How project phases work

A project in contentmaker.space moves through five phases: Pre-production, Production, Post-production, Distribution and Completed. You do not have to keep them in sync by hand — a project's phase follows the status of the work inside it.

The one thing that flows through every phase

The unit of work is a deliverable. It is a single object that changes shape as it travels:

• In pre-production it is born as a script, written in the Scripts tab.
• In production that same script gets its own shot list and shoot-day checklist.
• In post-production it is already a card on the deliverables board — nothing is copied or converted.
• In distribution it gets scheduled, published and reported on.

Because it is one object, notes, assignees, export settings and history follow it the whole way.

Where each phase lives

Each phase has its own entry under Projects in the sidebar, plus All projects for everything at once:

• /projects/all — All projects
• /projects/pre-production — Pre-production
• /projects/production — Production
• /projects/post-production — Post-production
• /projects/distribution — Distribution
• /projects/completed — Completed
• /projects/archived — Archived

Opening a project takes you to a URL that includes its current phase, for example /projects/pre-production/<project-id>. That is expected — the address changes as the project advances. The tab you are on is a query parameter on the end, like ?tab=scripts.

The tab set changes with the phase

Every phase opens on Overview, but the tabs beside it differ, so the work that matters is always one click away:

• Pre-production — Canvas, Scripts, Shot lists, Locations, Call sheets, Casting.
• Production — Call sheets, Locations, Casting, Scripts and the production Shotlist.
• Post-production, Distribution and Completed — the Deliverables board. These three share one tab set; distribution is a separate board, not a separate set of tabs.

Shared tabs — Documents, Notes, Tasks, Activity, Finance, Quote and Timesheet — are available throughout, subject to your role. A Chat tab also appears if your workspace has the chat beta enabled.

Phase is derived, not set by hand

You never pick a phase directly on a deliverable. A deliverable has a status, and its phase is derived from that status. The project's phase in turn follows its deliverables. This is why a card can never sit in a phase that disagrees with its status.

You can still move a project deliberately — see Move a project to another phase — and when you do, the project moves ahead and waits for the work to catch up.

Good to know

• Deliverables in the same project can be in different states. One script can still be in Scripting while another is already Shot.
• Starting a project does not commit you to a phase. When you create one you pick the phase you are starting in, and you can move it later.
• Phase names follow your app language, so a Dutch workspace sees Pre-productie, Productie and Post-productie.