When the whole world has its attentionturned to the TechCrunch40 conference — at least the whole web tech blogging world — how does a company expect to get any press about a new product launch? One way is to send out an eye catching, innovative press release. Celtx, a free, open source screenwriting software package we mentioned in the Filmmaker’s Tool Kit, sent us one of the most innovative press releases we’ve seen.
In order to announce the new version of their screenwriting suite, Celtx created a script detailing the writing of the press release. It was a little kooky, a lot existential, but most of all, it was eye-catching. Celtx’s interesting and clever gimmick was enough to really catch my eye and ensure I took a closer look at the actual press release to follow.
Of course, press releases will only get you somewhere if the news contained within them is worthwhile. Celtx delivers the meat in the form of new online collaboration tools for screenwriters. Most notably, the addition of “Snapshots,” which work similarly to snapshots in Photoshop by allowing writers to create save points during the progression of their script and roll back to older versions at any time. Versioning tools are of course especially helpful when working on something with a partner to avoid accidentally overwriting new edits or erasing your partner’s work.
Celtx also announced an event notification service to make sure everyone is kept in the loop about new information posted by other team members. Further, the 0.995 version now includes an updated LaTex-based TypeSet function to ensure proper script formatting in online versions and includes better encryption for uploaded scripts.
Below is an image of their scripted press release:
