Scenarios let you create different scheduling plans within the same schedule. Each scenario contains its own set of boards, so you can try out a different shooting order, plan for a weather or location change, or keep an approved schedule safe while you work on a new version.
What Is a Scenario?
Every schedule has at least one scenario, and every scenario contains one or more boards plus its own recycle bin. Your scenarios share the same breakdowns, so it’s important to understand what is shared and what isn’t:
- Shared between scenarios: Strips and their breakdown data, such as scene numbers, descriptions, page counts and elements. If you change a strip’s data in one scenario, it changes in every scenario.
- Unique to each scenario: The boards, the order of the strips on those boards, and the banners and day breaks. Each scenario’s boards also have their own calendar, start date and days off.
This lets you rearrange your shooting order as much as you like in one scenario without affecting the others, while keeping your breakdowns consistent everywhere.
Switching Between Scenarios
To switch to a different scenario, click the scenario dropdown in the top right of the schedule and select the scenario you want. Your boards, Day Out of Days and print settings will update to show the selected scenario.
The current scenario is saved for you personally, so you and your teammates can each be working in different scenarios of the same schedule at the same time.
Opening the Scenario Manager
You can open the Scenario Manager in any of these ways:
- Click the scenario dropdown and select “Manage Scenarios…”
- Click the “Manage” menu in the schedule menu bar and select “Scenarios…”
- Press Shift + Ctrl/Cmd + S
The Scenario Manager lists all of your scenarios on the left, along with the number of boards each one has. The star next to a name shows which scenario is your current scenario. Select a scenario to edit its details on the right.
You can sort the list by clicking the “Name” or “Boards” column headers, drag scenarios to reorder them, or use the filter at the top right to search by name.
Creating a Scenario
There are two ways to create a new scenario.
Add a New Scenario
Click the “+” (Add Scenario) button in the Scenario Manager’s menu bar. Think Crew creates a new scenario with a single board that contains all of your strips, along with an empty recycle bin. Day breaks are not included, so you can build the shooting order from scratch.
Duplicate a Scenario
To start from an existing plan, select one or more scenarios and click the Duplicate Scenario button. The new scenario is an exact copy with the same boards in the same order. Banners and day breaks are copied as new items, so you can edit them in the new scenario without changing the original.
New scenarios are named automatically, and you can rename them at any time.
Editing a Scenario
When a scenario is selected, you can change the following:
- Star: Click the star to make this your current scenario
- Name: The scenario’s name. If you select more than one scenario, the name is applied to all of them.
Boards
The Boards section lists every board in the scenario, with the number of strips on each one. For each board you can set:
- Name: The name of the board
- Calendar: The calendar the board uses for holidays and other events
- Start Day: The shoot day number of the board’s first day. This is useful if the board picks up partway through production, for example starting on Day 21.
- Start Date: The date of the first shoot day
- Days Off: Click the days of the week the production won’t be shooting, such as Saturday and Sunday. Selected days are highlighted.
To add a board, click the “+” button next to the Boards heading. To remove a board, click the remove button next to it. The board’s strips are moved to the scenario’s recycle bin so nothing is lost. A scenario always needs at least one board besides its recycle bin, and the recycle bin itself can’t be removed.
Revisions
The Revisions section lets you record which version of the schedule and script this scenario represents:
- Revision Name and Revision Date: The name and date of this schedule revision, such as “Blue Revision”
- Revision Script Name and Revision Script Date: The name and date of the script revision this scenario is based on
These values can be added to banners and print headers with the {scenario_revision_name}, {scenario_revision_date}, {scenario_revision_script_name} and {scenario_revision_script_date} variables, so your printouts always show which revision they come from. See Using Variables for details.
Fixing Duplicate or Missing Strips
Think Crew checks each scenario for problems and shows a warning in the Scenario Manager if it finds one:
- Duplicate Strips: Some strips appear on more than one board in the scenario, which can lead to scheduling conflicts. Click “Remove Duplicates” to keep only the first copy of each strip.
- Missing Strips: Some strips aren’t on any of the scenario’s boards. Click “Fix missing strips” to add them to the scenario’s recycle bin, where you can drag them back onto a board.
If you don’t see either section, the selected scenario has no problems.
Deleting a Scenario
To delete a scenario:
- Select one or more scenarios in the Scenario Manager
- Click the Delete Scenario button in the menu bar
- Confirm that you want to delete them
Deleting a scenario removes its boards, but your strips remain available in your other scenarios. A schedule must always have at least one scenario, so you can’t delete all of them. If you want to start over, create a new scenario first.
Scenarios give you the freedom to explore different ways of shooting your production without putting your current plan at risk. When things change, and they always do, you’ll already have a plan ready to go.
