The Film Script concept

What do we want?

We want a writing experience that is like a breeze. We want to just write as if we were writing on a typewriter, back in the early '90s. Plus, in the footsteps of Fountain, we want the incredible lightness that Markdown offers.
Okay, plus-plus, we want to use Libreoffice Writer, too. At one point of the screenwriting process, we might change to Writer. This is why film_script has two variants, one for Simple Text Editors, and one for Libreoffice Writer.

How does Film Script work?

With simple text editors we use indentation as a parsable structure / formatting. With Libreoffice Writer we use a heading-level-based structuring.
The indentation-based formatting rule-set we call film_script_i.
The heading-level-based structuring rule-set, to be used with Libreoffice Writer, we call film_script_h.

The point is: you can grab a laptop now, with/without a simple text editor, cause you can install one in less than a minute, and can start typing your script!

Fountain is great!

Fountain is a great thing. It established a free workflow for artists around the world. The .fountain file format is part of the industry standard now (since Celtx accepts it).
Fountain took Markdown as a base, added a few extra markings, and a new era could begin with free screenwriting... As their website still advertises, a simple text editor can be used, too. Unfortunately, however, the ease which Markdown editors represent is lost as soon as we try to use a markdown editor for Fountain language.

Film Script is like Fountain

Film Script is based on the same idea as Fountain: using a text editor, and markdown language. Film Script also involves a python parser that converts the text to HTML5.
Unlike Fountain, Film Script isn't really a Markdown a dialect. But it can be read in a markdown editor. Looks good. We can save it as ".md". It's a perfect choice.

However, instead of using markdown editors, we strongly recommend using simple text editors. Film_script_i, the indentation-based film_script formatting looks absolutely great in them! Besides ".md", we have our own extension, too: ".fsc", and ".fsc5", but right now they are irrelevant.

Indentation is great!

The film_script_i formatting is based on... indentation. The idea came from Python, the beautiful language, that had got its name after Monty Python.
What's beautiful about indentation is that it's pretty robust. You really can rely on it. Plus.. it allows you for a really distraction-free typing experience! Just take a look at the formatting rules formatting in a Simple Text Editor...

Writer is great!

The point is freedom and using open source. Not thinking of Writer in this context, would have been a huge strategical mistake :)
Writer is here for us. It is a sophisticated instrument. It really didn't take much to think up a workable rule-set for Writer. Other approaches are possible, too. Film_script uses heading-based formatting with Writer.
Take a look at the heading-based rules (for Writer): formatting in Libreoffice Writer...

film_script_i and film_script_h

We can work in any Simple Text Editor, as well as in Libreoffice Writer.
When using a STE we use the film_script_i format and the .md extension (markdown).
When working in Writer, we use the film_script_h formatting rules, and the .odt extension (and time to time export to markdown, like "save as markdown").

The markdown we get from Libreoffice Writer when saving the document as an .md file, is the film_script_h format.
The markdown we apply, based in indentation, in a Simple Text Editor is the film_script_i format, as is.

exporting / converting

From both these formats we can export, using fsc-convert.py (the film_script converter*), to HTML5 as well as to Fountain, and to Final Draft's .fdx format, too.
We can also export from film_script_i to film_script_h, and backwards.

This is all made possible as Libreoffice Writer, since version 26, can save the document as markdown, which produces a clean and beautiful output file, which can be easily parsed and exported.

* fsc-convert is in development stage (as of April and May, 2026).
See the github page: fsc-convert.py (the film_script converter).