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The Episode Entity

The Episode entity sits between Sequence and Project, to give studios another level of organization for their episodic workflows.

The relationship between Shots and Episodes isn't direct, which might seem counterintuitive to some clients. We link Shots to Sequences in a one-to-many relationship (that is, a Shot can only be linked to one Sequence) and we link Sequences to Episodes in a one-to-many relationship (a Sequence can only be linked to one Episode).

Episode schema

We decided on this schema because we observed most studios using a Project > Episode > Sequence > Shot hierarchy rather than just Project > Episode > Shot. (In the case of studios using Project > Episode > Shot, they tended to use the Sequence entity as a substitute for Episode.)

Even though Shots aren't directly linked to Episodes, because of the way that they're linked to Sequences (and in turn Sequences are linked to Episodes), you can still show the Episode value on the Shots page and use it to group and filter your shots.

To show the Episode name on Shots, navigate to a page of Shots, and then to Linked Fields: Sequence > Episode.

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To show Episode fields on Shots, navigate to a page of Shots, and then to Linked Fields: Sequence > Linked Fields: Episode > {episode fields}.

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Adding tabs to the Episode detail view

Out of the box, the Episode detail view only includes a couple of tabs. You might want to add some more. Ideas to populate the detail view with include:

  • Shots
  • Assets
  • Sequences
  • Versions

A word about Episode naming

In the case of identical Sequence names, one way to avoid confusion is to prefix the Sequence name with the Episode number. For example, if you had the SATL sequence in Episode one and two, the Sequence names become:

  • ‘e01_SATL' and
  • ‘e02_SATL’.

Moving down the schema, we'd advise a similar method when naming Shots, so Shots within each Sequence become e01_SATL_s0010, e02_SATL_s0010, etc.

Using this naming convention, you'll always have unique names for your Sequences and Shots within your project.

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