App Detail » HollywoodHelper

Published by: differential enterprises

iPhone App - Designed for iPhone, compatible with iPad

Price: $0.99
Current Version: 2.3
Released: October 01, 2009

What's New

Add support for bluetooth headsets. Under the SET UP tab, tap the new "audio" button on lower left. This will pop up a menu to allow you to select the output and input methods. Note: If bluetooth headset is used, the bluetooth microphone is also used for recording.

Note: If the earbuds are plugged in, the iPhone may automatically route the audio to the earbuds even if you select Speaker in this menu.

Fix bug: If input text file had blank spaces in the file name, the audio clip playback would not work after the app is restarted. This now works.

App Description

For actors, Hollywood Helper / Broadway Buddy helps you learn the lines of your scripts without lugging around printed scripts. Takes plain text files only, not PDFs, thru the iTunes file sharing system.

File sharing with iTunes is enabled, get your plain text scripts to the app thru iTunes!

Follow these File Sharing instructions:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4094

Note that you no longer need to install custom software on your PC to transfer files to the app, though the WiFi button still exists in the app...keep this in mind when reading the reviews.

New audio clip features: record/edit/play clips per line or per block of lines for you or your scene mates. Drag clip icons where-ever you want on the script itself.

Works fine on iPad too, especially at 2x display mode.

You provide your own scripts in plain text format. Your words are displayed in industrial-smelted Courier typeface, fixed and unchangable-- the way Smith-Corona intended.

Automated search & hilite of your lines.

Beat Editor...position beat marks without your finger obscuring the text you want to mark. Move marks that are already there.

Now with actor-editable SUBTEXT in floating sticky note for each dialog block, and the VERB WHEEL selector to let the actor associate an active verb with each dialog block using your myVerbs list.

LEARN:

- When in Learn mode, the app will find all the blocks of text for your character and hilight them in pale yellow.

- Next and Prev-ious buttons on the main script view will allow you to quickly skip thru the script to find your lines.

- A couple of cue lines from the prior character's dialog are displayed in white background immediately above your lines when you use the Next/Prev buttons.

REHEARSE:

- When in Rehearse mode, your character's dialog is masked out (hidden) in solid yellow.

- If you forget your lines and need a quick cue, touch one of the solid yellow lines and it will temporarily turn transparent.

File format:

The app displays ordinary text files from Mac or PC including international character sets, so you will have to export a text file from whatever system the script is stored in (such as Word, Final Draft, PDF, etc).

HH/BB will automatically remove any indents at the beginning of lines to make your script easier to read on the phone.

Your place is saved:

The app automatically saves your place in the script. The next time you start it, everything is as you left it. If you have to take a call while rehearsing, you will not lose your place.

Demo:

A couple of public domain works by Wm.Shakespeare are installed with the app for demo purposes. Go to the Setup tab, Change Script to twelfthniteintro.txt, then type a character's name such as duke or viola into the CHARACTER field. A search is performed to hilight all of that character's lines. Then go back to the Script tab and press the blue Next button. You will be taken to the first place the character's name appears in the play. From then on it should be obvious.

Other:

The app automatically searches for up-case character names or "as-is" text.

When it finds your CHARACTER's name, dialog will be hilighted up to the next "double space" (blank line) in the script. Hence, if there are song lyrics with blank lines to indicate verse or chorus breaks, it will not hilight all of the song. Learning songs is a bit different than learning dialog, so you may find this to be acceptable.