Celtx will make you a rock star screenwriter

I learned a great lesson a few years ago from one of my film instructors which helped me understand a very important princile of filmmaking- technology doesn't make your film great, you make your film great.

This holds true with screenwriting software as much as it does with any other technology for filmmaking.  A great screenplay can be written in just a simple word processor like Word or WordPerfct or Open Office Writer.  Thousands of great screenplays were written even before computers were invented!  So don't think that your screenplay will suck because you don't own a copy of this software or that software.  That is a bunch of crap.

So, why am I seemingly contradicting myself?  I just sadi that Celtx is the best screenwriting software and will make you a rock star, but that you don't need it to be great.  Well, I want to set the stage that if you are looking for something to make you a great filmmaker, that is call film school my friend.  You can't just buy and start using a piece of software and expect your work to be good.  You need to be at a certain level already in your skills, expectations, and creativity such that you could create a good idea for a story on your own.  Only then will the tools you use matter, and even then only to the degree of how you use them to make a difference.  So, bottome line: once you are comfortable with yourself as a story teller, then leverage tools to help you do that better.  The tools wont tell your story for you, you still need to do that.

Ok. enough lecturing.

Reasons why Celtx is the best screenplay software out there:

1. It is free.

2. It has all the nice features of commercial screenwriting software: auto-formatting and indenting, scene breakdowns, character breakdowns, reports, etc.

3. It has built-in scheduling and calendaring.  This really is cool if you are a writer/director who is going to produce and actaully shoot the film that you write.  You can map things out in a timeline and schedule everything in one place.  Very cool.

4.  It is very easy to learn and use.  It has a very natural layout and functions as you would expect.  User interface is designed well.

5. It has a large and growing community around it.  There are furoms, script sharing servers, FAQs, and lots of online help.  Celtx helps you feel connected with other writers.

6. Try it, and you'll like it.