Production Engine Guide

This guide is also on the Help page in the engine (top bar, or your name › Help). New to the engine? Take the ten-step click-through tour with screenshots first, then use this guide for the detail.

Getting started

1. An admin invites you. You get an email from noreply@bigsmall.tv with a temporary password. Check junk if it hasn't arrived.
2. Sign in with your email and that password, then choose your own password.
3. You land on your Dashboard. Along the top: Proposals Productions Post Resources + New proposal and your name.

You only see the companies your account is set up for. Everything saves to the job as you go, and the team can open the same job from any computer.

Working on a job together. Under the stage bar, Also here now shows who else has the job open and where (for example "Budget, Gold" or "Presentation, slide 4"); in the presentation editor their name also shows on the slide they're working on. When someone saves, your page picks up their changes within about 20 seconds, without losing yours: if you've changed different things (different slides, options, lines or brief boxes), both sets are kept. You're only asked when you've both changed the very same thing, and then you choose whose version to keep. Two people typing in the same box at the same moment isn't supported, so agree who does what.

Chat and calls

Chat (bottom right on every page) is the team's chat inside the engine. Every job has its own chat: press Chat on the stage bar, so the conversation sits with the budget, deck and crew it's about. Type @ and a name to bring someone in: they follow the chat and get an email (at most once every half hour per chat). New message starts a direct message with one person. A red dot means something new in a chat you follow; you follow a job's chat when you write in it, are mentioned, or press Follow. Start a Google Meet makes a Meet link (on the company's Google Calendar, which needs to be linked on the Calendar page), posts it in the chat and emails everyone following. New messages show within a few seconds.

Shoot calendar

Calendar in the top bar shows every shoot, rig, recce and travel day from every job (possible jobs at proposal stage have a dashed outline), how many crew are booked or pencilled, who said they're free, and your company's own Google Calendar entries (holidays, meetings). Click a day for the detail and Ask crew about this date. Each company has its own Google Calendar: the engine adds the shoot days there with the crew in each event and keeps them up to date (changes made to those events in Google are overwritten), and leaves everything else on the calendar alone.

Dashboard

Your home page. It shows how many of your jobs are at each stage with their latest thumbnails, and a Needs attention list:

• films overdue or due in the next 7 days
• SOWs sent but not signed, and crew bookings waiting for signature
• shoot days in the next 7 days
• clients who opened your presentation or delivery page this week

Switch between Mine and Everyone's to see the whole team. Click Production Engine at the top left to come back here at any time.

How a job moves

Every job goes through four stages. A bar across the top of each job page shows where it is and lets you jump to any part of it.

When the client signs, press Move into production on the bar. The job then moves from the Proposals list to Productions, and later to Post. Each list groups jobs into client folders with a thumbnail per job (the cover of its presentation).

Sharing a job. Press Share on the bar at the top of any job, tick colleagues and add a note if you like. They get an email with a link, the job appears under Mine in their lists marked "Shared with you", and they can open and change every stage, even if the job belongs to the other company. Remove someone from the same box to stop sharing. If someone else saves a job while you have it open, your next save asks whether to load their latest version or keep yours, so nobody's work is overwritten without warning.

Earlier stages never go away. On a job in post, click Proposal or Production on the bar (marked Done) to open the budget, deck, SOW, call sheets, crew bookings or releases as they were left. In any list, Include moved on also shows jobs that have gone on to a later stage. When a job is finished (or dead), press Archive job on the bar: it leaves the lists and the dashboard but nothing is deleted. Find it under Archived in any list, open every stage as before, and Restore from archive if it comes back to life.

Proposal

1 · Company and 2 · Brief

Click + New proposal, pick the company, then fill in the brief. You can paste a Google Doc link and press Import. The doc can stay private: share it (or its whole folder) as a Viewer with the engine's Google address, shown under the link box. If the doc holds several ideas, Claude lists them; tick the ones you want and press Make proposals with Claude to get one proposal per idea, each with the same client and a link back to the doc (Claude builds each in the background in a minute or two; From house packages is instant), or press Use this one here to carry on with one idea. Give the job its server job number and code here: it names the folder on the server, for example 26075_SP_Schonfeld_40th.

3 · Budget

Choose Build with Claude to have Claude read the brief and build three options, Gold, Silver and Bronze, from our own past budgets and rate card, or Build from house packages for the standard recipe. Under The client's brief and our suggestion, set what the client asked for and anything we're suggesting on top (Claude fills these in after you import a Google Doc, or press Find them in the brief): name, what gets filmed, dates, shoot days and travel days. The budget then builds Gold as our suggestion, Silver as the client's brief and Bronze as the client's brief with a leaner team, and the presentation explains the difference. If the brief offers alternatives, such as the client's dates and a longer suggested schedule, Build with Claude shapes the three options around them (for example "Extended: 6 shoot days" and "Client dates: 4 shoot days") with their own dates and shoot days; you can rename an option and change its dates and days above its cost lines. Then check every line: open a line to change crew, kit, days or rates, add custom items, and set the partner discount. Insurance (2%) and production fee (10%) are added for you. Download Excel budget gives the house layout.

Shooting abroad: travel and local crew

Open Travel and local crew at the top of the budget and press Find places from the brief (or add a place). For each city it compares, like for like: local crew with our director and producer travelling (suggested first), local crew and producer directed remotely, and our UK team travelling. Each includes crew fees, travel days, flights and hotels (plus 20%), per diems, visas, carnet and excess baggage. It opens by itself at the top of the budget when the brief names places abroad, with a table comparing every place side by side and the totals. Choose the cabin (economy, premium economy or business) and press Get live fares to price real return flights with at least one hold bag each for the shoot dates, preferring British Airways and full-service airlines. Open What's in it on any option to see every line grouped into crew, kit and expenses, with where each figure comes from (for example "1 person × 2 legs × £540 a leg, plus a 20% buffer") and a Change link that takes you to the box that sets it. Who travels from the UK follows the brief: a single UK director or producer/director travels alone. The planner costs the whole trip as one journey (London → first place → next place → London, with a connecting flight between places) and shows the option you've selected above: click another option to see its days and costs. Travel days are charged at two thirds of the day rate; set each option's travel days next to its shoot days. Choose an option for each place (tick it, or click its figure in the table). Open Change the crew under a place to set how many local camera operators, kit, producers and assistants it needs, who travels from the UK alongside the local crew, and who is in the UK team; set a number to 0 to leave someone out. Then press Add to the budget, or Add all to the budget for every place at once.

4 · Schedule

Shoot days, rig, recce and travel days with dates, call and wrap times and a running order, plus post milestones. Change the first date and use Re-date all days from here to move everything. The schedule feeds the presentation, SOW, call sheets and crew bookings.

Adding budget lines. In an open section, start typing in + Add an item (e.g. "sound kit", "runner", "alexa") and pick from the rate card or our own items: the right rate goes in. Typing a new name into a line's Item box suggests matches too. The engine learns as you go: items you price that aren't on the rate card come up next time, and lines producers keep adding to Claude's budgets (like sound kit) are included in Claude's next builds.

Presentation

Step 5. Save the proposal, then press Write the proposal. In about a minute Claude writes the deck in the company's style from the brief, the three options, the schedule and the SOW, and picks stills from our library. Prices always come from the budget, never from Claude.

Each slide in the editor shows its number (the same as in the PDF, PowerPoint and web page), and the list at the top jumps to any slide. To change more than one slide, use Change the presentation at the top: tell Claude what you want, for example "add a slide for each of the three options after Three ways to make it, with the shoot day by day". Claude can add, remove, reorder and rewrite slides, leaves the rest alone and lists what it changed; anything it drops is kept, switched off. You can also add a slide yourself from the menu next to it, and remove slides you added. The Option in detail slide shows one option's plan with its price from the budget; choose which option on the slide's bar. Redo with a note still rewrites just that one slide.

Anything Claude wasn't sure of appears under Check before sending. When you're happy with a deck, press Mark as a house example: future decks for that company will follow its voice and structure.

Drama from a script

Use Film on the top bar: it lists every film and drama project, and + New film project starts one. (Or choose the production type Drama / film from a script on any Brief.) A drama job has a Script step after the Brief, where everything below lives.

• Upload the script (Final Draft reads best, PDF and Fountain work). You get every scene with its page length in eighths, day or night, the speaking parts and the locations straight away.
• Break down every scene: Claude lists cast (including non-speaking parts), extras, props, wardrobe, make-up, vehicles, stunts, effects and notes for each scene. Click a scene to see its breakdown beside the script.
• Schedule: set pages a day, locations a day, where the nights go and the first shoot day, then Build the schedule. Scenes are grouped by location, ordered to keep each actor's days together, and dated. Move any scene to another day, or a whole day earlier or later. Download it as Excel, or put the shoot days in the job's Schedule step so call sheets and crew checks follow.
• Day out of days: each part's start, work, hold and finish days from the schedule, with a drop and pick-up where there's a long gap.
• Development pack: loglines, a one-pager, synopses, characters, tone and comparables, all drafts to edit.
• Ballpark budget: works before there's a script. Choosing Drama / film on the Brief takes you straight here with the brief filled in. Add supporting documents and links (treatments, research, transcripts, articles, Vimeo or YouTube): Claude reads each document, including scanned pages, and writes a short production summary that the estimate uses. Describe the idea and Claude sizes it at three levels (ambitious, standard, lean), priced from our drama budget template in the usual account layout. Change any figure and it re-prices; Use these numbers in the ballpark on the Schedule tab gives the Standard level the schedule's real days and cast. A ballpark for discussion, not a budget to commit to. Price from chooses the model: Our rates (the house rate card on a lean feature crew, the default) or the reference feature budget. Put these in the Budget step makes them the job's Gold, Silver and Bronze options.
• Teaching it your numbers: admins can Save this budget as a template on any film budget, and every new project can be priced from it. The Film page's How we budget films notes (typical budgets, crew size, shoot days, fees) are read by Claude every time it sizes a project.

• Budget: a full budget, line by line, in our account layout: every role with prep, shoot and wrap weeks and rates, kit, locations, post, fees, contingency, bond and the tax credit. Start it from the schedule (shoot days and the cast from the day out of days), the ballpark, or the template. Open any account to change lines, rates and fringes; lines tied to the schedule move when you change shoot weeks or days, and Update from the schedule brings in a changed schedule. Download it as Excel with live formulas.

Scripts are confidential: they're kept privately with the job and only people who can open the job can see them.

SOW and signing

Step 6. The Statement of Work is drafted from the brief, budget and schedule: scope, tasks, payments, and our 15 standard terms. Choose UK (England and Wales) or US law, and bill in pounds or dollars (dollars follow the daily exchange rate plus 2%). For clients who use their own paperwork there's a version to paste into theirs. Library documents such as our insurance certificate can be attached.

1. Check every section, then Send for signature. You sign for us, and the client gets an email with a link.
2. The client reads it, types their name and title, and signs. Both sides get the signed PDF with a signing certificate.
3. A sent SOW is locked. To change it, use Withdraw and edit and send again.

Production

Post

The top of the Post page shows the job number and the server folder, with a button that copies the path ready to paste on the edit PCs.

Deliverables

• One row per film or cut: film, cut, latest version, due date, status (To do → In edit → With client → Changes → Approved → Delivered) and links.
• Start the list with Draft from the SOW, or Import spreadsheet… from an edit list like the Actis one. Export to Excel gives the same layout back.
• Paste Frame.io, Vimeo or YouTube links on each row. Click ▶ to watch inside the engine.
• Client page… gives the client a private delivery page with films, dates and playable links. Only rows ticked Client appear, and it updates as you change the list.

Timesheets

Budgeted edit time shows now (edit days × 10 hours). Actual hours per editor, with alerts at 75%, 90% and 100%, start once the server is set up to report them.

Editor briefs, QC and the post report

Under Editor briefs, QC & report: write and email editor briefs, see QC results, cut logs and live stream reports from the shoot, and produce the post report (picture lock, grade and LUTs, dub, delivery, archive) as a PDF.

Resources

Folders for our company policies, insurance, health and safety documents, and stills for decks. Click a folder to open it; one search box finds documents and stills together. Admins get an email before anything expires or is due for review.

Crew comes from our crew Google Sheet. Open a role (Camera Operator, Sound Recordist, Editor…) or use the Role, Place and Name or kit boxes: people based in the place you choose come first, then people who also cover it. Tap a phone number or email to get in touch. Day rates and invoices are shown to admins only. To add or change someone, edit the sheet (the Crew tab, or the old Contacts tab: new names and missing details there are copied into Crew every morning). The engine picks changes up within a few hours, or straight away when an admin presses Read the sheet now. Duplicates are merged at the same time: the same name in any mix of capitals and spaces ("JOE WILCOX" and "Joe Wilcox"), or the same email or phone with the same surname, become one entry with everyone's details kept. Near-misses such as "Chris Holt" and "Christopher Holt" are listed for an admin to check, not merged.

Clients has a page for every client: their details, other names they go by on briefs (e.g. "Schonfeld Strategic Advisors"), contacts and notes; every job for them with its stage, shoot date and the three budget options; and their own stills, which you can add from the page (Claude uses them first in that client's presentations, never in anyone else's). Jobs and stills are found by the client's name and other names; a job with a different name can be added to a client from the page. Every client name already used on a job or on stills gets a page automatically; admins can merge two that are the same client. The search box at the top of Resources finds clients too.

Crew has three parts. People: roles on the left, search by name, kit or place, and a card for everyone showing whether they're on our freelancer list, if they have a showreel, and if they've been asked a lot this week. Click someone for their contact details, showreel and portfolio (Vimeo and YouTube play in the engine), and every availability check they've answered. Add a showreel or portfolio link in the crew sheet's Showreel column, or upload a PDF or picture (up to 4 MB) on their profile; freelancers can add their own when they join.

Send a check asks people about dates without needing a job: choose the role and place, write a short summary, add the dates (and the job if there is one), then Find people. The engine ticks the best people first (based there, say yes most, not asked recently) and leaves out anyone who has already had this week's limit of checks (2 a week unless an admin changes it). Messages go by WhatsApp to people who chose it (with Yes / No buttons) and by text to everyone else; big lists are sent in the background. Replies show on the right as they arrive; pencil, say not needed, or say the production is off from there. When someone says yes to a pencil they're emailed a diary hold (and the initial PO if there's a job).

Diary is the record: who has joined our freelancer list and when, how they want to be messaged, who opted out, and every check with who said yes or no, when, and their exact reply. Invite people sends anyone on the crew sheet a link to a short page where they join, choose WhatsApp or text, and add their showreel or portfolio. You choose how the invite goes: by email and text (whichever they have), email only or text only. If you work for both companies you also choose who it's from: @Speed, Big Small TV, or both. The joining page names only that company, and each person's card shows which company they have an agreement with. To add the other company, use Invite for another company on their card. Freelancers can also set up a crew diary at proposals…/crew: they sign in with a code texted to their mobile, see every check and pencil from us, and mark days they're busy. You see who has one and their busy days (never why), and people busy on your dates aren't suggested. It's optional: when they join they choose a crew diary (recommended) or just messages, and if they choose messages we don't ask again. In Your calendar they can add their Crew Engine dates to Google, Apple or Outlook calendar, and connect their own calendar so the days they're busy there count as busy here (we only keep the dates, never what's in the diary). Claude's review reads the last two months and points out who's being asked too often, who never replies and roles that look thin. Admins set the weekly limit and the WhatsApp sender under WhatsApp and limits. Anyone can reply STOP to leave. The joining wording is a draft for legal review.

To add stills, open Stills for decks, pick or name a folder and press + Add stills. Claude looks at each one and notes what's in it, so the presentation writer can choose stills that fit each slide. Use real frames from our own work. Mark anything AI-made. To add lots at once, choose many pictures, use + Add a whole folder (sub-folders become folders here), drag pictures or a folder onto the page, paste a copied picture or screenshot (Cmd+V) into an open folder, or open Import a Google Drive folder and paste a folder link (share it with the engine's Google address first). Tick The client's own stills and type the client's name for stills a client sends us: Claude only uses them in that client's presentations. Inside a folder, tick stills (or Select all) to Move them to another folder or a new one, Remove from this folder (they go to Unsorted) or Delete them. Admins can change any still for their companies; everyone else can change the stills they added. Rename folder renames a folder and the folders inside it. A folder you drag onto Resources, or choose with Add a whole folder, keeps its own name (inside an open folder it becomes a sub-folder).

The line at the top of a folder says whose stills they are. Mark as a client's stills makes the whole folder a client's own (type the client's name as it is on their briefs): Claude then uses them first in that client's decks, and never in anyone else's. Make them general stills undoes it. To pull a few general pictures out of a client folder into a pitch folder, tick them and Move them into a general folder (or a new one): they stop being the client's. The menu next to Move sets which company's decks can use them (@Speed only, Big Small only, or both).

AI images

When no still fits a frame, open the still picker and use Make an AI image. Claude checks every prompt first: we never make likenesses of real people or use real brands' logos. Finished images are labelled "AI image" on the slide.

• Request (default) uses our Higgsfield website credits. The image appears on the slide after the next queue run.
• Instant, when switched on, uses the Higgsfield API and shows the price first.

Each person has a monthly allowance, shown in the picker. Ask an admin if you need more.

Cut Logger and Conflux

Cut Logger (on the ingest Mac and company MacBooks) logs ATEM cuts, offloads camera cards with checksums, and runs the Post check. Pick the job in its Offload tab: cards go into <Job folder>/Rushes/CAM_A/A001, offload reports and cut logs appear on the job, and exported EDLs and XMLs are copied into the job's XMLs folder.

Conflux (studio.conflux.tv), our streaming platform, files its live stream reports under the same job. Pick the job in Conflux under Show reports, or let Cut Logger set it when logging starts.

Your account

Click your name at the top right:

• Dashboard: back to your home page.
• My details: change the name shown on your documents, or your password (we email you a code).
• Sign out.

Your top bar. Choose which buttons you see along the top (Proposals, Productions, Post, Calendar, Crew, Resources, Help, New proposal) from your name menu, Top bar buttons. It's saved with your account, so it follows you to any computer.

For admins

Under Users and settings in the name menu:

• Invite someone with name, email and access: locked to one company, choosing between companies, company admin, or admin. Change, resend or switch people off from the list.
• Next server job number, to keep the engine in step with the Synology folders.
• Devices: keys for Cut Logger, Conflux and the QC tool.
• House style for decks: notes Claude follows for each company, and the approved example decks.
• AI images this month: each person's allowance and what has been used.
• Crew list and invoices: the link to the crew sheet, and reading crew invoices. Upload invoices (or drop them in the invoices Drive folder), check what Claude read, say who each is from (or add them as someone new) and press Add to the sheet. Their latest day rate and kit then show on the sheet. Bank details are never read or kept.

Admins also add and replace documents in Resources, and can make a rebranded version of a policy for another company.

Company admins

A company admin looks after one company, for example @Speed. They invite and manage that company's people (and can make other admins for it), and run its house style, documents, device keys and AI image allowances. They don't see the other company, people who work across both companies, the server job number sequence or the company-wide AI limits: those stay with the full admins.

Good to know

• Claude drafts; people decide. Check budgets, decks, SOWs, call sheets and method statements before they go anywhere.
• Contracts, POs and RAMS are drafts until a person who can approve them has read them.
• Private links (presentations, delivery pages, signing pages) are hidden from search engines. Don't post them publicly.
• Prices on any client document always come from the budget, ex VAT.
• Something not working, or an idea? Tell Steve.