New iPhone app to provide low cost production scheduling tool

Newcastle-based company Soluble Apps has come up with a new app which allows local film-makers to use their iPhones to track shots during shoots.

Part-financed by regional screen agency Northern Film & Media, the new app, ShotList, has been designed to allow film-makers to react and respond quickly to challenges such as weather conditions or problems with locations on a shoot.

The app, which works with the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch and will be available end of June, is based on the current “production stripboard” system. Film-makers will be able to track and schedule shoots, add, edit or re-order scenes across multiple shooting dates, view up to 6 storyboard frames per scene for instant recall and store hot linked notes for each scene. Film-makers can also email the latest schedule via the app or exchange updated project files with other ShotList users.

It will be the first time the production stripboard system has been available on a mobile device.

“When a friend went to start work on a project as First AD we were both surprised to find that there was nothing like ‘ShotList’ to be found anywhere on the App Store. For the first time we have put everything a filmmaker needs to track a scripted shoot, right in their pocket,” said Peter Johnson, founder of Soluble Apps.

“Shotlist provides a low cost, portable, digital shot-tracking solution for filmmakers. The app potentially has a global professional market and we were keen to support Peter in developing this practical, commercial product,” added Roxy Bramley, creative manager of Northern Film & Media.