about two years old.
I've got version 8 on Snow Leopard right now. Seems to be working just fine so far for me. Not sure how that's happened, but there it is.
*puzzled shrug*
WB-S6 is about $50 to $100 cheaper than FD now too. I had the same Snow Leopard upgrade problem. I think I may switch.
For beginning screenwriters, Celtx would probably be the best bet. It is modeled after Screenwriter, is open source, and is free.
The TV Writing program at UBC recently switched over to Celtx.
The whole Mac / PC thing should be kind of moot now, since you can run Windows and Windows programs natively on Intel Macs. You can set up a dual boot, or use VMware Fusion.
As a writer in the UK, I've had relatively few problems over here. FD is now pretty much standard and I'm not aware of anyone in UK TV who uses SW. The thing about FD that's always struck me as odd are the templates. With the shows I've worked on, they're just plain wrong. The shows don't use them and it looks like they never have. One of the show, which I wrote for 7 years not only didn't use the template, but for half that time didn't even use FD.
Looks like some possible competition in the works. John August has a little preview of Adobe's new screenwriting software:
http://johnaugust.com/archives/2009/adobe-story-an-early-look
Oh, all this techie talk. You know there used to be a machine available where you hit the keys and it struck a piece of carbon ribbon and imprinted the letters on the page. It always worked. I think it was called a typewriter.
Sort of like me and my rotary dial phone.
I've still got my 25 or 30-year-old Coronamatic. It was great for writing letters, and likely will still be good for that even now. This explains why Staples still sells a few thousand of those things every year, as well as all of the ribbons and replacement parts.
As for laying out newsletters and scripts?
Dedicated software on a computer has its improvements over the old reliables.
Aw, c'mon, don't you miss the days of cutting and pasting? It was an art.
I do my art with pencils, pens and Strathmore 400 art boards. Among other tools. :)
You're verging into "I don't have a TV" category here, folks.
New Rule: You cannot claim to love the battered Underwood unless you're paunchy, over the age of 65, with some sort of meat in your beard --
0r--
You once drank/fought/slept with Norman Mailer/Vonnegut/Dorothy Parker
or --
You wrote a novel while living on the steppes of some desolate range of mountains or herding cattle in Montana
Otherwise it's a bit too precious.
There was NOTHING romantic about having to retype scripts, or cut and paste, or using liquid paper.
NOTHING.
I cut and paste now. I find it easier than trying to manipulate back and forth through 50 pages of script on a computer screen. Often, I find it easier to retype the whole frackin' mess than try to rearrange a script on screen. And if I could draw, that would be a real bonus because I like to visualize the scenes as I think of them.
And I never used an Underwood - IBM Selectric was the bee's knees.
But you're right. I've totally hijacked this column.
I've been using Screenwriter since it's original DOS incarnation as "Scriptor".
Never saw the need to change and when I discovered FD couldn't absorb a script written with any other program, it immediately dropped off my radar.
Screenwriter support has also been awesome every time I've had to ask for help.
The best was a midnight call from Australia after a laptop issue and me without a disk or any clue to my serial numbers nor any other way to verify I really was a customer.
The Tech who took the call had me up and running again in minutes because he RECOGNIZED MY VOICE from a talk we'd had TWO YEARS EARLIER.
I think those guys are like Maytag repairmen. They get so few customers with actual problems that they know them by name.
heh heh heh
18 comments and counting. Fuckin writers.
Who's going to bring up pens? Come on. Dare ya.
Your good luck that you've got someone among the yammering souls here who's been writer and illustrator! *laughs at myself*
Not quite sure what I make yet of programs like Corel Painter, Adobe Photoshop and SmithMicro MangaStudio vs. the traditional tools right now, though learning with the digital tablet's been fun lately. My stance will likely end up "six of one, half a dozen of the other": you need to learn'em all.
Wish I could draw and use Maya. Sigh.
But I'll fess up - started with Scriptor, then Script Thing, then Screenwriter. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Upgraded to Screenwriter 6 which now allows virtually unlimited transferability to other computers.
And Ken Haberman still answers the phone.
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