In recent years the field of
While BPM technology has reached a certain level of maturity in recent years and has great potential to deliver benefits in a wide range of application areas, it is typically applied by organisations with a high adoption level of information technology. As part of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) CCI’s website is available at
The screen business comprises all creative and business related aspects and processes of film, television and new media content, from concept to production and finally distribution. A value chain model for the screen business consists of four major phases:
In this paper, we demonstrate how film production can benefit from the application of BPM technology and discuss how we overcame innovation barriers that exist in the industry. In particular, a prototypical environment was developed that assists with the production of various forms and reports during the shooting of a film and ensures that information is available to cast and/or crew at the right time. The prototype, namely
As we were developing a new artifact in this research activity, we were faced with the fact that we had no access to empirical evidence. In order to deal with this challenge, there were extensive interactions with domain experts which formed the basis of the prototype deployed during the student film productions at the AFTRS. Hence, the research approach can be seen as in line with the Design Science methodology in information systems research. There are seven guidelines for this methodology as reported in (Hevner, March, Park, and Ram, 2004).
According to Guideline 1 (
The barriers to innovation in the film industry are significant. They arise from the project orientation of the industry – the fact that production is organised as and when financing and other preconditions are satisfied. Cast and crew come together specifically to execute a production such as a feature film or TV series. They do not interact in a conventional corporate framework, with opportunities for training and experimentation. Innovation is therefore problematic for a production. Not only may it involve unplanned expenditure and risk in a context where risk and expenditures are tightly controlled, it is simply not part of the common, learned routines of the group. In designing process innovations such as those described in the paper, we have sought to counter possible resistance through a combination of considerations described below:
Firstly, identifying only selective functions to automate. We analyse each of the tasks in the process to see if a task is to collect user input (manual task) or can be operated by the system with no intervention from the user (automatic task). The analysis is also important in modelling the tasks that involve creative decision making.
Secondly, the proposed system should blend seamlessly into the current workflow. This is to ensure that the users may start using the system with little or no prior training. To this end, we model system functions to closely replicate the actual paper-based process. This is particularly true for user interfaces requiring inputs and outputs. For example, call sheets were generated into MS Excel format so that prior familiarity on the format is preserved.
Thirdly, segregation of system functions based on user roles instead of the tasks to be achieved. We consider how each of the crew members react to the resources and information that are given to them. For example, the production coordinator may generate the call sheet without the knowledge of the schedule or location notes.
In the next section, we discuss how we take the above considerations into the account during the development of the system YAWL4Film.
In the field of BPM, The YAWL system can be downloaded at The website of Workflow Patterns Initiative is available at
YAWL4Film is developed over the general YAWL system to support the automation of film production processes. Hence, the order in which tasks need to be executed, the information they require and produce, and the roles that may perform them are formally captured. In addition, the user interfaces were designed to mimic paper-based forms currently in use. During the shooting of a film, the resulting system thus can present required information to the involved cast/crew members at the right time using a professional look-and-feel. In this paper we assume that the audience does not have an IT background and therefore we abstract from technical details. The interested readers may refer to (Ouyang, La Rosa, ter Hofstede, Dumas, and Shortland, 2008) for more information on design and implementation aspects.
Figure 1 depicts the YAWL model capturing a film production process. Tasks are drawn as rectangles that may have an icon indicating whether they are
YAWL4Film – Film Production Process Model.
The process begins with the collection of specific production data (e.g. cast, crew, location, and shooting schedule) generated during the pre-production phase. Next, the shooting process starts and is carried out on a daily basis. Each day, tasks are performed along two main parallel streams: one involving the production of a call sheet, the other involving the production of the Daily Progress report (DPR).
The stream involving the production of a call sheet starts with the task
The stream involving the production of a DPR starts with the task
The film production process model of Figure 1 can be executed via the system engine (i.e. YAWL engine) to support a running production. Performing a manual task requires users’ inputs through customised user interfaces, which were designed to replicate actual templates used in professional film making and support the ways that the users are familiar with when filling in the forms.
An example of such a customised user interface can be seen in Figure 2. It depicts two Scheduler screens, which are both Web-based, for entering and updating shooting schedule information. Figure 2(a) shows a screen of Scheduler Stripboard which consists of a list of scenes with selected scene information for each of the shooting days during the entire production. Each scene is displayed as a strip which is highlighted with one of the four pre-defined colours (blue, green, yellow and orange) indicating whether the scene is for internal/external and day/night shooting. The Stripboard supports drag-and-drop so that users can move a scene (strip) between different shooting days. Next, by clicking the “pen-icon” located at the right end of a scene strip, it opens a screen of Scene Breakdown which comprises all the details about that specific scene, as shown in Figure 2(b). This is where one can perform scene-related operations including: entering and storing scene details (“Save”), adding a new scene (“New Sheet”), deleting an existing scene (“Delete Sheet”), etc.
YAWL4Film – Scheduler: (a) Scheduler Stripboard and (b) Scene Breakdown.
As another example, Figure 3 depicts three user screens, as viewed in MS-Excel, for Call Sheet Production. The first screen (leftmost) takes the input of a shooting day number (e.g. 2nd shooting day) and sends it back to the system engine to create a call sheet template of the corresponding day. Such a call sheet template is then generated into Excel format, as the second screen (middle) of Figure 3 shows. It replicates what users are familiar with before, and approximately 80% of the data fields are automatically filled in with up-to-date information which is taken from other documents such as the shooting schedule. For example, certain details of each scene (including scene number, script pages, set, synopsis, etc.) can be taken from the Scheduler shown in Figure 2. The user only needs to fill in the rest of the data fields such as individual cast call times for each scene. Generally, a call sheet template contains many blank data fields. The user, e.g. a Production Coordinator, either fills in the template from scratch, or works from a copy of the previous day’s call sheet so that he/she only need to change the data fields that require updates. The former may cost more time, but the latter can easily introduce errors. Also, the call sheet production of YAWL4Film supports the generation of a call sheet of any shooting day in advance as well as a call sheet for any additional unit. These are very useful for advanced scheduling and for large productions but are not usual in the current production processes due to their manual and paper-based nature.
YAWL4Film
The above examples demonstrate that the system user interfaces are easy to use and in line with the paper-based forms currently in use. Hence, the learning process should be straightforward and no dramatic changes are required on the part of the production crew involved. The use of YAWL4Film does not lead to interference with best practices as they currently exist. Furthermore, the user screens are system-independent and can be applied on PCs, laptops, and even tablet PCs.
A film production process usually involves a central production office and a shooting unit. In general, YAWL4Film can be deployed as Figure 4(a) illustrates. A server that runs the YAWL engine is set up in the production office. The connection for communication between the production office and the shooting unit is available all the time via wired/wireless networks. The onset crew members can access the YAWL server via laptops, tablet PCs, and etc.
Two deployment scenarios of YAWL4Film.
However, for film shooting, it is likely that the designated shooting location (e.g. shooting in a desert) may have no standard Internet or phone coverage to facilitate communication between the production office and the shooting unit. Although a dedicated wireless connection (e.g. a satellite connection) may be set up to cover the whole area between the production office and the unit, it is usually not feasible due to the budget constraints in many film production projects. This brings us to the deployment scenario shown in Figure 4(b) in which one runs stand-alone user forms for the unit crew to fill in onset and later synchronises the data from these forms to generate the DPR at the production office. The stand-alone forms include continuity log, continuity daily, sound sheet, camera sheet, and 2nd AD report, and each is installed in the designated crew’s computer device. At the end of each shooting day, the saved files containing the data from each of the stand-alone onset forms will be physically brought to the production office (e.g. by a production runner) or uploaded once at a certain time in mobile range. They will then be loaded into the system engine to generate the DPR. Although this way the real-time synchronisation cannot be maintained between tasks modelling onset activities (due to the off-line executions of these tasks), it ensures the integrity of the user data throughout the production process, which so far seems to fulfil the end users’ expectations.
The Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) is the national training and research facility for Graduate Diploma, Masters Certificate, courses and short courses in film, and TV production. A core component of coursework is the short film production slates that occur throughout the academic year. These slates range from 1 to 20 days of filming and aim to mirror professional industry standards. Student teams are provided with a budget, resources allocation and facilities from development, pre-production, production, through to post-production and distribution.
YAWL4Film was deployed on two film productions at the AFTRS in October 2007. The crew for each production consists of approximately ten students, ten full time or contract staff, and any number of volunteer crew. Project 1, “Rope Burn”, was a three-day shoot in studio with 30 onset crew, 6 cast and 6 production office crew. The office was run by a professional Production Manager, and supervised by a student Producer. Project 2, “Family Man”, was a three-day shoot on location and in studio with 35 crew, 5 cast and 4 production office crew. A semi-professional Production Manager was contracted and supervised by a student Producer. In both projects, laptops and tablet PCs (with stylus-enabled user input) were used by Continuity and 2nd AD, while Camera and Sound students were not part of the testing and the system supervisor and technical assistant entered their data manually into the system.
During the two productions, YAWL4Film shadowed the process of call sheet generation, DPR generation, and cast and crew database update. For “Rope Burn” the system was used on-set
alongside the traditional paper method of data capture for Continuity and second AD; and later for “Family Man” the system totally replaced the paper-based method for the two crew members. From the feedback from both projects, it was clear that the system would save time, and create more precise documentation:
“
– Production Manager in “Rope Burn”
– Second AD in “Family Man”
– Production Manager in “Family Man”
The feedback also indicated that, once users became familiar with the tablet PC, the data input was significantly streamlined:
– Second AD in “Rope Burn”
– Continuity in “Family Man”
Porchlight Films is an independent film production company based in Sydney, Australia. Porchlight Films has produced award winning feature films, television dramas, documentaries and short films, including a number of highly acclaimed films such as ``Walking On Water'' and ``Little Fish''.
YAWL4Film was deployed on Porchlight’s feature film ``Prime Mover'' in May 2008. For the duration leading up to this deployment, the YAWL4Film system was enhanced to better support the information supply chain encompassing the creation of call sheets. The approach to support only call sheet creation allows YAWL4Film to better support and contain activities within the production office, and to minimise accessibility issues bounded by technical limitations (i.e. the network connectivity problem in rural areas on location).
YAWL4Film was used mainly by the production coordinator to generate call sheets. The inputs required for the call sheets were pre-entered into the system before production. Changes to the production schedule, cast, crew and location can easily be performed through YAWL4Film. The call sheets generated by the system automatically congregates data sources from the production schedule, cast, crew and location. The generated call sheet populates around 80% of the information, where the final 20% will be entered manually.
``Prime Mover'' was a twenty-seven days shoot on location at Dubbo and Bourke, NSW. During the deployment, YAWL4Film totally replaced the traditional method of call sheet generation. Our study shows that using YAWL4film saved around 2 hours each day for the Production Coordinator alone, and also provided various other advantages (e.g. better planning, management of information, etc) to the crew in general. From the feedback from Prime Mover crew, it was evident that the automation of call sheets in the production environment is beneficial if not an essential step towards better film production management:
– Vincent Sheehan, Producer “Prime Mover”
– Andy Pante, 2nd AD “Prime Mover”
– Edel Kavanagh, Production Coordinator “Prime Mover”
We have applied BPM technology to process innovation for film production. As a major outcome, we developed YAWL4Film for collection and entering of production related data and automatic generation of reports during film production, and deployed the system in both an educational setting and a real film production. YAWL4Film, as a representative of the implementation of BPM to the filming industry, resulted in the discovery of additional benefits:
Firstly, using YAWL4Film, call sheets can be generated many days in advance (i.e. a week) as well as for each of the additional units. This allows the second assistant director to engage in discussions with the first assistant director, production manager and various department heads using consolidated materials. This is in contrast with the current method where many standalone documents (i.e. schedule, props, etc), spanning many versions, are discussed.
Secondly, YAWL4Film reduces data redundancy and improves data accuracy. Information is updated in, and taken from, a centralised source, thus reducing the need of entering the same information many times (e.g. scene information on the scheduler and call sheet, etc).
Thirdly, YAWL4Film facilitates a separation of concerns through modules created for specific crew members. This is unlike bundled software functions that provide a one-stop solution. For example, the first assistant director may concentrate on ensuring the correctness of the schedule, while the production coordinator focuses on the creation of call sheets, where bundled software provides scheduling and call sheet creation in the same software. The authors discourage such behaviour and claim that technical software should be created for users and should keep user roles in mind. For example, the first assistant director should not be forced to create the initial call sheets on behalf of the production office because she/he is the only person with the software, or the production coordinator should not be required to obtain a copy of the scheduling software in order to create the call sheets.
The crew members from both AFTRS deployments and the Porchlight’s deployment indicated that the more information one could store, such as scripts and schedule, the more useful the tool could become. Such feedback suggests that YAWL4Film should be used right from the preproduction phase, for example during script development and scheduling, so that information gathered during the pre-production phase can be exploited to better coordinate the production phase. Hence, work is ongoing on a light-weight pre-production tool that supports scripting, scheduling, cast, crew and location management and that can interface with the current YAWL4Film production tool. It is expected that the earlier the system is introduced in the filmmaking lifecycle, the more significant the impact and efficiency gains will be.