Many colleges and high schools are now offering film classes and degrees for students. The movie industry is a major market and with the introduction of digital filmmaking; it’s easier than ever for students and independent artists to make a high quality film. Many people think a film is simply cameras, lights, microphones, etc. However, a film first begins with an idea, which is written on a screenplay. Final Draft 8 is a comprehensive screenwriting software for Windows and Mac.

Final Draft is the industry standard for screenwriting. Even many major Hollywood productions are written using Final Draft. Final Draft offers a comprehensive set of tools that are catered towards screenwriting. It is much like a word processor that is setup for screenwriting. The program has screenplay-specific formatting for Character dialogue, scene transitions, actions, Off-screen dialogue, diagetic/non-diagetic music, scene headings, shots etc. Everything that you need to make a proper screenplay is in Final Draft.

To see some footage of Final Draft being used, check out this video:

All of the formatting is handled by the program itself so all you need to do is type up your ideas. Once you’re done, it’s as simple as printing the screenplay and turning it into a film or even bringing it to a studio to try and sell it. Final Draft 8 also allows you to export your screenplay as a PDF so you can send it to people safely and easily without worrying about anybody modifying the original screenplay.

Final Draft 8 also introduced a Revision mode. When enabled, the revision mode will mark any revisions in a different colored text or with an asterisk. In this way, you can view each different draft and see all of the changes you made. Final Draft also has Scene Properties, which allows you to Title each scene as you would a chapter for a book. You can also write Scene Summaries so you can make notes on actor blocking, camera blocking, Character traits, etc.

Final Draft 8 also has an Index Card feature. This allows you to write summaries of your scenes on Index Cards, which will then translate to a basic outline for your screenplay. Index cards are beneficial for writing down summaries and general ideas and use them as references for writing each scene. This is very beneficial as it is very easy to lose track of your ideas when you’re writing.

Final Draft 8 also has a feature called Collabowriter, which allows you to host or join a collaborative writing sessions via the internet. This is great for projects that are being written by multiple people in different locations. You can host a session and you can then send the IP address of your session to your other writers. They can then join the collabowriter session and see the screenplay in real-time as you make updates. The other writers can also take control and make contributions to the screenplay. This is a wonderful tool. If you couple it with a VoIP solution, then you pretty much have a collaborative writing session and you don’t even have to go anywhere.

There are many more features within Final Draft 8. It is the perfect tool for creating a screenplay from the Title Page to the End Credits. For students and educators, Final Draft is a great choice because it is not only priced well, but it has the best toolset out of any screenwriting software and it will get you used to the industry standard for screenwriting. That way, when you get into the movie business, you are ready to get writing. Final Draft is a must-have for any film student or independent filmmaker.

Author: Mark Phillip