The Catalog is a powerful production tool that organizes all your project’s assets in one place.
Effective use of your Catalog will help your team design, budget, track and manage the people and items that bring your project to life: whether it's the colour of a jacket or every lens and dolly needed for an epic action sequence.
Table of Contents
Viewing the Catalog
To access your Catalog, choose "Catalog" from your Navigation Menu.
Similarly, each scene’s catalog items can be accessed in Breakdown Mode, by clicking on the item in the righthand toolbar.
Sorting and Searching the Catalog
The Catalog’s main view can be sorted by several attributes. Clicking on a Category in the left-hand panel will display all the entries of that Category. Entries can also be sorted by attributes–such as Name, Start Date, and Budget–by clicking on the corresponding header.
The Catalog can also be filtered by using the search bar found in the menu bar.
Adding & Deleting Catalog Entries
Breakdown Mode is the quickest way to populate your Catalog, while also associating your assets with specific scenes. To create a catalog entry without associating it with a scene, click the (+) button on the menu bar, or choose 'Edit, New Item' from the Catalog menu.
To delete Catalog items, simply open its entry and click “Remove", or select the checkbox next to the entry in the list, the click the "Delete" button, and confirm. Select checkboxes for multiple entries to delete multiple Catalog items at once.
*Please note! If you are trying to delete or merge Characters within the Catalog, you'll need to ensure that the Auto-tagging of Characters is turned off within the Breakdown settings. The auto-tag functionality ensures that all identified Characters are added to the Catalog, and this function will overwrite any deletions or merges within your Catalog.
Scene & Schedule Details
While most Catalog data is inserted manually, the following fields draw details from your Script and Schedule:
Editing Catalog Entries
For these fields to properly display, ensure the asset is tagged to one or more scenes in Breakdown Mode and that your shoot dates are defined within the Stripboard and Calendar.
Click a Catalog Entry to open it. Here, you can add and edit its details including budgetary information, reference media, and descriptive text.
You can also use the “Tag” field to flexibly organize your assets outside of the standard category structure. Tags are a simple, powerful tool to associate like items or to organize responsibilities. For example, add the tags “Andy” and “to be purchased” to an entry. Andy can change the tag to “purchased” once it has been procured.
You can sort catalog entries by tag using the search bar in the main Catalog view.
Special Categories
While all catalog entries regardless of category contain the fields described above, some have fields unique to that category. Characters and Crew, in particular, have fields with special functionality.
Characters
Character catalog entries contain a wide variety of fields to help you develop your characters–such as likes and dislikes, motivations, and distinguishing features–making the catalog a valuable tool for the planning stages of your script.
Additionally, a Character can be linked to an existing Actor by selecting the actor’s name from the “Played By” Dropdown Menu. It’s also a good idea to assign each character a Character Number, which will help save space in other tools and Reports.
Crew
Assets categorized as “Crew” have two unique fields: Department and Job Title. The department field has pre-populated selections to choose from, but you can also create custom departments as well.
The Crew category is also unique because only its assets are available when creating a Call Sheet’s Crew Grid.
Importing & Exporting Catalog
Your project Catalog can be exported as a .CSV file. This will produce a basic output of your inventory, which can be viewed and edited in a program, such as Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. Select 'Export Catalog' under the edit menu. This will download a .csv file to your devices'
Catalogs can also be imported into new or existing Projects. This can be done with previously exported (downloaded) catalogs, or from existing catalogs of other Projects in your studio. For both cases, select "Import Catalog" from the Edit menu:
From there, you can select or de-select which assets you would like to import. Note that media assets are not saved when downloading/exporting your catalog, so they will not persist upon import. Imports directly sourced from other Projects imports its assets' media.
Breakdown Integration
Catalog and Breakdown Mode work together: The Catalog stores and recalls an asset’s details, while Breakdown Mode associates an asset with specific scenes. Once a catalogued asset is “tagged” to a scene in Breakdown Mode, that information spreads into many aspects of your Project, including your Schedule and Reports. To get the most out of your Catalog, best sure to review our article on Breakdown Mode.
Budget Integration
Your Budget can be updated directly from the Catalog. Simply click on any catalog entry and start updating. You can assign the accounts, sub-accounts, rate of pay, and more. Changes made here will be reflected in your budget.
Tips and Best Practices
- Have characters you’ve once removed returned to your Catalog? You can toggle Automatic Character Tagging in the Breakdown Mode Settings.
- The term “Department” is used differently for the Catalog, the Budget, and the Crew. Changing the department designation of one will not affect the others. This prevents unexpected changes across your Project, but can be a source of confusion. Discuss departmental assignments with your team in the early planning stages.
- It is best practice to Merge items that are duplicates (character, props, etc.) to avoid any confusion and to keep your catalog neat and tidy.
- Changes made to the Catalog will not automatically update previously generated Call Sheets or other reports. Instead, create a new or edit an existing report to enact these changes. However, changes made in the Call Sheets to contact information, crew department, and job title will update that asset’s Catalog entry.