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Hi! You are watching an overview of TheTakes. It is a movie production management system
that helps you control preproduction and production stages, manage your crew,
and shoot films/TV projects quicker and cheaper. As any project is stored in a "cloud", it is accessible
for all crew members. There is nothing to install. Each member has its own access rights for
all project data including call sheets, and real-time shooting/location info.
The first thing to do with TheTakes is to upload a screenplay.
You can upload Microsoft Word, Final Draft, and ?eltx files.
System automatically recognizes scenes, characters, and locations right after that.
That’s how a part of project info is automatically displayed in the system.
You can see a scene list
with relevant data including breakdown elements.
It’s easy to find your bearings here.
Every scene has a completion status indicator. When you switch to screenplay,
you see summarized data about all scenes. Thus, you can always see general info
about the whole screenplay completion.
You can also upload files for every scene, be it videos,
photos, docs, audio files… you name it.
There are various page views, since different users have different purposes.
For example, there is a screenplay view.
A screenplay/breakdown sheet view
(the most detailed one).
And a table view for those who need just quick facts.
Searching is very easy here.
Suppose that I want to find all scenes with a character named Roman.
I just enter his name in a search string
and scenes featuring the character are displayed automatically.
Similarly, one can find any elements, locations etc.
Let’s go to breakdown page.
How our system breaks down a screenplay? Imagine yourself taking color felt-tip pens and
highlighting screenplay elements to create different types of element lists
for different departments. It is very convenient to do this using TheTakes.
You read the screenplay scene by scene and just highlight needed phrases in the text
to add an element. I highlight words "military uniforms"
in a screenplay text in this example.
I set this element as a "Costume".
Then I pick a character who wears the costume.
Now I click "Create".
And successfully create the element.
Unlike standard paper-based approach,
the system lets me create not only an element, but also a task. Firstly, costume department can
propose different costume versions
that you can view and approve right in the system.
Secondly, after you schedule the scene shooting, they’ll know when the costume
should be ready. This way TheTakes helps all the crew members collaborate to complete its tasks.
Autobinding function is an important breakdown feature. It allows you to choose conditions for
automatized adding elements to a scene. For example, you can automatically add plaster bandage
to scenes 10-20, where a character named Alex is featured in a Hospital location.
The system will find right scenes and add the element you need for you.
Next system part is related to shots processing.
Here you walk through scenes and devise your shooting plan.
Left menu contains a list of scene shots with uploaded storyboard images.
You can see that a breakdown element list for this scene is on the right.
You can set an individual location for every shot that differs from scene-wide location.
You can select breakdown elements included in any shot.
For example, if a costly actor is not supposed to be featured in a shot, you can indicate this
and reschedule the shot for another day provided that it would save more costs.
You can set one or more cameras on a timeline (e. g. if you produce a TV show).
For every camera you can
set plan, camera angle
movement, parameters of lenses, character turn,
and many more additional settings.
Here you can also run Animatics player
and preview all storyboards along with their running times.
It is quite handy when you, say, is about to create ads or music clips.
Thus, you may show your future clip to your customer before it was actually shot.
Next system component has to do with resources,
characters, actors, sets, locations, and all other breakdown elements.
Required statistics is precalculated for all elements. You’ll know how many
scenes, shots, locations, and shooting days was set for a character as well as total running time of related scenes.
Let’s open an actor’s page.
You can assign casting for every character.
You’ll be able to upload photos/videos and approve actors’ roles right in the system.
Every actor has an availability calendar, and you can enter days and hours
when they are unavailable to take part in shooting. The system will consider this when scheduling.
Each actor like any other system element has many parameters
you can set ranging from clothing size to contract peculiarities.
You can easily add own characteristics
by choosing one of the predefined types such as Text, Number,
List, Checkbox, Phone, and Calendar.
Added characteristic will also be
accessible to all other actors.
Now we are going to move to the next section called “Sets and Locations”.
It largely resembles actors section.
Here you can find all statistics, next shooting date for every set, and its location casting.
Set card includes an availability calendar, too, like that of all other elements.
Working with maps is another important TheTakes feature.
You can choose shooting locations directly on Google Maps.
And the system will automatically find
all nearby infrastructure including parking lots, restaurants,
hospitals and airports. You’ll be able to edit this list and
freely add required markers.
As the system knows where this place is located, it can automatically collect data
for a fortnight weather report.
Weather information is updated every 3 hours each day. It is very detailed with all its precipitation, wind and other data.
And, of course, sunrise and sunset times are also automatically collected.
Let’s return to the set list.
As with a screenplay, searching is easy here.
One starts entering an element name and sees only that element in the list.
There’s also a few view options here.
Table view is very handy for thorough processing of elements, since you can setup the table as you like.
Think of sorting by any field…
Imagine really friendly table settings…
Ok. Now let’s visit a "Costumes" page.
It looks like the previous ones. You can also add and approve different variants here.
You can view and print report for every resource type
using a resource list or each resource with the whole list of required characteristics.
Any report can be shared via unique link and password-protected.
You can also add a watermark.
And it will be displayed on every report page.
Default watermark text is your name, but you can change it.
Let’s pass on to scheduling.
Scheduling is one of the most important system sections. TheTakes offers optimal production board variant automatically.
You select scenes to be included in a production board.
You set shooting start date, parameters, choose a workday calendar.
You select a crew to take part in this production board.
You can also fine-tune automatic scheduling settings.
Press a “Schedule” button...
And the system will offer you a plan automatically.
It collects all scenes on one location together, combines actors with regard to their contract types and cost.
It also factors in availability calendars, actors, locations and other resources
as well as many other parameters you can manage.
Of course, thanks to full control over complete production board you can move strips as you like.
Should any problems or conflicts arise, TheTakes will alert about them and help to resolve them.
Production board can be saved as a PDF file or printed.
Let’s open a shooting shift page.
Here you control a specific shooting day.
You can change scenes, add files, set a crew, and select its time.
Let’s take character’s make-up time as an example.
You see that actor’s call time was automatically changed.
Call sheet is generated automatically.
You can print and save many versions of it including PDF.
It’s very simple to send a message to the whole crew.
Just click “Send”, and every crew member will get its own call time.
While on a movie set, you can report about your shooting.
Add info about takes you have shot.
Indicate their duration, selection statuses etc.
You can add a report sheet for every single shot.
And an overall daily production report in the end of a shooting day.
Information will be stored in the system as long as you need.
Finally, let’s go to user page.
Every user has a number of parameters you can set.
Feel free to add photos and any other documents.
The system gives ability to fine-tune access rights.
You can allow viewing and editing, or deny access to each section.
Every user can access the system.
When you create a new user, they receive an invite by e-mail.
And all your team starts using TheTakes every day.
It was an overview of TheTakes project management system. I’ve just brushed over its features.
Yet, there are many more of them, in fact. Please see videos about specific system sections to get more detailed information.