This post on useful Mac Apps for screenwriters and filmmakers has be pilfered from my personal writing/filmmaking blog, but I thought it would be more useful here:

Productivity management isn’t just for MBA students in power suits anymore. Maximizing the usage of computer applications to organize and complete tedious routine tasks frees up your mind and allows you to concentrate on writing, studying, and those life-shortening student film shoots.

Plus pimping out your computer is like modding a car. “Check out my sweet video compression workflow.”

After the jump are some applications that I find indispensable for creativity and productivity. As a bonus, most are free/cheap.

Leave a comment if you have any more suggestions or stories of your take on this software.

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I’ve started this blog to talk about filmmaking “small.” What does this mean?

Everyone always talks about “big” films, the tent-pole flicks that carry the box office every season and even the slightly-less-funded indies that manage to get wide distribution. Yet more and more films are being made each day on budgets significantly less than the 1-million dollar “low budget” indie film. Where do they get their resources? Usually through a combination of instinct, imagination, and know-how, as well as a keen business sense to match their creative prowess.

So this blog strives to put together resources for filmmaking “small.” I will be posting links to online resources, freeware reviews, software and gear reviews, and tips I have learned throughout my experiences on student and independent film shoots.

Some things you should know about this blog as I hope to make it:

  • I will be very open to what a “film” can be. This means that I may discuss 35mm (ha!), 16mm, and digital filmmaking.  I will also take into account films intended for theatrical release, television, DVD, and the internet.
  • Speaking of the internet, I will have a lot to say about the possibilities of online distribution and the specific qualities of short-form internet content.
  • I will often post articles, tips, and reviews on subjects that may not be directly related to filmmaking, but which I think will be beneficial to the filmmaking process. Subjects like business planning, productivity management, and tips from other art mediums can all be useful to a filmmaker.
  • This is not really a “personal” blog so I may be adding more commercial elements to it such as affiliate programs or advertising. However, this will not affect the integrity of my articles and reviews. I will only have affiliate links for products I really have used and do trust. The articles on this site will always be available to read for free. ALWAYS.
  • I read a lot, so expect a lot of book reviews. While books don’t replace on-set experience, on-set experience can never be as comprehensive as books. You need both.
  • I love, love, LOVE comments, like any other blogger, but I would ask that you are respectful to other commenters and myself. You’re welcome to disagree with me, and many times you will, but let’s keep the fight clean.

Finally, I would love to eventual expand this blog into a full-featured site and will be working on that for the next few months. For now, though, I will try my best to keep links updated and to keep a page that indexes important posts by topic.

I would love to hear feedback as I go, and I love reading other peoples’ blogs, so feel free to link to your own stuff in the comments.

Here we go!