Hi is there somewhere to store alternative beats and snippets if you're trying out alternative ways to approach a section of the script? I want to try a few different approaches but don't want to lose what I've done by writing over it, but I also don't want the old bits cluttering up the script for readability. Can I move these somewhere and retrieve them later if I want them?
Or do I just save this version and create a new version, delete the bits I don't want and start over?
thanks
Cathy
Hi,
Don't save a new version. Support for moving things between documents is still limited.
What you want is broadly supported in 3.0. You first of all have beat versions, so you can take different stabs at writing a beat, and swap versions at will.
The disabling mechanism is also different, so that when you press Cmd/Ctrl-D, you cycle between Visible / Disabled / Hidden.
Visible: Beat is visible both in whiteboard and script
Disabled: Beat is visible in both whiteboard and script, but disabled in script (grayed out, and can be hidden using Hide Disabled Beats in Filters).
Hidden: Beat is visible in whiteboard but completely invisible in script.
When a beat is Hidden, it's basically a staging beat in the whiteboard that you haven't committed to putting anywhere in particular in the script, and it doesn't show in the script. This is a completely valid workflow. You often need to noodle with where things go, and the moment a beat is visible, you feel a responsibility to make the plot around it work. And the moment you have a plot you have to fit into, 90% of your ideas are now wrong. So it's rather important to have a non-committal way to place beats, and Hidden is the way to do it.
3.0 is right on the cusp. We just have a few things to fix up before the alpha.
Hi Per,
so what you're saying is the functionality I need is in v3 so just wait for that? How long are we talking now? A month or more, or less than a month?
I agree that having beats and snippets that belong to a different plot sequence is distracting and it's hard to think around them. The functionality you have described sounds great. Can't wait for v3! :) Will it have a manual to teach us how to use it or will we have to work that out for ourselves, given that it's Alpha?
Cathy