Centralized Workspace, Script Breakdown, Shooting Scheduling, Cast Management, Location Scouting, Feature Film
Crazy Pictures
Crazy Pictures learned to automate production processes in preparation for their film, UFO Sweden.
Albin Pettersson is a producer at the Swedish production company Crazy Pictures. He spoke to us about how Yamdu helps them to streamline their workflow.
Key takeaway
"What we like about Yamdu is that it allows you to have a lot of information in the same place to share with the whole team and it makes all the steps involved in a project easier."
Albin Pettersson Producer at Crazy Pictures
Can you tell us a little bit about Crazy Pictures?
Crazy Pictures is a Swedish production company that was founded in 2008 by 5 schoolfriends, including me. We see ourselves as a collective, and that collective grows in scale according to what we are working on.
We released our first feature The Unthinkable in 2018 and that sold to over 100 countries around the world. We are currently working on our next feature in collaboration with SF Studios, called UFO Sweden, which is our most ambitious project to date.
UFO Sweden sounds like a very ambitious project and we are of course delighted that you will use Yamdu. What can you tell us about it?
UFO Sweden is a real national organization that was established in 1970 and works to investigate unidentified flying objects. We were intrigued when we heard that they existed and eventually paid a visit to their headquarters to learn more. That visit inspired us to work on this project which works under the premise that this association, which in the eyes of most people is just a collection of oddballs with nothing better to do, turns out to be right.
The story concerns a teenage rebel who suspects that her father isn’t dead but has been kidnapped by a UFO. She turns to UFO Sweden for help in finding out the truth. That's all I can say about the project for now.
You've been using Yamdu for a while now and are planning on using it on UFO Sweden. What would you say are the main benefits of Yamdu?
What we like about Yamdu is that it allows you to have a lot of information in the same place to share with the whole team and it makes all the steps involved in a project easier. You can send a call sheet with a click and send detail to different departments.
Everything is integrated with the script, the breakdown, the shots and you can easily change your shooting schedule and all the information about cast and everything will go with it. It's online so everyone can see and share information in real time. And it's easy to use.
Does it save time in comparison to how you worked before?
Yes, certainly. Before we did everything in Google Sheets and Excel which was difficult when it came to changing and sharing information. Now we can make corrections and update things quickly and we know that Yamdu will automatically make sure that the latest information is shared immediately with the people who need to see it. That saves us a lot of time in comparison with the previous way we did things.
What is it like getting the team on board?
I think it is pretty easy. You can 'learn' Yamdu by yourself, it's very intuitive. It's not like something like Movie Magic where you need a manual to figure out how everything works. And I like that over the last years we can see the system becoming more intuitive as updates and new features are added. It's nice to work with a software that is constantly being improved instead of the old way where a system has a few small updates once a year.
We've had the 1st AD and the production design team come on board recently for UFO Sweden and they have got up to speed very quickly, it's great. We just explain our workflow and what the system can do and it's very straightforward from then on.
Would you say that Yamdu has improved your workflow?
Yes, certainly. We were able to do the breakdown early and then we had lists of all the associated things that need to be finalized for casting and location scouting. You always have the ability to see what the locations look like and you can see what's happening in real time because everyone is updating everything constantly.
The collaborative aspect is key for us. And the way we are working is that we are adding everything that is approved in Yamdu. Everything that is approved and signed is there for everyone to see. We can import the script, then if that changes, we can import a new draft and add new details easily and update scene numbers and so on.
So you'll continue using Yamdu in future?
Yes, absolutely. It has improved our workflow a lot. It's easier for the entire crew to have the correct information and that information is always up to date. It saves us a lot of time.