Track animals across a production
The hero dog, the horses, the pigeons in scene 14 — inventoried with photos, handler details and the scenes they are booked for, so welfare and wrangling can be scheduled properly.
Animals are the one warehouse item with a duty of care attached. Everything else on the list can wait in a truck; an animal needs a wrangler, a welfare officer, limits on hours, and often a double.
SceneMatch inventories them the same way as props and vehicles, which means the scheduling question — which days do we need them — is answerable from the same place.
One entry, many scenes
Animals live in the production's warehouse. Each has a name, photos and its own page.
Photographs matter more here than for most inventory: an animal that has to match across a shoot is identified by markings, and "brown dog" will not settle an argument on the day.
Keep handler and wrangler details in the description. There is no dedicated field for them, and the description travels with the animal wherever it is referenced — so the contact for the horses is attached to the horses rather than living in someone's phone.
Which scenes, and therefore which days
Open an animal and use Edit Scenes to attach it to everything it appears in. Animals are usually booked for a run rather than a single scene, so attach the whole block at once — you can pick several straight off the list.
Once those scenes are on shooting days, the schedule shows which days need a wrangler, which is the information welfare planning actually runs on.
Animals belonging to a character
An animal created from a character's own Animals page belongs to that character — the character's dog rather than the production's livestock. It is then only offered that character's scenes, and attaches to the character within the scene.
Exports
- The whole animal list — for the wrangler, and for anyone arranging welfare cover.
- A single animal — its sheet, with photos and description.
- A character's animals — from the character page.
The thing that is not obvious
Animals share the props department for access control. There is no separate animal department: edit rights on props govern animals and vehicles too. If the person coordinating animals cannot change the list, their department is the reason — see roles and departments.
A practical note on scheduling
Because an animal's days are derived from its scenes, moving a scene between shooting days automatically moves the animal's requirement with it. Nothing needs re-entering — but it does mean the animal list is only as accurate as the scene attachments, so it is worth attaching scenes properly at the point the animal is booked rather than after.