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Tools of the Trade / How to best use Dropbox?
« on: Aug 04, 2011, 10:03 am »
Greetings all 
Our production department just announced that we will begin utilizing Dropbox this season. They will store design research, drawings, model photos, etc. for each show in a folder shared with that show's production staff. I can see how that would be handy. What is not clear to me yet is how Stage Management could take advantage of the features that Dropbox offers.
-We could contribute the Production Calendar and Contact Sheet
-What would be the advantage of putting our daily paperwork (Daily Call, Rehearsal Report, Performance Report) on Dropbox when we email those documents to everyone involved anyways? Just seems like an extra step.
-I was thinking it could be useful to store the Master Prop List, Costume Plot, etc. in the shared folder so that those departments could get an up to date look at those documents as they're being developed. Also, they could then contribute information to that paperwork as they come across info from their respective designers, etc.
BUT, here are my questions about that:
-I know when I'm creating the Master Prop List, I have that document open on my laptop for the entire rehearsal. If I have the document open and the Prop Master goes and edits it, Dropbox will save it as a separate conflicting copy because 2 versions of the document are open/being edited at the same time. That's what I've read anyways, I haven't actually done this yet. That seems like it would create extra work to go and figure out what edits from the 2 documents you want to keep and merge them. I don't think it's a realistic solution to have me switch to opening/closing that document every time I want to update or reference it during rehearsal and hope that the Prop Master isn't editing it at those same times. How do you maintain sufficient access and version control with Dropbox? Is this even a worthwhile idea?
How has Dropbox been helpful for you?? I'd love to know!
Thanks kindly
Our production department just announced that we will begin utilizing Dropbox this season. They will store design research, drawings, model photos, etc. for each show in a folder shared with that show's production staff. I can see how that would be handy. What is not clear to me yet is how Stage Management could take advantage of the features that Dropbox offers.
-We could contribute the Production Calendar and Contact Sheet
-What would be the advantage of putting our daily paperwork (Daily Call, Rehearsal Report, Performance Report) on Dropbox when we email those documents to everyone involved anyways? Just seems like an extra step.
-I was thinking it could be useful to store the Master Prop List, Costume Plot, etc. in the shared folder so that those departments could get an up to date look at those documents as they're being developed. Also, they could then contribute information to that paperwork as they come across info from their respective designers, etc.
BUT, here are my questions about that:
-I know when I'm creating the Master Prop List, I have that document open on my laptop for the entire rehearsal. If I have the document open and the Prop Master goes and edits it, Dropbox will save it as a separate conflicting copy because 2 versions of the document are open/being edited at the same time. That's what I've read anyways, I haven't actually done this yet. That seems like it would create extra work to go and figure out what edits from the 2 documents you want to keep and merge them. I don't think it's a realistic solution to have me switch to opening/closing that document every time I want to update or reference it during rehearsal and hope that the Prop Master isn't editing it at those same times. How do you maintain sufficient access and version control with Dropbox? Is this even a worthwhile idea?
How has Dropbox been helpful for you?? I'd love to know!
Thanks kindly