Pre-production system
One file, from first draft
to the call sheet.
Slate OS runs the whole pre-production chain inside a single project — script, breakdown, storyboards, schedule, call sheets. Nothing gets retyped between departments, and every seat sees the same production at the same time.
Pre-production breaks at the handoffs
The retype
Scene numbers get typed into the script, again into the breakdown, again into the schedule, again onto the call sheet. Four chances for the set to be looking at the wrong number.
The drift
Boards are drawn against draft three. The unit shows up and shoots draft five. Nobody notices until the edit.
The rebuild
Every shoot day the call sheet gets built from nothing — cast, times, location, hospital — because it lives in a document instead of in the production.
Slate OS keeps one record. The breakdown comes out of the script, the schedule is built from the breakdown, and the call sheet is assembled from the day — with the cast offered from the characters your script already contains.
Walk the pipeline
Every panel below is drawn by the application itself, from the same fields it stores. Switch the script between screenplay and stage play and watch the page re-set.
Real US Letter pages with true 55-line breaks. Tab cycles the element under the caret; the same engine draws the page, the thumbnail and the PDF.
What's in the box
Screenwriting
A writing surface that formats as you type — Tab cycles scene, action, character, parenthetical, dialogue, transition. Real US Letter pages with true 55-line breaks, one page at a time or continuous, with a thumbnail rail to navigate a long draft.
Screenplay or stage play
Switch the whole document between screenplay and Dramatists Guild stage play margins. The same text, re-set to the other standard — pages, thumbnails and exports all follow.
Automatic breakdown
Turn a draft into numbered shots with type, angle, movement, gear and duration already suggested. Drag to reorder; the numbering keeps up.
Storyboards from sketches
Draw a rough frame in the browser and generate a finished board that keeps your composition, or generate straight from the shot description when there's no time to draw.
Scheduling and on-set tracking
Group shots into production days, or let the schedule be drafted for you. On the day, tick shots off and leave notes against them so the unit can see where it actually is.
Call sheets that assemble themselves
Each production day builds a call sheet: call times, location and parking, weather and sunset, nearest hospital, safety notes, and cast and crew with individual calls. Export the PDF, email it to everyone on it, or push the day to Google Calendar.
Staged readings
Hear the draft before you shoot it. Distinct voices per character produce a table read from the script, and per-shot voiceover turns the boards into an animatic.
Live for the whole unit
Projects update in real time for everyone in them — no saving, no sending versions around. Invite by link, see each other's cursors, and assign characters to the people playing them.
Built to the standard
A tool that invents its own formatting is a tool you have to undo later. Slate OS lays out to the conventions a reader already expects.
- Paper
- US Letter, 1in margins
- Type
- 12pt Courier, 6 lines per inch
- Page
- 55 lines — the industry page
- Formats
- Screenplay and stage play
- Alignment
- Left, centre, right per paragraph
- Script
- PDF and DOCX
- Storyboard
- PDF contact sheet
- Shot list
- CSV
- Schedule
- CSV
- Call sheet
- PDF, email, calendar
The same layout engine draws the editor, the page view, the thumbnails and the exported file — so what you send out is what you were looking at.
Assistance where the work is mechanical
The parts of pre-production that are transcription rather than judgement.
Script to shots
Reads a draft and returns numbered shots with coverage already suggested.
Sketch to board
Keeps the composition you drew and renders it as a finished frame.
Draft schedule
Groups shots into production days by location and setup.
Table read
Gives each character a distinct voice so you can hear the draft.
Everything it produces is a starting point you edit in place. Nothing is generated behind your back, and nothing is locked.
Who it's for
Film programs
A class can run a whole production in one place, and an instructor can see the state of every unit without collecting files.
Student and indie units
Small crews wearing several hats each. The pipeline does the paperwork that a production office would otherwise do.
Theatre departments
Stage play format, character assignment and staged readings, with the same scheduling and call sheets for tech and performance days.
Start with a blank page.
Create a project, write the first scene, and the rest of the pipeline is already waiting for it.