Roger SH Schulman recalls being in the control room of a Hollywood sound studio as John Goodman, the actor, recorded the voice of Baloo the bear in The Jungle Book 2. As Goodman's voice resonated over a telephone line from a studio in New Orleans, a Disney executive turned to Schulman, one of the film's writers, to request additional dialogue for a roughhousing scene. But with the executive, Goodman, a dialogue director, engineers and others waiting in two studios, Schulman drew a blank. "My brain just froze," he said.
Trying to appear calm, Schulman quickly resorted to his black IBM ThinkPad 240 notebook computer. He punched "boxing" into a word- and concept-association brainstorming program called IdeaFisher, going through the response "fighting/fighting sports" until he got to "sticks and stones will break my bones."
"Stick and move!" he exclaimed, remembering it as a common boxing instruction. Goodman recorded it within a few minutes of the request to Schulman.
"As far as anybody knew from the outside," Schulman said of that moment two years ago, "they had asked me a question and I gave them an answer."
In an industry where creative types can still cling to tradition, Schulman, who shared an Oscar nomination a year ago for Shrek, appears to be a maverick among professional writers.
A handful of Hollywood writers still put pencil to legal pads, including David E. Kelley (The Practice) and Bill Lawrence (Scrubs). Tom Fontana (Oz) has three Emmys but no computer. Most professional screenwriters bristle at any suggestion that their talents can be enhanced by computers, beyond their use for typing and formatting scripts.
But Schulman suggests that there are times when resorting to software like IdeaFisher, "this helpful little guy who has a million ideas and suggestions," can be a bit like having another writer in the room.
* Final Draft: The most widely used program, by most accounts, especially in television. Often chosen to avoid problems in converting files from other formats. Has templates for many television shows. Tech support by phone costs US$2.50 a minute, with 20 free minutes in the first month. E-mail support is free. Price: US$199.95. Information: www.finaldraft.com
* Movie Magic Screenwriter 2000: "Movie Magic Screenwriting does virtually everything better than Final Draft," Robert J. Elisberg, a computer columnist, screenwriter and publicist, writes in a review on the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Web site. Price: US$249.
* Scriptwright: One of several template add-ons for Microsoft Word, providing more word-processing features than are available with more streamlined scriptwriting programs. Created by Guy Gallo, a screenwriter (Under the Volcano) and film instructor at Columbia University who provides prompt, free tech support by e-mail, according to Schulman. Price: US$129.95. Information: www.indelibleink.com
* Scriptware: Once the most popular, credited with innovations now widely adopted; has fallen from favor because the current version is several years old, though update patches are available online. The maker, Cinnovation, says it is geared for users who are not especially computer literate. Price: list US$299.95; sale US$199.95. Information: www.scriptware.com
* Ideafisher: Conceived 25 years ago to aid creative brainstorming based on the way the mind makes creative associations. Although IdeaFisher still has an early Windows interface, by most accounts it remains unique. Aimed at pastors, corporate executives, designers and others. Price: US$69.95 to US$528. Information: www.ideafisher.com
* Inspiration: Idea graphing and outlining. Aimed at students, it has gained a following among screenwriters. Price: US$69. Information: www.inspiration.com or (800) 877-4292.
* Power Structure: Designed to aid story and character development and structuring. More for the professional with developed storytelling skills. Price: list US$269; sale US$179. Information: www.write-brain.com
If so, when credits roll at the end of a film, how much applause belongs to the human writers and how much to their gizmos? Can software help turn you into a high-octane Hollywood honcho? Can stardom be bought in a box?
"It made me a better writer," said Kevin Falls, an executive producer of The West Wing, in a reference to script formatting software, which he credits with freeing him to focus more on story structure and content.
At the same time, Falls and his colleagues are quick to note the limits of such digital assistance.
"It doesn't write any dialogue," John Wells, past president of the Writers Guild of America, West, and an executive producer of ER, said of the formatting software. "All it does is keep you from looking like a jerk."
That is a requirement for selling scripts, though. And as Oscar night rivets ever more attention, it seems that more and more people dream of becoming screenwriters. Jesse Douma, an owner of the Writers Store in Los Angeles, which specializes in screenwriting how-to books and software, said that sales had picked up noticeably over the last two years. He estimates that 80 percent of the buyers are amateurs.
Some attribute the increased interest in screenwriting aids to the availability of increasingly cheaper and fuller-featured digital video cameras and video-editing software. Others see larger cultural trends.
"In the postwar generation, writers aspired to write the great American novel," said Mark Lee, an author and journalist. "These days, my friends want to write the great American screenplay."
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