CinePlan is a student-centric film project workspace that brings planning, tasks, and project files together to help students manage their film projects more clearly.

Starting Point

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Why Films & why this problem?

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• While working on film sets alongside friends from the film department, a clear pattern emerged in how planning, coordination, and tracking were managed: infinite Excel sheets, tons of unorganized scattered files, poor coordination while collaboration.
• Each department had its own sheet for planning, scheduling, budgets, or contacts. There was no single, centralized platform or to be more specific an easily accessible solution, which often led to confusion, version mismatches, and a lot of back-and-forth on WhatsApp or email.

Example of a Master Breakdown Sheet

Example of a Shoot Documents Folder on Google Drive

• Initially, I framed my project around Film Production House Management as a whole. But through research, interviews, and competitor analysis, I realized that the real pain mostly lies during Pre-production - the stage where schedules are created and information needs to flow seamlessly.
• So my focus shifted. What began as a broad look at production houses narrowed into solving the very specific, but critical, issue of managing Pre-production efficiently which also contributed in managing Production & Post-production.

Exploring the Industry

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How does the film industry look like behind the screens?

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The Filmmaking Process

Every film project goes through four major stages of filmmaking. For our convenience, this case study concentrates majorly on Pre-production, a critical yet often overlooked phase where inefficiencies in planning and coordination most commonly arise.

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PRE PRODUCTION

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PRODUCTION

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POST PRODUCTION

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DISTRIBUTION & MARKETING

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• Idea/Concept
• Script Writing
• Budget Planning
• Casting
• Location Scouting
• Scheduling (shoot days, scenes, resources)
• Crew & Equipment Planning </aside>

Overview of how a Pre-production team/process is broken down

Talking to the Characters

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Interviews I took & its Insights

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While initial desk research helped establish a basic understanding of the industry, the lack of detailed and practical information led the research approach to evolve toward conducting interviews with film students, faculty, filmmakers, directors, producers, and production house professionals to gain deeper, real-world insights.