Managing a 3-Day Shoot with an App I Built Overnight

In addition to the Subtitle Editor app I recently wrote about, I also experimented with creating a production manager app to help a team capture event coverage.

I was recently asked to help out with producing and directing video production coverage for a three-day event. To help me track what had been shot, what was left to do, what was backed up, and to quickly report on our status, I created this app specifically for the job. 

It serves as a quick, visually simple guide to the project's progress.

Its features:

Dashboard Page

• Quickly and visually track the project's overall progress.

• Daily and overall completion rates

• Individual team member workloads

Task List Page

• Create tasks (scenes/events) from a range of presets

• Toggle progress settings for each task

• View tasks filtered by status

Back-up Page

• Confirm each task's footage has been backed up in at least two places.

Master Progress Page

• View important details for each task in a condensed list.

• View their colour-coded completion and backup statuses.

• Export the list as an Excel or PDF file to send to stakeholders or producers for daily progress checks.

Calendar Page

• View all tasks in a calendar view.

• Export the calendar for stakeholders and crew members.

• Each calendar task block is colour-coded and changes colour to reflect the task's current status (e.g., yellow for 'in progress').

• Click on a task block to view further details.

Settings Page

• Export project

• Import project

• Reset all data

• Change crew names

The advantage of creating this app over using existing software? It’s completely free and was tailor-made for the job at hand.

Moving forward, I plan to develop it into a more multi-purpose and adaptable production manager app to share with other teams, along with creating a post-production version.

After that? Who knows! But anything feels more possible these days. I do plan to create more complex, time-saving tools by using API keys to further unlock the functionality of AI and build powerful, AI-driven workflow solutions.