Convergence -- Screenplay Credit For Software

November, 2000
by Belinda M. Paschal

Mark Madnick and Ben Cahan never scudded in selling their screenplay, but several others have, thanks to their more felicitous collaboration, Final Draft.
The software program minds the minor details as the writer focus's on the words. Final Draft blends word processing with professional formatting and even converts text to speech so the computer reads characters' lines aloud in different voices.

The software's SmartType function anticipates what a given word might be, sparing writers from repetitive typing while the ScriptNotes feature creates windows within a script for notes or comments. Another tool, CollaborWriter, lets partners work together from any location, chat in real time and host or connect to sessions.

In a deal between Final Draft Inc. and United Parcel Service, writers can e-mail and track scripts securely via the UPS Online Courier. If your script goes into production, the program has a revision mode to create A and B pages.
"The simplicity is very similar to other formats we've all worked with repeatedly," said J.P. Walz, whose untitled script written with Paul Corricelli was created using Final Draft and optioned by a small production company. "It doesn't feel like a foreign program. Set up the way it is, it's really hard to screw up."

Final Draft is touted by such pros as Oliver Stone, Lawrence Kasdan, Tom Hanks, and Sydney Pollack, and it has been used on such shows as "Frasier ," "Friends," "Felicity" and "Dawson's Creek."

FLASHBACK: A few years out of the University of Maryland, Madnick , with a degree in finance, reunites with computer science major Cahan in California 1990. They team on a screenplay using an early version of Final Draft, created with profits Cahan made on two other programs he had developed. Impressed, Madnick persuades Cahan to hire him as vp sales and marketing. "We thought we'd sell maybe 10-15 copies a month," Madnick said.

CUT TO: A decade later. Final Draft has sold more than 100,000 units.
The latest user to benefit from Final Draft is Ken Hastings, winner of the company's first screenplay contest. Chosen from more than 2,000 scripts, Hastings' comedy "Dawg" is being produced by Gold Circle Films with stars Elizabeth Hurley and Denis Leary.

Final Draft started the contest because " I believed I was a good writer who never got a break," Madnick said. "We believe more in the writing business than the computer business."

A French-language version of Final Draft should be available earlier next year, Madnick said. Also due in 2001 is Final Draft AV, an upgrade designed for dual column, audio/visual scriptwriting.

Aside from a wealth of celebrity endorsements - including one from "American Beauty" scribe Alan Ball - what sets Final Draft apart from such similar products as Movie Magic Screenwriter 2000, Scriptware and DramaticaPro is its text-to-speech function and its 100% cross-platform compatibility, Madnick said.

"Scripts look and operate the same on Windows and Mac platforms," he said. "Formatting, pagination, commands and keystrokes match completely. My major competition is Microsoft Word. The new writers we get are using general word processing to write screenplays."

An avowed traditionalist, Madnick dens' see Final Draft, a profitable company burgeoning into a major e-business. "We're an old fashioned company where revenue must exceed expenses, and I haven't found a way to do that and bring screenwriting to the Internet," he said.