What Is the BG Breakdown?
Open the Background tab and choose Breakdown (next to List and DOOD). The page is titled Extras Breakdown. It runs through the schedule a week at a time. Each scene on a day is a row, with its roles shown as chips in the BACKGROUND column. A blue TOTALS row closes each day, and Total BG this week closes each week.
Where the Numbers Come From
The view reads the EXTRAS on each scene in the breakdown and the role groups on the Background tab, which are kept in step with those extras. Edits you make in the view's cells are saved on top, per production. See Auto-Background: Import, Draft, and Merge for how the groups are built.
The Four Reuse Modes
When background work more than one scene in a day, adding up the scenes overcounts the people. Each day's BG Reuse control sets how the unique count is worked out, and that count is the lunch figure. There are four settings, and days can use different ones.
- None: everyone counts as unique. Lunch equals the total
- Simple: one number for the day, how many are unique
- Role: a reuse split per role, which can be saved as that role's default
- Linked: explicit links from one scene's group to another's in the Day N Performer Pool
No reuse tracking. Each performer covers exactly one role. Total = sum of all groups. No setup required.
None: Zero setup. Every performer is counted as unique. Lunch = total.
Simple Mode
Click the Simple setting, or Set simple reuse, to open Simple Reuse: Day N. Type the Unique today: figure or use the slider between all reuse and all unique. The day's total then reads as unique performers (orange) plus reuse (green), with the unique count labelled as the meals figure. Reset to None clears it.
Role Mode
Click a role chip in a scene's BACKGROUND cell to set reuse for that role in that scene. Tick Set as default for the role to apply the split to every scene that has no split of its own. Clear role default removes it. Defaults belong to the production.
Drag each slider to set the reuse count for that role. Hover a role to see the "set default" option - defaults auto-apply across all scenes without a per-scene override.
Linked Mode
Linked is the most exact. The Reuse button in the day's TOTALS row opens the Day N Performer Pool. Add Reuse Link, choose the group it comes from, the group it goes to and how many, and Add. Remove a link with the trash icon, then Save Pool. The footer shows how many performer-days the links save. The Reuse button turns blue when links exist and amber when they have gone stale.
Use Linked mode when you need to trace exactly which performers from one scene are reused in another - essential for wardrobe, makeup continuity, and blocking plans.
Day Total Override
Hover a day's total and click the pencil (Override day total) to type your own number. It shows in amber with (overridden), and the reuse pills hide. Reset to calculated total brings the worked-out figure back.
How It Reaches the Call Sheet
The call sheet keeps its own background rows, and those are what the CS Front totals and the CS Back BG lunch count use. The breakdown's split shows on the CS Front beside TOTAL BACKGROUND as a note, such as 12U + 6R (with ~est on a Simple day). When the sheet's count and the breakdown disagree, an amber warning says so. The sheet's number is what catering gets.
Cells and Columns
Click a cell to select it and double-click to edit. Enter saves and Escape cancels. On a phone, double-tap. SCENE, SET and # are worked out and cannot be typed in. The columns are SCENE, SET, #, BACKGROUND, BG LOOKS, BUMPS, RATE, NOTES and REUSED, with BUMPS and RATE hidden to start. Click Columns to open Manage Columns: drag to reorder, click the eye to show or hide, click a name to rename it, and use Add for a custom column.