Per Biduum

It's Latin, and it means "two days!" Two days to go, and Season Two will be airing its ninety minute finale. It should make for a memorable night, after which we might start seeing first speculations and discussions about just where things might be going in Season Three.

As I'm typing this, pre-production on Season Three has already begun. In fact, I've already finished an outline for the season premiere. I'm now working on the outline for episode two of Season Three. I can't remember if I've already mentioned this, but this time the season will kick off with an opening three parter. Considering how we've always had to deal with length problems (somehow we always find a way to work around them) we figured this time we'll try a different approach. So we won't even be trying to do a two parter, and we figured let's go with a three parter. Can't really say too much about it without spoiling some of the biggest surprises of the Season Two finale.

I've spent a majority of today downloading demos and trying out different screenwriting softwares. For two seasons now we've been writing scripts using a free Microsoft Word template called Script Smart. It's okay, considering it's available for free. But we've decided to make some improvements. And I've decided that it's definitely time for me to get myself a bit more of a functional screenwriting software. So I've looked at a majority of potential programs, each having their pros and cons. Let me take you through some of them, before I tell you which one ultimately won, and has been crowned as my personal favorite.

- FINAL DRAFT
Probably one of the best known professional softwares. It's definitely a great program. It's efficient, easy to use, it formats as you go along. My big point of concern was its enormous prize. It's quite expensive. I was thinking about getting it anyway, though. But I decided to look at some other programs first.

- SOPHOCLES
Another great software. In a way it's similar to Final Draft. However, it doesn't format the script until you go out of the writing mode and look at it as a print preview. Not a big deal, but it would take me some getting used to. A really great thing about this program is that it times the script - meaning it will give you an estimate of how long each of the scenes are, and how long the script will be in total. Long as in hours and minutes. It's also not as expensive as Final Draft.

- CELTX
Strangely I never thought of actually just searching the web for a free screenwriting software other than Script Smart. Well, I found this the other day because I saw it mentioned on a message board. I've tried it, and it's really good. It's free, so it won't have the features that Final Draft and Sophocles have. My big problem with this one is that I can't figure out how to center the text, which we'd have to do at the beginning and end of every act. And I don't know how to insert a page break, which we'd also have to do at the end of every act. But other than that, this is a very good software.

- SCREENWRITER PRO VERSION 3.5
This one I only tried briefly, but I just couldn't get used to how it works - i.e. the screen set up while you're writing. I can't really say how good or bad it is in terms of functionality in general, but I personally didn't feel comfortable with it. It was just too different from what I'm accustomed to.

- HOLLYWOOD SCREENWRITER
A very cheap program; only about $60 (the others cost between $160 and $200). How is this one? I wish I could tell you. The big problem with it is, there's no free demo available. Why in the world would I buy this, spend money for it, if I don't even know what it will look like? So, that one didn't work out for me.

Finally, after doing some more searches, I decided to try another software. It's claimed to be one of the most used ones in Hollywood:

- MOVIE MAGIC SCREENWRITER
To put it in three simple words: I love it! This one's a great program. As I said, most of the others were too, but I just immediately fell in love with how this one works. After trying it out for a bit, I knew it had won the contest. This is the one I'll be going with. It's a great software that has a wonderful revision function, once you start revising scripts. It automatically changes the drafts to the individual revision colors, it's interface looks a lot like Microsoft Word, which makes it feel very familiar.

Interestingly I also discovered today that this is actually the screenwriting software used on Stargate SG-1 and Stargate: Atlantis. I saw a quote from Brad Wright, where he says it's one of the best softwares. I can only agree with that. Well, boys and girls, that means that starting with Season Three, Stargate: Horizon will be written on the same screenwriting software as its televised sister shows. This might or might not mean much, but I personally think that's great.

Naturally I can't expect all of the writers on staff to purchase this software. The cheapest you can get it for is about $170. So I'll just be reformatting the scripts once they reach their final drafts. And - this is another aspect of this software that I love - it allows you to import scripts written on other programs, and it reformats them almost completely automatically. On the other softwares you can import the scripts, but you'll still be doing the majority of the reformatting. This baby will handle it on its own. You might just have to correct minor things here and there.

Well, that's what came out of my little mission to seek out and explore various screenwriting softwares. I'll be purchasing Movie Magic Screenwriter before the end of the week, and I'll start writing the season premiere this weekend.

On other fronts, I haven't had the time to re-watch too many more episodes of 24 recently. But no worries, I'll be getting back to that soon. I have started getting into the habit of watching Seinfeld reruns every night. In fact, it will be on in about 25 minutes. A great show. It's very funny, and I think it's got kind of a crazy and weird humor - which is a form of humor I personally can't get enough of (see "The Fantastic Three"). I used to watch it every now and then. Then hadn't seen it in years, and suddenly, one night I caught it. Gotta love a show about nothing.

By the way, I completely forgot to tell you that I've discovered a new flavor of Diet Pepsi: Diet Pepsi Vanilla. It's different, but great. I'm loving it. As a matter of fact, the supplies are running low, and I'll be buying some more tomorrow. Along with the regular Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi and perhaps Diet Pepsi Lime.

That's about it. I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions to "Revolution," the big season finale. Here's a little tid bit of information: we hadn't decided until the very last moment how the episode would end. Of course we knew where we wanted to go, but it took us some time to figure out how exactly to go about it. This episode has also had a countless amount of rewrites. It took a lot of work, was one of those big challenges, but it should definitely be worth it. I'll talk more about it after its release. I'm planning to do at least a Making Of and/or podcast for both parts of the finale.

And with that I'll say, hope you'll enjoy the episode. And I'll talk to you later.

Alex

Untitled Blog... it's Friday, June 9th 2006... only a day before Saturday, June 10th 2006... but there's no title for this blog...

Just figured I'd post a quick blog to keep you apprised of latest developments. Let's start with the really important stuff: I've started rewatching Season Four of 24. Yup. I couldn't help it. After Season Five had finished its run I had developed extensive withdrawal symptoms. What are those symptoms you wonder? It all started with me developing an unusual urge to announce "the following takes place between time-a and time-b" at the top of every hour throughout the course of the day. That's when I realized something was wrong, but I didn't make too much of it yet. However, when I found myself feeling compelled to head out to try and find out where the local CTU here in Houston is located, I came to the conclusion that I must have been in the process of loosing my mind. I realized I was loosing the ability of separating reality from the fictional environment of a television show. But I tried to ignore that, and pretend that everything was fine. But only a few days later, I went to work and... my memory is a little sketchy at this point, so bare with me. The next thing I knew, I was pointing a pen at a confused man's head, asking him intently where the bomb is. He was unable to provide me with a satisfactory answer, and I was just about to proceed to a more "invasive" questioning method, when a co-worker pointed out to me that my name was in fact not Jack Bauer and that that pen was not a weapon. Confused I was when I went home that day, still keeping close track of the time so that I would be aware whenever a new hour/episode was about to kick off. Eventually I realized there was only one solution... I had to start watching 24 again. It was the only way out. Deep down I knew that if I were ever to regain my sanity, I had to grab one of the DVD sets, place the DVD into the DVD player, and hit the play button. Aaaaaaaaand... voila! Here I am. I'm seven episodes into Season Four, and will most likely watch an episode tonight. And I'm relieved to report that, very slowly, I'm beginning to regain the ability to tell the difference between reality and a television show. But it was tough.

Somehow in the midst of all that chaos, I've still managed to do some more work on "Revolution." I'm now in the middle of act four, and things are looking good. Our visual effects department (if we had one) will be having their hands full with this episode. I think I've said before that the guest cast list of this episode is quite long, it might be the largest guest cast of an episode of Horizon yet. One of the characters will be returning in a bit of a different way than we're used to seeing him/her. Including this character, and especially including this character in such a unique way, was a last minute idea actually. Often they're the ones that will work best.

A lot of people are probably expecting to see quite a huge space battle take place in this episode. After all, we'll be seeing lots of ships. But you have to wonder... just who exactly could be involved in this battle? All I'll say is... it's someone or something that no one's probably expecting. I'll just leave it at that.

We're running a little late this year compared to last year. Last year this time I was working on the season two premiere script. But I'm glad to say that we've still managed to stay on schedule for the most part. Season Three will probably premiere in November, and - even though we're not yet one hundred percent sure how many episode the season will contain - there'll probably be a shorter mid season break, due to the later premiere date. There's really not too much more to report on Horizon related things. We're expecting Making Of's to be coming out shortly; but I couldn't tell you what the progress on those is, as I haven't spoken to Mike since Tuesday. Will be talking to him this weekend. But I'm sure whenever they're ready, they'll be up. And once I finish this episode, I'm planning to do one or two Making Of's again as well.

I'm hoping that we'll be able to get some more active staff members on board throughout the coming weeks. I've been pondering a couple of episode ideas that I'll be pitching for Season Three. Naturally I couldn't give anything away here just yet. But it's a few ideas that I'm looking forward to. Speaking of which, we've already discussed a variety of potential Season Three episodes. I think the feeling right now is - at least for me - that we're finally nearing the end of a long marathon, as Season Two is about to wrap. However, after a brief break to recharge, I believe we're very eager to do the whole thing again. And this time take the experience from two seasons, and implement it for Season Three.

I'm off this weekend, including Monday. So I plan to have the first draft of "Revolution" finished by Monday evening. Tomorrow I'll be taking the time to go get a hair cut, so that I'll be looking presentable again. And that's pretty much it. I'll be back soon with a new update.

By the way, I'm seriously having trouble coming up with blog titles lately. Just take a look at this one. So I'm considering trying a new approach for my next blog. Perhaps I'll do a title in Latin. Keep an eye out for that.

Alex