Introducing Background Manager

Background planning, built into your schedule.

Plan background, calculate headcounts, track costs, and generate reports, all in one place.

Introducing Background Manager, a new way to plan, organize, and budget background for every shoot day, right alongside your production schedule.

Available now on Cinapse Studio and Enterprise.

Smart headcounts

The right headcount for every shoot day.

Background performers often appear across multiple scenes, but that doesn’t mean you need to count them multiple times.

Background Manager calculates each group’s daily headcount as the maximum quantity in the group, the sum of all scenes, or a custom count when you need one, like when you’re recycling some background and moving others. Union and non-union totals stay separate. As your schedule changes, scene-based headcounts update automatically.

Automatic grouping

From breakdown to background plan in one click.

Automatically organize background by category, name, scene, INT/EXT, or set.

Then customize your groups, move performers between them, or build your own from scratch. No more rebuilding background lists every time the schedule changes.

Schedule integration

Your background plan. Your schedule. One view.

See background groups alongside the strips they’re scheduled for, with headcounts and daily totals in one place.

Review your background needs against the latest schedule without switching between spreadsheets, breakdowns, and stripboards.

Built-in rates & fringes

Local rates. Accurate budgets.

Start with built-in background rates and fringes for SAG-AFTRA, ACTRA, UBCP, PACT/FAA, and PACT/Equity, plus non-union rates for Los Angeles and New York/New Jersey.

Account for guaranteed hours, overtime, and minors’ rates, and customize everything to match your production’s agreements.

Working under a different agreement or a negotiated deal? Create your own custom rates for any agreement, location, or deal.

Cost tracking

Know the cost before you book.

See projected background costs before booking, then enter estimated working hours to calculate paid hours, overtime, and fringes.

Track costs by group, by shoot day, or across the entire production, giving ADs and producers the visibility to make informed decisions before costs add up.

Schedule alerts

When the schedule changes, know what needs attention.

When background elements move between shoot days or are removed from the schedule, Cinapse flags the affected days so you can review your groups and keep your background plan accurate.

Background reports

One background plan. Every department.

Generate detailed background breakdown reports with groups, scenes, headcounts, and costs for every shoot day.

Share the information that background casting, costumes, props, transportation, catering, and production need, with the option to hide costs or export your data to a spreadsheet.

More Features. More Improvements.

Custom background categories

Manage stand-ins, photo doubles, and other background types in one place.

Background permissions

Control who can organize background groups and manage rates with a dedicated editor permission.

Background reports, straight from your schedule.

Background Manager is available now on Cinapse Studio and Enterprise.

Open your production and start planning.