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Breakdown

Import scene timings from Excel

Use an Excel file (.xlsx) to update Shooting Time and Screen Time for many scenes in one operation. The import is episode-scoped and matches rows to the latest production scene number, so you do not need to select scenes first.

Before you start

  • You are a project Owner or Admin and have armed Edit mode in Breakdown.
  • Choose the episode to import in the import dialog. Its latest production-ready scenes supply the template and matching scene numbers. A project with a single episode selects it automatically; an All Episodes Breakdown view does not infer an episode for this import.
  • Timing values in the file are whole minutes. Screen Time is stored as minutes and seconds, so 90 minutes is shown as 90:00. The longest Screen Time is 599 minutes.

Download the template

  1. Open Breakdown → Breakdowns.
  2. Open Actions and choose Import timings (Excel).
  3. In Bulk import timings (Excel), choose the episode, then select Download Excel template.

The template is an .xlsx workbook with one row per current scene of the selected episode and these columns:

Column Purpose
scene_number The scene to update. Required on every row that has a timing value.
shooting_duration_minutes New Shooting Time in whole minutes.
scene_time_minutes New Screen Time in whole minutes.

Keep scene_number plus at least one timing column in the header. Leave a timing cell empty when that field should remain unchanged. Rows with no timing values are skipped, so you can leave the rows you don’t change as they are.

Preview and apply the import

  1. Fill in the template and save it, keeping the Excel (.xlsx) format. The first sheet is imported. CSV files and older .xls workbooks are not accepted.
  2. Return to Bulk import timings (Excel) and select Pick Excel file.
  3. Select Preview changes.
  4. Review the Will update count, each before-and-after value, and any row errors.
  5. If the file or the preview has errors, Apply stays disabled. Correct the file and select Pick another file. SceneItAll applies the batch only when every row is valid; nothing is saved otherwise.
  6. Select Apply.

Picking another file or changing the episode clears the previous preview, so you always apply what you last previewed. Row numbers in error messages match the rows in your spreadsheet, with the header as row 1.

A success message reports how many scenes were updated, and the Breakdown reloads the new timing values. Rows whose values already match the scene are not included in the change count.

Fix common errors

  • Scene not found — make sure the number exactly matches a current scene in the selected episode. A template downloaded for another episode will not match.
  • Must be a whole number of minutes — enter a plain whole number, such as 45. Decimals (1.5), negative numbers, and m:ss or time-formatted cells are not accepted.
  • Must be between 0 and … minutes — the value is longer than SceneItAll records for that field.
  • Appears more than once in the file — keep one row per scene.
  • Ambiguous scene number — update that scene individually; the importer will not guess between duplicate production scene numbers.
  • Nothing to update — confirm at least one timing cell contains a different whole-minute value.