Scenes

What is a scene?

A scene in Studio Color corresponds to a scene heading in your script (e.g. INT. KITCHEN - DAY). Each scene has a scene number, a name, INT/EXT designation, time of day, an associated location, and a production status.

Scenes are the connective tissue of the app — props, equipment, schedule days, and shots all link back to scenes. The Creative Hub takes this further, making scenes the center of cross-department collaboration between camera, art, and the director.

Scene list and gallery views

Gallery view (default)

Gallery cards show a photo from the scene’s location, dimmed, with the scene number and name overlaid in large text. Hover to see the card brighten and lift. Cards also show INT/EXT, time of day, and counts for props, shots, and equipment.

List view

Toggle to list view using the grid/list icons in the top-right. List view shows a compact table with scene number, name, INT/EXT, time of day, location, and status.

Search and filters

Use the search bar to find scenes by number, name, or description. Click a status pill to filter to just scenes with that status.

Creating scenes

Via the Script Analyzer (recommended)

The fastest way to populate your scene list is to run the Script Analyzer. It reads your script PDF and creates all scenes automatically, including their locations, scene numbers, INT/EXT designations, times of day, and script day information.

Manually

Scenes can also be created and edited manually from the scene list. This is useful for additional scenes added after the initial breakdown, or for projects without a locked script yet.

Scene statuses

Every scene moves through a status lifecycle as the production progresses:

• Unscheduled — Default state. Not yet assigned to a shoot day.
• Scheduled — Placed on a specific shoot day in the schedule.
• Shot — Principal photography is complete.
• Cut — Removed from the script or production plan.
• Completed — Fully wrapped, including pickups.

Scene detail workspace

Click any scene to open its full detail workspace. The workspace is organized into tabs that cover every aspect of a scene’s production:

• Overview — Location photos, overheads, and a link to the location record.
• Camera Notes — Draft and publish camera department notes for this scene.
• Art Notes — Draft and publish art department notes for this scene.
• Discussion — Threaded comments with @mentions and push notifications.
• Mood Board — Upload photos or paste links as visual inspiration.
• Script — The portion of the script for this scene, with inline highlighting and margin comments.
• Elements — All props, set dec, camera equipment, and shots linked to this scene.
• Shot List — All shots planned for this scene (shot number, description, type, angle, movement, lens, status). Includes a link to the full Shot List editor in the Camera department.
• Activity — A change log of everything that has happened on this scene.

Department notes with rich text

Camera and Art each have their own rich-text notes tab on every scene. The editor supports headings, bold, italic, bullet and numbered lists, checklists, and links — giving you a full document-editing experience inside the scene.

Notes start as a draft — visible only to the author and admins — while they’re being worked through. When ready, click Publish to share with the whole team. Unpublish at any time to return to editing privately.

Anchored comments (Google Docs-style)

Both Camera Notes and Art Notes support inline anchored comments — just like Google Docs. Select any text in a note and an Add comment button appears. Click it to open a comment thread pinned to that specific passage.

• The selected text is highlighted in amber in the note body.
• A comment card appears in the right margin, vertically aligned with the highlight.
• Click the highlight or the card to open the full thread with replies and @mentions.
• Click Resolve on a thread to mark it done (the highlight greys out). Reopen any time.

General scene discussion

The Discussion tab holds a general scene-level thread separate from note comments — a good place for high-level conversation that doesn’t need to be anchored to specific note text. Type @name to mention crew members; they receive a push notification and an in-app inbox alert.

Script text

Each scene stores the portion of the script that makes it up, extracted automatically when the Script Analyzer runs. When a new version of the script is uploaded via Script Management, Studio Color checks which scenes have changed and prompts you to review and apply updates — only to scenes that actually changed, keeping the process efficient.

The script text is read-only, but you can annotate it just like Camera and Art notes: select any passage and an Add comment button appears. Creating a comment highlights the selected text and opens an anchored thread in the right-hand margin, where anyone on the project can reply (with @mentions), resolve, or reopen. Script comments are visible to the whole team immediately — there is no draft/publish step.

Linking scenes

Scenes and locations

Each scene is tied to a location. The Script Analyzer sets this automatically. Change a scene’s location from the scene detail Overview tab.

Scenes and props / set dec

Props and set decoration are visible on the Elements tab, pulled from the prop management system. Set decoration uses the same system as props with a different category.

Scenes and equipment

Camera equipment linked to this scene appears on the Elements tab. Manage links from the camera equipment detail page.

Scenes and the schedule

When building the shoot schedule, scenes are placed onto specific days. Once scheduled, a scene’s status updates to Scheduled.

Current Scene — the live on-set view

During production, the Current Scene feature broadcasts to the entire crew what is being filmed at any given moment. Find it at the top of the project sidebar.

Deleting a scene

Only super admins and the project owner can delete a scene. Open the scene detail page and use the Delete button in the top bar. A confirmation modal appears and, to prevent accidents, you must type delete before the delete button becomes active.

Permissions