For directors of photography

The schedule flips.
Your prep reorganises with it.

Built by a working DP. Open to any DP in prep.

The schedule changes. Then it changes again.

Every time, you spend hours transferring your prep from the old schedule to the new one. Notes on a scene that moved. An equipment list built for the old order. A gaffer working from the wrong one. On a bad one it takes a day.

You have more important things to do and deeper conversations to have. Instead you are stuck copying and pasting your old work.

The Script

Start with the script.
Mark it as you read.

A lighting instinct on this scene, a lens idea on that one. Every mark sticks to the line you put it on, and stays there when the schedule moves that scene.

Type it, draw it, or put a reference on the scene.

Script · Broken Coast

INT. PACIFIC VIEW DINER — BOOTH — DAY

Nora sits alone, a coffee going cold in front of her. A MAN slides into the opposite seat. She doesn’t know him.

MAN

You’re a hard woman to find.

He sets an envelope on the table. Doesn’t let go of it.

NORA

Then you should’ve stopped looking.

Something in her face doesn’t match the line.

Diner · window

Hunch

Window light only for her side of the booth. Let him stay in the shade of it until the envelope lands.

The Weave

References that
know where they go.

Every reference on one canvas instead of four folders and a camera roll. Tag them by time of day, location or mood, then tick the tags to filter. Put one on a scene and it reaches the crew who need it.

Tags stack. Ticking two shows only what carries both.

Weave · filter by tag

Tags

Day5
Interior7
Exterior6
Night5
Dusk1
Dawn1
Diner3
Warehouse2
Mood6

15 referencesDay · 5 of 15Day + interior · 4 of 15

Diner · tungstenDiner · boothDiner · windowSoft windowParking lotNight · extMagic hourFirelightHeadlights

The Loom

The schedule drops.
Your scenes line up.

The AD sends the schedule and your scenes line up against it, now carrying their days and locations. Re-sort in a click between the order the schedule wants and the order it was written. When the schedule moves, it re-sorts itself and everything you attached stays put.

Movie Magic export, CSV, or pasted stripboard text.

Loom · Broken Coast
15 scenes · 4 shoot daysShoot dayAs written
Shoot Day 1Mon 14 Sep
1INT. PACIFIC VIEW DINER. BOOTH. DAY6 refs
2INT. PACIFIC VIEW DINER. COUNTER. DAY3 refs
14EXT. DINER. PARKING LOT. DAY2 refs
Shoot Day 2Tue 15 Sep
7INT. WAREHOUSE. NIGHT4 refs
8EXT. COAST ROAD. NIGHT5 refs

The Thread

One scene.
All of it.

Open a scene and it is all in one place. The pages, the references, the gear, the note you made at two in the morning. It is where the scene gets clear in your head.

Stills, notes, setups, tech. Marked up by hand or typed.

Thread · scene 1
1DINT. PACIFIC VIEW DINER. BOOTH. DAY
Shoot Day 1Call 06:302 4/8 pages
Diner · windowTungstenBoothSoft window
40MMT2STATICWINDOW KEYNEG FILL2 SETUPS

Note · recce

The window faces east, so the booth is only right before eleven. Shoot her coverage first. If we slip past noon we lose the falloff and it will not cut.

The Brief

A link
for every department.

One prep becomes a link for each department. Your gaffer opens lighting and grip. Your first AC opens lenses and camera. Nobody logs in, nobody wades through another department’s notes, and when you change something the link flags what is new.

Live link or PDF. The link is still correct after you send it.

headroom.pro/brief/broken-coast-gaffer
GAFFER1ST ACKEY GRIPPRODUCERDIRECTOR
Live · 2 changes since you opened it
1DINT. PACIFIC VIEW DINER. BOOTH. DAY

Lighting

KeyWindow, east facing. Right before eleven, not after.
FillNeg on the booth side. Keep him in the shade of it.
PracticalsCounter tungsten stays on, dimmed to 60.

Grip

Rigging4x4 floppy camera left for the neg.
FlagsTop chop off the window to hold the ceiling.

Lens, camera gear and schedule flags are on this scene and hidden from this role

Your script is never fed to an AI model. Not for breakdown, not for tagging, not for anything. There is no model in the loop, because I never put one there.

I don't train anything on your work, I don't sell it, and there are no ads.

You decide which department sees which part of your prep. Every share link can be revoked, and you can set one to expire.

I built this for my own prep, because nothing else did what I needed. I was pulling my hair out every time the AD sent me a new schedule.

Nothing is priced yet. If that ever changes, it changes on your next show, not the one you are in the middle of.

Whatever it costs when you start a show is what it costs until you wrap, and right now that is nothing.

This is what prep looks like when you're not fighting the schedule. You're thinking with your material instead of managing it. The references aren't scattered across three apps and a WhatsApp thread. You're not the relay between departments.

When your prep is clear, the decisions come from instinct because the work made them obvious. The story becomes part of you.

That's the clarity to become.

Headroom.

In prep on something? Come try it.

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