Your Writing/Preproduction Software Wish Lists (longish)

[Richard Brown]

Hello all,

I am in negotiations currently to take my screenwriting software, 
"Scenario," from my company E-Soft, out of the mothballs and back into 
coding to finish it as a full featured front end to Final Cut Pro.

We began coding Scenario because, after more than 15 years of 
screenwriting, I grew tired of the far less than perfect worlds of 
Final Draft, Screenwriter, Script Thing, etc. I tried, paid for, or 
used all of the competing screenwriting systems and ALL of them fell 
short of reasonable ergonomic expectations. In short, they are ALL 
slow, cumbersome, bereft of features, and now, most importantly, are 
too one dimensional. Scenario, for example, has a "Dramatica"-like 
script tutoring system which exists in real time as you write.

The purpose of this email is simply my query to the MacDV crowd as to 
your wish list for great screenwriting and preproduction software.  
Scenario, you see, is modular, covering the whole of a production prior 
to post. We intend it to be the de facto, best of class front end 
solution to Final Cut, Shake, and the rest of Apple's growing post 
production solution.

Thus, I would appreciate hearing from anyone with their wish list of 
things they feel are missing from current software or are simply not 
handled well in current software.

Scenario was 85% completed when we pulled it from production due to 
internal strife within E-Soft, which I now own outright sans my former, 
"evil" partners. Even today, it simply wipes the floor with all current 
software in basically every way. For example, we spent about six months 
developing an encryption algorithm which no hacker nor movie studio has 
the resources or time to break, making our Internet co-writer mode the 
safest in the industry. The algorithm, if you are curious, is based on 
the following assumption: we tell you, in detail, exactly how the 
encryption works, which prompts you to give up before even trying to 
break the first word. The best encryption must assume the method of 
encryption will eventually be discovered. Only then do you know, when 
the secret is out, how good a job you did. The caveat is, lose your 
key, we cannot help you. Nor could anyone. No back door, etc. We tested 
the algorithm by handing off to encryption hackers years ago. They all 
gave up with zero results. This is just 0.01% of the software, again, 
which is 85% finished.

The Screenwriters Guild showed interest in demoing the software upon 
its release - which hopefully will be soon.

So, pardon the length of this discourse... and... what do you want?

Send your wish lists to my .Mac account:  go2rba at mac.com

Thanks.

Richard Brown