Yle Integrates Dramatify to Increase Creativity and Efficiency in Entertainment Productions and Live Galas
Yle is well known in the industry for being at the forefront of adopting new technology. The broadcaster’s team leader and TV director, Rami Lindholm, has been spearheading the move to new cloud-based production software, combining Dramatify and CuePilot to fully digitise the TV director’s production process.
Content-making hadn’t been digitised — until now
“Content-making or directing has not been digitised until now. We use digital systems like old-fashioned paper — we write scripts and plan shots on paper, shared files, and copy-paste from one system to another,” said Lindholm. “Digital content-making should mean that once we input something, it should be output everywhere online. The problem with shared documents is that we can’t output the data from them. The whole point of Dramatify is that you need only one system where you can handle the whole production. There are systems for Hollywood movies and for news, but most entertainment and music shows are done with Word, Excel and Google Sheets.”
A live/studio script tool built for entertainment
When Lindholm first heard about Dramatify in 2016, he called CEO Annika Lidne to ask whether the product could handle live entertainment production. While Dramatify at the time worked with drama and episodic programming, the company teamed up with Yle to develop what is possibly the world’s most advanced live/studio entertainment script and rundown tool — replacing both Excel and Avid iNews, neither well suited to entertainment despite being widely used. The focus was an easy-to-use, fast script tool accessible to an entire production team, with teleprompter text export and a dark mode for a fully paperless production.
A solid live production platform
Yle had already used CuePilot for three years as its directors’ tool for shot planning and cueing on music programmes. “After first using Dramatify, we still had some manual paperwork,” said Lindholm. “The rundown/script from Dramatify and the cue sheets from CuePilot for cameramen and control room personnel didn’t match.” Lindholm married Dramatify and CuePilot for the first time in the 2018 “Classical Trancelations” broadcast, with Dramatify building an importer for CuePilot shot lists into each scene of the rundown script. Since then, the combination has been refined and widely used.
“With Dramatify’s features developed for scripted shows, we can also deliver fantastic entertainment functionality with team management, messaging, scheduling, call sheets, sets, props, wardrobe and much more, which means Dramatify suits the needs of any entertainment producer,” said Annika Lidne.
Automate, then you have more time to be creative
“We’ve seen a really fruitful result from using Dramatify and CuePilot. A lot of directors like pen and paper — they think computers are somehow stilted. I feel it’s the opposite,” said Lindholm. “All the things that can be automated should be, because you then have more time to be creative. We’re now pushing ahead and looking to digitise our entire production flow. It’s the future.”