Tag Archives: Final Draft

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Johnny Hartmann

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Johnny Hartmann and I’m a screenwriter currently working on an episode of a new Hasbro show called Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? 
There are crazier jobs than this?!

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? 
I’m incredibly proud to be contributing to Kaijudo, the story editors Henry Gilroy and Andrew Robinson have created such a rich and unique world, it’s awesome to be writing one of the chapters for them.
How did you become interested in animation? 
I started in live-action. Then I wrote a spec called R-A-M: Rogue Alien Mutation. It was sort of a King Kong in space story and my agent at ICM at the time sent it to Shaun McLaughlin at the WB. Shaun suggested it could make a great animated feature. That’s when I realized that Continue reading

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Becky Wangberg

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Becky Wangberg. I am the Executive Assistant to Butch Hartman on TUFF Puppy and The Fairly Odd Parents.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I used to be an Office Manager for a small production company that mainly does commercials and music videos. Before I got hired I was their intern, and my first weeks there I had to clean the garage and clean the BBQ. I also did the weekly grocery shopping, and even acted as a personal chef and valet driver.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I co-wrote a short film that combines live action, CG & 2D animation, and it just got accepted into its 50th film festival! I’m also currently developing a drama pilot with some friends that I’m really excited about.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from Sacramento, CA and I got my degree in Screenwriting at Chapman University. When I was in school, I interned at the Nickelodeon Animation Studio and loved the culture there. Though I actually interned in Live Action Development and Current Series, we were stationed at the Animation Studio, and it became my goal to Continue reading

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Alternatives to Final Draft

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Since you can’t very well create animation with a story, you’re gonna need script writing software. Below is a list of 21 alternatives (read: cheaper) to Final Draft. Personally my favorite is Adobe Story mostly because it syncs to The Cloud and allows me to use it on multiple computers but you might have different ideas.

  1. Scrivener
    Commercial by Literature & Latte | Mac, Windows, Linux

    Scrivener is a word processor and project management tool created specifically for writers of long texts such as novels and research papers.

  2. Freemium by Greyfirst Corporation | Mac, Web / Cloud, Android, iPhone, Android Tablet, iPad

    Based on the Firefox engine, supports standards, visual storyboarding, prod. sceduling, publication and international languages MUI support. you can even get a portable version by googling for it. .

  3. Free by Spacejock Software (Simon Haynes) | Windows

    yWriter is a word processor which breaks your novel into chapters and scenes, helping you keep track of your work while leaving your mind free to create.

  4.  Trelby
    Open Source by Trelby.org | Windows, Linux

    Trelby is simple, fast and elegantly laid out to make screenwriting simple. It is infinitely configurable. *

  5. Commercial by Anthemion Software Ltd. | Mac, Windows, Linux

    Write a novel or screenplay with Writers Cafe: a powerful but fun writers environment that includes the StoryLines structuring tool, a notebook, journal, writing quotations, and scrapbook organizer

  6. Freemium by Dimka Novikov | Mac, Windows, Linux

    Simple and powerful application for writing movie scripts.

  7. Free | Mac, Windows, Linux, LibreOffice, Apache OpenOffice

    Organon – Navigation and Organization Tool for OpenOffice and LibreOffice

  8. Freemium | Mac, Windows, Linux, Web / Cloud

    Adobe® Story software lets you outline your ideas, write scripts quickly with automatic formatting, and collaborate online.

  9. Free | Web / Cloud

    Plotbot is free screenwriting software. You can write your screenplay with as many or a few people as you want–right from your browser. We handle the formatting so you can concentrate on writing!

  10. Commercial by Mariner Software | Mac

    Storymill is a creative writing tool geared towards book writers; although, it could easily be used for other big creative writing projects, like scripts.

  11. Commercial by Stroyist Software | Mac

    Designed exclusively for Mac OS X, Storyist is a powerful story development tool for novelists and screenwriters.

  12. Free by Guy Goldstein | Web / Cloud

    Collaborative screenwriting for everyone* *Great for solo writers as well!

  13. Commercial by Write Brothers, Inc. | Windows

    Outline 4D is an outlining and writing program that lets you brainstorm, create, structure and organize your ideas.

  14. Commercial by J Nozzi | Mac

    CopyWrite is the award-winning creative writing project management system for Mac OS X.

  15. Commercial by Act Focused Media LLC | Mac

    Slugline is a minimal, distraction-free environment for the most important part of screenwriting—the writing part. Slugline works with plain text.

  16. Commercial | Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, iPhone, iPad

    Fade In Professional Screenwriting Software is a complete application for writing motion picture screenplays, including tools for outlining, organizing, and navigating, plus extensive screenplay formatting.

  17. Open Source | Windows

    Page 2 Stage is screenwriting software designed expressly for people writing screenplays, scripts, and plays. It provides numerous features needed by screenwriters not found in standard word processors.

  18. Commercial by Cinovation | Mac, Windows

    Scriptware scriptwriting software, for writing scripts faster and easier than ever. Screenplay software for script writers.

  19. Commercial by Quote-Unquote Apps | Mac

    *** 2013 Macworld Eddy Winner! – Best of 2013 *** With Highland, crafting a perfectly-formatted screenplay is as simple as writing an email. Just type. Highland will make it look good.

  20. Commercial by blankpageapp | Web / Cloud

    Helps writers become authors. BlankPage is a full writing environment with a minimalist text editor, a powerful outlining tool, and social features all centered around motivational cues to help you keep writing.

    BlankPage gives you detailed statistics about when and how you write. Intelligent reminders for when you should write and a never ending stream of inspirational content to help you get going.

  21. Commercial | Windows

    Word processor specifically for screenplays.

 

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Kris Pearn

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Kris Pearn, and I’m currently directing an Animated Feature… but mostly I’m still a happy storyboard artist/ scribble monkey.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I grew up on a hobby farm, so there was lots of lawn mowing, wood harvesting, hay bailing, corn detasseling, urine soaked hay shoveling and the occasional outbreak of goat castration. I wasn’t good at any of it. After that I got a gig pumping gas at Lambeth Olco. I didn’t mind that so much… got to learn about cars and read a lot of Stephen King. Also paid my way through college until I got my first Animation job. Never looked back.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I was very proud to be a part of Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. It was a cartoon and I love cartoons. It’s rare in Feature Animation to get to work on a “cartoon”. Before that, I had fun on Surf’s Up (for the 8 people that saw it), and I still remember my first feature story gig on Open Season with fondness. I loved working for Aardman… couple of movies coming out soon, Arthur Christmas, and The Pirates!… can’t say too much about them until they’re released. I’ve enjoyed a lot of TV shows and Commercials too… I try Continue reading

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Tad Stones

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Tad Stones and what I do pretty much depends on the hour of the day. Currently I’m a storyboard artist at Bento Box Entertainment. I just finished an episode of the new Fox series, ALLEN GREGORY, and will soon be returning to board on the second season of the wonderful BOB’S BURGERS.
However, I’m also in written development on a new series for Disney Junior. I’m past the written pitch and am waiting for word on which of my premises will move into outline so you can call me a writer. The series is based on a Disney property and if it makes it into production I’ll be the Executive Producer.
But catch me between drafts and I’m finishing the board on my own pilot for Cartoon Network. Hope to move it into animatic soon. That will give me the triple crown of EP, Story Editor and Creator.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I started three days after college graduation so I hadn’t had many jobs. I was a scooper then an unofficial assistant manager at a Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors. I was there during the moon landing (with instructions to pull Lunar Cheesecake if anything went wrong at Tranquility Base). For two summers in college I was a camp counselor for WoodCraft Rangers at Lake Arrowhead. Then, for the summer of my Junior year, the last year before “real life”, I worked eight hours a day trying to sell gag cartoons to magazines. The closest I got was that the Saturday Evening Post held one for further consideration. The brainstorming I did that summer paid off in spades when I moved into story at Disney Feature Animation.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’ll say that my favorites were DARKWING DUCK and HELLBOY ANIMATED for completely different reasons. With Darkwing I was able to chase the funny more and play with all the comic book tropes I loved. With Hellboy I was trying to create true suspense. Mike Mignola and I wrote a third picture which would easily be the best of what we did. That’s definitely a project I’d like to return to.

How did you become interested in animation?
I always loved it. I remember an animation exhibit at Disneyland and bought Bob Thomas’s book, THE ART OF ANIMATION. My dad had wanted to be a cartoonist but didn’t pursue it after graduating. He did, however, Continue reading

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Steve Schnier

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What is your name and your current occupation?

My name is Steve Schnier. I’m an animation screenwriter and story editor, also a producer and director. I specialize in creating pitch bibles and pilot scripts – usually for animated programs, but some live action as well. I’m best known for creating the animated anthology series, “Freaky Stories”. We produced 3 seasons of the show which amounted to 140 4-minute short stories. Here are some links:

FREAKY STORIES: “The Suspect”

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