Movie Outline Screenwriting Blog

May 1, 2019 (London, UK) – UK technology company Nuvotech is awarded the 2019 Xojo Design Award of “Best Vertical Market App” for its popular creative writing software Script Studio^® – an innovative Mac & Windows desktop application for screenwriters, playwrights and novelists.

The annual Xojo Design Awards foster creativity and encourage independent development by rewarding developers that produce quality products. The criteria on which the software is judged includes creativity, ease of use and design.

“The awards honor excellence in software design, and with so many entries this year, judging was not easy on us”, said Geoff Perlman, founder and CEO of Xojo, Inc, when he announced the winners during his Keynote in Miami, Florida at the Xojo Developer Conference.

“We are delighted to receive this award and grateful to have our hard work recognized”, said Dan Bronzite, produced screenwriter, CEO and head developer at Nuvotech, “Since Script Studio’s release in 2017 we have been overwhelmed by the positive feedback and enthusiastic support from the growing screenwriting and novel writing community choosing our app for their creative writing endeavors, and being acknowledged by our peers is the icing on the cake.”

Script Studio — Key Features

• Professional Industry Standard Screenplay Formatting & Pagination
• Sequence Outlining & Story Organization
• Character Development Tools
• Dedicated Novel Mode & Chapter Headings
• Right-to-Left & Diacritics Support For International Users
• Night Mode
• Audience Engagement & Analysis Charting
• Visual Drag ‘n’ Drop Index Cards
• Color-Coded Structuring & Customizable Templates
• Character Dialogue Focus
• Global Scratch Pad
• Story Tasks “To Do” List
• Screenwriting Glossary
• Dictation Assistant
• Table Read “Text-To-Speech”
• Powerful Print, Import & Export Options
• 12 Scene by Scene Hollywood Movie Breakdowns & Analyses
• 100% Cross-Platform File Exchange & Matching Modern UI

Download a Free Trial or Buy Now from the Script Studio Store or Mac App Store.

Educational Solutions

Script Studio is ideal for students learning screenwriting because of its intuitive and structured approach to story development which allows you to build your script or novel step by step and chapter by chapter and can easily be tailored into modules for teaching. The software is already adopted by schools and universities across North America and Europe and Nuvotech strongly supports this through affordable academic pricing for individual licenses and multiple seats for screenwriting labs.

Pricing and Availability

Script Studio is available as a download from the Script Studio website for Mac 10.7 and Windows 7 or higher operating systems. The suggested retail price is $199.95 but competitive upgrades from Final Draft and academic pricing is available if you contact Nuvotech directly.

About Nuvotech

Nuvotech is a software and web services company based in London, England founded in 1999 by produced screenwriter Dan Bronzite to offer innovative software and services for the creative writing industry. Its most recognized brands are Script Studio, a cross-platform creative writing application, and Hollywood Script Express a script copying and delivery service in Los Angeles.

August 28, 2017 (London, UK) – UK technology company Nuvotech today announced the release of Script Studio^® creative writing software – an innovative Mac & Windows desktop application for screenwriters, playwrights and novelists.

Nuvotech has given its popular script and story development app Movie Outline a complete facelift, recoded the application from the ground up and rebranded it as Script Studio. This latest incarnation, which is now a serious contender for industry leader Final Draft, has a fresh, modern user-interface that is identical on Mac and Windows operating systems and supports the latest technologies such as Retina / HiDPI and Windows Touch Screen gestures.

“This is our biggest upgrade ever and we’ve really gone to town”, said Dan Bronzite, CEO, produced screenwriter and head developer. “Our primary objective is to streamline the writing process, giving writers both the space to create and the tools they need to effectively plan, structure, format and develop their screenplay.”

Some of the most notable additions to Script Studio are a dedicated novel mode, night mode, WYSIWYG Dual Dialogue that you can edit in situ, a global Scratch Pad, a bespoke Courier Nuvo font designed for writing screenplays, and improved import and export functionality that handles Final Draft 10 and Fountain files.”

Support For International Users

Perhaps the most crucial advancement is Script Studio’s newly implemented support for Unicode and diacritics, something which competitors Final Draft and Movie Magic have not provided to date. Script Studio also boasts the addition of over 100 international dictionaries and thesauri and the ability to write your script in right-to-left languages such as Hebrew, Arabic, Persian scripts and Urdu.

“Supporting the international writer was one of our key goals” remarks Nuvotech’s Product Manager Evelyne Kennedy. “While we understand that North America and Hollywood in particular is a key hotspot for screenwriting, there are many scriptwriting communities and production hubs all over the world, Bollywood being a prime example, and we wanted to ensure that Script Studio was accessible to those regions and users.”

Product Roadmap

When discussing the future of Script Studio, Evelyne Kennedy kept her cards close to her chest but hinted on an exciting few years ahead for users of their screenwriting software. She also noted the emerging importance of mobile screenwriting and cloud connectivity and confirmed that the iOS version is in active development.

Key Features

• Professional Industry Standard Screenplay Formatting & Pagination
• Sequence Outlining & Story Organization
• Character Development Tools
• Dedicated Novel Mode & Chapter Headings
• Audience Engagement & Analysis Charting
• Visual Drag ‘n’ Drop Index Cards
• Color-Coded Structuring & Customizable Templates
• Character Dialogue Focus
• Global Scratch Pad
• Story Tasks “To Do” List
• Screenwriting Glossary
• Dictation Assistant
• Table Read “Text-To-Speech”
• Powerful Print, Import & Export Options
• 12 Scene by Scene Hollywood Movie Breakdowns & Analyses
• 100% Cross-Platform File Exchange & Matching Modern UI

New In Script Studio

The latest release also includes full screen mode for distraction free writing, first-line indent and document leading options, customizable television, stageplay and musical layout templates, a character name wizard and gallery of headshot images, global search, Fountain markup and Final Draft 10 import/export and the ability to import and merge data from a third-party document format or another project file into an existing project.

Download a Free Trial or Buy Now from the Script Studio Store.

Educational Solutions

Script Studio is ideal for students learning screenwriting because of its intuitive and structured approach to story development which allows you to build your script or novel step by step and chapter by chapter and can easily be tailored into modules for teaching. The software is already adopted by schools and universities across North America and Europe and Nuvotech strongly supports this through affordable academic pricing for individual licenses and multiple seats for screenwriting labs.

Pricing and Availability

Script Studio is available as a download from the Script Studio website for Mac 10.7 and Windows 7 or higher operating systems. The suggested retail price is $199.95 but competitive upgrades and academic pricing is available if you contact Nuvotech directly.

About Nuvotech

Nuvotech is a software and web services company based in London, England founded in 1999 by produced screenwriter Dan Bronzite to offer innovative software and services for the creative writing industry. Its most recognized brands are Script Studio, a cross-platform creative writing application, and Hollywood Script Express a script copying and delivery service in Los Angeles.

Screenwriters, novice and pro, will inevitably have their own contrasting methodologies for writing a screenplay and you will often hear conflicting rules to adhere to from prominent screenwriting gurus on how to write a script.

So what is the best way to write your movie?

Should you plan every minute detail or simply unlock your mind to a cinematic stream of consciousness and go with the flow?

Well, I would suggest the answer is both!

When I first started out as a screenwriter I would get an idea for a story or sometimes simply the opening scene, a great ending or even a cool set-piece somewhere in the middle of act two and then jump into the script.  I wouldn’t even use a computer but instead write it all down with a pen on a lined pad.  In fact, I wrote my first ever script that way and it was optioned and while it never got produced it did prove to be a great writing sample and clinched my first spec sale and multiple assignments.

Since my first script I have written many without a coherent plan and many with a fully-structured outline – so what have I learned from the experience?  Well, “free-form” script writing typically means many more rewrites because these scripts inevitably need a lot of editing to cut out the flab, and a lot more scene shuffling, because the scene to scene plot progression and character development was not planned at the beginning.  And with the outlined projects?  They of course still require rewrites, but much fewer and the central storyline and character journeys in these screenplays were always much clearer from the start which meant that theme could be expressed through dialogue, action and visuals more instinctively.

With all these lessons learned, and after many development meetings where I had to present my ideas for rewrites, I ultimately invented my own screenwriting software Movie Outline specifically for screenwriters to outline a story before diving head first into a screenplay.  I discovered that free-form screenplay writing without following a proper structure sometimes pays off, and other times it doesn’t.  I also learned that you can still free-form your script during the story planning stage and the scene writing stage and it’s just as satisfying and rewarding.

Outlining and structuring my story is now instinctual for me as a screenwriter and it has made me a better writer.  It has also made developing a script with producers, directors and executives a much easier process, especially when you are trying to communicate your ideas for project changes.  So now, even if I get a great idea for a movie and want to start writing I don’t immediately leap into the script, I let the idea gestate and then start planning the story.  Sometimes I may write a scene if I have to get it out of my head and then plot where that scene can take me but I’ve managed to strike a balance between creativity and methodology and this is the key.. for me.

My advice for first-time screenwriters who are about to launch into their first screenplay is try to find your own balance between free-form writing and a structured approach.  I do recommend outlining your story first but try not to initially get too caught up on the “three-act” blueprint, any particular structural paradigm or too much detail. Allow your story and ideas to flow and then go back to what you’ve written and change it around if necessary.  Cut scenes out, combine scenes, clearly define your act breaks and don’t let formulas hinder your creative juices on the first pass.

This initial process helps you discover your own voice and style, and trust me, it’s better to write something crap on a blank page rather than stare at it all day or plan, plan, plan – sometimes used as an excuse by writers to procrastinate. As you become more accustomed to the screenwriting process, outlining and structuring will become second nature and crucially you will be able identify flaws in your script during the planning stage rather than waiting for someone to point it out to you at the end.

When we think of a hero in a movie we immediately assume we are talking about the central character otherwise known as the Protagonist, but many stories conceal a multitude of heroes, often unsung, in secondary, supporting roles that are just as important to the narrative and Protagonist’s psychological development and physical journey.

Think of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original “Star Wars”. He is a hero in his own right because he allows himself to be slain by Darth Vader in order to push Luke Skywalker toward the next stage in his journey. Without this sacrifice Luke would depend on his mentor to see him through the final conflict instead of believing in his own inner strength.  And that is the key to a good hero.  Someone who sacrifices their own needs – or indeed life – for the sake of the greater good.

When constructing a story, writers typically focus on the central plot and central character, and this normally results in villains and secondary characters entering the stage simply to support what has already been established.  This can inevitably lead to two-dimensional characters that become sounding boards or vessels for exposition, and a central storyline that makes sense but is unfulfilling to an audience.

Instead, try introducing well-defined, three-dimensional characters with their own lives and stories outside of the main plot and then weave these secondary stories around the central storyline, and design some of the Protagonist’s story choices around the secondary characters.  This may not always work and you should obviously never lose focus of the principle story and character but the process will open your mind to new avenues and hopefully create a more rounded and engaging narrative.

Treat every character as a hero, even the villains.  That’s right, villains are heroes of their own stories.  When we think of Alan Rickman’s enigmatic villain Hans Gruber in “Die Hard” we see a guy who wants to steal money and kill whoever gets in his way.  But perhaps there is more to his story than we know?  Perhaps the screenwriter explored a complex backstory for Gruber that never made it to the big screen – because it was unnecessary for an audience and would more than likely be overly expositional – but knowing about Gruber’s childhood and experiences may have helped shape the part.

I am sure that Alan Rickman didn’t just read the role as a villain and that was that.  Like all good actors, especially those who believe in “the method”, he may have tried to find a spark of humanity in Gruber, something he could use to justify Gruber’s actions.  Maybe Gruber’s father used to work for a big conglomerate like the Nakatomi Corporation and that they fired him and it lead to the break up and suicide of his father.  Gruber would of course never reveal this to his accomplices but for him, the heist meant more than money.  It was revenge and closure.  A salute to his father.

By understanding that EVERYONE in a movie has a story to tell and a life beyond the bounds of the movie screen and pages of a screenplay we can begin to view each role, from hero to grumpy waitress with only three lines, with the respect they deserve.  The truth is, that grumpy waitress is the way she is because her boss is a jerk, she has no love life and is working three jobs so she can afford to look after her sick mother.  She is the epitome of the “selfless hero” – but we’ll never know.

PHILADELPHIA, PA – The Dysfunctional Screenwriters Society has teamed with UK technology company Nuvotech, publisher of popular screenwriting software Movie Outline 3, to award winners of Power of the Pitch 3 copies of their story outlining and movie script formatting software Script It!

Power of the Pitch 3 will be held from 6pm-9pm on October 19th 2011, at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Nuvotech is a software and Web 2.0 services company based in London, England. It was founded in 1999 by produced screenwriter Dan Bronzite to publish innovative software and services for the creative industry. Its most recognized brands are Movie Outline a cross-platform screenplay development application and Hollywood Script Express a script  copying and delivery service in Los Angeles. Script It! is based on the same innovative writing methodology of “step-outlining” that has proved so popular with users of Movie Outline. This “sequence” approach allows you to plan the structure of your screen story and professionally format your screenplay step by step.

The Dysfunctional Screenwriters Society was started in 2009 by screenwriter, Keith Chamberlain for the purpose of providing aspiring screenwriters in the Philadelphia area, the opportunity to meet, network, and critique works in progress with other aspiring screenwriters. The Dysfunctional Screenwriters Society has amassed a membership of over 150 screenwriters in the Philadelphia, New Jersey and Delaware area and its group of participating individuals meet monthly to discuss ideas and exchange professional advice. Power of the Pitch is a biannual event designed to educate screenwriters how to pitch their respective television, film or web projects to directors and producers. The first two Power of the Pitches drew an estimated attendance of 75 people from all over the Tri-State area.

If you would like to attend this event or  join the DSS mailing list please visit The Dysfunctional Screenwriters Society.

To receive more information about Nuvotech products and services please visit Nuvotech.

As a screenwriter it is important to remember that while the stories we tell should reflect real-life (or aspects of it) in order to engage an audience and help them identify with the narrative and characters that inhabit the world we create, life is different from movie life.  In real life events occur in chronological order and time passes much, much slower.. even though some days may not feel like it.  If we recounted the story of our day in minute detail minute by minute to our friends over a drink after work, they’d probably shoot themselves or jump off a bridge with suicidal boredom because most of the events that occur are insignificant and uninteresting.

From the moment we are awoken in the morning by our alarm clock to the moment we arrive at work, many, many things have happened.  But put them all in a screenplay and it won’t be a blockbuster, unless of course your entire story is about an hour in the life of an everyday man who gets kidnapped on his way to work due to a case of mistaken identity!

A movie may begin by showing a man waking up, getting ready for work, feeding his dog and jumping into his car, and that’s fine.  It reveals certain things about the character that may be important for us to know before the story unfolds.  Similarly, a scene in the middle of a movie could contain these events, but ONLY if it is important to the character, plot or pacing.  Otherwise, condense those events into a shorter sequence of shorts or cut them altogether.

And that’s where the concept of “getting in and out early” plays its crucial part.  When writing a screenplay, you only have so much time to tell the story and so you must not waste those precious moments on things that don’t matter.  Why not cut from the alarm clock, to his irritated expression in bed and then right to him sitting down at his desk?  It still works, doesn’t it.  Absolutely.  And the great thing is we now have more time to spend on more significant plot and character developments.

I’m not saying go through your script and condense everything to the point that it’s all cut – cut – cut.. that would be equally annoying and give us a headache.  Pace means highs and lows, fast and slow, moments of intense action and lulls for us to contemplate what has passed.  The key is to find an effective balance and part of that is understanding when there is too much “chaff” in your scene to scene progression. So remember to get into your scene as late as possible and out of it as early as possible. This will tighten a flabby script and help focus your audience’s time and attention on the things that really matter.

Flashback can be a clever device or it can be an annoying one.  If you use it sparingly and don’t rely on it too heavily to tell your story then it can really help with the revelation of subplot, the recollection of key past events tied into your current plot, and the resurgence of repressed memories – sprinkling a little style at the same time.

When learning how to write a script, think of flashback as just another weapon in the screenwriter’s armoury. Sometimes it may help you, other times it may just get in the way or over-convolute the story, but if you use it correctly this device can be a fantastic visual aid.  Don’t use flashback because you are lazy.  If you can find another way of telling your backstory then be innovative and pursue a more creative route that doesn’t rely on exposition.

Only use flashback if there is no other way to convey past events or if you feel that introducing flashback (or indeed flash forward) will enhance the piece in a stylistic manner.  Sometimes writers even use flashback to intentionally confuse an audience or lead them down a particular path so as to turn the tables on them later on.

A great example of this was in The Usual Suspects where Kevin Spacey’s character retold past events to the cop Chazz Palminteri.  We bought the story he was feeding us hook, line and sinker. And why not?  We had no reason not to believe that what he was saying was the truth, and the director also presented the backstory as the truth with no hint to subterfuge.  Then, right at the crucial moment in the third act, the writer and director pulled the floor out from under us and revealed that Kevin Spacey had been lying and that he was in fact the villain of the piece Keyser Söze.

Flashback, like any screenwriting device, such as voice-over, can be used or abused.  Good writers use it in a way that enhances the narrative and character development of a movie without relying on it to solve plot problems.  Great script writers find innovative ways to play with this cool device so that it feels fresh yet at the same time familiar. The trick is, striking the perfect balance.

I know some of you writers out there – yes, you know who you are — don’t like rules and formulas and are ruthlessly resistant to following any kind or paradigm in your script writing efforts but the simple truth is that patterns and methods exist in life and art and often it is the artist’s task to present them in such a way so that they enhance the drama but do not stand out like a sore thumb.

Even Gene Kelly used technique.. He didn’t just wake up one morning and do a back flip but he was such a master at his craft that he made every dazzling move look seamless and effortless through years of practice and applying technique to creativity.

The job is the same for the writer.  To create a story that has technique and intention yet uses tried-and-tested screenwriting devices where necessary and the writer’s skill to present the events that unfold in an organic way so that we, as an audience, hook into the plot and the characters that inhabit the depicted fiction world before us.

So with that in mind, you, as a screenwriter, must learn that the “rule of three” doesn’t just apply to telling jokes.  That’s right, you don’t have to be a comedian (but it sometimes helps) to use this technique in your own scripts to make your narrative and character development have more impact.

In order for an audience to remember an important piece of information or to fully understand and identify with your screenplay’s clever third-act twist, you first have to set it up, then you remind them (usually in a subtle way) and then you make that jaw-dropping pay-off!  And it doesn’t just apply to your overall act structure but also to scenes and the dialogue within them.  Just as a witty one-liner may have a beginning, middle and end, so does a monologue, a heated dialogue exchange, a fight and a car chase.  The rules appear everywhere to varying degrees.

A crude example would be your hero entering a trendy club and noticing an ornate bowl of nuts on the bar.  He takes one as he asks the bartender some questions.  Then during the middle of the scene a seductive woman approaches him and they exchange some dialogue.  He’s not interested but as she departs she mentions how the nuts he’s eating contain germs since people don’t wash their hands.  As we approach the end of the scene, the hero comes face to face with the person that has been following him all day and they have a fist fight while everybody around them watches on.  The hero ultimately wins by reaching behind him, grabbing the bowl of nuts and slamming it across the guy’s head.. maybe even ending the scene with a witty retort about how the woman was right and that the nuts are bad for your health.

Setup. Reminder. Pay-off.

Now, would the scene work as well with only the first and last visual of the nuts?  Or perhaps just the last? No. One – Two – Three. Simple yet extremely effective.

In your everyday life, do you sit in one spot and talk to everybody you meet in that same place?  Okay, maybe you do but unless that’s the point of the story you’re writing it’s basically not gonna be the most interesting thing to watch.

When an audience invests their time in a movie they do so to escape and be entertained and part of the way an audience is entertained is by the way you structure your story and develop your characters. Locations are key to character development fro screenwriters because they tell us a lot about a character without words.  They educate us visually about how they live, their habits, where they work, what kind of people they work with and what they experience in their world.

So with that in mind, make sure you use the locations in your screenplay to develop your characters but also use your locations as a means of story progression and pace.

Pace?  What do you mean, “pace”?  I hear you ask.

Well, it’s simple really.  You ever watched a movie where there’s a big tense scene with two people arguing loudly for about five minutes?  And then one of the characters goes outside just to get away from the conflict?  Well, that’s a change of location.  And depending on your choice of location, it may change the pace of your movie and your audience’s engagement.

If the character slams the door and goes into his/her room, well, it’s a pretty static choice of location but it may be the best choice for your character and the story.  If however the character kicks the front door open and bursts outside into the rain then maybe sits alone in the woods while he/she gets drenched.. that’s something different.  Your character could also jump in his/her car and screech off down the road.

Each decision you make about location has an impact on the way the audience will react and the emotions they will feel.  In fact, using the “driving away in the car” as an example, sometimes this actually has a direct impact on an audience, especially if the argument we talked about happened at night and then we cut to the next morning as your character drives off somewhere to get away from it all.  This sometimes causes individuals in an audience to shuffle in their seats, since they subconsciously feel the story is progressing and it’s time to get themselves ready for the next chapter.

So if you find yourself writing your scenes based in the same place then take my word for it, the audience WILL get bored, especially if it’s just “talking heads” — two characters chatting with no action.  Why not try transferring that conversation to a swimming pool while your characters are doing laps?  Or in a moving bus or even on an escalator in a shopping mall.  Use the location as a device in your screenwriting and if you do it cleverly, nobody will ever know what you are up to!