Craig Loves Gear
Today, I bought a computer. Again. For like, the ninetieth time of my life. I don’t just buy computers. I collect them. Yeah, I’ve got a Franklin Ace 1000 (c. 1982) in my storage room. So what? It’s a passion.
In celebration of my latest purchase, I’ve decided to leave all of the serious bloviating behind for a bit and talk about gear.
I love gear. When you hang around people who work with gear, nothing’s more interesting to me than to hear them descend into their patois about their gadgets and gizmos and preferences and hates. I’ll sit and listen to two DP’s talk about the merits of one bit of ground glass over another, one light meter over another, one camera body over another. I’ll listen to grips talk about clamps. I’ll listen to the wardrobe department debate stitch rippers. I really don’t care. I just enjoy the minutia of gear.
We writers don’t really have specific gear, but why should that stop us from having fun? I present to you my List Of Screenwriting Gear. Some of it is cheap. Some of it is expensive. I use all of it.
We begin, naturally, with the laptop. Specifically, the one I purchased today. This is the 17” MacBook Pro, the perfect fusion of OS X and Windows XP operability. It’s sleek and light with a beautiful keyboard feel (and a lovely keyboard sound), a spectacularly bright and clean LCD wide enough to hold two script pages side-by-side, and boy howdy is it fast. Laptops are essential for screenwriting, because our job hopefully takes us places. I’ve got a ThinkPad that I used to use when I needed to run something in XP. It’s plastic and lame, with a cheap feel, cheap keyboard and a dismal LCD that looks bad in any condition and from practically any eyeline. If you’re a screenwriter, treat yourself to the proper tool. Now that Apple has switched to Intel chips, you don’t have any excuse.
While you’re at it, consider making a proper home base for your laptop by hooking it into an Apple Cinema Display. Protect your carpal tunnels like Craiggy does by using an ergonomic keyboard. If you’re not used to a split keyboard, it might feel weird for about a day. You’ll thank me later. Finally, tack on the King Of All Trackballs, the Expert Mouse.
By the way, I’ve been using the same damned square piece of neoprene as a wrist rest for about ten years now (it’s getting a bit nasty). Can anyone point me to SOMEONE who sells these things? I don’t want a jelly pad. I want neoprene. A square. About an inch thick.
We may use our brains for a living, but that doesn’t mean we can neglect our spines, or even worse, our asses. Like everyone else, I sit in an Aeron chair. No other chair matters. But what about a desk? After much searching (in a desperate attempt to spend as much as possible on a computer desk), I purchased the Biomorph Maxo. Apart from being massive, it has a split level keyboard platform that is freely articulating and independently adjustable from the desktop (i.e. the distance between the keyboard and the desk is not fixed). Combine that with a chain-drive crank to raise and lower the desk in its entirety, and I’m in love. Be warned; it’s not fun to assemble. Having done it, I’d recommend shelling out the extra dough to have the company assemble it for you in your home. Be further warned; it weighs more than Saturn. Literally. I checked.
I know a lot of writers enjoy listening to music while they work. I’m not one of them. I prefer silence. If I can’t have silence, I prefer a total cacophany. As long as I can’t pick out specific noises, I’m fine. Sometimes I use my Bose QuietComfort headphones to drown out the sounds around me, but I also like to use a simple Sound Soother, which offers me a choices like crickets (annoying), heartbeats (too Poe-ish) or white noise (just right).
I have two printers. The first is my workhorse, pictured at right, the Brother HL-1440. I love this thing because it’s cheap and stupid. For around $125, you get a reliable laser (not “laserjet”) printer that gives you black and white text at fifteen pages per minute…and that’s it. Nothing else. That makes me happy.
Of course, if I want to go totally mobile, I’ve got a Canon Pixma ip90. Ted turned me on to this little sumbitch. It’s totally portable, operating off a battery and bluetooth. It works. Okay, it doesn’t work perfectly, but when I’m on the soundstage and I feel like printing out five pages of dialogue, it sure beats handing my laptop over to a P.A. with greasy hands to go run it over to the office, connect it to a printer, call me on a cell phone ten minutes later to ask me why it’s only printing one page, yadda yadda.
But hey, I promised you some cheap gear, right?
Any real success I’ve had as a writer has been when I stepped away from all the fancy stuff and used this thing on these. They’re not sexy, but I’d be lost without them.
What no software?
The “How To Write Screenplays. Badly.” guys have a golden opportunity to blog about drug paraphernalia. ;)
yeah! advertising in blog posts, that’s high concept!
You know, I knew some cynical bastard would accuse me of advertising. :)
Ahem.
Disclaimer.
No one’s paying me. They ain’t ads.
Hey Craig,
I know what you mean regarding gear. I’m an Art Swing/Prop Man in Hollywood. Even on jobs when I’m not leading, I still bring most of my kit just in case. (For those of you lurking, who might not know, there are two Cardinal sins when working on set, A. Being late. (If you’re not fifteen minutes early…you’re late. )
B. Not having the proper spanner/twister/do-hickey to do the job, while the rest of the crew is looking on, waiting/wasting money.
I love buying tools, but, it’s also fun adapting stuff to use on set. (Butyl being a good example. Normally used as a workable windshield gasket; on set, used for mounting signs, plugging leaks, etc.)
As for your Neoprene need. Either call the special effect house that did your last feature, and ask them, or ask your Prop Master. He/She’ll be able to get some.
I’m sure that Pirates used a ton of it, ask Ted.
Thanks for all your hard work on Artful Writer.
Enjoy your holiday.
Craig, I just got a macbook as well and I’m totally geeking out over it, so I understand the need to share the blissful jones we get from our sleek new machines -
They’re so awesome, it’s sick.
I also collect computers as well and I have a macintosh classic, circa 1991, sitting in my closet. Oh, the memories.
I love my Mac toys to, but sometimes I just have to go home to my Koh-i-Noor .9mm pencil and my Moleskine, to get my head together.
Shouldn’t the title be:
How to Spend Ten Thousand Dollars on Writing Equipment
?
I never thought about the stuff I use everyday as “gear,” but that’s exactly what it is. Thanks for the post, and thanks for giving me a reason why I endlessly fine tune my workspace and tools!
Hope you’re enjoying your new office there, Star Jones :P
And I assume you have heavy duty power inverters so all this works in the car, too. You Hollywood types are so — oops — gotta go, green light.
The desk/table is really impressive.
It’s ridiculously big and businesslike of course, a total overkill all around.
I’d definitely like to have a desk like this but only if I had a 40 to 50 squate metre study to put it in. And I’d put it in the middle of the room so one could walk around it (and it’d be more like a work-table than a desk). The cables ‘n stuff would naturally have to go under the flooring.
But it sort of looks like you got this particular desk because you’re getting ready to actually set up an editing suite in your study.
I like all your other gear and I’d probably buy exactly the same stuff.
Except for the white noise emitting thingie (the only words that come to my mind are “Only a guy would love something like that”).
Headphones that cancel out surrounding noise are very useful and sometimes downright neccessary. I’d get Sennheiser though (because I´m familiar with Sennheiser, not Bose).
I really like gear. Name me something and I’ll most likely have an opinion on it.
If you like serious silence for writing, let me recommend the earplugs you can get from Beneficial Products. A pack of 12 will last for 12–18 months, even with very frequent use. They’re comfortable. And they have a 34 noise reduction rating.
When I want silence, I want SILENCE, and these are the only things that have ever provided it. I’ve tried the earplugs you can get in the store, but they’re all crap. Noise reduction headphones don’t work for me at all; I don’t know whether this is true for all of them, but the ones I tried (can’t remember the brand, but they were quite expensive!) achieved the noise-reduction effect by emitting a low-frequency sound that was exactly in the range that drives me insane. So I returned them and, in desperation, hit Google for help.
And Google led me to the earplugs I have recommended. Whew.
I also use a Stowaway Travel Mouse with my iBook. It’s a very tiny mouse and takes some getting used to (I actually had hand cramps for a few days), but it’s a great little mouse once you’ve adjusted. It’s Bluetooth, so no wires or hubs. The only downside is that it needs AAA batteries, and it eats them up. I go through two batteries every three days or so. If I made the effort to get some recharageables (sp?) it might not be such a hassle, but I haven’t yet made the effort. But Vons usually has decent sales on Duracell.
I had an Aeron chair at work when I was an attorney. I should have stolen it the day I quit. Those things are awesome. One of these days I hope to be able to afford it again.
I’m not a gearhead, but I love sitting. That chair looks pretty darn sweet. Maybe I can trick my rich cousin into buying me one for Christmas.
welcome to the CrackBook Pro club. one of us! one of us!
although the 17” wasn’t out when I purchased my 15”, I had tried out the old PowerBooks in the course of comparison shopping. You don’t find it feels just a bit too big in terms of portability and having too much real estate between the wrist-rest area and the keyboard?
But yeah, so nice to be able to have everything with you wherever you go and have it “just work.”
If you like split keyboards, you should try the Goldtouch USB because you can adjust the amount of split.
https://www.keyovation.com/pc-63-2-goldtouch-apple-compatible-keyboard-white-usb.aspx
Many keyboard aficionados prefer the ThinkPad/Macbook Pro-type keyboard. You can reach 140 wpm on those.
Come to think of it I’d never buy an Aeron desk chair.
I’ve never seen one, never tried one but I’ve noticed that it’s all the rage.
The Aeron — in my mind —is like the Rolex of desk chairs. In certain circles everyone has got to have a Rolex because everyone who is anyone has got one.
There are lots of cool and interesting timepieces in the world and I don’t think that the Rolex is one of them. It’s is more like a status symbol.
This seating arrangement FAR surpasses the Aeron and it only costs something like $25:
http://www.exercise-balls.com/pd/bd4908009.html
Everyone can afford it.
Perhaps you may not feel very dignified sitting on one of these.
But they’re brilliant because you absolutely have to keep your spine straight — there’s really no alternative. You’re also forced to keep balance all day long which means that your back gets a workout even as you sit.
By comparison the Aeron is for invalids.
“By comparison the Aeron is for invalids.”
that’s exactly what we’re looking for !! :-)
I have a huge ‘rare computer’ collection collecting dust in my basement. I actually have some cool stuff - suitcase laptops, a mac classic, and who knows what else. Back in my lawn sale days I would buy every computer I got my hands on. I think I thought one day that would be worth something. Do you want anything?
i write on a tv tray-stand someone gave me (i used to sit on the floor and set the laptop on a cardboard box). i sit in an office-style chair someone rolled out to the street - it’s made of plain wood (painted white [yes, painted]) and does not have cushions. i listen to the SOUND OF THE STREET through the open window when i write. i use a copy of word someone gave me (it came free with a laptop he bought). when it gets dark i can’t see very well because my place doesn’t have enough lamps.
i wonder if all that cheap shit affects the quality of my work. hmm. i wonder…
For those of you that don’t make a Craig-sized salary to buy the Biomorph Maxo superdesk, check out this one instead:
http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=703638&N=201680&An=browse
It too has enough room to house 5-6 21 inch monitors, if you had a need for such a thing. I’ve got a 21-inch monitor and a 19-inch monitor, stereo speakers, a 19-inch TV and two lamps on mine, and I still only take up half the desk.
The only drawback is that the keyboard tray doesn’t come out quite far enough for my taste — with a wrist pad, the keyboard is pushed back far enough to make the function keys unreachable. Other than that, it’s a great working desk for a really good price.
Also, it’s a corner desk, so it doesn’t suck up half the room with its bulk.
I want the chair !!! (and I want the money to buy it XD)
My first car, a 1974 Karmann Ghia, cost me $700…
Dang, that is just an insane amount of scratch to fork over for a dadburn office chair.
And I suspect my narrow behind would not be able to discern $1,200 difference between it and the freebie I’m sitting in, right now.
But maybe some of y’all have a more discerning rear end, than myself.
RP
Craig -
So how do you make MMSW display two pages side by side on a MAC? I’d like to finally learn something from this place.
Turm:
You just open one document, then open another. Arrange the windows side by side. Easy.
Turman:
Two standard business cards stacked together make for a good spark plug gapping tool — gives you about .022 - .025” — if you happen to own a 1974 Karmann Ghia and find yerself in a pinch.
There… now you’ve learned two things from this place. And in the same day, no less.
Good times!
RP
On software: the best thing I have done for my Mac is to download the free (very stable) beta of Quicksilver from blacktree.com.
You will never have to hunt through folders for a file again. If you want to open “Scary Movie 5 v4.5g” you just hit about three keys and the file is open. It reduces the time that operations like that take by 90% or more. YOU WILL NEVER CLICK ON “MY COMPUTER” OR “HOME FOLDER” OR “DOCUMENTS” AGAIN!
Okay, you’ve seen a launcher before. What about this? Say you have a list of possible names for your new script (or new child.) Make that a plain text file, and then, whenever you suddenly have one more idea for a possible name, in seconds you can APPEND A NEW ITEM TO THE LIST WITHOUT OPENING THE FILE — without even opening Text Edit. Or you can prepend it.
You can view all the information from your Address Book without opening address book. You can find Ted Elloit’s phone number in one second, without opening a new document or program.
These are just examples. There are a million, million more things you can do with it.
And it’s free.
And did I mention? It’s totally stable.
I don’t work for them, etc. It is a magnificent piece of software.
blacktree.com
One more great site for writing gearhehads and organizers (and notecard devotees) is 43folders.com. They also have a lot of stuff on using Quicksilver.
I like to listen to white noise as well. The Monroe Institute puts out these cd’s that supposedly alter our brain waves to put us in different states of consciousness. Desperate to break blocks and make this whole creativity thing easier, I gave it a try. Some of the cd’s have annoying new age music but some of them have nothing but sweet, sweet white noise. I don’t know what they do to my brainwaves but I do know that I can’t hear my a55h0le neighbor’s power tools anymore.
Denise: Thanks for the earplug tip.
For those of you that yearn for the joys of longhand, check out a tablet pc. I have a Thinkpad X41. It’s convertable (screen twists and folds down over the keyboard to form a flat tablet) and the handwriting recognition is pretty good. Nothing beats it for surfing the net (ahem, research) since tapping a pen on screen is so much more fun than a mouse. It’s also the easiest way to do work on an airplane. The wow factor is high and if Apple ever came out with one of these, I’d be in heaven.
I still have a Mac SE/30 that I most recently used to prop open the front door when I brought in groceries. I’ve moved since then, though, and my new front door stays open all on its own, so the SE/30 is relegated to the shelf in the closet.
I do get it down and boot it up every once in a while just to make sure it still works.
I’ve wanted to get a MacBook Pro to supplement the iMac and various Dells I use, but the wife has, so far, put the kibosh on that, noting that the laptop I have (a Dell P4 model) is only a couple of years old and does everything I need it do to… as if that’s a reason not to buy something new.
Ryan:
Dude, the SE/30 was waaaaay ahead of its time. It’s one of the hidden gems of the early Mac line. You should be proud.
Prouder of the SE/30, in fact, than of your wife, who simply Does Not Understand You.
Don’t forget a pen. You need a good one so you feel good when you write. You remember writing - its what you do on bit of paper. Throw the biro away!
Love computers, always have, always will. I type at 90 plus words a minute, and can pretty much type dialogue as I hear it in my head. So I’m way spoiled in the computer arena. I find it a crucial tool! Phil http://www.screenwriterbones.blogspot.com
I’d have to throw in coffee to my cheap gear list!
I like a mechanical pencil and a legal pad, right up until, and sometimes during, the moment I open up FD. Something about the scritch-scritch-scritch of a pencil on paper that I find very satisfying… I feel more connected to the story, too. Which prolly sounds bizarre.
And I’m a big fan of my eight months old Brother HL 2040 laser printer. Like the Brother printer that Brother Craig mentioned, this one only does b/w pages, but can crank out about 20 ppm, and has yet to make any sort of error… no misfeeds, and the pages fly out so hot, they literally curl from the heat. This is my first laser printer, and I’m not going back to inkjets or anything else. Flawless, and available for under $100, if you catch a rebate, at the right time.
And my five year old Titanium Mac laptop is still going strong.
Personally, I hate upgrading, because is usually means a new OS, which often renders other software obsolete… so, I end up buying more upgrades or chunking stuff, altogether.
Dadburn technology cabal.
RP
Where’s the rest of the gear? I thought you were going to lay it out for us, like a carpenter opening his tool bag.
What software do you use? Do you really use a cork board to map out your story with flash cards? Do you use yellow post-it notes? Do you keep a Dictionary handy? If so, which one?
I’m glad your back is straight and your ass is cushy, but come on now - you’re writing to people with poor posture and leather asses.
Hey guys,
I’m the new kid on the block and just wanted to say “hello.” I’ve always enjoyed this blog and recently started my own.
http://mysterymanonfilm.blogspot.com/
-MM
Hello all..I like to think of myself as the “King Of Gadgets” but that name seems to be taken…anyway…If it’s new, I probabaly have it. I can point you onto this site: www.fellowes.com. If your looking for something else. I can probabaly tell you where it is. As for that, see this for your wristpad: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7627282060&ssPageName=MERCVIReBayPr4PcYBINStores_IT
Craig -
Even I can do that. What I want to know is how to display consecutive pages of the same document/file side by side. I gather I can’t. I’ve talked to the guys at MMSW about it; why don’t you use your clout to get it done.
JT:
Ah. Got it. Great idea. I just emailed my guy at MMS to make the recommendation. They’re still in beta on MMS 5 (although it’s late in the beta process), so it’s possible that it could get in there.
Patrick:
Did I not clearly say no goddamned jelly pads? Did I not say square! DO NOT TAUNT ME!!!!!
You are so fired as my wristpad finder…
yeah, but your cheap, lame, ‘plasitc’ (aka carbon-fibre and magnesium composite) ThinkPad is still working after 5 yrs… ;)
But Panasonic make the best laptops.
I looked into that printer, the HL-1440. The high yield drum for that thing can crank out 20,000 pages before it craps out!!! That is my dream….
I got a used aeron chair by designerseating.com and it was the smartest decision not to buy a brand new one from herman miller.
Every writer I knows uses the BOSE headphones — love them!
I’ve been thinking of getting a barcelona chair from designerseating.com, but I’m worried that they feel the need to spam blog comment sections, posting the same comment over and over with a different name. Frankly, it’s putting me off of doing business with them.
Hey Craig, I just switched to manual typewriters. (Less distractions, more writing. I’m happy with it.) But they are big and heavy, and I need a lower writing surface. Do you think the tray on that Biomorph desk would hold a (say) 20 pound manual typewriter and withstand regular typing without wobbling or shifting?