Business productivity software seems like anathema to creativity, but filmmaker Joel Rasmussen says his movie "Before the Music Dies" would not have been possible without it.

He's not just talking about the budgets and production schedules, either. Rasmussen also used Mindjet's MindManager 6 to help with inspiration, plotting the narrative arcs and other elements of his film documenting his belief that growing homogenization is destroying the U.S. music industry.

Rasmussen explains how the numerous interviews were organized using MindManager, so that he and his team could keep track of them and of the sometimes convoluted relationships they recorded.

"Without a doubt using mind mapping made it a better movie," he says. "In making the kind of films that we make -- we call them narrative documentaries -- we have a particular story that we want to tell, and we go out and find people who can help us tell that story. But there's no script to follow."

The interviews span a wide range of relevant personalities, including Eric Clapton, Erykah Badu, Doyle Bramhall II, David Hidalgo of Los Lobos, Branford Marsalis, Les Paul, Michael Penn, Bonnie Raitt, Widespread Panic, R.E.M.'s manager Bertis Downs and more. There also are live performances by some of these and other musicians to help support Rasmussen's thesis.

Mind mapping is the concept of identifying a central premise, then establishing the relevant themes and topics related to it and diagramming how they're related. The result often looks like a complex decision tree or corporate organizational chart.

Mindjet digitizes this and lets users link in all kinds of documents, photos, video clips and other useful items. This means the team can look at an overview of everything they have or dig down as deep into the details as they want to.

"We have one big map that's the overall story, then we break that down into acts," Rasmussen said. "There's a linked in map for the whole trip of a production team in San Francisco, and for preproduction, production, postproduction and distribution. I couldn't do what I do without it."

More intriguingly, he uses MindManager during the creative process as well. "For planning and scripting meetings, we blow up a MindMap on the wall," Rasmussen said. It's free-flowing. Something goes up there, and it finds a place or it won't, but it frees up the flow of ideas. Outlines in a very hierarchical form makes people freeze up, because they don't want to appear to be difficult. It makes all the difference between collaboration and a rigid outline."

Time and money always are a concern for independent filmmakers, and Rasmussen says the software also helps keeps those within the necessarily narrow parameters. Because everyone is involved in every aspect of the process, "there is less resistance to what comes out of it," he says. "People get drawn in and get engaged and end up 'owning' their tasks, because it eliminates any hang-ups they might have. It happens organically."

Rasmussen was involved with MindManager when it was still in its testing phase and says it quickly became an essential part of his life. He has it on the Tablet PC that he carries with him almost everywhere and can't imagine being without it.

As big a fan as he is, even Rasmussen was surprised at how "fluidly" it integrated into the filmmaking process and became a creative and practical asset.

"Before the Music Dies" premiered March 12 at the South by Southwest Film Festival and is on the indie circuit at the moment, building up to being released on 1,000 screens nationally before summer's end. The soundtrack is scheduled to go on sale at about the same time. That will be followed by a special tour next month during which the movie will be shown before performances by some of the musicians featured in the film.