Zhura ( ) is a free web-based

screenwriting software Screenwriting software are word processors specialized to the task of writing screenplays. Overview Features While add-ins and macros for word processors, such as Script Wizard for Microsoft Word, can be used to write screenplays, the need f ...

application for writing and formatting

screenplay ''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 ...

s to the

film industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post ...

standard, as well as other formats. Zhura allows users to collaborate on scripts in public or private groups and uses Creative Commons Licensing for all work in the public workspace. On March 29, 2010, Zhura announced its merger with

Scripped Scripped was an online screenplay services company offering three services: script writing, script registration, and script coverage. Scripped did not facilitate collaboration among screenwriters. It combined with Zhura in 2010. According to Techc ...

's CEO, Sunil Rajaraman, remains the company's Chief Executive Officer as of 2022. The Zhura CEO was Eric MacDonald, a former

Cascade Communications Cascade Communications was a Westford, Massachusetts based manufacturer of communications equipment. Founding Cascade was founded by Gururaj Deshpande in 1990, and was led by CEO Dan Smith, VP of Sales Mike Champa and CFO Paul Blondin. Product C ...

engineer. Scripped later closed on April 1, 2015 after a catastrophic, irrecoverable data loss.

Script editor

Screenplay Template – The script editor provides a built-in screenplay template which formats the document to a standard for scripts as recommended by the

AMPAS The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...

. The screenplay document is composed of seven elements: scene, action, character, dialogue, parenthetical, transition and shot ''(see image)''. Each element has a specific style to which the script editor conforms as you type.
Script Formats - Other major script formats for

stage play A play is a work of drama, usually consisting mostly of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and intended for theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Reading (process), reading. The writer of a play is called a playwright. Pla ...

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

audio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine t ...

and

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

are also supported as well as the ability to switch between them.
Auto-Complete – Characters, scene headings and custom transitions are “remembered” as they are written and “recalled” with

tab-completion Command-line completion (also tab completion) is a common feature of command-line interpreters, in which the program automatically fills in partially typed commands. Command line interpreters are programs that allow a user to interact with the u ...

when a writer starts a new character, scene heading or transition, respectively.
Multiple Editors – With a

collaborative editing __NOTOC__ Collaborative editing is the process of multiple people editing the same document simultaneously. This technique may engage expertise from different disciplines, and potentially improve the quality of documents and increase productivity. ...

model comparable to

Google Docs Google Docs is an online word processor included as part of the free, web-based Google Docs Editors suite offered by Google, which also includes: Google Sheets, Google Slides, Google Drawings, Google Forms, Google Sites and Google Keep. Google Do ...

, two or more users can edit the same script simultaneously, regardless of having a different operating system or web browser.
Import/Export – A screenplay written in another program can be imported into the script editor and automatically conformed to the screenplay template. The closer the original script has adhered to the standard format, the better it will appear when imported. Supported import/export formats include Text (

.txt A text file (sometimes spelled textfile; an old alternative name is flatfile) is a kind of computer file that is structured as a sequence of lines of electronic text. A text file exists stored as data within a computer file system. In operat ...

) Word ( .doc) Rich Text (

.rtf ) As an example, the following RTF code would be rendered as follows: This is some bold text. Character encoding A standard RTF file can only consist of 7-bit ASCII characters, but can use escape sequences to encode other characters. Th ...

) and OpenDocument (

.odt The Open Document Format for Office Applications (ODF), also known as OpenDocument, is an open file format for word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations and graphics and using ZIP-compressed XML files. It was developed w ...

). Scripts can also be exported as a

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

file with additional options.
Tracking Changes – Similar to the “tracking” feature in

Microsoft Word Microsoft Word is a word processing software developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name ''Multi-Tool Word'' for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms includin ...

, a user can review all changes made to a script in the revision history as well as highlight the contributions of each writer.
Offline Mode - The Google Gears-based offline functionality is in the process of being updated and is not available for new subscribers, according to the company founders.

Community

Scripped supports typical

social networking A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...

features such as discussion boards, comments, user profiles, public and private writing groups, internal webmail and instant messaging within the script editor. There is also the option to share scripts with others outside of Scripped by making scripts externally viewable. Scripped is made up entirely of

user-generated User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), is any form of content, such as images, videos, text, testimonials, and audio, that has been posted by users on online platforms such as social media, discussion f ...

scripts that other users can share, critique and edit, offering creative support to a community of writers.

Licensing of user-created work

There are three types of workspaces on Scripped (personal, group and public) with unique

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

and licensing management for the work created in each area. Any work a user originates may be moved from the personal area to a public or group area at any time. Once another user edits a script, however, it cannot be moved into the originator’s personal area. Personal Workspace – Any script created or video uploaded in the user’s personal workspace remains copyrighted to that user. Until the user moves that script or video from their personal area into a group or public area, no other user shares a copyright or license to that work. Private Group Workspace – The copyright to any script created or video uploaded in a private group workspace is allocated by the individual members of the group, however they see fit. Public Workspace – Any script created or video uploaded in the public workspace is assigned a Creative Commons license by the originator of that work. The originator of a script may select one of four Creative Commons licenses before introducing that script to the public. The selection of the license is determined by what the author wants to allow others to do with the work. Below is a list of

Creative Commons licenses A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyrics ...

available for all scripts and videos in the public workspace. * '
Share Alike (BY-SA)
'' :This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. * '
No Derivatives (BY-ND)
'' :This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you. * '
Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (BY-NC-ND)
'' :This license is the most restrictive of the four licenses, allowing redistribution. This license is often called the "free advertising" license because it allows others to download your works and share them with others as long as they mention you and link back to you, but they can't change them in any way or use them commercially. * '
Non-Commercial, Share Alike (BY-NC-SA)
:This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. Others can download and redistribute your work just like the BY-NC-ND license, but they can also translate, make remixes, and produce new stories based on your work. All new work based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also be non-commercial in nature.

Events

In April 2008, Zhura partnered with Improv Asylum, a comedy troupe in Boston, Massachusetts to produce a live

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...

show called "You Wrote It, Live" entirely written by the public on Zhura. Another show was produced in June.

References

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External links

Scripped - official websiteCreative Commons
Collaborative software Social networking services Screenwriting software Web applications Creative Commons-licensed websites