Cinapse Case Study: Paramount's School Spirits Season 2 and My Weird School

Introduction 

Two major Paramount productions, School Spirits Season 2 and My Weird School, switched to Cinapse to resolve scheduling challenges resulting from legacy software. Led by DGC First Assistant Director Joanne Gerein, the Assistant Directors (AD) department sought solutions to increase collaboration, streamline scheduling for multiple units, and generate custom reports. They turned to Cinapse.

The Challenge 

Before adopting Cinapse, the AD department utilized Movie Magic Scheduling (MMS) and suffered through numerous inefficiencies, battling a software that was not designed to meet the needs of their team or production. With ADs tasked with managing multi-unit schedules, needless time was spent:

• Sharing single-user files through email for collaboration purposes
• Self-managing version control to avoid compromised files
• Manually generating fit-for-purpose reports
• Upskilling colleagues on MMS for the purpose of working around software limitations

The Solution: Cinapse 

Cinapse provided these productions with an intuitive, cloud-based solution, allowing them to make real-time updates accessible to all AD department members. With the goal of achieving greater levels of efficiency and clarity across schedules, Cinapse offered these productions:

• The ability to import scripts and schedules resulting in less clerical work
• Smart automation to adjust schedules dynamically
• Seamless integration with script breakdowns

The Results 

By implementing Cinapse, School Spirits Season 2 and My Weird School experienced significant improvements in their workflow. When asked to compare her experience between MMS and Cinapse, Joan responded that Cinapse offers:

• Improved efficiency in scheduling
  
  • TIme savings as a result of script imports
  • Greater ease of use and customization for both general and ad-hoc reporting
• Improved ease of collaboration
  
  • “Better and more real-time communication of schedule information between the 1st and 2nd AD”
  • Collaboration makes data entry less cumbersome
• Enhanced readability of documents resulting in improved clarity of intention
  
  • Improved clarity between the 1st and 2nd AD
  • Greater clarity of the schedule for the production crew

Joanne Gerein shared with us:

"Very happy to be working in this software and enjoying the process as well. It is a lot more fun to use. Thank you for always being available for support!"

Conclusion

Cinapse has revolutionized the scheduling workflow for School Spirits Season 2 and My Weird School, demonstrating that modern scheduling software isn’t just a convenience, it’s an essential. By eliminating inefficiencies and introducing real-time collaboration, Cinapse empowers not just ADs, but the entire production—from cast and crew to producers—to work smarter and more seamlessly.

As we gear up for the launch of Cinapse 2.0 later in 2025, even more productions will gain access to a cutting-edge, flexible, and powerful scheduling solution built for the demands of today’s industry.

Join the Movement

Are you ready to revolutionize your production workflow? Try Cinapse today and experience the future of film scheduling firsthand.