The Breakdown Owns the Plan
Background is planned in the breakdown, on each scene's background line. The role groups on the Background tab are a working copy of that plan, carrying the things the breakdown does not know: who is booked, wardrobe, payments. When the breakdown changes, through an import, a re-import or an edit on the Breakdown tab, the role groups follow automatically. A count you change on the Background tab is written back into the scenes (the toast says how many).
What Moves on Its Own
The Background tab runs the reconciliation whenever the breakdown has moved and the groups have not. It only writes when something differs.
| The breakdown says | The role group |
|---|---|
| A role the group carries | Takes the highest count across the role's scenes, and the same scene list |
| A count different from the group name's prefix | "3x Bookstore customers" is renamed to match the new count. Names with no prefix stay as typed |
| A role no group carries | Becomes a new group, with blank seats for its count |
| Fewer people than are booked | Stays at the booked headcount, and is reported |
| Nothing about a role any more | Stays exactly as it is, and is reported |
Booked People Are a Floor
A seat with a name in it counts as booked, and a breakdown change never drops a group below its booked headcount. When a revision asks for 12 office workers and 15 are already named, the group holds at 15 and the summary counts it as "kept above breakdown (people booked)". Take names out of seats to bring it down. Blank seats do not count.
Roles That Left the Breakdown
A group whose role no longer appears in any scene is never deleted automatically. People and payment history may hang off it. An amber panel lists them instead: "N group(s) no longer appear in the breakdown".
- Add back to breakdown writes the role back into its scenes
- Delete from BG List removes the group
- Restore All adds every listed role back in one go
- A group with no scene numbers asks for them first. Type them in the Scene # box
Running It by Hand
Update from Breakdown in the Background tab's menu runs the same rules on demand. A bar across the top then reads, for example, "Update from Breakdown: 3 updated · 1 added · 1 kept above breakdown (people booked) · 2 removed from breakdown". The automatic pass and the menu item share one set of rules, so they cannot disagree. You rarely need it. The call sheet front, the catering counts on the back and the BG Breakdown view all read the groups as the breakdown wants them, even before anyone opens the Background tab.
Stand-Ins
An import files any role named Stand-In or Stand In as a stand-in group with a count of one. Each day with a stand-in in its scenes gets a row in the call sheet's Stand-Ins box, at the general crew call, with the scene numbers in the remarks. When a scene's background line changes, that day's stand-in rows are re-checked. New ones are added. A row whose stand-in has left the day is removed, unless its call time has been changed from the general crew call. Stand-in groups are skipped by the reconciliation above, because stand-ins are planned in their own flow.
Refreshing the Call Sheet
The BACKGROUND header on CS Front has a small refresh icon. It opens "Background vs. BG breakdown" with two choices.
| Choice | What it does |
|---|---|
| Reload from breakdown | Pulls the latest scenes, role groups and breakdown edits. Nothing you typed changes |
| Reset N typed counts | Rows where you typed a count go back to the count the breakdown holds now |