Working with cast scheduling

Adding availability

Start with clicking on Add availability.

In the calendar, you add the start date and the finish date. You can add a single day (meaning you add the same start and finish date) or a number of days in one go. Just save between each post, and you can add as many days as you need. Each day will be presented as it’s own list post, meaning you can edit and change dates, times and notes whenever you need.

If you need to add a specific time that the cast member is available during a day, click Only available from / to specific times of the day. Note that if you add specific times, scene scheduling will warn you that a cast member is unavailable if a scene is planned to be shot when the cast member is unavailable, even if that is just 10 minutes at the end of the shoot. However, you can still schedule the cast member.

The difference between availability and confirmed booking

The difference between availability and a confirmed booking is that usually the production works with scene scheduling and takes the days cast members are available into consideration. Often cast members may be available a longer period than is needed. When the production scheduling is firmer, the production calls the agent or cast member and confirms which specific days the cast member is booked. That’s when you click Confirm booking.

In some cases, either with entertainment or stars / VIPs, scheduling must start with which days certain cast members are confirmed because they are generally hard to get and have few available days. In those cases, you can skip adding availability and confirm the booking directly.

If you go through the steps described above and click Save availability or Confirm booking, you will be presented with a list of available dates. The same list will be presented if a cast member already has available dates recorded when you look at their availability. If you want to Confirm a booking you can simply click on it to confirm.

To find Cast schedule overview and Day out of Days (DooD) – in Dramatify combined into one comprehensive view – go to Cast & Characters and click on Schedule.

This is a combination view that shows availability, status, potential conflicts and Day out of Day information. You can limit the days in the view as well as filter and only show certain character types, for instance, main characters or extras. If you’d rather sort the list on cast names, just click in the box for cast and it happens automatically.

What the different icons and colours in the Cast schedule mean

This is an overview of all cast members’ working days. The icons and colours are explained below. Only work days that have a set date are listed on this page.

The colours

    Available to work, but no scenes or activities are scheduled. Great! Start scheduling!

    Confirmed to work, but no scenes or activities are scheduled. Start scheduling!

    Scheduled for shooting or activities, and available to work, but no booking has been confirmed. Call to confirm!

    Scheduled for shooting or activities but no availability has been added. Warning! Is the cast member really available?

    Scheduled for shooting or activities and has a confirmed booking. All is well!

The icons

    Shooting one or more scenes.

    Has scheduled activities; Hair and/or Makeup, Wardrobe, Rehearsal or Call time.

    Available/Booked all day.

Available/Booked part of the day. See Booking for each cast member for details.

The DooD Abbreviations

SW – Start Work The first production day that the cast member is scheduled to work.

W – Workday Cast member is scheduled to work

WF – Work Finished The last day that the cast member is scheduled to work

SWF – Start Work & Work Finished The only day that the cast member is scheduled to work

When your schedule is finished enough that you want to confirm a cast member’s booking, you can navigate in two different ways:

1. From the Cast schedule described in the section above, click on the link underneath the cast member’s name Availability/Booking.
2. Click on People, then on Cast and find the cast member’s profile card. Click on the menu icon and select Availability.

 
Click on the date or dates which you have confirmed with the cast member or their agent. If you need to add a note, click on the edit (pen) icon and write a note.

There are two ways you can work smarter:

1) Click on the Hide Menu icon in the upper right corner to expand the Daily Cast Schedule to the maximum width of your screen.

2) Since Dramatify lives in your browser, the smartest way of working is to have the Daily Cast Scheduler in one browser tab, and the scene schedule or call sheet edit form in another. That way you will work smarter, and don’t have to constantly save and navigate to another page while looking up information for your cast schedule.

By default, the list only shows cast members who are shooting the selected day. You can show all cast members by clicking on, and thus turning off, Show only shooting.
 

Who is added to the list of “shooting today”.

Dramatify automatically adds shooting cast based on three factors:

1. Is the character added to the scene in the Breakdown?
2. Has the character been linked to a cast member on the character’s page?
3. Is the scene scheduled to be shot that day in the Scene scheduling?

If a cast member isn’t showing up on a day when he or she should, go back and check these three factors. Note that for non-fiction productions, the process works the same, but you add the cast member’s real name as Character name.

A note on atmosphere cast

Note that atmosphere cast is NOT handled in the scheduler and do NOT appear under cast calls in the call sheet. If you want these cast members to appear in the scene scheduling, in the call sheets and in the timesheets, make them Extras instead of an Atmosphere group.

The Daily Cast Scheduler contains a number of scheduling options:

• Cast call
• Transport to location, either the cast member’s own transport or transport organised by the production.
• Make-up, F/X make-up and hair
• Wardrobe
• Cast dismissal
• Rehearsal
• Transport from location
• Notes

Scroll sideways to see them all!

Show and hide sections

At the top, you can select which sections should be shown, and which you want to hide, for easier scheduling and overview.

Schedule per cast member, or for most – or all – cast

In the top of each column, you can click on the edit (pen) icon and choose to set the same value for all scheduled cast members. Note that this will only affect cast members that are shooting that day.  If you want to set different values for certain individual cast members, you can edit them separately.

Use the controls in the top to select the day, time format and to turn off columns for easier scheduling.

The Cast call sets when a cast member should be present on set to start working. The cast call not only shows up in the call sheet but is also integrated into Timesheets. You can set individual times for each cast member. To set the same cast call time for all cast members, click the edit icon at the top of the column. Set scheduling option for all cast.

To only schedule transport, turn off all other sections at the top of the scheduling section.

The “Transport to location” and “Transport from location” have two main settings:

• The cast member gets there by themselves – check “Own transport”.
• The cast member’s transport is organised by the production, fill out all other fields in this section.

To add the same value to all or any of the different information fields, click the edit icon on top of each column.

A note on locations

The selected list of locations is automatically added depending on the shooting locations and unit bases linked to the scenes being shot that day. If you do not get the correct locations, check the Setlist to see:

1. Are the scenes being shot that day linked to the correct sets?  If not, correct in Breakdown.
2. Are the sets linked to the correct locations and unit bases? If not, correct the set’s settings (for locations) and the location’s settings (for unit base).

A note on drivers 

The driver list has designated drivers on top, then the rest of the team. If you instead use a company; cabs, limousines, bus, boats, airlines etc; you can add the company as a team member with contact information, and link the company as a driver. If you want to inform a cast member of the name of a specific driver for that company, you can to that in the Notes at the far right of the scheduler.

Cast members not going to or from location

To add transport for cast members going to and from other places than location, add them straight into the call sheet under the “Transport” heading. The same goes for any other kind of transport, including couriers and production transports of scene items and equipment.

Go to Planning > Days and click on the call sheet to which you want to add the transport order. Below the Shooting Schedule you’ll find Transport. Just click on the blue button “Add Transport”.

To only schedule make-up & hair, turn off all other sections at the top of the page.

Simply add the time and select the make-up artist or hair stylist you want to schedule for the cast member. To add the same for all cast members, click the edit icons on top of the columns. If a make-up artist or hair stylist isn’t in the select list, it’s because:

• They have not been added to Dramatify as team members
• They have been added to the wrong department. All members of the Make-up & Hair department will show up in the lists.

To only schedule wardrobe, turn off all other sections at the top of the page.

Simply add the time and select the wardrobe person you want to schedule for the cast member. To add the same for all cast members, click the edit icons on top of the columns. If a wardrobe team member isn’t in the select list, it’s because:

• They have not been added to Dramatify as team members
• They have been added to the wrong department. All members of the Wardrobe department will show up in the list.

To only schedule rehearsals, turn off all other sections at the top of the page.

Rehearsals are one of the reasons non-shooting cast members have been added at the bottom of the cast list. You might want to schedule rehearsals with cast that is not shooting that day – and you can!

Rehearsing the current day’s scenes

Dramatify automatically adds the scenes that are to be shot the selected day you are scheduling for per cast member, and will automatically update if you change the scene scheduling (Planning > Scheduling).

• If you want the current day’s scenes to be rehearsed that day, just add time.
• If you want to change the scenes rehearsed, just add which scenes to be rehearsed instead.
• If you want the same scenes to be rehearsed for everybody. click the edit icon on top of the column and add the scenes you want to rehearse.

To schedule cast dismissal, just add the time for all cast at the top of the column, or add individual times.

Note that just like cast calls, cast dismissal time not only shows up in the call sheet but is also integrated into Timesheets. 

Any notes you add to a cast member’s schedule (in the last column) will show up in that person’s cast call in the call sheet.

There are all sorts of reasons, you might want to schedule non-shooting cast; rehearsals, fittings, test makeup and meetings. You can schedule them the same way as any shooting cast member. There are two differences:

1. You schedule them on an individual basis. The settings for all shooting cast at the top of each column, do not affect non-shooting cast.
2. You MUST add a team for them to show up in the call sheet.