Dramatify Introduces Integrated Cue Cards
Update on the fly. Print directly. Or work digitally and paperless. Smart cue cards, both for print and digital, integrated with rundowns and teleprompter exports for a fast and eco-friendly workflow, are the latest innovation from Dramatify to increase speed, efficiency and creative quality in television production.
No more cutting, glueing and papercraft in television production. Dramatify’s new cue card feature offers direct-to-print cue cards as well as digital cue cards for tablets and smartphones, with a choice of four typefaces and multiple text sizes.
Cue cards on mobile give teams creative freedom
“Most of the hosts write the dialogue themselves, or at least want to change some words — often on location, half a minute before the live show. Cue cards on your mobile device give us the freedom to write and rehearse dialogue on the go, even on a bus. The whole crew can see the rundown online when the host or the scriptwriter wants to change something, even during the live show,” says Rami Lindholm, team leader and show director at Finnish public broadcaster Yle, who has used the new cue cards.
Built on Dramatify’s flexible rundowns
The core of the new cue card functionality is Dramatify’s flexible rundowns, which let each show customise its layout and allow crew and cast to show or hide information for their specific needs — including a technical view with inline segment information and an uncluttered script view for writers and journalists. For music and talent shows, shot lists from the CuePilot vision mixer can be imported to keep everything in one place.
By tagging scene content such as dialogue and action as they write, teams get cue cards and export-ready text for teleprompters, subtitling and closed captioning with no extra work.
Digital or print, at two clicks
A rundown becomes cue cards in two clicks — either for digital use on tablets and smartphones, or for print in several paper sizes, each with five text sizes and four font choices.
“We use teleprompters in the studios. But in concert halls, venues, or even shooting in the middle of a forest, that’s not always possible. That’s where the cue cards come in,” says Rami Lindholm. “Sure, the older hosts want paper copies, but the younger hosts prefer mobile.”
“We can’t even think about a life with spreadsheets or word-processor rundowns and scripts anymore. With online rundowns and scripts, the whole crew has a real-time picture of the production. Even though Finland is one of the top producers of paper products in the world, we want to reduce the use of paper in our productions,” Lindholm concludes.