Scheduling Software for Small Production Company

[Kevin Wild]

Just wondering what people are using out there to schedule rooms and crew for a small production company. We have 4 edit suites, a full RED package, a SONY EX package and 5 people total.

We've been using Entourage, but as we grow, it fills up too quickly and doesn't seem flexible enough. I don't think we need ScheduleAll or Farmer's Wife...but something that is lighter.

Any ideas or advice?

Thanks!

Kevin

 

[Mark L. Pederson]

Just wondering what people are using out there to schedule rooms and crew for a small production company. We have 4 edit suites, a full RED package, a SONY EX package and 5 people total.

We've been using Entourage, but as we grow, it fills up too quickly and doesn't seem flexible enough. I don't think we need ScheduleAll or Farmer's Wife...but something that is lighter.

Any ideas or advice?

Thanks!

Kevin

Most bang for you buck is StudioSuite which is built on Filemaker so it can be easily customized.

http://www.studiosuite.com/index.php?p=screenshots

 

[Mark Phelan]

Back in 1987, I purchased my first Mac, an SE to keep track of clients using this database program called Filemaker 4, first program I ever used and I'm still using it. Some things, never change.

 

[Michael McLaughlin]

Scheduall...

Scheduall...

does have smaller boutique shop versions, they are always cagey on exact figurations till ya get them out to the studio. But once there, the guys seemed willing to work on price and package items.

Tell them what you need and don't and hash out a compromise. But it will be a bit more then the Studio Suite Mark mentioned.

I looked at both programs for a company I worked for. Really liked the package that Scheduall had put together for a smaller operation.

In the end though my boss decided to stay with the Filemaker program he had cobbled together himself... to save money.

Funny thing was; it always took so much time to get things right and entered correctly, it never saved us anything. IF anything it cost us so much more in lost revenue and time... time and money that could be spent doing more productive stuff.

 

[Kevin Wild]

Thanks for the advice, Guys. What range does the Studio Suite mentioned fall into? $10k? $20k? I'm sure it depends on modules, but wondering what the approximate cost would be. I couldn't find a single review or price anywhere on the tubes.

Kevin

 

[Mark L. Pederson]

Thanks for the advice, Guys. What range does the Studio Suite mentioned fall into? $10k? $20k? I'm sure it depends on modules, but wondering what the approximate cost would be. I couldn't find a single review or price anywhere on the tubes.

Kevin

Under $5K with 5 clients. Customizations are billed by the hour - and actually VERY reasonable.

 

[Kevin Wild]

Interesting...I do like the price. It looks very usable, though not a little dated looking. I guess that's a function of being Filemaker-based. Thanks for the info, Mark. I'm going to look into it more.

 

[Chris Reynolds]

We use Farmers Wife which we are incredibly happy with. It is fast and compatible between OSX, Windows, Linux and even has an Iphone app. They update the software regularly and the quoting, logging off and reports are great. When we first bought it we need to get all the reports and numbers into MYOB. So Farmers Wife just wrote a module for us to do that. I couldn't recommend this software high enough.

http://www.farmerswife.com/

Cheers, Chris

 

[Darren_P]

We have started using an app called 'FoxOMS'. http://www.foxoms.com. We like its simple layout and it does everything we need, like booking our rooms and our cameras and gives us a neat project manager as well.

We considered studio suite but the costs just started adding up really quickly once you start adding the additional filemaker licences for each additional user

 

[Brian Ferguson]

I have a client, People Productions in Boulder, CO. I have done a few shoots with them over the years. On the last job the producer showed me an application that they used to run their company. I was amazed at how well thought out it was, mainly in the project management category. I didn't know if they were ready to let others have it yet, but I went to their web site and checked and it looks like they are. Well worth taking a look at.

http://www.peopleproductions.com/web/applications.php