Learn ProductionEngine in short videos
Each video walks through one part of the app in about a minute and a half: from your first project to the breakdown, the schedule, the call sheet and what each department sees.
Getting started
4 videos- Episode 011:28
Getting Started with ProductionEngine: project, script, navigation
Open your project from the Projects page, try the sample project, add your script as PDF, Word, FDX or Excel, and reach every part of the app from the menu or the Command K search.
- Episode 071:10
Dashboard: follow today and tomorrow on one screen
See the next shoot day and tomorrow at a glance, log times on set with Log now, update scene status live and keep an eye on open issues.
- Episode 161:01
On Set from Your Phone: My day, schedule and call sheet
On a phone, see your call time and address in My day, open the day's details, use the bottom menu to reach the schedule and everything else, and preview the call sheet.
- Episode 461:32
Working Offline and Silent Set Notifications: rolling, scene wrapped
There isn't always internet on set. In ProductionEngine, a strip appears at the top when the connection drops and you keep working; it goes away on its own when you're back online. In cloud projects, changes you make offline are kept on the device and sent to your team once you're back online, and a status line in the account menu tells you whether the device is ready for offline use. Silent set notifications: in a cloud project, on today's log and while online, a scene block's first ROLL in Timecode and Scene finished send a notification with no sound and no vibration to the devices, with notifications on, of members who can see the schedule, call sheet or Timecode; the person who triggered it doesn't get one. While the app is open, a short note also appears in the corner of the screen. Turn both on or off in the Notifications card under Account.
Breakdown & prep
9 videos- Episode 021:36
How to Do a Script Breakdown: scenes, cast and elements
Read the breakdown table, check how characters and locations are spread in the breakdown summary, and edit each scene's location, cast and elements. Changes save automatically.
- Episode 031:16
Cast Availability and the Day Out of Days (DOOD) Chart
Assign actors to characters, enter daily rates and dietary needs, mark unavailable days on the calendar, and spot conflicts on the DOOD chart.
- Episode 041:17
Managing Film Locations: address, set logistics, availability
Add addresses and maps to locations, enter set logistics such as parking and the nearest hospital, and mark closed days and the vacate-by date. It all flows into call sheets and Suggest schedule.
- Episode 121:17
Screenplay Writing and Colored Revisions
Write in industry format, open colored revisions, compare versions and see the schedule impact, lock the version and scene numbers, update the breakdown and export as FDX.
- Episode 131:12
Sides for Film and the Offline Set Package
Prepare a shoot day's sides, pick paper and watermark, print or share them by link, and take the call sheet, schedule, scenes and sides to set in one package that opens without internet.
- Episode 141:15
Visual Prep: shot list, storyboard, lookbook and color palette
Build a shot list scene by scene, generate storyboard frames from your shots, prepare a lookbook and link a color palette to your scenes.
- Episode 431:49
Breaking Down: Scene Notes, Adding Scenes and Right-Click Insert
While breaking down on the Script page, write a note to the scene from the text you selected: Write a note in the tag menu, Add selection, and the Note marker in the scene list. Add a scene that isn't in the script with Add scene, or right-click a scene in the Breakdown table to add one above or below it, with the number and story day taken from its neighbors.
- Episode 442:06
Prep Calendar: fittings, table reads, scouts, meetings, notify crew
Plan costume fittings, table reads, location scouts, camera tests and meetings day by day on the Prep tab of the Calendar page. Quick add takes a type, a date and a time; add attendees as cast, crew members, a role or a whole department; see clashes as warnings; and track how many days are left until the first shoot day. In cloud projects, Notify sends phone notifications to attendees with an account, with a reply-link email as a fallback for people with an email address whom the push didn't reach. Replies come back as I'm coming / Can't make it, and eligible attendees get a phone reminder the evening before. Prepare a WhatsApp text for people without an account, and print the schedule or save it as a PDF.
- Episode 452:08
Continuity Breakdown: costume numbers, NEW/CONT, hair/makeup, wounds
Keep each character's continuity breakdown scene by scene on Elements › Continuity: costume numbers, NEW/CONT, pieces that change in the scene, hair and makeup notes, and wound or bruise stages worked out by story day. Rows come from the scene breakdown on their own; write the gray draft numbers with Apply draft, and switch the scene where a costume changes to NEW. View it in script or shooting order, and see the story days on the Story days tab. Print an A4 landscape sheet or PDF, download Excel, or import an existing continuity breakdown from Excel. The same record shows in the Continuity card of the scene editor.
Scheduling
6 videos- Episode 051:52
Shooting Schedule and Stripboard: Suggest schedule, drag and drop
Turn your breakdown into a shooting schedule in one click, review warnings before applying, fine-tune strips with drag and drop, and run a pre-lock check before you share.
- Episode 171:18
Save the Day: replan a shoot day in minutes
Rain, an unavailable actor or a lost location: Save the day moves dropped scenes to later days, suggests cover scenes, and flags company moves and extra calls. It applies in one step, and Undo brings it all back.
- Episode 211:58
Off Days, Location Returns and the Detailed Shooting Schedule
Read the warnings in the Suggest schedule preview, see off-day columns added automatically, add your own gap column, fix the location-return warning with Sort by location, and print the Detailed shooting schedule.
- Episode 402:22
Manual Scheduling: shooting-site blocks, Where? and Suggest times
Choose I'll place them on days in the Suggest schedule window, create empty shooting days for a date range, place shooting-site blocks by drag and drop or Add to day, answer Yes or No when a block doesn't fit, see the best days with Where?, read the Plan check strip, and use Suggest times, then Write times, to write times for the eligible days.
- Episode 411:58
New in Suggest Schedule: heavy & in-vehicle scenes, keep placements
Mark a scene as a half-day or full-day heavy scene in the scene editor, see how in-vehicle scenes are placed with priority on their neighboring scene's day, and use Keep my placements, suggest the rest to plan the remaining scenes around the days you placed by hand: counts, lock box, preview, Apply and Undo.
- Episode 422:26
Locations & Travel Time: find by address, same building, long drives
Add addresses, positions and regions to your locations, see which shooting sites lack a position in the check before Suggest schedule, and look them up in one go with Find from addresses. Turn locations that may share a building into one shooting site, and follow each day's travel time and the long-drive warning on the schedule.
Call sheet
2 videos- Episode 061:34
How to Make a Call Sheet: filled from your schedule, with templates
Style the call sheet that fills itself from the schedule, check times, weather and addresses, enter cast times, then print it or send it to the crew.
- Episode 221:15
Crew Shuttles on the Call Sheet
Turn on the call sheet's Crew Shuttles block, add a shuttle, enter the departure time, meeting point and plates, and assign people; shuttles appear on the printed sheet and in the message the crew receives.
Production office
9 videos- Episode 082:41
Film Budget: document types, add-ons, sub-lines and automatic lines
The budget opens on the Summary tab with the Estimate | Actual table: Net, Add-ons (withholding, payroll tax, undocumented surcharge), Incl. add-ons, VAT and Incl. VAT side by side. The top sheet shows every section with Net, Add-ons, Cost and VAT columns. On Detail, pick each line's document type (invoice, freelance receipt, payroll, copyright, undocumented); add-ons follow from it, rates come from Setup and can be changed for a single line in its Add-ons box. Add sub-lines and indent lines to build a tree; a parent is the sum of its sub-lines. Principal cast comes from the breakdown, crew from Contacts and rental days from the schedule, each with a badge that names the source. The Checks row collects what's missing and possible double counts. Setup holds the tax and payroll rates, Compare keeps alternatives and versions, and Print / PDF and Export take it out.
- Episode 091:17
Production Reports: breakdown summary, Day Out of Days, daily report
Open the breakdown summary, element list, DOOD chart, shooting schedule and daily report; filter by episode, unit and day range, download CSV or print.
- Episode 101:09
Crew Contacts, Distribution List and Cloud Sharing
Add your crew to Contacts, set the default distribution list, email the people you pick, and share the project with your team in the cloud.
- Episode 151:02
Task Board and Risk Register
Link tasks to people, due dates, shoot days and scenes; move them along the board by dragging; and add the risks found in your script to the risk register.
- Episode 181:58
Actuals and Cost Report: ledger, commitments, dated reports
The budget's Actuals tab holds the money paid: every entry carries its own document type (invoice, freelance receipt, payroll, copyright, undocumented), and net, add-ons, cost and VAT are worked out separately. Add an actual with its line, document type, payment date and amount; use the Source filter to separate manual, expense, PO, timecard, advance and installment entries; and see spending by prep and shoot week in the Week by week view. In cloud projects, approved expense requests post to the ledger on their own. Set a purchase order to Issued and its unpaid amount becomes an open commitment. The cost report shows Budget, Actual, Committed, ETC, EFC and Variance for every line; pick the over-budget lines with the Rows filter, and Take report saves the state at a cut-off date that you can download as Excel.
- Episode 191:26
Crew Timecards: overtime, meal penalties and approval
Create draft cards for the day's crew and cast from the call sheet; in, out and the planned meal break come pre-filled. Correct the times, see overtime and meal penalties, add a rate, approve and export a CSV. The rules are your project's own practice, not law.
- Episode 201:18
Travel, Lodging and the Catering Count
Log hotels, flights, trains and transfers with people and shoot days; overlaps and arrivals after call time are flagged automatically. Enter dietary preferences on cast and contact cards, and get the day's plate count under Reports → Catering.
- Episode 472:14
Budget Payments: week by week, installment plans and deposits
The budget's Payments tab shows the money going out by day or by week, with overdue, today and this week totals on top. Cast fees without a payment plan spread over the shoot days where the character is on camera, and crew fees over the department's prep and shoot days; prep days come from the Crew costs table in Setup. Add installments to a line's payment plan from a template (single payment, 50 / 50, 40 / 30 / 30, equal installments) and give each one a due date and a payment method (advance, cash, bank); a paid installment is posted to actuals, an unpaid one is a commitment. A person line's Employment tab holds the payroll company and the start and end dates; automatic payments don't fall outside them. A deposit is not a cost: enter what comes back and close it, and the part that didn't come back is posted to the line's actuals as Deposit kept. The cash plan spreads the whole budget over the weeks.
- Episode 492:33
Budget and Excel: finance workbook, restore, import, crew lists
The budget works with Excel both ways. Export → Finance Excel (with formulas) downloads the summary, budget and actuals ledger sheets: net unit rate times quantity, add-ons and cost are Excel formulas. Edit the file in Excel and load it back with More → Import → Restore the finance Excel; rows match by ID, nothing is deleted, and you see the old and new values before anything is applied. For your own budget workbook, use Import from another budget Excel: pick the sheet and the columns (guessed from the content), choose whether actuals come from the weekly cells, an actuals ledger or the total only, and compare the Excel and imported amounts in the preview. Contacts → Add from Excel adds a crew list with names, roles, phone numbers, emails and rates; a daily rate goes into the budget under the person's department, multiplied by the working days.
AI
2 videos- Episode 111:16
Working with AI: review the schedule, ask the assistant
AI features run on each team member's own key. Have AI review your shooting schedule, read each suggestion with its reason and apply the ones you want; ask the assistant about your project.
- Episode 381:43
How to Get a Gemini API Key (or Claude, OpenAI) and Connect It
How to get a Gemini API key: search Google, create an API key in Google AI Studio and paste it into the Artificial intelligence card in ProductionEngine's Account settings. An Anthropic API key (Claude) or an OpenAI API key connects the same way. The key belongs to your account, is stored encrypted on the server and never shown again; change or remove it any time. Without a key, the breakdown, Suggest schedule and reports still work.
Roles & departments
12 videos- Episode 231:48
Team Roles, Several Roles and Role Preview: Who Sees What?
Give everyone you invite a role by department: Management (Production, Executive producer, Line producer, Accountant, Production assistant), Directing, Camera, Art, Wardrobe, Hair & Makeup, other departments, Lighting · Grip · Sound and Cast. In a cloud project one person can hold several roles: access is the union of the roles, and changing a row of the module table marks the choice as customized. A head of department can also be given the Camera, Lighting and Location details categories. See what each role views and edits and whether it uses a seat, then check the app through that role's eyes with Role preview.
- Episode 241:30
Head of Wardrobe and Wardrobe Assistant: What They See and Do
What the head of wardrobe and the wardrobe assistant see and can change: the Department page, scene headings, adding wardrobe needs, the Wardrobe desk and looks, the schedule and the call sheet. The head edits, the assistant views.
- Episode 251:18
Art Director and Art Assistant: What They See and Do
The art director sees the breakdown, locations and schedule, edits art, wardrobe and makeup elements, manages lookbooks and references, and never sees the budget. The art assistant only views art elements on the Department page.
- Episode 260:54
Head of Hair & Makeup and Assistant: What They See and Do
The head of hair & makeup sees and adds only hair and makeup needs on the Department page and writes makeup notes on looks; the assistant views the same screens. Both view the schedule and the call sheet.
- Episode 271:10
Stunts, VFX, Vehicles, Animals and More: Head of Department Roles
One pair of roles for vehicles, animals, stunts, VFX, special equipment, music and sound: the head of department sees and edits the chosen categories, the department assistant only views them. Both see scene headings, the schedule and the call sheet.
- Episode 281:52
Director of Photography, DIT and Camera Crew: What They See and Edit
The director of photography sees the whole breakdown and edits only the Camera, Lighting and Location details elements; the Department page lists those three categories' needs scene by scene. They read the director's note. They manage the color palette, shot references, shot list and storyboard, and view the schedule, call sheets and locations. The DIT can't change the timecode log but takes every export: Excel, CSV, PDF layouts and the editor's note. The camera crew sees the schedule and the call sheet.
- Episode 291:10
Set Crew on the Phone: Schedule, Call Sheet and Live Status
Lighting, grip, sound and camera crew see only the schedule and the call sheet on their phones: My day, the day's details, the live set status and scene headings. The breakdown, elements, notes and script stay hidden; they can't change anything and don't use a seat.
- Episode 302:06
Directing Team: Director, ADs, Script Supervisor, Director's Note
The seven roles of the directing team. The director edits the breakdown, elements, continuity, script, schedule, call sheet, cast and timecode, and owns the shot list and storyboard. The director (and the project admin) writes the director's note on a scene; the directing team, the director of photography and the timecode and prep assistants read it, while production and departments don't see it. The 1st AD and the 2nd AD have the same rights: they edit everything except the budget, continuity and project settings included. The 2nd 2nd AD has the same rights but only views continuity. The script supervisor runs the continuity breakdown, fixes the breakdown and elements and logs timecode, and only views the schedule and call sheet. The timecode assistant and the prep assistant only log timecode and use no seat. None of them see the budget.
- Episode 311:17
Timecode Take Log on Set: ROLL, CUT and the Timecode Assistant
The timecode assistant edits only the timecode take log, views the breakdown, schedule and call sheet, and doesn't use a seat. Pick the scene, time each take with ROLL and CUT, fill in the description with shot phrases, open a new take and finish the scene. On two-unit days they edit only their own unit's log.
- Episode 321:38
Production Roles: producers, accountant, PA and pay privacy
Management has five roles. Production, the executive producer and the line producer have the same rights: they edit the schedule, call sheets, cast, locations, the budget and contacts, and view the breakdown; project settings belong to the admin. Crew rates only go to members who can see the budget, so only they see the rate chips on Contacts. The accountant edits the budget, timecards and pay, and views contacts, cast, the schedule and call sheets. The production assistant views without changing anything; they don't see the budget or pay (an admin can allow it per person; if only one section is allowed, rates still don't come through), on the call sheet they update only cast call times, and the role doesn't use a seat.
- Episode 330:59
Cast on the Phone: Call Sheet, Pickup Time and Schedule
On the phone, cast members see My day, the call sheet, cast call times and the shooting schedule, and can read sides, the screenplay and documents. They can't change anything and don't use a seat.
- Episode 393:16
How to Import a Camera Log into DaVinci Resolve: good takes & scenes
Take the Timecode log you keep on set into your clips in DaVinci Resolve. In Timecode, log each take's cameras (A, B, C), card (A001) and clip (C003), scene, setup, take, OK / NG / Partial, notes and flags; set the shot size with one tap (Wide, Close-up, Two-shot…) and pick a partial take's circled part from the scene's lines. In the CSV for DaVinci Resolve window (Export menu), drop Resolve's clip list (File > Export Metadata From > Media Pool) into Match file names: the app links each card and clip number to the real camera file name. Import the downloaded CSV in Resolve with File > Import Metadata To > Media Pool (Match using filename on, clip start and end Timecode off). Clips get Scene, Shot, Take, Camera #, Roll Card #, Good Take, Description, Comments (with the circled part), Keywords (with shot sizes) and Lens Type; filter good takes with a Smart Bin, turn on scene bins, and sync multicam angles on the cameras' timecode. For Avid, export an ALE from Resolve; Premiere and Final Cut need a separate plugin or helper tool.
Install
1 video- Episode 350:57
How to Install ProductionEngine on a Mac: DMG, first launch
Download the signed, Apple-notarized Mac version of ProductionEngine from the Download page, drag it to Applications, confirm the macOS prompt on first launch and sign in with the one-time link we email you.
Try it on your own script
Upload your script and the breakdown, schedule and call sheet are ready in minutes. No card required.