Cinapse Case Study: Amazon's The Runarounds S1

Breaking the Cycle

Every production starts with a schedule. But for years, that process has relied on the same legacy software—one master file, one gatekeeper, and endless workarounds. For Amazon’s The Runarounds S1, 1st AD Michael Jefferson and his team wanted something better.

"In the past with Movie Magic Scheduling, the First AD held the master file and needed constant access, making it difficult for a second AD to input or verify data. With cloud collaboration, these problems are gone. The entire team can access the most recent info without my help. The interface is also much better than Movie Magic Scheduling."

 – Michael Jefferson, 1st AD

The Challenge 

Prior to implementing Cinapse, AD department members used legacy scheduling software that struggled to keep up with the demands of modern production. As more productions are tasked with cross-boarding and managing multi-unit schedules, old scheduling software creates bottlenecks in areas like:

• Collaboration: With only a single master file, team members have difficulty contributing to the schedule.
• Data retrieval: Retrieving specific schedule details for the Line Producer (LP) or Unit Production Manager (UPM) requires manual and duplicative efforts, taking time away from critical tasks.
• Software limitations: Too much energy teaching software hacks instead of focusing on prep.
• Functionality: The inability to share schedules in real-time results in performing tasks in silos, often leading to duplicative or redundant work, delays, and the risk of compromised files. 

The Solution: Cinapse 

Cinapse provided the AD department of Runarounds Season 1 with a cloud-based, collaborative scheduling platform that addressed these challenges. The team immediately benefited from:

• Real-time cloud collaboration, allowing multiple team members to update and modify schedules simultaneously, giving AD department members more hands-on experience in the scheduling process than previously available 
• Improved accessibility, eliminating the need for a single person to own, update, and share the master schedule with key stakeholders
• Enhanced cross-boarding capabilities, making multi-unit scheduling and episodic logic significantly easier and more intuitive
• Integration of key scheduling tools, enabling split-screen functionality with the schedule, Day Out of Days (DOOD), and scrapyard

The Impact on The Runarounds

By the time they called it a wrap on The Runarounds Season 1, the AD department had experienced significant improvements in workflow efficiency, collaboration, and clarity resulting from switching to Cinapse:

• Prep time cut down through more intuitive views and fewer exports.
• Collaboration improved as ADs could check, validate, and refine schedules together.
• Communication sharpened with cleaner, customizable reports for producers and crew.

A New Standard

For Michael and his team, Cinapse wasn’t just a new piece of software. It was a new way of working, built for collaboration, speed, and accuracy.

Michael also highlighted the importance of ongoing support from the Cinapse team:

"As with any new products, there will be bugs and bumps in the road. But I’ve been blown away by the responsiveness of the Cinapse team. Their commitment to resolving issues quickly gives me confidence in the product’s continued success."

As Cinapse continues to expand, productions like Runarounds Season 1 are proving that streamlined scheduling isn’t just a convenience, it’s a necessity for modern filmmaking.

See the Difference for Yourself

Join productions like Runarounds, Tulsa King, and The Boys that are redefining how schedules get made. Start with Cinapse today and discover a smarter way to schedule, plan, and collaborate.