FilmAnchor.com
Filmmaking 101, Film Techniques, Tutorials and Free Movie Scripts.

FilmAnchor.com is at the service of the Independent Filmmaker to break into the Filmmaking business.

This is a collection of the best Free Filmmaking Software.

Celtx -- Free, open-source screenwriting/preproduction software. Somewhat comparable to Final Draft. Works on Mac/Windows/Linux. Online support via a forum where you can ask the developers and other users questions, or request features, submit bug reports, etc. To transfer scripts from Final Draft into Celtx, save as "Formatted Text" and then import into Celtx. Then check to make sure it did it right. Also allows you to markup script for production breakdown, etc. See site for video demo of how it works.

Script Buddy -- The Script Buddy web site provides a rather useful tool for addition to the arsenal of an aspiring writer. There are two versions of the tool: one is free, and a more robust and feature-rich subscription version.
Script Buddy is a web based screenwriting tool, which enables the user to piece together a screenplay by entering each component of the screenplay by using the icon-based interface to create a screenplay.

CineMatrix -- The Fifth Generation of CineMatrix™ is once again setting the bar for Filmmaking Software light-years ahead of anything else ever conceived of in the marketplace. This is an industry changing Revolution, a paradigm shift that changes everything you know about filmmaking software.
CineMatrix™ has done the unthinkable - we've made CineMatrix™ Industrial 5.0 available to filmmakers worldwide, regardless of economic level at No Cost. That's right, the CineMatrix™ User license that once cost several hundred U.S. dollars will soon be FREE to every filmmaker on the planet, studio and independent filmmaker alike.

Chicken of the VNC (Mac) -- VNC is a free program you can use to "mirror" screens with a writing partner so that you can both observe the same application simultaneously.

Cinelerra -- A Linux-based non-linear editor. Open source. It gained quite a following and has been around for a few years now and fairly mature.

Audacity -- Very simple audio multitrack audio editor. It's free, and a new version is coming soon that can do a lot more than the one that's released now. But something to keep an eye on if you need very basic multitrack editing. Mac, Windows, & Linux.

Jump Cut -- An online entry, Jump Cut’s free video editing software allows you to cut video, and add audio, photos, effects and titles right on the web.

Virtual Dub -- Virtual Dub offers simple editing capabilities. You can’t get too creative with the software, but you can use it to make simple, clean edits in your video footage. Virtual Dub works with PCs only.

Wax -- Wax is a bit dated—circa 2004—and the interface looks ancient, but the software comes with a very helpful guide and allows for a lot of creativity.

Zwei-Stein -- This free editing software works with Macs, PCs and and Linux systems. It’s easy to download, with a colorful, sparse interface.

Jahshaka -- “Powering the New Hollywood,” Jahshaka is a free, open source video editing software, that will give you powerful editing capabilities.

Blender (and Blender Nation) - Blender used to be a commercial 3d modeling/animation package, but the Internet raised the $ online to buy the source code out from the company that owned it. At that point, development really took off, and many cutting-edge types of features have been added (the source code is free, so lots of programmers have been fooling with it) including fluid dynamics, inverse kinematics, hair, clothing, etc. Blender works on Mac, Linux, & Windows.

Cinepaint (formerly FilmGimp) is an open-source paint program developed for and by film studios for retouching high-resolution image files. Used in quite a few movies. A spin-off of the GIMP image processing software (www.gimp.org).

3D Canvas -- A freeware real-time 3D modeling and animation tool that incorporates an intuitive drag-and-drop approach to 3D modeling. Creating an animated scene is as simple as positioning the objects within your scene for each point in time in your animation. 3D Canvas will ensure that the resulting animation runs smoothly. Your animation can be stepped through a frame at a time, viewed in real-time, or recorded to a Video (AVI) file so that you can distribute your creation. Includes tutorials.

Pivot Stickfigure Animator -- Free download -- Create animated cartoons with this unique software that allows you to create stick figure animations without any artistic skills. You can easily create a chain of animation frames that can be previewed as you go.

WebFX -- WebFX is a free graphics manipulation tool, with a total of over four dozen different effects!

HyperEngine-AV -- This is a popular free software for Macs. The “trackless” editing system makes it easy to combine video, audio and photos.

Openoffice.Org and NeoOffice -- Free, open-source alternatives to Microsoft Office. Compatible with (i.e., reads/writes) MS Office files as well as open document format/PDF/HTML/etc. Includes word processor, spreadsheet, presentation (PowerPoint-like) software, and more. Neooffice is for Mac OS X, openoffice.org is for Windows/Linux. Also can read WordPerfect files.