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Koala call sheets from gorilla4/9/2023 In short, they care about information security and want to make sure each user is given the right permissions. To explain this design choice, the Yamdu team put forth its Access Right Management philosophy. Instead, you must either type in the contact’s information by hand or import a contact Vcard. There is no option to import contacts in mass. During my conversation with the Yamdu team, we explored several import and export features that would improve the overall quality of life for users. There seems to be room for improvements here though. For this, you need to edit scenes from a different menu. Unfortunately, this method only allows you to include basic information and not the full department notes breakdown. However, you can also create scenes from within the call sheet builder and save them to the database, giving Yamdu a slight advantage. There is no alternative to import an existing breakdown. Users are supposed to import a script and to create a scene breakdown. Like Studiobinder, Yamdu is designed to be more than just a call sheet builder. Given how tech-savvy Assistant Directors have a habit of building custom tools around Excel and Google Sheets (using Vba, Php, or AppScripts), I would have loved to see an “Html block” supporting everything and anything. This is something that has long been possible with website builders, but in Yamdu’s case, the possibilities seem very limited. I also noticed that Yamdu allows you to view and edit text fields in Html format. Rather than disconnecting an entire module from the breakdown and/or schedule, I hope that the builder will eventually allow users to make custom edits on a cell-basis. The ability to convert modules to text fields is a fantastic idea, yet you can’t help but think that it could be pushed further. However, I’m confident that this will be fixed in due time. Doing minutiae work within the text field editor, or adding breaks felt tricky at times. The specific notes I had back in 2020 have been addressed but some of the newer features now need to be patched as well. However, there is no option to add a scene later on, and you are instead forced to type the details manually.Īlthough many areas have been improved since my original review, there are still a few interface issues that can make it difficult to edit specific elements within a module.Īs with any software, there is an expected learning curve and it’s possible that the difficulties I ran into would disappear once the user has spent more time within the builder. When you create a call sheet, you can import your scenes from an existing schedule. I found it strange to omit a basic feature such as this. As an Assistant Director, I made use of this very often (to request talent to check-in with a specific crew member, to remind the AD Team of a hard-out, etc…). The only alternative to this issue is to create a “general note” along the lines of “ALL CALL PUSHED BY x”. You cannot set the same time for a whole department or push/pull all the call times. It’s possible that there is a liability issue preventing this feature from existing (holding an accurate record of ERs throughout the country would be a time-consuming task), but I believe that with the appropriate disclaimer, this should be available.Ĭall times have to be set manually. However, if we want to make sure that future generations of ADs will have the best possible tools available at their fingertips, it is important to provide healthy feedback for the available options.Īlthough the location suggestions make it easy to add an emergency room under the “nearest hospital” field, I would have like to see some automation there. This is the one fact that I hope anyone would prefer to retain over any criticism expressed in this review. Today, there is enough Call Sheet software on the market to warrant this comparative review to even exist. As an Assistant Director, I thoroughly enjoyed creating my own templates, drawing inspiration from various Excel files made available online.įrom one set to another, I discovered that most Key 2nd ADs were very opinionated about their call sheets and that overall, the trend was of conservatism.Īlthough innovations like the Casper template showed the potential for automation within a call sheet and in conjunction with other documents such as stripboards, production reports, exhibit Gs and cost reports, most ADs preferred to retain control over their template rather than trusting a machine to “check” things for them. I have a long-standing fondness for Call Sheets.
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