Converting MMS Scripts to Final Draft format?

JoeBrent · 08-07-2006, 09:55 AM

I am not a screenwriter, but have a friend who is. She has an older version of Movie Magic Screenwriter (v. 3.02, ca. 1998), and about two dozen scripts written in that format. She needs to get a new laptop, but probably also needs to upgrade to the latest version of MMS. However, for a little more than the cost of doing that, she can buy Final Draft instead. She is somewhat inclined to go with FD, but is concerned about how well her existing MMS scripts will "translate" into the FD format.

How much manual "cleaning up" is needed after a script is "translated" from MMS to FD format?

ComicBent · 08-07-2006, 01:11 PM

Final Draft is not the world's best program for importing. However, I tested a script just now (MMS, most recent version, to FD version 6). I saved the MMS script as "Final Draft RTF" and imported it. Results were good. A couple of places had crazy capitalization (dialogue was capitalized), but overall the results were very good. [But see my later post. It was my mistake all along.]

If you would like my personal opinion on some of these matters, send me an email or a PM. Brentwood, Tennessee, huh? Been there a zillion times. I have spent many an hour at the Barnes & Noble right between Brentwood and Cool Springs.

rolandraystroud@gmail.com

LatteAddict · 08-08-2006, 03:00 AM

Just wanted to add that while the "Final Draft RTF" format works *okay*, but takes some manual tweaking before everything is the way it was supposed to be, saving the script as FCF (Final Draft Converter format) gives you a file that when opened in FD is pretty much 100% of what it was in Screenwriter.

The only thing you may need to tweak after the import is element settings (i.e. margins etc) if you need the exact same page breaks as you had in Screenwriter.

Anyway, I have delivered quite a couple of Screenwriter scripts to producers with Final Draft, using that method. And it works great.
The only potential problem is of course if the FCF format hadn't been introduced in Screenwriter 3.02.

HTH

/L.A.

ComicBent · 08-08-2006, 07:05 AM

Latté,

Good to see you back!

Thanks for reminding me about the old FCF format. I had not used that in years.

I ran the test with it, and really got the same results. I still had two or three places where dialogue was capitalized ... but WAIT! It turned out, when I checked, that I had a flaw in my test all along.

The test Screenwriter script that I used was originally written in another program and had been converted to MMS. Unfortunately, I had failed to find all the mistakes in the conversion. The capitalized dialogue was in the MMS script all along. Sorry about that!

So both of the exports to Final Draft worked very, very well after all. The only thing that did not convert properly in the two tests was some dual dialogue (side by side), and I never expected that to work right. It would be an easy matter to fix that.

LatteAddict · 08-08-2006, 08:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ComicBent

I ran the test with it, and really got the same results.

I remembered having some troubles with the RTF method, so I ran a quick test myself. It seems that when importing RTF, my Final Draft may occasionally interpret a capitalized action line as a slug, while some of my shorter action lines get formatted as Character names, making the next action paragraph into a speech.
Could be annoying if (like me) you like splitting your action lines...

So overall, I've had some problems with RTF and virtually none (except for the dual dialogue) with FCF. At least none that I've noticed...

Quote:

Originally Posted by ComicBent

Good to see you back!

Thanks. I was never very far away.

/L.A.

Copywriter2 · 08-10-2006, 06:45 PM

The biggest problem I've had when saving a MMS script as Final Draft/rtf is page length. For example, one of my screenplays was an actual 113 pages in MMS, but it came over as 128 as FD/rtf. I need to learn to save as PDF, because that's apparently a better way to go if they don't have MMS. In the meantime, when someone does request FD/rtf I send them the script with a note telling them the actual length. Good luck.

ComicBent · 08-10-2006, 07:52 PM

The page-length problem ...

It probably has to do with the font that you are using. MMS line spacing is the same for all the Courier fonts unless you change the line spacing. By contrast, FD does NOT format with standard line spacing unless you use Courier Final Draft. (You can adjust the line spacing somewhat in FD, but some Couriers will have fewer lines per inch until you do this, with the result that your FD script will be a good many pages longer.)

You also need to consider various options that can affect page length, like settings for how the page breaks (in a sentence, after a sentence, etc.).

If you get all these parameters in order, you should not have too much difference in the script length.

08-07-2006, 09:55 AM	#1
JoeBrent New User Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Brentwood, Tennessee Posts: 1	Converting MMS Scripts to Final Draft format? I am not a screenwriter, but have a friend who is. She has an older version of Movie Magic Screenwriter (v. 3.02, ca. 1998), and about two dozen scripts written in that format. She needs to get a new laptop, but probably also needs to upgrade to the latest version of MMS. However, for a little more than the cost of doing that, she can buy Final Draft instead. She is somewhat inclined to go with FD, but is concerned about how well her existing MMS scripts will "translate" into the FD format. How much manual "cleaning up" is needed after a script is "translated" from MMS to FD format?

08-07-2006, 01:11 PM	#2
ComicBent Administrator Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 3,086	Re: Converting MMS Scripts to Final Draft format? Final Draft is not the world's best program for importing. However, I tested a script just now (MMS, most recent version, to FD version 6). I saved the MMS script as "Final Draft RTF" and imported it. Results were good. A couple of places had crazy capitalization (dialogue was capitalized), but overall the results were very good. [But see my later post. It was my mistake all along.] If you would like my personal opinion on some of these matters, send me an email or a PM. Brentwood, Tennessee, huh? Been there a zillion times. I have spent many an hour at the Barnes & Noble right between Brentwood and Cool Springs. rolandraystroud@gmail.com __________________ "The fact that you have seen professionals write poorly is no reason for you to imitate them." — ComicBent. Last edited by ComicBent : 08-08-2006 at 07:08 AM.

08-08-2006, 03:00 AM	#3
LatteAddict Regular Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 229	Re: Converting MMS Scripts to Final Draft format? Just wanted to add that while the "Final Draft RTF" format works okay, but takes some manual tweaking before everything is the way it was supposed to be, saving the script as FCF (Final Draft Converter format) gives you a file that when opened in FD is pretty much 100% of what it was in Screenwriter. The only thing you may need to tweak after the import is element settings (i.e. margins etc) if you need the exact same page breaks as you had in Screenwriter. Anyway, I have delivered quite a couple of Screenwriter scripts to producers with Final Draft, using that method. And it works great. The only potential problem is of course if the FCF format hadn't been introduced in Screenwriter 3.02. HTH /L.A. __________________ If a tree falls in the forest and there's nobody there, is it O.S or V.O?

08-08-2006, 07:05 AM	#4
ComicBent Administrator Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 3,086	Re: Converting MMS Scripts to Final Draft format? Latté, Good to see you back! Thanks for reminding me about the old FCF format. I had not used that in years. I ran the test with it, and really got the same results. I still had two or three places where dialogue was capitalized ... but WAIT! It turned out, when I checked, that I had a flaw in my test all along. The test Screenwriter script that I used was originally written in another program and had been converted to MMS. Unfortunately, I had failed to find all the mistakes in the conversion. The capitalized dialogue was in the MMS script all along. Sorry about that! So both of the exports to Final Draft worked very, very well after all. The only thing that did not convert properly in the two tests was some dual dialogue (side by side), and I never expected that to work right. It would be an easy matter to fix that. __________________ "The fact that you have seen professionals write poorly is no reason for you to imitate them." — ComicBent.

08-10-2006, 06:45 PM	#6
Copywriter2 Regular Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 355	Re: Converting MMS Scripts to Final Draft format? The biggest problem I've had when saving a MMS script as Final Draft/rtf is page length. For example, one of my screenplays was an actual 113 pages in MMS, but it came over as 128 as FD/rtf. I need to learn to save as PDF, because that's apparently a better way to go if they don't have MMS. In the meantime, when someone does request FD/rtf I send them the script with a note telling them the actual length. Good luck.

08-10-2006, 07:52 PM	#7
ComicBent Administrator Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 3,086	Re: Converting MMS Scripts to Final Draft format? The page-length problem ... It probably has to do with the font that you are using. MMS line spacing is the same for all the Courier fonts unless you change the line spacing. By contrast, FD does NOT format with standard line spacing unless you use Courier Final Draft. (You can adjust the line spacing somewhat in FD, but some Couriers will have fewer lines per inch until you do this, with the result that your FD script will be a good many pages longer.) You also need to consider various options that can affect page length, like settings for how the page breaks (in a sentence, after a sentence, etc.). If you get all these parameters in order, you should not have too much difference in the script length. __________________ "The fact that you have seen professionals write poorly is no reason for you to imitate them." — ComicBent.

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