How to use CAHOOTIFY: A set of short sharp video tutorials by Screenology

Those lovely folk at the Screenology film school have created a set of 9 short sharp tutorial videos on how to use Cahootify. The tutorials were created purely for Screenology’s own benefit but we’ve kindly been allowed to share them with you. These tutorials are aimed at first year students so if you’re an experienced industry professional some of the “third person” language might be slightly off the mark but when it comes to explaining how Cahootify works, they’ve done at least as good a job as we could have. Thank you Screenology. Enjoy!

1. Intro to CAHOOTIFY and kicking off your profile

2. Adding a gallery to your profile

3. Populating your project portfolio

4. Crediting your fellow cast and crew

5. Accepting a credit invitation

6. “Automagic” protected project versions

7. Advertising needs on an upcoming project

8. Expressing interest in another’s project need

9. Reviewing expressions of interest received

How to credit yourself on a project added by someone else (and why that’s OK)

There are two ways to credit yourself on someone else’s project – the first from your portfolio, the second from a project detail page.

1. From your portfolio

On your own profile, click the “Add Project to Portfolio” link at the top of your portfolio (on mobile screen sizes this is just a plus icon).On the form that comes up, enter the name of the project you wish to add and click/tap the “Add” button.If someone else has already added this project (or one with the same name…) then it will be presented to you in the following view. If it’s your project, click/tap on the “This is my project” button.You’ll then be taken to the “Add Project” form just as if you were adding a project from scratch – except that it will be pre-filled with the correct project information. If you wish to edit this information, perhaps because you feel it could be improved or because you wish to personalise it, you can just go ahead – Cahootify will “automagically” create a unique version for you without impacting anyone on the original project you just joined.

2. From a project detail page

From any project detail page, click on “I worked on this project” at the top of the team credits (just the plus icon on mobile).On the form that comes up, simply add the role tags for the roles you played on the project, then click/tap the “Save” button. Cahootify will both add you to the project team and add the project to your portfolio (or to the “Projects with Needs” section on your profile if the project isn’t completed and has needs).If you now wish to edit the project you can just go ahead – Cahootify will “automagically” create a unique version for you without impacting anyone on the original project you just joined.

Cahootify Credits and “Automagic” Project Versions

Cahootify is structured like IMDb in that multiple people – cast and crew – can be credited on a project. However, it’s much better than IMDb (though we say so ourselves…) in that each person or company on a project can then create their own version of that project – one where all the info is completely unique to them. This happens “automagically” without anyone even needing to think about it.

This means that, for example, if you’ve worked with a team of people on a series of projects, only one of you has to create each project and you can all easily have profiles that look fantastic. If you wish, you can then further tailor the project info in your own portfolio without impacting anyone else.

I’ve just explained how to credit yourself on someone else’s project. Link through for:

  1. How to credit someone else on a project you added (and why you should).
  2. Project versioning described in a little more detail.

All support documentation…

CAHOOTIFY credits and “automagic” project versions

Cahootify is structured like IMDb in that multiple people – cast and crew – can be credited on a project.

However, it’s much better than IMDb (though we say so ourselves…) in that each person or company on a project can then create their own version of that project – one where the info is completely unique to them. This happens “automagically” without anyone even needing to think about it.

So if you credit yourself on a pre-existing project (or someone else has invited you to accept a credit on their project), then that project will immediately appear on your profile.

But if you then edit that project…

…any changes you make will only appear on your profile – the original will be untouched.

Conversely, if you credit others on your projects, you can rest assured that any changes they make will only appear on their profiles, not on yours. This applies to every piece of data on a project – the title, the sizzling teaser, the description, the embedded media – even the gallery.

Maximum Efficiency, Complete Individuality

This means that, for example, if you’ve worked with a team of people on a number of projects, only one team member has to create each project, the rest can just join it – and you’ll all have great-looking profiles. If you wish, you can then further tailor each project’s info in your own portfolio without impacting anyone else.

About Crediting Yourself and Others on Projects

I’ve just explained how project versions work and how that means you can be credited on a project team yet retain complete control over your own profile and project portfolio.

So get crediting!

  1. How to credit someone else on a project you added (and why you should).
  2. How to credit yourself on a project someone else added (and why that’s OK).

All support documentation…

 

Go Green with Enviable: How CAHOOTIFY role tag colours work

CAHOOTIFY role tags on a person’s (or company’s) profile can be grey (like “Screenwriter” on John’s profile below) or green (like “Producer” and “Director”). A green role tag signifies that the individual or company profiled has experience in that role – though it says nothing of the standard at which they performed that role – that’s up to the viewer to investigate and judge!

Cahootify knows about “experience” by whether or not the same role tag has been applied to a completed project in the profile portfolio – in other words, whether or not the owner of the profile has evidenced that they’ve performed that role.

As such, it’s important that the profile role tags match the project role tags exactly. So if your profile has an “Actor” role tag, for example, it’s no good only adding a “Lead Actor” role tag to the project – the “Actor” tag would remain grey in that case (although we do have upgrades coming up that will “associate” similar tags…).

Each role tag only has to be matched once, however, so there’s nothing stopping you from, for example, adding both “Actor” and “Lead Actor” to your profile role tags, then “Lead Actor” to one project and just “Actor” to another.

As well as being displayed on the profile itself, this experience is shown anywhere that the profile is listed – in particular, on the main “People with Skills” listing and on the team listing/credits on a project detail page.

Naturally, those profiles that demonstrate experience in a particular role are more likely to attract further investigation than those that don’t. Cahootify will also show experienced people in search results above the inexperienced.

(Note, however, that Cahootify gives no hierarchy to level of experience – those that have marked themselves as “aspiring” will appear alongside “established professionals” unless the searcher has actively chosen to filter by one or the other.)

In short, green is better. Go green!

All articles about role tags…
All support documentation…

How to credit someone else on a project you added (and why you should)

Once you’ve created a project, you can credit another person on that project then invite them to confirm their place on the team. You can do this whether the person in question currently has a Cahootify account or not. This benefits your colleague by offering them an effortless way to increase their exposure and it benefits you by providing everyone with another pathway to discovering you (i.e. via your colleague once they’ve joined).

To get started, go through to the project detail page and click on the “Credit team member” link at the top of the section titled “Credits”. (For projects still in progress the link is labeled “I’m working on this project” and the list is titled “On board”. For mobile screen sizes there’s just a plus button.)

The first thing you’re asked to do is type the name of the person you wish to credit then click/tap on the “Search” button. If Cahootify recognises the name then that person’s (or company’s) profile will be offered to you as an option.

If you recognise a profile presented to you, click/tap on the “This is my team member” button.

If no profiles are presented, or you don’t recognise those that are, enter the person’s name and email address at the base of the form then click/tap on the button labeled “Next -> Create invitation”.

Whether you’ve just selected an existing Cahootify subscriber or you’re in the process of inviting someone new, you’ll next be presented with a form that allows you to complete the invitation. Make sure you add at least one role tag for the role this person delivered on the project. You can then either just click/tap the button labeled “Send invitation” or you can first add your own personal note. (If the person you’re inviting isn’t yet a Cahootify subscriber, we advise you to add a note so that they know they’re not being spammed by some unknown company.) You can preview your invitation message before continuing.

As soon as you’ve clicked/tapped the “Send invitation” button…

  1. Your colleague will be shown in a “provisional” format on the team list. If they’re already a Cahootify subscriber their profile will be shown as normal but with the word “UNCONFIRMED” next to their name. If you’re inviting someone new they’ll be shown greyed out, with no photo, and with the word “UNCLAIMED” next to their name.

  1. Cahootify will mail out an invitation to your colleague that looks something like this (with the addition of your personal note if you’ve added one)…

  1. When your colleague clicks on the link in that email, they’ll be taken directly to the project detail page where they’ll be able to either confirm their place (we hope!) or if they prefer, decline to be shown:

On confirming the credit, their team listing goes technicolor and the project is added to their profile portfolio. Those accepting a Cahootify invitation for the first time will immediately have a profile with just your project on it – a profile they can then expand on if they wish. (In the unlikely event that they decline your credit, they’ll simply disappear from the team list.)

For colleagues that are already Cahootify subscribers, if they don’t notice or respond to the invitation email, they’ll still see your project labeled as “Unconfirmed” on their own profile (only they can see this) until they link through to the project and either accept or decline the credit.

Cahootify Credits and “Automagic” Project Versions

Cahootify is structured like IMDb in that multiple people – cast and crew – can be credited on a project. However, it’s much better than IMDb (though we say so ourselves…) in that each person or company on a project can then create their own version of that project – one where all the info is completely unique to them. This happens “automagically” without anyone even needing to think about it.

This means that, for example, if you’ve worked with a team of people on a series of projects, only one of you has to create each project and you can all easily have profiles that look fantastic. If you wish, you can then further tailor the project info in your own portfolio without impacting anyone else.

I’ve just explained how to credit someone else on your project. Link through for:

  1. How to credit yourself on someone else’s project (and why that’s OK).
  2. Project versioning described in a little more detail.

All support documentation…

Introducing major new features for actors!

We’ve just introduced a range of enhancements for actors and performers.

The first follows on from our recent article introducing supertags. If, when adding or editing a role tag, you enter “Actor” then an extra set of fields will appear to ask for your key vital statistics. (This also works for “Actress”, “Model”, “Dancer”, “Extra” and a wide range of other performer tags – let us know if it doesn’t work for a tag you want to enter and we’ll add that for you!)

These vital statistics then appear in the “More information” section of your profile. They also appear if someone clicks/taps on the role tag itself.

Not available at time of writing but coming soon, we’ll be introducing enhancements to the profile search page that allow for the filtering of profiles by these new “performer vital statistics”. Here’s a sneak preview of what we’re working on:

Finally, you can now credit the part you played on a project (e.g. “Desdemona”), not just the role tag (e.g. “Actor”). Again this works for the full range of performer role tags.

This “part played” then appears in your project portfolio as well as in the list of credits on the project detail page.

More articles about role tags…
All support documentation…

Introducing CAHOOTIFY supertags!

We’ve just introduced some enhancements to our “role tags”, which you create or edit from your “edit profile” form.

Role tags are no longer just a simple list of terms – you can now enter further information on each role.

In particular, let me draw your attention to the “Career stage in this role” field. We introduced this because we found that, at both ends of the experience spectrum, people were uneasy with well-established professionals appearing alongside those that were just getting started. In particular, and to our initial surprise, many inexperienced people (e.g. first year students) felt embarrassed about stating, for example, that they were a “Director” when they’d only played that role on one student film.

It’s completely up to you where you want to pitch yourself – we know there are many highly experienced students!

More supertag enhancements for actors…
All articles about role tags…
All support documentation…