Shooting Scheduling, Episodic Production, Call Sheets, Centralized Workspace
Das Internat
Kojoten Filmproduktion explains how they saved time by automating production processes on Das Internat with Pantaflix Studios and Joyn.
Greenlit for a fourth season of Das Internat, Stefanie Gödicke (Producer and Managing Director of Kojoten Filmproduktion) and Miriam Baitinger (Production Assistant) spoke to us about the great success Yamdu has brought to the service production.
Key takeaway
"Yamdu saves work in many, many small areas, which adds up to several hours of time saved per day. If you calculate that for several team members, it adds up."
Stefanie Gödicke Producer and Managing Director at Kojoten Filmproduktion
Can you start off by sharing your general framework with us?
Stefanie Gödicke (SG): With pleasure. Das Internat is now entering its 4th season and we are once again the service producer for Pantaflix Studios, commissioned by the German OTT, Joyn. We have 16 or 24 episodes per season and about six weeks for filming. So it's a challenging schedule.
Your company has been around for a few years and Yamdu wasn't in use at the beginning. How did you work before?
Miriam Baitinger (MB): We always had a mix of existing software, such as Fuzzlecheck, and Google Drive. And above all, of course, a lot of Excel and many email exchanges. But, we quickly realized that this wasn’t ideal and that it cost us alot of time because too much data had to be transferred and adapted manually. And especially with a series like this, where things are constantly changing by the hour, it's quite time-consuming and also prone to errors. It was a colleague that had recommended Yamdu to us, and we tried it out together with our production manager. And from there, Yamdu was set, in this case from the second season of Das Internat.
So how did the workflow with Yamdu start?
SG: In the beginning, we only had to fix a small problem. The scripts were written in Word, so we first had to make a few adjustments to conform to the industry standard and save a PDF that Yamdu could import. From there, it was easy. Yamdu recognized the characters, motifs, and scenes correctly, and everything filled in automatically and our team was able to start pre-production right away.
MB: It was also good that our production manager was very quickly convinced of the shooting schedule. It was a critical moment as everything depends on the shooting schedule, and we were worried that we would end up with a mix of tools again. Of course you have to adjust here and there when you're so used to how other softwares operate. So we were sweating a bit for the first few days. But that's probably always the case. The shooting schedule worked out really well and convinced our production manager. You can change the color of the strips, move them around, create shooting days and run through scenarios, just like anywhere else - but only in the structured world of Yamdu. In addition, you immediately have the context and links to all other areas, such as the script, casting, or sets and locations. It’s great.
SG: Maybe it's also important to mention that we used Yamdu's series function, and were able to filter by episodes quite easily. That’s really helpful, especially when there are 24 episodes to keep track of. Both in the shooting schedule and in the other areas.
MB: Exactly. What convinced me above all is that you immediately had your day-out-of-days for everything. There are countless filter options like: by episodes, by scenes, by shooting sequence, by dates. Whether in Yamdu itself or as a PDF or Excel export. Even departments that didn't make full use of their own Yamdu functions, such as costume design, quickly exported their own overviews when there was a new shooting schedule.
SG: And Yamdu also pointed this out to them independently. Our recording manager liked that, too. Saves tons of emails.
MB: Everything is very, very convenient. You have all the information bundled and centrally accessible. Including special tools. Yamdu is a kind of Google Drive for film. It’s amazing.
Did you also create the daily call sheets from the shooting schedule?
MB: Yes, that was mainly my job. I think the options that Yamdu offers are great and extensive. And everything looks like something right away. And a lot of data, like scenes, characters and locations are already pre-filled. It's amazing. You just have to make sure that you coordinate well with the team. If several people are given permission to edit, it can be that two people change something at the same time, then it depends on who saved it last. It would be cool to see when someone is currently working on the disposals and blocks it in the meantime.
We are happy to take that as a suggestion. Thanks!
SG: When we sent out the call sheets, we weren't sure if it would end up as spam. So we later generated them in Yamdu because it was so quick and easy. Then saved it as a PDF and sent it out by email.
MB: Yes, although sending and tracking from Yamdu is actually already great. We'll have to take another look at that.
SG: Sometimes you just want to keep your usual workflow. But that's not a problem in the end, since Yamdu actually always offers quite a lot of flexibility.
Then would you say that Yamdu saves you time?
MB: Absolutely!
SG: Definitely. Yamdu saves work in many, many small areas, which adds up to several hours of time saved per day. If you calculate that for several team members, it adds up. One less email here, no need to update a list there. The mere fact that you don't have to transfer data and Yamdu does it in real time makes the work easier.
Does that mean that Yamdu remains your partner on productions?
MB: Yes. Structured production data, user-friendly special tools - all combined with the cast and crew in one place. When I'm dealing with other film software, it feels like it's from the 1990s. Yamdu brought all that into the 2020s.
SG: It has to be said that Miriam is now using Yamdu for other projects as well.
MB: That's Rright, recently for a large advertising project with nine days of shooting. We were able to use even more functions there. For example, the camera and director wanted to try out the shotlist function and were very impressed. So we're discovering more and more features through our projects. And it's fun to see how Yamdu grows.
Thank you. We're looking forward to many new projects at Kojoten Filmproduktion.