What is CINEside?

CINEside is a shot planning tool built around your screenplay. Import your script as PDF and CINEside automatically detects all your scenes. Plan your shots scene by scene — always with the script on the right and your shots and notes on the left.
It works completely offline. Your script never has to leave your computer.

Demo mode and full version

CINEside starts in Demo Mode. You can import your screenplay, plan shots, add references, write notes, and see how everything comes together — with your own script.
Two things are disabled in Demo Mode: saving your project as a .cnsd file, and exporting to CONNECT for your director. PDF exports work, but are watermarked.
When you're ready: buy a license at cineside.app, then click Activate License → in the toolbar, or launch CINEside and enter your key on the license screen. The app switches to the full version immediately — saving, CONNECT export, and clean PDFs unlock.
One license stays with you. Updates are free.

Automatic updates

CINEside checks for new versions in the background when you start the app. If an update is available, a dialog asks whether you want to install it. You can always choose "Not now" and update later.
Updates are digitally signed. Only updates signed by the official CINEside signing key are accepted — this protects you from tampering.

1. Import your screenplay

Click Import PDF in the toolbar. CINEside accepts PDFs exported from Final Draft or any other screenwriting application.
After import, CINEside automatically detects all scene headings (INT./EXT.) and creates a scene for each one. The script text appears on the right side of each scene.
If a scene is missing: use Scene Manager to merge or split scenes, or select a heading in the script and click New Scene in the toolbar that appears.
Script version: enter the version in the Version field (e.g. "v3 / 2025-04-01") — this appears in your exported PDFs.

2. Re-importing a revised screenplay

When a new draft arrives, click Import PDF again. CINEside offers two modes:
Use Full Script when you receive a new draft — CINEside updates the script text throughout while keeping your shots, notes, and anchors intact. Use Revisions Only for partial updates, when only receive specific revised pages.
In both modes, CINEside matches new scenes against existing ones by number, slug line, and text content. When the match is confident, your shots, notes, photos, and anchors stay attached. Less certain matches appear in a Review modal where you confirm each one manually.

If CINEside cannot reliably detect scene boundaries in the imported PDF — for example with non-standard formats — the button Mark scenes manually.. appears automatically next to the import status. Click any line to mark it as a scene heading; click again to unmark it. This is a fallback for unusual formats and does not affect standard screenplays.

If a shot's anchor can't be matched — because the passage it was linked to no longer exists — the shot gets a red "orphaned anchor" badge, and its Edit anchor button switches to Re-anchor. Click it, select new text in the script, and the link is restored.

3. Navigate between scenes

Use the ↑ ↓ arrows in the toolbar to move between scenes, or use the scene dropdown to jump directly to any scene. Click the target symbol to scroll the current scene back into view.
Keyboard shortcuts: ← → arrow keys (when not typing in a field).

4. Plan your shots

Click + Add shot in the shots column of any scene.
Each shot has:
• Size — ECU, CU, MCU, Medium, Two Shot, Group, M Wide, Wide, other
• Focal length in mm (with Zoom toggle for descriptive ranges)
• Angle — Eye level, High angle, Low angle, Dutch, Bird's eye, other
• Cam Support — Tripod, Dolly, Handheld, Steadicam, Gimbal, Camera Car, Crane, Drone, other
• POV / O/S toggles
• Camera A, B, C, D — for multi-camera setups
• Unit — Main Unit, 2nd Unit, Splinter Unit, Pre-Shoot
• Description
• Notes
• VFX / SFX flags
• Photos — attach reference images directly to the shot

5. Anchor shots to the script

Select any text in the script on the right — a toolbar appears.
Click + Shot to create a new shot anchored to that passage, or use Edit anchor on an existing shot to link it.
Anchored shots are highlighted in the script with a colored stripe and badge, so you can always see which part of the scene an anchored shot covers.
You can also work the other way around: click any script block and assign it to an existing shot using the dropdown that appears. This is useful when you've already built your shot list and want to match script passages to shots you already have planned.

6. Scene information

Each scene has a detail panel with:
• Scene number, INT/EXT, Day/Night, Dawn, Dusk..., Page numbers of the original script
• Location / Motif — the actual shooting location or set description
Each location automatically gets its own notes field and photo gallery, shared across all scenes at that location. Click in the Location / Motif field to confirm or edit the name — once set, a blue Location panel appears below it. Add notes and reference photos there; they appear in every scene at the same location. Click Dossier ↗ inside the panel to jump directly to the export for that location.
You can also add a sub-location to any scene — useful when multiple rooms or areas belong to the same building or set. For example: "Apartment Building" as the location, with "Bedroom", "Living Room" or "Hallway" as sub-locations. The Location Dossier reflects that structure automatically.
Note: Scenes are grouped by location name exactly as entered. Make sure the name is identical across all scenes at the same location — CINEside suggests the scene slug when you click an empty field, which is a good starting point for consistency.
• Day for Night, Atmosphere (haze, fog, rain), Mood / Season — each with a color flag and notes field
• Additional Crew — extra crew members specific to this scene
• Additional Equipment — special equipment requirements

7. Scene Tags

Use Scene Tags to group scenes by storyline, time period, dream sequence, flashback, or any recurring theme across your film.
Click Add / Edit next to Tags underneath the Location/Motif field. A modal lets you create a new tag with a custom colour, assign existing tags to this scene, or edit a tag you've already made. Renaming a tag or changing its colour updates it everywhere it's used — across every scene, in CINEside CONNECT, and in PDF exports. You can also delete a tag, which removes it from all scenes at once.
Assigned tags appear as coloured stripes along the left edge of each scene — in CINEside, in CINEside CONNECT, and in exported PDFs (enable the Tags toggle in the export panel).
Typical uses:
• Storylines in parallel narratives ("Anne", "Peter", "Both")
• Time periods in historical or time-jumping films ("1890", "Present day")
• Dream sequences or flashbacks

8. Visual references

• Reference Photos — locations, mood images, color references. Each photo can have a caption.
• Sun Position — screenshots from Helios, PhotoPills or similar apps
• Floorplan — storyboards, set diagrams, or hand-drawn plans. Click any image to rotate in lightbox.
• Lighting Plan — a dedicated image plus notes field for your lighting setup. Appears in the facing-pages PDF export if the Lighting toggle is selected.
• Scene Board — click Scene Board in the toolbar to open a dedicated second window showing all visual references for the current scene: floorplan, location photos, lighting plan, sketches, and reference photos. The board updates automatically as you navigate between scenes. Move it to a second monitor or use it on an iPad via Sidecar — your references stay visible while you work on the shot list.

9. Notes and annotations

NOTES: Click + Add next to Notes. Each note has a color and a recipient:

DISCUSS WITH: Discuss with Director, Discuss with Gaffer, and so on. These appear in your exported Discuss with Sheets. SCRIPT ANNOTATIONS: Select text in the script and click + Note, Lighting, or Cam Move. These appear inline in the script and in your exports.

MY NOTES: Every scene has a private Notes field. Use this for personal reminders, open questions to yourself, or observations you don't want to share. These notes stay with the project but are excluded from exports and CONNECT packages unless you explicitly turn on the My Notes toggle at export.

10. Preferences and working mode

Click ⚙ in the top right of the toolbar to open Preferences.

WORKING MODE: CINEside adapts to how you work on a project. In Cinematographer mode (the default), the interface shows elements as lighting plans, sun position, crew and equipment notes, and department discussions addressed to Director, Gaffer, Camera Department, Key Grip, and Dolly Grip. In Director mode, those fields give way to a different set: discussion notes for Screenwriter, Casting, Actor, Editor, and Composer. Switch modes anytime — your data is never deleted, just shown or hidden depending on your role.

SHOT LABELS: Choose whether shots within a scene are labeled numerically (1, 2, 3 …) or alphabetically (A, B, C …). This affects how shots appear in the editor, in exports, and in the Shooting Order.

DEFAULT PROJECTS FOLDER: Change where CINEside saves new projects.

11. Schedule

Click Schedule in the toolbar. The workflow has two phases.
Phase 1 — Assign scenes to shoot days. A full-screen kanban view opens with all your scenes in a pool on the left. Enter the number of shoot days and click Create Days — or add individual days with + Day. Drag scenes from the pool onto any day box. A scene can be assigned to multiple days (it will appear in each box marked as a split). To move a scene between days, drag its chip directly from one box to another. You can rename a day by clicking its label, reorder days by dragging the box header, and swap adjacent days using the ← → arrows. Each day box shows the total number of scenes and shots at a glance. Days can be marked as Pre-Shoot, Splinter Unit, 2nd Unit, or Post-Shoot using the badge on the left of each column header — these are numbered independently from regular shoot days..
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Phase 2 — Order the shots. Click Shot Ordering → to continue. Each shoot day has its own tab. Within a tab, drag and drop shots into your planned production sequence — a line indicator shows exactly where the shot will land. Enter an estimated time in minutes per shot; the running total for that day updates live in the tab header. If a scene is split across days, use the day selector on any shot card to assign individual shots to their specific day..
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Export. Use PDF — This Day for a single day's shooting order, or PDF — All Days for the complete schedule — each day opens with a header showing the shot count and estimated total time for that day. The CSV export covers all days and is designed for the AD — importable into Excel, Numbers, or a scheduling software. Enable the Scene and Shot toggles in the export panel to include additional crew & equipment, scene photos, floorplan, lighting, shot photos, notes, and reference links alongside the shot sequence..
The schedule is saved with the project and restored when you reopen the modal.

12. Export PDF

click Export ↗ in the toolbar on top

Choose your layout:
• Shots & Script: facing pages, shots on the left, script on the right.
• Shot List only: just the shots, no script pages.
• Format: A4, US Letter, iPad / Tablet — the same layout with larger text and a wider margin on script pages for Apple Pencil annotations. Export the PDF and open it in any PDF app on your tablet. CINEside is a Mac app and remains one; this export is a considered response to the practical reality of working with an iPad on set or in prep — not a native app, but a layout designed to be genuinely useful on large-screen tablets.

Under Include, select what gets added to the export: Scene Photos, Shot Photos, Floorplan, Lighting, Script Notes, My Notes, Tags, and Links. All are off by default — click individual toggles to turn them on, or use Full to enable all and None to reset.

Under Scenes, choose which scenes to include — all are selected by default, but you can deselect individual scenes for a partial export.

Add an optional Note that appears on the title page — useful for version notes or a message to collaborators.

From the export panel you can also generate Reference Sheets:
• Notes Sheet — all notes, sorted by scene and recipient
• VFX Sheet — all VFX-flagged shots in one document
• SFX Sheet — all SFX-flagged shots in one document
• Additional Equipment — all additional equipment entries across all scenes, filterable by category: Camera, Cam Support / Dolly, Lighting, and Grip. Useful for sending category-specific lists to individual departments.
• Additional Crew
• Discuss with
• Location Dossier — a dedicated PDF for one or more shooting locations. Click Location Dossier ↗ in the toolbar. Select which locations to include, then export. Each dossier opens with the location's notes and reference photos, followed by all scenes at that location — with crew, equipment, scene photos, floorplan, and shots. Script text is omitted to keep the document focused. Useful for location walkthroughs and as a brief for the crew at that location.

In Shot List only mode, the panel also offers a CSV export — the full shot list as a spreadsheet, ready to open in Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets.

13. Save your project

Click Save (Cmd+S) to save your project. The first time you save, CINEside asks for a project name and creates a self-contained project folder:

MyFilm/
• MyFilm.cnsd — your project file
• photos/ — all reference images
• .backups/ — automatic backups (hidden)

By default, CINEside saves all projects into ~/Movies/CINEside Projects. You can change this location in the Save dialog by clicking Change… — CINEside remembers your choice for future projects.

Saving is atomic — a crash or power loss mid-save can never corrupt your project. CINEside keeps the three most recent backups automatically in a hidden .backups/ folder, and if a project file is ever unreadable, it opens the most recent backup automatically. To see the backups in Finder, press Cmd+Shift+. to show hidden files.

After the first save, Cmd+S saves directly without any dialog. Double-click the .cnsd file inside your project folder to reopen the project.

14. CINEside CONNECT | Collaborate with your director or cinematographer

Export your project for collaboration: click CINEside CONNECT → Export in the toolbar. This creates a .cnct file your collaborator opens in CINEside CONNECT — a free companion app available at cineside.app.

The recipient double-clicks the .cnct file to open it in CONNECT, adds notes to shots, script passages, and to images, then exports a .cnsn notes file and sends it back to you.

Import the notes back into CINEside: double-click the .cnsn file or use CONNECT → Import Notes in the toolbar. All notes appear highlighted in your project, ready for you to review and act on.

CONNECT is read-only — it's designed for annotating a finished shooting script, not for editing the project itself. If you need to share a fully editable project, use the Share button instead (see section 15).

15. Sharing a project — .cnsf

CINEside CONNECT handles the collaboration loop between a finished shooting script and director annotations. But sometimes the collaboration goes further — and CINEside supports two working directions.

The Cinematographer leads. Build your shot list, add lighting plans, reference photos, and notes, then share with the director so they can review and annotate directly in CINEside.

The Director leads. Plan the project from a director's perspective — scene by scene, with casting thoughts, editor notes, and visual references, for their own shooting script or PDF export — then hand it to the cinematographer as a starting point.

For either direction, use the Share button in the toolbar. Share → Director creates a .cnsf package with the full project and all reference photos, stripped of your private DP notes (lighting plans, sun position, crew, equipment).

Share → Cinematographer creates a .cnsf package stripped of your private director notes (screenwriter, casting, actor, editor, composer discussions). The recipient opens the .cnsf file in CINEside. A dialog asks for a project name and save location — after that, it becomes a normal editable CINEside project. All reference photos are included and work immediately, no setup required.

File formats

CINEside uses three file types:

.cnsd— your CINEside project file. Lives inside a project folder together with a photos/ folder (reference images) and a .backups/ folder (automatic backups). The project folder is the single source of truth — keep all three together when moving or archiving.

.cnct — the package you send for collaboration via CINEside CONNECT. Read-only — your collaborator can annotate but not edit the project. Created via CONNECT → Export. Contains shots, script, and all reference images. Send by email, file transfer or USB stick.

.cnsn — the notes file your director sends back. Contains only their annotations. Created via Export Notes in CINEside CONNECT.

.cnsf — a share package for handing off a fully editable project. Unlike .cnct, the recipient can continue working on the project in CINEside — adding shots, editing scenes, attaching references. Created via Share → Director or Share → Cinematographer.

All four file types are registered on your Mac — double-click any of them to open the right app automatically.

Tips

• Scene Manager — merge scenes that were incorrectly split, or remove false positives from the PDF import
• Part Divide — split a long scene into parts without creating separate scenes. Select text in the script and click ✂ Divide
• Script Search — type in the search field to find any line of dialogue or action. Use p42 to jump directly to script page 42. Press Enter to step through multiple results.
• Undo — the ↩ Undo button undoes your last change (up to 40 steps)
• Edit Screenplay Text — click ✎ Edit in the script column to correct OCR errors or typos
• Keyboard shortcuts — Cmd+S (save), Cmd+O (open), Cmd+N (new), Cmd+Z (undo), ← → arrows (navigate scenes), Cmd+F (focus script search)
• On set with iPad — Use the iPad / Tablet pdf export for the best on-set experience: larger text and a wider margin on script pages leave room for Apple Pencil annotations.

Support

Questions, feedback, bug reports: info@cineside.app | Every message is read personally.