Final Draft has a stranglehold on the industry. People who work in the entertainment industry pick up a script and they expect it to look exactly as if it was written with Final Draft. People who receive your scripts via email will expect them in Final Draft format. It's unfortunate, but that's the way it is. If you are merely tinkering, then you can use online screenwriting software such as screenwriting pro.

John

John,
thanks. I have already understood this, so I use a freeware, Celtex, to format the script in accordance with standards.
What I want is a superlight versin of what Spielberg used when directing War of the Worlds. Ha had the movie ready when starting to shoot real actors. He had computer generated characters, monsters, buildings, cars etc. moving and talking. He could play and experiment with camera positions, transitions etc. before even the first actor and the first crane or jib showed up on location.
Whant I want is a rudimentary version of this. All I want is to test the flow of events, in real time, to see if it functions. I need a timeline to put several sound tracks on, and some time lines to put still photos on. And I want to add markers and scene/shot properties that later can be queried by a report engine to give me printouts, telling me what to shoot on this location, on that location, carera rigs etc.
Ingvar

Ingvar,

Again, this is called pre-visualization software

I was going to say this:
However, after reading how several great, great movies were made in the editing room, I think you're kidding yourself, if you think you can make the movie beforehand. It sounds like you are trying to substitute technology for filmmaking experience.

Then I had my coffee and will say this
Good luck. Let us know how it works for you. Everyone has a different process. Also don't forget how to work with actors, many directors who are technically skilled with the camera have trouble giving the actors enough space/freedom to work.

"Final Draft has a stranglehold on the industry."

With all due respect, John, you've got your cart before your horse. The screenplay format was around long before Final Draft. Final Draft was created with the advent of computers and word processing so everyone could be consistent in the formatting of a screenplay. Remember trying to type anything over two pages with a manual typewriter?

The format of the screenplay grew out of the process of making films over the years. One page of a properly formatted screenplay equals 1 minute of screen time. That comes in real handy in the production management process (planning and budgeting). That is why "the entertainment industry pick[s] up a script and they expect it to look" at certain way. They presume if you can't (or don't know how to) properly format a script, you probably can't tell a story either.

The readers in Hollywood look for excuses not to read a script (considering tens of thousands are registered with the WGA every year) and the first obvious clue that the script will be a bomb is incorrect or poor formatting. That's their reasoning, anyway.

Hi Buster,
I am making a movie, with real actors (mostly family members), started in May, hopefully it will be finished before Easter. Working with this, I still feel the need for what I am talking about. I think that experience and technology can go along, hand in hand. Actually, it is first after all the experience using pen and paper that I really want to test pre-vizualisation software. Thanks for the link, by the way.
What I want to test is not necessarily the entire movie, it is more certain chapters. Now, lacking dedicated software, I have used Vegas! I put still photos, music, speech etc. on the timeline to test out various ideas I have.
Too often I called people together who had to drive a long way, get babysitters, put on clothes and make-up, just to have them waiting and waiting while I was pondering about how to shoot and stressing around with equipment. Only to find out in the studio afterwards that I had violated elementary rules of diagonals and positions when actors have a dialog, wrong angles, crucial shots I did not shoot and so on.
All in all I agree with what you say, hope the coffee tasted.
Ingvar