Movie Outline

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on April 27, 2010

Nuvotech's Movie Outline 3 is a screenplay development tool that uses a technique called step-outlining to help the screenwriter create and build a script, including character development, plot elements, scenes and settings, and even technical aspects like character speech count, scene numbering, and timing.

Movie Outline 3 first opens with a helpful guide that explains how the program works and how you can use it to improve your screenwriting. The interface itself resembles a specialized word processor, which is what it is, essentially, with the usual editing functions. Where Movie Outline 3 differs is its toolbar for creating and managing a step-by-step outlining feature. Following the instructions, we used the navigating Console to create and save a basic outline. We created a character, which we then dragged into the Characters tab to flesh out. One of this program's coolest features is the "FeelFactor" graphic display of plot elements. It can chart rising and falling action, tension, shock, gore, romance, comedy, and other emotional plot elements, making it incredibly easy to balance it all for maximum impact and flow by showing you the "big picture" as you write. Optional tool tips include stylistic recommendations. The Library tab includes sample scripts from hit movies, a helpful extra, while the Step Cards resembles smart notecards.

Movie Outline 3's free 30-day demo disables some features. The full version is $199.99, which is not too much for a sophisticated tool that's suitable for professional screenwriters and wannabes alike. We tested it successfully in both Vista and Windows 7.

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Publisher's Description

From Nuvotech:

Movie Outline 3 is innovative screenplay development software for both the novice and professional screenwriter which uses the simple technique of step-outlining to build your story, characters and screenplay scene by scene, allowing you to focus on each key event of your script without losing sight of the bigger picture.

With Movie Outline you can easily plan and customize your story structure, color-code acts, rearrange scenes, develop and track characters, format your screenplay to industry standard and gauge the progress of your own story to scene by scene breakdowns and analysis of successful Hollywood movies, allowing you to simultaneously compare your own narrative's pacing with the pros. Simply put, Movie Outline is the ultimate writer's tool that provides everything you need to produce a professional screenplay.