Version 4.0 of Shotlist is now released on the App Store.
This major new update adds a number of great features to Shotlist:
- Print stripboard and details pages, via Airprint.
- Shot details and notes for each shot in a scene.
- Email .pdf updates of stripboard and details pages.
- Import and export projects in a popular spreadsheet format.
- Rearrange shot ordering with drag and drop.
- iOS6 and iPhone 5 support
It also fixes a problem in the previous version when updating a project to Dropbox, and has various other optimisations to speed up data entry and navigation.
The Support page and User Guide are both being updated to reflect the new features.
If you encounter any problems please let us know by tapping the “Support” button in Shotlist, or using our support email address (shotlist at solubleapps.com) and I’ll look at it right away for you.
A lot has gone into this update and I hope you find it useful. If you do, a review on the App Store is always very much appreciated. Thanks.
Read on for more details of all the new features.
General tips
A long press on a storyboard image, anywhere in the app, toggles the red “X” for shooting status. A short press lets you see the details.
Swipe up and down to go to the next or previous scene in the shooting order (On the Scene Details and Gallery screens). Swipe left to right to go to the next or previous shot for that scene (on the Shot details screen).
iPhone 5 and iOS6 support
This update supports iPhone 5, showing more text on most screens, and adding storyboard thumbnails to the Details screen that would not have fitted on the smaller iPhone 4 screen. The app is recompiled to make best use of the new processor in iPhone 5.
Shot Details Page
The shot details page lets you set type, angle, image etc. for each shot.
You need only set up details you are interested in. (e.g. you could choose to assume that shots are eye level and static unless you specified otherwise, or you may always use the same camera).
You may choose to use your own shorthand in the notes area rather than the spinners to set data, its up to you.
To access this page, tap a storyboard thumbnail in the Gallery page (accessed from the camera icon), or tap a thumbnail on the Scene Details page on iPad or iPhone 5.
- Shot The shot name in the title bar is usually based on its position. if you don’t want the letter to change when reordering shots, force a specific letter here.
- Type of shot can be set from “Extreme Long Shot” through to “Extreme Close Up”, then on to “2 Shot”, “3 Shot” and “Group Shot”.
- Angle runs from “Extreme Low Angle” up to “Bird’s Eye”, with a few special cases such as “POV” and “Voyeur” thrown in.
- Movement specifies different types and directions of camera movement, such as “Tracking”, “Panning” “Dolly up” etc.
- Cam specifies which camera to use for this shot (or could be used to store a code for different lenses, if you wish)
- Notes lets you enter notes for each shot. You can edit (or view longer notes) by tapping the notes area.
- Image area Tap the + symbol to add a storyboard image from the camera or from the camera roll. Tap an image again to delete it.
On iPhone, you can rotate the device to landscape to see the image full-screen.
If you have not added a storyboard image, then a stand-in based on the shot type will be used (this is not intended to literally represent your shot, it is just as a memory aid, to help one scene be distinguished from another)
Toggle shot status with a long press. to step between shots of the current scene, swipe left or right with one finger.
Changing Shot order on the Gallery Screen
This page gives a useful overview of the shots for a scene, with a data summary if you wish, and allows you to rearrange the shot order, or set shot status.
- To edit the shot data or image, tap a thumbnail
- To change the shooting order, use two fingers to drag shots around.
- To toggle data overlay, tap the “Show Data/Hide Data”button at top right (You can disable display of notes on the ShotList page of the “Settings” app.)
Toggle shot status with a long press. To step between scenes without returning to the stripboard, swipe up and down with one finger.
Print With AirPrint
To print a stripboard or a project, select the project on the Project page, and tap the print button (a square with an arrow coming from it) on the bottom menu bar.
- “Days per page” controls whether the stripboard is broken up into days
- “Detail Pages” controls whether detail pages are printed as well as the stripboard
- “Storyboards” controls whether storyboards are included on the detail pages.
Then select Printer Settings to bring up the standard dialog, and tap “Print” to send it to your printer.
TIP The print button is hidden if your device is not capable of printing. If you don’t have an Airprint-compatible printer, you can connect a printer via the USB port on an AirPort Extreme or Time Capsule, or there are a number of options to allow you to use a printer connected via a PC or Mac.
To print the details page for a single scene:
Select it from the stripboard, then tap the print button at the top right of the details page.
Send the schedule as a .pdf
This allows someone to view or print their own copy of the schedule remotely
Select the project on the Project page and tap the email button (an envelope) on the bottom menu bar
Three options appear:
- One Line schedule: a text email, suitable for viewing on the widest range of email-capable phones.
- Send Schedule as .PDF: a graphic page, similar to how the project appears in the app. (It can also be printed on receipt.)
- No Schedule: Send a simple email to the team you set up for your project
Select “Schedule as .PDF” and to see the email dialogue where you can add contacts to the team for this project, select who gets this particular email, and choose what content you want in your PDF.
- “Days per page” controls whether the stripboard is broken up into days
- “Detail Pages” controls whether detail pages are printed as well as the stripboard
- “Storyboards” controls whether storyboards are included on the detail pages.
Tap “Compose” to create the email.
Import to and export data from a spreadsheet
This will export a project to your Dropbox account in the xls format used by Excel, Numbers and other popular spreadsheet programs.
You can then enter details and notes orinsert additional scenes in a spreadsheet program on your computer, and reimport it into ShotList.
To import or export select the Dropbox logo at the bottom left of the project page, then choose the desired option.
It is quite important to stick to a structure that ShotList can read, so please don’t add or delete columns (although you can copy and paste additional rows to create scenes, and the same with day markers). To create a template to work from, create a new project and export it.
NOTE: The data for storyboard images and shot images which is is not really suitable for editing, it is included here just to retain the link to this data if you move scenes around, or renumber them.
ShotList maintains a character list at the bottom of the spreadsheet to map the characters to numbers consistently. You need a column with the numbers, starting from 1, next to a column with the names. It is important that this data section ends with the “EndOfCastList“ marker
You can select whether to output characters to XLS as names or numbers, using a switch provided on the ShotList page of the Settings app.
Other changes
You can now reorder (and therefore renumber) the list of characters in ShotList. Tap “Manage” at top right, then select and drag the reorder icon (three grey lines) to move the characters around, or tap the red “-” to delete a character.
Can now use spinners to set page number and scene length directly on the details page on iPad, speeding up navigation.
The Support button adds direct links to the ShotList User Guide and for emailing us in addition to the existing link to the Support page.
We have updated to the latest version of the Dropbox API. We also fixed an issue with Dropbox in the last update, where files were not being overwritten correctly.
Soluble Apps 