Celtx () is media
pre-production
Pre-production is the process of planning some of the elements involved in a film, television show, play, video game, or other performance, as distinct from production and post-production. Pre-production ends when the planning ends and the co ...
software, designed for creating and organizing media projects like
screenplays,
films
A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of Visual arts, visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are gen ...
,
videos,
stageplays,
documentaries
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". The American author and media analyst Bill ...
,
machinima
Machinima () is the use of Real-time computing, real-time computer graphics engines to create a cinematic production. The word "Machinima" is a portmanteau of the words ''machine'' and ''Film, cinema''. According to Guinness World Records, ma ...
,
games
A game is a Structure, structured type of play (activity), play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an Educational game, educational tool. Many games are also considered to be Work (human activity), work (such as p ...
, and
podcasts
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...
.
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 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, dev ...
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 simple illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding proce ...
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
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets ( ...
, XML
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing data. It defines a set of rules for encoding electronic document, documents in a format that is both human-readable and Machine-r ...
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 is developed and maintained by Mozilla, which seeks to balance the concerns of bo ...
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-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: , , Wildmoka and Zype.][
]
See also
* List of screenwriting software
References
External links
* {{Official website, http://www.celtx.com/
Screenwriting software
Software that uses XUL
Software using the Mozilla Public License