Celtx: Film School Diploma Not Included

If you’re a screenwriter or filmmaker of any sort, I’m sure that at one point or another you’ve done that inevitable Google search: “screenwriting software.” If all of those options and dollar signs are causing you to go into a panic attack, you should definitely take a look at Celtx.

On the surface, Celtx is a screenwriting application akin to Final Draft. You write scene headings, description text, and dialogue by using predefined styles for accepted screenplay formatting. If Celtx did only this, it would definitely be worth its weight in megabytes, but the screenplay portion of the application is only a fraction of what it has to offer.

Looking to the left of the main window, you’ll see a couple of panes. The first and most prominent is your project pane, and it contains all the different resources you’ll need for your film. What kind of resources? Inserting a new object gives you the options of script, text, characters, sound effects, and crew, just to name a few.

This is where Celtx really shines. It’s not just about writing your film and having a place to store your notes. If you’re a low-budget filmmaker and all the work falls on you, Celtx allows you to manage every single minute detail of the production from start to finish, and the great part is that Celtx doesn’t force you into an interface that’s too sparse or too robust. You get to tailor the project to meet your needs. You can have one entry that encompasses a character, or you can micromanage and have separate entries for the character, their wardrobe, all the props they interact with, the makeup they use, and so on. There is almost no limit to the amount of detail you can go into in Celtx.

And again, if it were for those features alone, Celtx would be a great option for amateur filmmakers. But that barely even scratches the surface. If you’re working with someone else or a group of people on your film project, Celtx has built-in collaboration features so you can make changes and upload them for the entire Celtx community or just a few specific people to see, then download the latest revisions once they’re made. This works across all platforms, too, so if you have some Windows or Linux users on your production staff, they’re not left out in the cold.

One of the most useful tools in Celtx is the Report feature. Once you build up your project and fill out information about all your characters and scenes, just click the Report button to generate an entire breakdown of the production. This gives you an easy way to see what needs to be filmed when and with whom. Trust me, this little feature will become a huge part of your production if you give it a chance.

I could say so much more about Celtx, but you really just need to give it a try to really get what it’s all about. I’ve been using it for my latest short film production, and it’s really made me much more organized and productive than I have ever been on a project before. Good tools make for good work, and Celtx is proof of that.

Celtx is free and open-source, and you can download it right here.