Find the film on paper.

CINEside is where the film's visual language takes shape - inside the screenplay, scene by scene. It stays in the background, translating emotional intention into the technical notes you need to prep and shoot, and giving every department exactly its part. So the decisions stay creative ones - not ones made by a schedule or a budget.

CINEside brings your shot list, script, references, and department notes together in one place - built for cinematographers and directors preparing narrative work. The script stays connected to the visual ideas - so what's practical never loses sight of what's emotional.

Your director sketches the shot on a napkin at dinner. You photograph it. It's anchored to scene 12 in the blink of an eye.

It works completely offline — no AI, no cloud, no subscription. Your script doesn't have to leave your computer.

What it does

CINEside is built around the screenplay. Your script sits on the right, your shots and notes on the left, and everything stays anchored to the scenes it belongs to.

Develop the visual language

• Import screenplays as PDF and let CINEside detect your scenes automatically
• When a revised draft arrives, import the new version — CINEside matches the scenes and keeps your shots, notes, photos, and anchors attached. Anything that can't be matched is flagged, and you re-anchor it in seconds.
• Anchor shots to specific passages in the script — or assign any script block to an existing shot
• Attach reference photos, location images, sun position diagrams, floorplans, and storyboards — per scene and per shot
• Place camera, character, light, and grip anchors directly on floorplans and lighting plans — mark positions, rotation, and coverage right where they happen
• Open the Scene Board — a dedicated second window showing all visual references for the current scene. Works on a second monitor or iPad via Sidecar.
• Keep everything together — each project saves as a self-contained folder with all references and backups included.

Turn it into a plan

• Build your shot list with size, angle, lens, camera move, POV/OS, multi-camera setup, unit assignment
• Color-tag scenes across the whole project — visual groupings for locations, blocks, shooting days, or anything else
• Filter the scene list down to what you're working on right now — Interior/Exterior, Day/Night, camera support, VFX/SFX, unit, and more — and carry the same filter straight into your exports
• Flag VFX and SFX shots and export separate shot lists for post production
• Build a multi-day shooting schedule — assign scenes to shoot days, drag and drop shots into order, and export a complete schedule per day or across all shoot days

Get it to the right people

• Add notes for specific departments: Director, Gaffer, Art Department, Costume, Make Up, Key Grip, and more
• Generate a Location Dossier for tech scouts — notes, photos, floorplan, and all scenes per location in one document
• Export your shot list optimised for iPad — larger text, and a labeled write-in notes box with a dot grid after each shot for Apple Pencil annotations
• Export your complete shooting script as a facing-pages PDF, shot list only, or notes sheet
• Share your work with one click via CINEside CONNECT

One preparation, many recipients.

The same prep work feeds everyone: the art department gets the location photos, the AD gets the shot order and the day's schedule, the gaffer gets lighting plans and additional equipment, production gets the additional crew needs. Each department receives exactly its part — as a clean PDF, ready for the next meeting.

The interface is the paper.

White, neutral, out of the way. CINEside doesn't try to create a mood — your images do that. It's built to hold your work, not to present itself.

Yours to keep.

One-time purchase. No AI, no cloud, no subscription.

Just your work.

CINEside keeps your preparation organized — nothing more. Collect everything you need to discuss with your director and every department. Track decisions, open questions, technical requirements, shot by shot, scene by scene. Work through the schedule, drag the shots into order for the next shooting day, export as PDF. The script, the shots, the notes, the references — all in one place. It doesn't generate ideas, suggest shots, or have an opinion about your visual language. That's entirely yours.

Works the way you actually work.

CINEside adapts to how the project is structured. In Cinematographer mode, the interface shows everything — lighting plans, sun position, crew and equipment notes, department discussions. In Director mode, it rearranges around a different workflow: lighting and equipment give way to discussion notes for screenwriter, casting, actors, editor, and composer.

When you're ready to share, export a share package with one click. The other person receives a single .cnsf file — it contains the project and all references. They open it in CINEside and it becomes a normal editable project on their machine. Nothing gets lost in transit.

Try before you buy.

Download CINEside and work through a real scene with your own screenplay — import the PDF, plan your shots, add references, draft your department notes. Three things are disabled in Demo Mode: saving your project as a .cnsd file, exporting to CONNECT for your collaborator, and sharing a project as .cnsf. Everything else works — including the Schedule. PDF exports work, but are watermarked.

Share your work — CINEside CONNECT

Export your shooting script with one click. The other person opens it in CINEside CONNECT — a free companion app — adds their notes to shots, script passages, and images, and sends it back. You import the notes into CINEside and see all their feedback highlighted in context. CONNECT is read-only, works completely offline, and is free for all collaborators.

Now on iPad.

Take the entire preparation with you — and keep working on it. On location, at the tech scout, at dinner when the napkin comes out. CINEside for iPad is free to download — the full version is a one-time purchase on the App Store. Already own CINEside for Mac? Sign in with your account and it unlocks at no extra cost.

Get CINEside

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