Quick Start Guide

After you have registered in Step 1 above, you will be presented with a short walk-through of Dramatify’s features, ending up on the welcome page. From there, you can start a production in two ways:

1. Click on the “Start a new production” button on the welcome page
2. Or, click on the big blue “Productions” button to the right and select “Start new production”

Registering a production company

Before starting setting up your production, you need to register your production company, if this is your first Dramatify production.

(If you are a student, teacher or principal at a TV, film or VR education, please read about our educational accounts.)

A tip! The logo/artwork of your production company is used for watermarking printed or pdf:ed drama screenplays, Therefore it’s important that you add it, or else the screenplays will not be marked.

After register the production company, you are all set to start a new production! 

Episodes or not

If you are doing a series, just select that your production have episodes. But it’s also a useful function if you do a feature film or short and want to storyboard certain sequences or make trailers and promos. You can add the episode functionality later during the production if you realise you need it!

If you are making commercials or corporate film, you can have one production account per client and just add new TVCs, webisodes and promos as you go along.

Teams

You can work with three main teams – Red, Green and Purple – plus a second unit and a third unit. You can add new teams at any time during your production. If you use episodes, you can tie an episode to a certain team or teams.

Description

In the middle of the “start new production” page, there is a text box where you can describe your production. It will be displayed at the Production page which is one of the pages your team is going to see the most, so make sure it is communicative and inviting!

Billing

Dramatify is free for the first user. But! You need to select your payment plan for when you add your second team member. We wll not invoice you until the second team member is added.

Meals

You do not need to add anything for meals, you can do that closer to shooting.

Edit Production settings

You can change the production settings at any time. On the Production page, click on the icon to the right if you want to change the production settings, general production information or the logo on the production company account.

When you start adding team members to your Dramatify production, they will be able to see your profile and learn more about you.

Go to Me in the top menu and click on Profile.

On your profile page, click on the edit menu in the toolbar and then on Edit.

In the profile you can add everything from a bio, links to social media and IMDB accounts, contact & representation information, ICE (In Case of Emergency contacts), professional certificates as well as food preferences. The information in form fields that have green borders, are visible to all team members, the information in fields with orange borders are only accessible to Admins.

Why make your team members complete their profiles?

Get your team members to complete their profiles and you will have a lot of important information, from which professional certificates they hold, to contact information, in-case-of-emergency information and food preferences that gives you automatic food lists. For team members, complete profiles mean that they can recognise each other on set and easier get to know each other.

To start adding  team members to your production, click People in the right hand menu. Then just click on the “Add cast & crew” button.

Search and see if your team member already have a Dramatify account. If not, add them according to the instructions. You can decide if you just want to add them to the team list, but not give access yet, or invite them directly. You can also – if you want – add basic profile information to their profile, such as profile image, address, phone numbers etc.

To learn more about adding team members and how you both can add them directly and let them set up their profiles themselves, or how you can set up their basic profile and contact information and invite them later, watch the video on team lists and personal profiles.

You can also learn more about the different roles and permissions in Dramatify.

At the top of the page you have Messages.

Click on the + icon to start messaging your team members. Each team member will get a notification to their email when they get a new message.

Why using Dramatify messages instead of regular email?

The message icon at the top of the page will display a red number as soon as you have a new message!

If you have general documents , files, links and resourcesyou want to share with your team, just click on the Docs & Resources in the lefthand sidebar.

Remember that standard production documents like screenplays and call sheets are added naively to Dramatify, not as pdfs or word documents.
Only Admins can upload and delete documents.

Upload any kind of file. Max file size 4 mb.

Add links and resources with your own categories and description.

If you added episodes to your production settings (Step 3 above), you’ll see Episodes in the right hand menu. On the Episode page, click on the + icon in the toolbar to add a new episode. You can tie one or more teams to the episode if you want.
Only Admins can see and work with the Episode section.

Adding scripts for single-script productions

In Dramatify, you can add either a drama screenplay, an AV script or a script for multi-camera live/studio productions. Click on Productions to select your production, then on Scripts.  Select the script type you’d like to use.

Adding scripts to series

First, you need to turn on the episode functionality in the Production settings; see the previous step above.

STEP 1: Add an episode

Just click the blue button “Add Episode” and follow the instructions in the form.

STEP 2: Add a script to the episode

Click the “Add script” button and follow the same instructions above for single episode productions.

How to work with the different script types

Learn more how to create and work with the different script types:

• Drama screenplays
• AV scripts
• Multi-camera live & studio scripts

After you have a script, you can start with the script breakdown, where you add all details you need to a scene to prepare it for budgeting, scheduling and further work.

Click on Breakdown & Items in the right hand menu. The breakdown is pretty much standard (but better looking!) and familiar if you have used a breakdown tool before.

The breakdown report

Everything you put into the breakdown can be viewed, sorted and printed at Reports in the orange toolbar.
The breakdown is only visible and accessible to team members that have Admin permissions.

Breakdown permissions

The breakdown is only accessible to team members that have Admin permissions.

Scene items is any THINGS you need for a shoot, from props and wardrobe, to special camera equipment, vehicles and security. You can add scene items to a scene, to a set and to a character. You also assign a department responsible and can add tags i.e. keywords to the item.

There are four different ways you can add scene items.

1. In the breakdown
   Normally only scene items mentioned in the script or vital to be able to shoot the scene are added during breakdown.
2.  On the character page
   Here the props, wardrobe and hair & makeup departments do their breakdown and add all the things a character need for each scene. Since Dramatify works great on mobile, buyers can record scene items and scene item options into Dramatify while in shops and rental companies.
3. On the set page
   Here props and set building have automatic access to add their breakdown and add all the things a character need for each scene. Since Dramatify works great on mobile, buyers can record scene items and scene item options into Dramatify while in shops and rental companies.
4. In the scene item list
   Here all scene items that have been added are listed. Scene items can also be added, edited and deleted, and lists printed.

The Character list

The Character list lists characters, cast and scenes. The character types (in blue) changes dynamically if you use other character types, from reporters to dancers. Click the character name to view more information about the character or click on “Add character” to add a new character.

The Character page

Each character have their own page with information about cast, the character, scenes and any scene items. Here the makeup & hair, wardrobe and props teams can do their breakdown outside of the script breakdown, and add scene items on the go in their mobiles. Scene items are also listed per scene for quick retrieval during dressing before shooting.

Adding characters manually

If you write from scratch, you can either add them during breakdown (see step 13 below), or by clicking on the Add Character button.  To add atmosphere cast, first click on Atmosphere in the character type menu.

Connecting character with cast

First add the cast member under People > Add Cast & Crew.

Then go to Cast & Characters and click on the character. On the character page, click on the edit icon in the upper right corner.

At the bottom of the character page, you can connect:

• The cast member
• A body double
• A stunt person
• A stand-in

Character permissions

Only Admins, and team members belonging to props, wardrobe, hair & makeup departments can see and work with characters.Adding characters manually

If you write from scratch, you can either add them during breakdown (see step 13 below), or by clicking on the Edit menu in the toolbar. In the image below you see that there are two choices:

Connecting character with cast

There are two ways of connecting a character with a cast member:

Character permissions

Only Admins, and team members belonging to props, wardrobe, hair & makeup departments can see and work with characters.

 More on Working with Characters »

The difference between a set and a location:

• the set is the place where a scene plays out that may or may not need to be designed and built, whereas
• the location is the actual physical location with a GPS location where the shoot is taking place.

Add sets

On the Set page you can add sets by going to the Edit menu and click “Add set” as seen below. The most convenient way however, is to add new sets while you do the script breakdown.

Edit sets

To edit a set, click on the set name to go to the set page and click on the edit icon.

On the edit page, you can change various information as well as link it to a location.

Sets permissions

Only Admins, and team members belonging to props and set construction can see and work with sets.

Sets need to be connected with the physical shooting locations at some point during the pre-production. You can also add locations for Unit Base and Medical Emergency Location. To add locations, click the Location menu, then on the Edit menu icon, select “Add location”.

When you add a correct address to your locations, all locations will automatically get map links in the call sheet for easy navigation for your team. A correct address to your shooting location also automatically gives you updated weather in your call sheet on the day of shooting.

Location permissions

Only Admins can see and work with locations.

To start scheduling, click on Planning in the right hand side menu. The page will be almost blank because you haven’t added anything yet. Below is a view of the production overview on a production under way. Learn more about scheduling here.

The on set section contains the following:

• Time sheets – check in and out working hours
• Catering lists
• Plate count and meal breaks
• .csv report exports

Time sheets

Check in and out cast and crew working hours.

Catering lists

Dramatify automatically compiles who works as well as any individual meal preferences in the crew and cast profiles. You can also manually add meals and snacks, as well as set “No meals offered” in the production settings.

Plate count and meal breaks

To just get plate count, just CHECK OUT team members. To get meal break hours, also check in team members after the meal.

.csv exports

To export time sheets complete with working hours, plate count, meal breaks etc. just click on the menu icon to the right in the toolbar and select “export”.

Dramatify offers an almost automatic daily production report, that compiles the most important production information and also lets you add your own notes and details. A smart signing process, lets you add the people who should sign, as well as make sure they can approve, reject and re-file.

You find the DPRs under Production > DPRs

The Daily Production Report includes:

• Dates and production day numbers
• Principal crew
• Status
• Working times: Unit calls, shooting times, first shot, wrap and last man out.
• Scene & shot status
• Media usage
• Locations and location releases
• Equipment & tech notes
• Health & safety incidents and notes
• Crew & cast time sheet
• Talent release log
• Payments