Causality Story Sequencer - Creating Your First Story

We're super proud to announce Causality, a revolutionary new kind of writing and story development app. See everything at www.hollywoodcamerawork.com/c...

[@4d1tya]

"So what did you learn from this video?" "How to pull off Ocean's Fourteen"

[@AdamSpade]

Wow! This is looking great, like it's on its way to being everything a writer needs. FINALLY someone is effectively integrating timeline organization with screenwriting. I can't believe how slow these writing applications have been to do this. We should have had all of this stuff in the 90's. THANK YOU FOR STEPPING UP!! I WAS SERIOUSLY ABOUT TO DO IT MYSELF! Downloaded immediately. You guys get the writer to be speedy and then add other formats (Novel, research, comic, broadcast etc.) and I do believe we will have a new king.

[@billcampbell9988]

Best Causality tutorial yet, Per! Thank you, thank you, #thankyou for using a concrete example instead of abstract "group a", "beat 1", "line B", etc. #thankyou

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

Thanks! Yes, it's made specifically that way based on suggestions such as yours.

[@lynchjtl]

It's hard to believe that story creation can become such an easy process with this new version of Causality!! It's nothing short of Fantastic!!

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

Thanks, James!!!

[@LeahStories]

Thanks so much for this tutorial! It was clear like school. Thank you!

[@the_Shuturmurg]

I know this is an Old Video. But... I love you guys. Thanks for giving us Causality

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

Thank you!

[@anthonycorner6156]

I just purchased a Pro license, so its Version 3.2.13. As a new user, I came here to learn by doing a sample story. But then since this is an old Version tutorial video, it is confusing at places, since some features (like Blocks for example) have changed from then. Do you have a similar 'First story' exercise for Version 3?

[@eliasacosta7608]

Great contribution!!!

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

Thanks!!!

[@MDMart]

So what would the printed-out script or pdf version look like here? Would there be a bunch of headlines (like "Phone in a terrorist thread" and "Shoot the guard"), or is it only the script parts (like "One of the detonators flies out...") that'll appear. I'm guessing it's the latter, and that the headlines/titles are simply there to remind the writer of what is going on. But I'd like to be sure, rather than to guess. (and yes I understand that the pdf option is only available in the paid version)

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

Hi! The end result is typically just the final script, but you can configure it either way, as a beat sheet, or a script with beats rendered in. Also, download the latest version, printing and exporting under 10 pages is now included in the free version, exactly so you can test the output.

[@ricardourroz9322]

Hi! Right now I'm using Causality to outlining and gets .e inspired to be honest. However I wondering something. In the senipets as a title I write the description. Sometimes it's a bit long. Is there a way to see them full without the 3 ... When to there's not enough space ? I hope you understand me 🙈

[@ralphthompson8085]

Thanks this was helpful. I'm a bit of a novice and not and experienced script writer, but I'd like to specify a project estimated overall time (say 30 mins) then see the resultant scene lengths or allow me to freeze several scene lengths. Sorry if this is a silly request.

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

Hi, it's not, and it's being thought about. There are two ways to think about running time. Either you have events, and then you keep injecting events and the story grows more and more beefy until you have your running time. This is how Causality works right now. The other way would be that you know your running time ahead of time, and you from the get-go position events in key places. We don't do that right now, but it's a completely legitimate way to have your head attached, and it is something we'll be able to do. There's just a tightrope we have to walk to be able to do both things at the same time, and we have a way. It's only that collaboration is the #1 feature request, so that steals all the energy from all the other lovely things we could work on.

[@ralphthompson8085]

@@HollywoodCameraWork Thanks, my reasoning is that I'm planning a small documentary that will take about a year to collect the material (winter, spring, summer and autumn) and rather than collect gobs of material I won't use, I'd like to estimate how much time for elements in each scene, then stretch some or shrink some. Then I know when I go out filming, that I only have space for say 45 secs for all the "Winter

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

@@ralphthompson8085 Just a side-note, as someone who has worked on a lot of documentaries, you're trying to know unknowables ahead of time. No matter how much you plan a documentary, it's going to change drastically. It's fine to write a script because it prompts you to what kind of footage and interviews and questions you're looking for. But your narrative will change after 10 seconds of shooting, because you'll find out what you're really working on. And ultimately, the narrative happens in the edit, where you'll once again completely reboot what you thought you were working on, because it turns out that it's a completely different narrative that's interesting. Nothing wrong with planning, but especially planning running time without having any footage, just don't assume that this is possible. Plan, yes, and it's great to have strong opinions about what goes where, especially if you're looking for a tight narrative like a Nova episode. But most documentaries with people in them will only succeed as a narrative if you find a thread through the footage that you actually have. So that aside, at this stage, you might be better off working in the research area, which can contain all your ideas whether you use them or not. Then you can start to drag certain things into the whiteboard. You do have the ability to override the time for each beat/event, although this isn't really the workflow you're looking for, but it would be possible. The workflow that you do want isn't convenient in Causality right now, but it is something we're planning to be able to do. We just have to do it in a way that doesn't negate the "inflationary" way of building a story, i.e. we can't break the app in half over it. So it's a little more complicated, but we know how to do it.

[@ralphthompson8085]

@@HollywoodCameraWork OK many thanks. Great work, please keep it up.

[@JoannaKay01]

Hi, Is there a way to easily create a props required list when writing. It would be great to be able to tag words, for example, and be able to export all the tagged ones to a list in order to create a props list. Thank you.

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

Hi, there isn't currently, but it's planned to be part of a much larger feature of parallel scripts. This is about 50% through development, just keeps getting pushed aside because it's not nearly as critical as other things. You'll have the ability to have multiple expressions of the script side by side, for example screenplay + book or screenplay + storyboard wall + novel or whatever. One expression of the script will also be as asset tracking, basically a data-version of the script where you collect info about this, be it props or visual effects elements. We want this kind of tracking to be part of this larger feature, because it's more unified than making a separate feature for it. But it also kicks it a bit further down the road.

[@JoannaKay01]

@@HollywoodCameraWork thank you for coming back to me. Love the software so I look forward to any updates.

[@rafeeqce]

I bought a Pro license yesterday. Just confused about how to add a new act! When I add new blocks to the lane, they are all shown as part of the same act. Please help.

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

Hi, just right-click anywhere in the whiteboard, Insert Break -> Episode/Act/Chapter etc.

[@rafeeqce]

@@HollywoodCameraWork Is there a difference between Act and Act Break? I want to add Act. Is there a support email address? All the blocks I added are shown under the same Act. I believe Act refers to 'scene' in a script.

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

@@rafeeqce I believe we communicated via email. Acts and Act Breaks are effectively the same -- a new Act starts on an Act Break, and continues until another Act starts again. You can insert Act Breaks either in the script by right-clicking a snippet title, or by right-clicking in the whiteboard, and Insert Break -> Act Break. I hope this helps!

[@MichaelGaskin]

I wish the speaker didn't hesitate so much... goodness, the length could have been minutes shorter. GREAT SOFTWARE though...

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

Thanks! It really depends on how you're listening, how much you're processing what's being said, and how new it is to you.

[@MonsieurBonv1]

Drag and drop block not working .... why?

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

Hi, there should be a confirmation box in the upper right for "committing" the move. It's because moving a block horizontally is potentially very destructive. All the events in that block will be threaded in with the beats in surrounding blocks in the drop location, creating a completely new sequence in this area. It should be done casually, so we ask you to confirm it. There is a preference to disable this confirmation, but I'd strongly recommend to not use it, unless you're just at the beginning stages of developing a story and the sequence doesn't matter much at present anyway.

[@WhitbyStuff]

Does it tie into Final Draft?

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

Hi Matt, Causality can import/export with Final Draft, but there's no ongoing back and forth. Causality has a much bigger model of story than Final Draft. We have Beats, Snippets, Characters, Lanes/Blocks/Groups etc that define the story, and soon also thought/feeling tracking. All of that would be lost if you round-tripped to Final Draft, which has no representation of these things. Since FD of course defines a lot of people's comfort zone, we've done a lot of work to not have an unfamiliar writing experience. Most users do come from Final Draft, and really see no need to go to FD, except for one crucial thing that we're in the process of resolving. Since the true final script is for us only assembled on output, our page counts have been estimates, and that has messed with a lot of people's brains. So people have been doing PDF/FD exports to check their page count. And then FD currently has better reporting than Causality, although that will soon be the opposite. But these are the only reasons people bring up FD, except when it comes to motor memory habits. On the pure writing side, we're not trying to be unique, and we've done a lot for a smooth writing experience. This matters, because it is really important that you stay in Causality and write, otherwise the whole structure of your story is lost by round-tripped to what is primarily just a word processor. So if anything bugs you, just let us know, we take all comments very seriously.

[@WhitbyStuff]

@@HollywoodCameraWork I wanted to test how good the export to FD is but saving is disabled on the test version, so I'd have to pay to test it. I guess it's not for me.

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

@@WhitbyStuff Hi Matt, if you email your doc to [e-mail], we can export it for you. Yes, printing/exporting of the script is not available in the free version. Since the entire whiteboard is free, the limits kick in with the final script. But there isn't really anything to test, our FDX export looks and feels native.

[@marcbydesign]

How do you add a new scene?

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

Hi! Right-click the title of any snippet or the gap before it and select Insert Scene Heading.

[@KazIgzee]

@@HollywoodCameraWork I don't have this option anywhere une the free version...

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

@@KazIgzee Hi! This is a slightly old video and is soon being replaced. But creating scene headings hasn't changed. Go to the HollywoodCameraWork channel and find the video "Working In The Script".

[@msr.wardrum4521]

Is this free

[@alekjwrgnwekfgn]

This is interesting software, I've been watching it for a couple of years... Development is really slow.... so considering, I would never have subscription software, I still think the full price is way more than it should be. Even then, I might consider buying it at full price if you could break-up the payments over 4 months...