Celtx () is media

pre-production Pre-production is the process of planning some of the elements involved in a film, television show, play, or other performance, as distinct from production and post-production. Pre-production ends when the planning ends and the content start ...

software, designed for creating and organizing media projects like

screenplays ''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993. Background After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, fe ...

films A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...

videos Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) system ...

, stageplays,

documentaries A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

machinima Machinima, originally machinema () is the use of real-time computer graphics engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation. The word "machinima" is a portmanteau of the words ''m ...

games A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (suc ...

, and podcasts. The software is developed by Celtx Inc., which is owned by Boston, Massachusetts-based media company Backlight.

History

Celtx's developer Celtx Inc. was founded as Greyfirst in 2000 in St. John's by entrepreneurs Mark Kennedy and Chad House. "Celtx" is an acronym for Crew, Equipment, Location, Talent and XML. Its Celtx pre-production software launched that year as a desktop service. The software was originally designed for small and independent production companies. The_Storyboard_tool_in_Celtx

The original desktop software was built atop the open-source Firefox browser, allowing hybrid online/offline operation. By June 2013, Celtx software was available as a subscription web service, in addition to a desktop version. In December 2014, Celtx developer Greyfirst changed its name to Celtx Inc. As of September 21, 2022, the latest version of the software shown on the Apple store was version 3.0.

Features

Celtx is scriptwriting and collaboration software for screenwriters; film and television producers; and producers of theater, radio, podcasts and comics. ;Writing: Celtx uses an industry standard

screenwriting Screenwriting or scriptwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games. It is often a freelance profession. Screenwriters are responsible for researching the story, de ...

editor typical for screenplays and stageplays. Celtx also includes a rich text editor module for writing novels. ;Project collaboration, management and storage: Celtx Studio offers project collaboration and online file storage. ;Publishing: Scripts can be uploaded to the Celtx Exchange for public viewing, peer reviews and commentary. ;Scheduling: Celtx supports creation of production calendars, stripboards, shooting schedules, and call sheets. ;Elements: Celtx features thirty-five different elements, such as ''Actor'' or ''Special Effects'', that can be added to the project. These elements can have various information added to them, such as media or text. Celtx allows directors and writers to tag elements within each script. These tagged elements can then be automatically transferred to a script breakdown.

Pre-production visualization tools

;Storyboarding: Celtx allows people to create

storyboard A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, in t ...

sequences, which can be printed or viewed using Celtx's built-in animatic playback feature. ;Shot Blocker: The Shot Blocker tool can be used to draw a sketch or setup which can also be added to a storyboard. The Shot Blocker includes pre-loaded icons and imagery for cameras, lights and people that can be tagged with text, and tools for drawing lines, arrows, shapes and text.

Technology

Celtx originates from desktop software built on open, non-proprietary standards (e.g.,

HTML The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaS ...

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. T ...

and RDF) and licensed under the

Mozilla Public License The Mozilla Public License (MPL) is a free and open-source weak copyleft license for most Mozilla Foundation software such as Firefox and Thunderbird The MPL license is developed and maintained by Mozilla, which seeks to balance the conce ...

version 2.0. Feature development and language translations of the application were driven largely by the feedback and volunteer efforts of members of the international Celtx community.

Developer

Celtx software is developed by

St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador St. John's is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. The city spans and is the easternmost city in North America ...

-based Celtx Inc. Celtx, Inc. is owned by Boston, Massachusetts-based Backlight, a media technology company founded in 2022. Backlight also owns four other media software businesses: ftrack, iconik, Wildmoka and Zype.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.celtx.com/ Screenwriting software Software that uses XUL Software using the Mozilla license