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Online screenplay outliner

Unknown Screenwriter

Unknown Screenwriter

I stumbled upon this online outliner. While it certainly doesn't go into enough depth for me since I've been at this for a while, I thought some of you out there trying to make sense out of your own film idea might be able to use it. If you play around with it enough, it could actually create a decent starting point for your story:

Screenplay Outliner

filmy
 
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Thanks for the info. I tried it and realised that it can't cope with anything that has has a complex set of emotional motivations for the characters. It would also be more useful if you could download it onto your own machine rather than typing you ideas into someones elses website, with no guarantees that the information is secure.

Interesting idea though and like you said it does give a starting point and raise some interesting questions.
 
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Outliner...

clive said:
Thanks for the info. I tried it and realised that it can't cope with anything that has has a complex set of emotional motivations for the characters. It would also be more useful if you could download it onto your own machine rather than typing you ideas into someones elses website, with no guarantees that the information is secure.

Interesting idea though and like you said it does give a starting point and raise some interesting questions.
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Clive,

Exactly. I just thought it might be somewhat useful for some of the people here that are just starting out and wondering what to do next...

I pretty much do everything manually. Lay out my theme, structure, and then outline. I was using 3X5 cards until recently... Now I'm using Movie Outliner 2.0 to outline the script instead of the cards... A little pricey for what it does but damn if I don't love this program... Although I don't think I can break the habit of always having a stack of them with me to jot down scene ideas... LOL.

filmy
 
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Nique, when you model someone after hitler, they're always gonna be apprehensive of Jews in one way or another.. ;)

Of course I'm only assuming you did that.. based on previous chats with you and my knowledge of your fascination with Nazi-era germany..

At any rate.. I wonder how common left handed Jewish mimes are anyway... Hmmmm
 
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Don't worry Nique, just because one is interested in the methodology of a monster it doesn't mean one condones the monster's actions. If that were true the appreciation/study of (much) history would be an exercise in retro-butt kissing of pychos and the very real chance of 'history repeating itself'.
 
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THANKS :) FOR FEELING THAT WAY BIRD
I JUST HAVE FOUND SOME STRIKING SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THE TWO OF US (me and him - watching films, enjoying sausages etc). I think I suffer from a mild fear that history may indeed repeat itself.
Hitler did afterall firstly want to be a painter. I'm just scared that one day, I'll find myself at the peak of a modern killing state and just say 'oh damn, i only ever wanted be a writer!'...............
 
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Nique, have you seen the movie "Max" with John Cusack? It's a really good movie. It paints a fascinating picture of Hitler the struggling artist before his rise to power.
 
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ktdamien said:
Nique, have you seen the movie "Max" with John Cusack? It's a really good movie. It paints a fascinating picture of Hitler the struggling artist before his rise to power.
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yeah i saw it last year thanks kt. it was historically accurate, yet it did not, in my opinion piant a realistic picture of Hitler in his struggle. For example his relationship with his father was a massive push into art (the best way to sum it up is that he loved his mother completely - her birthday became a Nazi holiday, but he only tolerated his father). in my opinion the person who played him put in a quite poor performance, missing the upper-class Austrian accent, even mannerisms of his young days were missing.
having said that, i agree about it being fascinating, it just didn't shed enough light on him or the great internal conflict he felt- but that left it open to speculation - like all the best works of art i suppose.
i just felt that they missed out on the possibilities - like say a scene where Hitler re-paints himself, as he did later wirth the lies on his family life in Mein Kampf, claiming his family was poor and he had had to move from crap job to crapper job, when his father bankrolled a lovely life.

but still a brave effort to touch upon a powerful subject.
 
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I pretty much do everything manually. Lay out my theme, structure, and then outline. I was using 3X5 cards until recently... Now I'm using Movie Outliner 2.0 to outline the script instead of the cards... A little pricey for what it does but damn if I don't love this program... Although I don't think I can break the habit of always having a stack of them with me to jot down scene ideas... LOL.
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Yep, that's how I do it too. Although I've been toying with large postit notes recently.

I'll have a look at Movie Outliner as I've just been funded to rewrite and develop my Sci-Fi script and I'm taking the opportunity to completely restructure it.
 
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Oh, and it also doesn't work on romantic comedies (see below)

Gateshead Romance


ACT I
Michael is a Welder.

When He's hired as a welder to work with a famous artist, Michael uncovers Marcia's plot to To fall in love with another artist. Marcia, a Cellist, plans to Hang around galleries.

ACT II
Michael must stop the plan or Because she's beautiful. He must face the challenge because Because his mates won't let him.

Michael uses his ability to Making things from metal and confronts Marcia when he attempts to She really knows about art and he doesn't. Using his self doubt against Michael, By confessing that in fact he's only a welder because He can't confess and has to make up a stupid excuse.

ACT III
When Michael realizes the cause of his self doubt is His inverted Northern snobbery, he can finally defeat Marcia because if he becomes honest with her she'll fall for him.

In the final conflict, Michael takes on Marcia when She discovers he's a fraud and palns to leave the area.

After Marcia is defeated, He chases her and tells her how much he loves her now that He's discovered that in fact he really is an artist.

:lol:
 
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Actually, most successful stories do have a good guy and a bad guy. I've played around with the outliner and you can use it even if the bad guy wins because it's just an outliner and structuring tool.

Remember, the antagonist doesn't have to be a Hans Gruber type... The antagonist could be anything or anyone. The antagonist can be larger than life or the little kid next door. Depends on your story but having said that...

Most successful films have a protagonist and an antagonist. This is where you get your conflict.

So... Saying that it's limited is a little funny. It is limited in the way that it structures your story... i.e., I personally use a lot more information to create structure. But is it limited because it allows for a good guy and a bad guy? I don't think so since most good stories contain these elements...

filmy
 
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Maybe you've played with it more than I have... but it seems to me that it forces the bad guy to be a person? So it's hard to form a coherent outline where the antagonist is something non-human, for example drugs, or something to that effect.

It seems like it would make it difficult to outline "The Perfect Storm", for example.
 
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