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The Status Dashboard is where you send small structured requests to cast and crew and see their answers in one place. Today it covers three things you ask all the time:
  • Confirm shoot dates with a cast member (per-day yes/maybe/no)
  • Wardrobe sizes for a cast member (shirt, pants, shoe, hat)
  • Open availability for a cast member or crew member across a window of days
Each request goes out as a single email with a personal link. The recipient answers on a mobile page. You see the answers on their cast or crew profile.

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Where it lives

Three entry points:
  1. Project home. The Status Dashboard widget shows counts (Awaiting, Responded, Complete) plus the most recent activity. Use Ask someone to jump to the launcher; use View all requests to see the history.
  2. The launcher at /projects/:id/requests. A roster of every cast member (with their character and email) on the Cast tab, and every crew member on the Crew tab. Pick the person you want to ask.
  3. Cast or crew member’s own page. The Status Dashboard section at the top of the page shows the latest request, the response, and the buttons to send a new one.

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Asking cast

Cast requests support all three types. The buttons appear on the cast member page when the cast member has an email on file and your plan allows distribution.

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Request shoot dates

  1. Open the cast member page.
  2. Click Request dates in the Status Dashboard section.
  3. Spell Slate shows you the dates the character is scheduled to shoot, pulled from the approved schedule.
  4. Add an optional note. Click Send request.
The cast member gets an email and lands on a page with each date and Yes / Maybe / No buttons.

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Request sizes

  1. Open the cast member page.
  2. Click Request sizes.
  3. Add an optional note. Click Send request.
The cast member fills shirt, pants, shoe, and hat sizes. They can fill what they know and leave the rest blank. The values save to their cast profile so you have them for wardrobe and future call sheets.

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Request open availability

  1. Open the cast member page.
  2. Click Request availability.
  3. Pick a window (up to 90 days). Add an optional note. Click Send request.
The cast member sees every day in the window with Yes / Maybe / No buttons. Days they do not touch stay blank and show as Not answered on your side.

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Asking crew

Crew requests today are availability only. Sizes and shoot-date confirmation are cast-only because the data lives differently for crew.
  1. From the project home, click Ask someone.
  2. Switch to the Crew tab.
  3. Click Send availability on the crew member’s row.
  4. On the crew member’s page, click Request availability.
  5. Pick a window. Add an optional note. Send.
The crew member sees the same Yes / Maybe / No form as cast. The slate header on their form shows their department and role (e.g. “Camera / Gaffer”) instead of a character name.

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Where the response data lives

The badge tells you they replied. The pages tell you what they said. Three registers, each tuned for a different question.

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The latest response (Status Dashboard section)

When a recipient submits, a Response block appears in the Status Dashboard section on the cast or crew member’s page. For availability you see headline counts (Yes / Maybe / No / Not answered) plus the days they marked. For sizes you see the values they filled. Days or fields they did not touch are skipped here; open the full response to see them. This block answers “what did they say in their most recent request?”

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The lifetime picture (Availability section)

Below the Status Dashboard section, the Availability section aggregates every responded availability and confirm-dates request for this person. Headline counts (Available / Tentative / Unavailable) plus the dates per bucket, plus an “Aggregated from N requests” footnote and a “Last updated X ago” timestamp. If a date appears in more than one request, the most recent answer wins. So if a cast member said No for May 15 in March and then Yes for May 15 in April, the Availability section reports Yes for May 15. This section also appears at the top of the character board, so a 1st AD checking on Ramirez sees the picture without needing to open the cast member page first. This block answers “when does this person say they can work, across everything we have asked?”

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The full per-day grid

For an individual request, the request detail page at /projects/:project_id/requests/:id shows every day in the producer’s chosen window, including the blank ones. Use the View full response link from the cast or crew page to land here. This page answers “what exactly did they say for this specific request?”

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Cast profile

Submitted sizes also save to the cast member’s profile so you do not have to look at the request to remember them later. Sizes follow the contact forward across future requests.

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Character board spec card

When a cast member submits sizes, the Actor specifications card on their character’s board updates automatically. Shirt size, pant size, shoe size, and hat size land in the card’s fields without you having to copy them across. If the card does not exist yet, Spell Slate creates it on the board so wardrobe sees the data in the place they already work. When you manually add a sizing field to any specifications card on a character board, the value pre-fills from what the cast member already submitted. A small hint to the right of the suggestion (”= L”) tells you Spell Slate already has the answer before you click.

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Putting it together

A 1st AD scheduling day 5:
  1. Open the character board for Ramirez.
  2. Read the Availability section at the top: 5 available, 1 tentative, 0 unavailable.
  3. If day 5 falls inside the available bucket, schedule with confidence.
  4. If day 5 is missing from the bucket lists, no one has been asked yet. Click into the cast member page and send a request.

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Marking a request complete

If the cast or crew member replies via text or in person instead of using the link, click Mark complete on their page and add a quick note (e.g. “Got via text”). The note saves to the request, not to the original email body. You can un-mark complete later. The badge returns to whatever the response data shows.

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What the recipient sees

The recipient gets an email from you. Your name is on the From line, replies go to your real inbox. The link opens a mobile-friendly page styled like a film slate: production title, role label, your producer note, and the form. They can revisit the link any time to update their answer. The link does not expire.

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Statuses

BadgeMeaning
AwaitingEmail was sent; recipient has not opened the form yet or has not submitted
PartialSome dates answered, some not (confirm-dates only)
RespondedRecipient submitted at least one answer
CompleteProducer marked it complete
Send failedThe email did not go out; check the management page to retry

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Limitations

  • One recipient per request. Bulk send is on the roadmap.
  • Email only today. SMS is on the roadmap.
  • Replies in your inbox stay in your inbox. Spell Slate does not parse them back into the request.
  • Crew can only be asked for availability today. Sizes and shoot-date confirmation are cast-only.