These are projects posted by the students of Dr. Gove Allen at Brigham Young University. These students have taken one semester-long course on VBA and generally have had no prior programming experience

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Green Light Films Set List Database

Grant Newman

Full-Length Write-Up:

http://gove.net/courses/excel/projects/GrantNewman/GreenLightFilmsSetListDatabaseWrite-Up_Grant Newman.pdf


Excel File:

http://gove.net/courses/excel/projects/GrantNewman/GreenLightFilmsSetListDatabase_Grant Newman.xls


Executive Summary

Green Light Films is a local production studio comprised of BYU’s top film students.[1] About a year ago the studio’s director approached me with a logistics problem: They had reserved a small location for a production and needed to know how many individuals would be on set at a given time and which hours would see the highest traffic. The director had arrival and departure information for all of the cast and crew entered into a spreadsheet, but did not know how to manipulate the data to produce the needed information. After looking over the data, we came to an estimation as to when the peak hours would be.


This program seeks to surpass estimation and clearly provide an answer to the question – to unambiguously declare how many individuals will be on set at a given hour and, implicitly, what hour will have the most cast members. The program allows users to add names to a makeshift database through a series of user forms, along with the appropriate check-in and check-out times for an individual. This data will then be used to calculate the intermittent hours that an individual will be on set, from which the number of individuals on set per hour can be summed. The program will then store the individuals-per-hour data in a table – separating the individuals according to on-set duty – before displaying the information graphically, again according to on-set duty (i.e., production, photography, lighting and sound, design, acting, etc.). So, after entering the names and data for all set members, the producer will be able to conveniently reference tables and graphs to understand both how many total individuals will be on set at a given hour and how many individuals from each duty will be on set at a given hour. Producers also have the ability to edit entries in the database, again via user forms, after which the tables and charts are automatically updated. Lastly, the program also includes the ability to send e-mails and text messages to cast and crew members, reminding them of the shoot, its location, and the expected check-in and check-out times for the individual.



[1] Visit Green Light Films’ website at http://greenlightfilms.net/.

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