Brief import

Brief import turns a written production brief into a ready-made CineFlow project: project details, scenes, shots, cast, crew, gear, shoot days, a draft schedule, and callsheets, extracted automatically.

Where it is

On the desktop dashboard, the dashed New Project card reads “or drop a brief to auto-create”. Drag a brief file onto it (the label changes to Drop to create from brief) and release. This is the only brief import entry point; it is available to workspace editors on the default dashboard view.

Supported files

PDF, DOCX, PPTX, TXT, and images (PNG, JPG, WEBP, GIF), up to about 3.5 MB. An unsupported file shows “Unsupported file type. Use PDF, DOCX, PPTX, TXT, or an image.” and an oversized one shows “Brief is too large (about 3.5 MB max for this upload). Compress images in PowerPoint or export as PDF.”

What happens

1. The file uploads, a confirmation toast appears, and the project is created in your current workspace. You are taken straight to the new project.
2. A banner on the Project Overview reads “Setting up your project from your brief. This usually takes under a minute, and we will let you know when it is ready.”
3. When extraction finishes, the banner clears, a toast says “Your project is ready.”, and you also get an email and a notification.

The import runs in the background, so you can leave the page.

What gets created

Only information found in your brief is used, and every value is normalized to CineFlow’s own option sets:

• Project details: title, type, stage, dates, director, director of photography, aspect ratio, currency.
• Scenes and shots on the Shot List, with descriptions, shot sizes, angles, lenses, movement, and camera where the brief specifies them.
• Cast (with contact details where present) and cast links on the matching shots.
• Crew, marked confirmed, assigned to the shoot days, with rates when the brief states them.
• Gear, categorized and matched against the gear catalog.
• Shoot days, with scenes assigned to days when the brief maps them, so the Schedule page starts populated.
• Callsheets for described days, with call times and locations.
• The original brief file, saved as a document in the project.

Everything is a normal, editable CineFlow object afterward; nothing is locked.

If the import fails

Failed imports clean up after themselves: the placeholder project is removed and a toast explains “Brief import could not be completed. Nothing was left behind. Try again from the dashboard.” If a project was created but extraction had problems, the overview banner says so and you can either delete the project and retry, or keep it and build manually.

Limits

Brief import creates a project, so it counts against your plan’s project limit; at the limit it fails with “Project limit reached. Upgrade your plan to create more projects.” There is no separate AI quota or plan requirement for brief import.