In Chapter 2, we learned that we could insert notes into a script (see the little note icon next to Ohio Smith's name in the following screenshot):
Clicking on the note icon brings up the note, showing it in the right-most column of the Celtx script screen. We click the Notes tab to both add and read notes. Now, what's the name of the tab next to Notes? Media! See it in the following screenshot:
Insert a vertical bar in a script by moving the I-beam mouse cursor to the desired point and left-clicking. In this case, I've click after temple in the short Ohio Smith example. Now go over to the right column of the Celtx screen and click on the Media tab. We get a screen similar to the following screenshot:
The white writing that we see on the black background in the preceding screenshot shows the scene title. The + icon below the scene title lets us add an image or other media file and the x icon deletes it.
Now, I want to add a picture of an ancient temple just as a reference after the word "temple" in the script. First, I need the picture, so here's a fantastically useful feature. I type the words "jungle temple" in the text box, hit the blue G (a Google icon), and BLAP, Google gives me more than 1,670,000 photos of jungle temples to choose from, as shown in the following screenshot (it helps an awful darn lot to be connected to the Internet when one tries this):
Cool beans! So I pick out one, download it, and use the little + icon to add it to the Ohio Smith project, as shown in the following screenshot:
And now, as shown in the following screenshot, a picture icon is attached to temple:
Double-clicking on the little icon causes the thumbnail on the left to be displayed in the right-hand column. It's still small and hard to see, but just double-click on it and the image appears full size in whatever image viewer is installed as the default viewer on your computer.
Note
Save yourself hassles from copyright lawyers if using photos from the Internet for commercial purposes. In the case of Google Images, use Advanced Search and click on labeled for commercial reuse. This returns only those photos that are okay to reproduce without written permission and/or some kind of royalty payment.
Now, I want a little ambience sound to set the mood, so I clicked after "native village" and added the "Scary Wind" audio file from my rather large library of royalty-free music and sound effects. I can click on the icon and hear the audio, as shown in the following screenshot:
We aren't limited to just pictures and sound; Celtx will also let you embed video clips. How would we actually use these things? The following are some examples:
- Use a recorder to record production or writing notes while out and about and embed those into the script for reference
- Add photos of places, props, actors
- Shoot a video of a filming location and embed it, so that details of prop, character placement, and so on can be worked out by seeing where they go
Now, finally, time to embed some video. Again, choose a place in the script by inserting a vertical bar after moving the I-beam mouse cursor to the desired point and left-clicking. Now, with the Media tab clicked, hit the little + icon and choose the video to add. If you can see it in the Add Media dialog box, Celtx will probably handle it well. Let's see what we see.
As shown in the following screenshot, I've included an mp4 file in Portals. It happens to be HD (High Definition) at 1280 x 780 pixels. This is one of my exercises in creating special effects in film. I was throwing a ping pong ball and, through movie magic and a little help from Adobe After Effects, getting the ball into the cup every time. However, that got boring, so I started having the balls explode when they entered the cup. Hey, you've got to have some kind of break from writing computer books, eh?
Okay; that covers inserting media inside scripts, but remember those thirty-six categories of items we explored in Chapter 2? The ones Celtx tracks for you in the Master Catalog? Well, guess what? Yep, you can attach media files to every character, prop, animal, and so on, namely, every single category there is that Celtx tracks.
To add media, click on the Master Catalog in the Project Library, then on the item you want to attach a photograph, drawing, audio file, or video to. In the following screenshot, we put a photograph on Bobby's character page (Bobby is the hero of Portals):
Click on the Add button below the media box and follow the same procedure that we followed when we added media files inside scripts.