Scene Cards

Scene Cards is a deck of index cards that becomes the film’s structure. Each card is a scene, numbered in order, and the cards are connected so the shape of the film is always visible.

Create a Scene Cards board

1. Open Whiteboards and choose New Whiteboard.
2. Choose Scene Cards: Map your film, scene by scene.
3. Choose how many scenes to start with: 40, 70 or 100, or Custom.
4. Choose Create Scene Board.

The cards are laid out ten to a row, so 001, 011 and 021 line up in the first column and you can find a scene by its number. 100 is the most you can start with; you can keep adding cards on the board.

Read a card

A full card shows its number, title, description, characters, place, references and a link to its Script scene. As you zoom out, cards show their number and title, then just the number, so the shape of the film stays readable.

Sequence and connections

• Sequence connectors are drawn automatically from card order: solid lines that run from one card to the next and return along the gutter at the end of each row.
• Manual connections are dashed and curved. Draw one from a selected card’s handle to show a branch, an echo or a callback.

The two never look alike, so a manual connection can’t make the main sequence ambiguous.

Change the order

Moving a card around the canvas never renumbers it. To change its place in the sequence, deliberately:

• drag the card’s number tab;
• choose Move in sequence… from its menu;
• or press ⌥ ⌘ ← or → (Alt Ctrl on Windows).

Cards still in the grid flow to their new places; cards you placed yourself stay put.

Cards and the screenplay

A card can link to any Script scene. The card’s number is its place on the board; reordering cards never renumbers or reorders your screenplay.

Scene cards on any board

Scene card is also in the Add menu of any Whiteboard, not only Scene Cards boards.