Since last year StudioBinder has been a simple way to get your call sheets done online. Now StudioBinder 2.0 puts the emphasis on more robust contact management and file storage for filmmakers and agencies. StudioBinder feels best for small projects where people aren't getting paid much, are hard to keep track of, or where a little extra accountability can't hurt. For more established productions, I would hope you can assume people are reading your call sheets. Find out what's new below and get access to a special 20% discount for No Film School readers.
StudioBinder 2.0 at a glance
- More contact organization tools
- File / asset Storage
- Easy call sheet generation
- Track who reads your call sheets
- Automatically generated weather
- Send unlimited call sheets
Premium features (ranging from $15-$85/month)
- Scout, Rehearsal & Meeting call sheet types (just changes the header label)
- File storage (up to 100gb)
- More than 1 active project at a time
- Unlimited favorite contacts lists
- Private messages to individual people
- PDFs / File Attachments
Cons
- No .csv contact import (other than copy/paste bulk addresses)
- No manual override on weather
- Custom logo on your call sheets will cost you $85/month
Though this is fairly common practice with email services, a concern I have is that the call sheets are sent from StudioBinder and not your personal email address, increasing the chance it could get caught in a spam filter (StudioBinder says this hasn't been a problem). To address this they say they are looking to build a feature that allows the call sheets to come directly from your email. StudioBinder says that if you have an Enterprise account there is custom work that can be done to have them come directly from your domain.
My other concern is with automatically generated weather, which can often be egregiously wrong depending on where you're getting your information. (I always check weather.gov.) As with any automated process, it's not always wise to rely on it without getting a second opinion. Also, at $85/month to remove the StudioBinder watermark and add your own personal branding makes it unusable for my needs, as I generally dislike any documentation that doesn't feel like it's coming from my production company.
Ultimately it doesn't necessarily beat the gold standard PDF attachment call sheet that we're all used to, but it's another tool in the toolkit for filmmakers organizing their shoots with some convenient features for promoting accountability. Now that they've relaunched, StudioBinder is working on new features for agencies and and enterprise companies, so stay tuned for even more functionality in the near future. For those of you who want to try it, use code NOFILMSCHOOL when signing up and you will receive 20% off for 3-months for any plan. (Limited to 100 people, expires on February 17th, 2016.)
Source: Studio Binder
