Over the course of our Indiegogo campaign for IMVDb Production, I've been writing about some of the features we have planned. Today I'm going to talk about one feature that very nearly didn't make it into the feature list: IMVDb Shoots.

Internally, we see call sheets for music videos fairly frequently. There must be a lot of call sheet software out there because I am not exaggerating in the least when I say that every single call sheet we've ever seen has looked different than every other one. They are like snowflakes - no two alike.

Call sheets are also interesting to us since they essentially display the data that we collect. Much of it we ignore (like weather information, emergency info, etc), but we've frequently looked at call sheets and dreamed of a system that integrates with IMVDb. Its a daunting task, and one that we almost decided to just leave alone. We decide to take on the challenge, though, and we added a feature called "IMVDb Shoots" to IMVDb Production version 1.

The concept behind IMVDb shoots is very simple: in IMVDb Production you create and manage projects, and in each project you can create "shoots". You can think of projects like a specific video (they can be tied to artists if you'd like to, but it isn't necessary), and "shoots" being individual shoots needed to complete the project.

You can add crew to your project, using the IMVDb database's linking/autocomplete feature to see if who you are looking for uses IMVDb Production. If they do, we'll use the database to fill in as much profile data as that user has made available for use in the app, including contact email and phone number. You can even publish that data right to the IMVDb website as an in-production database entry.

Once you have your project set up, you can create "shoots", which are essentially call sheets integrated into IMVDb. You can enter in all the normal call sheet information (locations, notes, times, etc.), and we'll pull in weather and other information we can find as well. Other IMVDb Production members will be able to access shoots that they are listed on, and you'll get a private link you can send out as well for anyone else you want to share the shoot data with.

There are a lot of production applications with call sheet functionality, but IMVDb Production has the potential to integrate very tightly into a wealth of helpful data, utilizing all of the functionality and technology that we've developed at IMVDb to make starting the process of making a music video at imvdb.com make as much sense as ending it with submitting your credits.

This will, like everything in IMVDb Production, be completely free, so maybe most importantly, this organizing will be available to companies running large shoots to very small productions with just a few people. With so much size and variation in music video budgets, we're excited about being able to bring an advanced tool to everyone.

"Shoots" is definitely an experimental feature, but we believe it can work, and we need your help to get it and IMVDb Production off the ground. Make sure to head on over to our Indiegogo campaign to support the project!

Adam Fairholm is the co-founder and lead developer of IMVDb. You can find him on twitter at @adamfairholm.