Movie Outline is a screenwriting software application developed by a produced screenwriter. It receives the TopTenREVIEWS Bronze Award thanks to its extensive features, such as tools to develop your the characters and storyline, along with formatting the screenplay. There are so many different features, in fact, that some writers may not know where to start from, when compared to Final Draft and Movie Magic Screenwriter.
Using Movie Outline can be a little daunting at first; there are just so many story development and scriptwriting options. But once you try it and become accustomed to how Movie Outline works, the screenwriting software becomes easier to use. Thankfully you can keep track of your work, and there’s plenty of documentation to learn the software.
At the top of the user interface is the toolbar, which has all the writing and screenwriting tools and features you’d expect, plus navigational options.
Immediately below the toolbar are several tabs, each with a different feature:
- Outline: To develop the script in a step-by-step outline
- Script: Where you do the actual screenwriting
- Notes: To write and track notes
- Characters: Thorough character development and tracking
- FeelFactor: Analyze the pacing of your script
- Reference: Compare to other, similar movies
- Library: More comprehensive than Reference
- PowerView: View the color-coded outline
- Step Cards: Organizes the outline into index cards
- Story Tasks: Create to-do lists to stay on track
Below the tabs, in the main window, is where you’ll be doing all your writing. There's a navigation panel on the right where you can easily keep track of scenes and characters. This is especially helpful when your feature-length script reaches 120 pages and you need to find specific scenes and moments in the screenplay. You can also rearrange the steps or scenes if you feel it will help the story.
What makes this screenwriting software so unique are the included tools to easily create and develop the storyline and characters. You can start out with a simple idea then flesh it out into a more comprehensive outline of the action and scenes that take place.
From there, you can organize and color code everything into the three-act structure via PowerView Structure, and rearrange the scenes, if you wish. Then you can compare it to a major screenplay, to ensure that it flows well. Using a major screenplay as a reference will help you organize your script correctly.
After you’ve developed your screenplay and characters in the step outline, Movie Outline screenwriting software will help you format the screenplay to Hollywood standards, using the Tab and Enter key commands. These actions are pretty standard for screenwriting software.
You can also spotlight only the dialogue and characters speaking, which helps with rewriting. Probably the part of a script that most often needs rewriting is the dialogue, since it's challenging to write dialogue that sounds natural, not stilted or fake.
The proofreading feature of this screenwriting software is pretty thorough as well, giving you access to a powerful dictionary and thesaurus. The rewriting features are solid and what you’d find in other programs, whether you’re just doing a revision to make the script stronger, or on-the-film-set rewrites as the film is shooting.
You can export pretty much any category in Movie Outline screenwriting software, including the script, outline, characters, etc. Options include plain text, rich text, PDF, HTML and a Movie Outline Reference File. Some of the other categories can even be saved as image files, such as JPEG and BMP.
This screenwriting software has some basic templates, such as three-act screenplay, five-act stage play, one-hour TV drama, half-hour TV sitcom and hero’s journey. Plus, they have some sample screenplays, such as “Die Hard,” that you can use to compare to your script to see how the structure is laid out in a successful screenplay, and how yours stacks up.
Since the screenwriting software has plenty of features, tools and options, it can get a little overwhelming. Fortunately there is a wealth of documentation and help options online to get you started, along with a terrific user manual. If you need technical support, you can access phone support, in both the United States and the United Kingdom, during regular business hours.
There’s also email support, FAQs, and a Resources page, where you’ll find guides to the software, and also screenwriting in general. Very valuable when you begin working with Movie Outline screenwriting software.
Movie Outline is a fully featured screenwriting software application that will help you develop your characters and storyline, in addition to writing the script. Although the sheer number of features and tools can become overwhelming for the average screenwriter just starting out, the wealth of resources will help out any user.
