Cinewright Budgeting and Scheduling · Mac · Bought once
Film budgeting and scheduling software for Mac
The production office, from studio features and series to commercials, documentaries and shorts. Script breakdown, production stripboard and budget, linked: move a strip and see what it costs before you let go. A real desktop app: dense, fast and keyboard-first.
Finished, and launching through Kickstarter in late 2026 or early 2027. Not on sale yet.
What it does
Script breakdown
Scripts from Final Draft (with breakdown tags), Fountain, Fade In, Highland and PDF, scanned pages too
Scene headings in any of the 16 languages; series with scripts per episode
New drafts compared scene by scene before anything changes, with revision colours
Find and Replace across strips, breakdown and budget, every change previewed
Shot lists and storyboards per scene, with shot lines on the script page
No script needed for commercials, documentaries, interviews, concerts and live events
Production stripboard and shooting schedule
Colour-coded film stripboard: drag, keyboard or menu, with day breaks and banners
While you drag a strip, what dropping it there would do to the budget and the shoot days
Smart Schedule keeps cast days and locations together, with a preview first
Several boards per production, compared side by side; second units checked for clashes
Day Out of Days, and a calendar with public holidays, sunrise and sunset warnings
Labour rule packs for the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Australia and New Zealand, including minors’ hours, as warnings with sources
Whole seasons: episodes, blocks and several directors, with clashes checked across the season
Units with their own call sheets and production reports; each actor’s rest checked as strips are dragged
Production budget
Templates for features, low budget, commercials, documentaries, shorts, TV episodes and music videos
Formulas, globals and schedule-linked values, so the budget follows the board
Fringes with cutoffs and dated rate changes; built-in crew and cast rate packs
Funder forms in each funder’s own numbers and layout
Every total checked a second, independent way on every save and export
Explain This Number and Why Did This Number Change?
Plans A, B and C side by side; the budget in another currency at your own rates
Every built-in figure editable per production, shown as Default or Changed by you
Commercials in AICP-style A–X sections with client billing
Money and financing
Financing plan with confirmed, applied-for and hoped-for sources, and the gap
141 incentive programmes in 70 jurisdictions, each with its official source and the date checked (figures taken October 2026; check against current rates before relying on them)
Cost reports with estimate to complete, variance and reasons
Cash flow week by week; purchase orders and petty cash with receipts
Budget approval with signatures, and the Producer’s Package as one PDF
Bank statements and payroll registers compared (never calculated); a posting history that is never trimmed
The Bond Package and an early warning for completion guarantors (labelled a forecast)
Call sheets and the office
Call sheets with revisions, crew and cast versions, the nearest hospital and safety notes
Call sheets in each person’s own language
People, deal memos, timecards, performer time reports and department sign-off
Locations, permits, insurance certificates, releases and clearances
Crew availability and holds across all your productions
Safety and legal records: hazards, meetings, credentials and the minors’ daily record (records only)
Union paperwork deadlines, travel, publicity, art department and documentary records
Wrap and delivery
Wrap Book: the production’s closing record as a bookmarked binder PDF, safety records filtered for each recipient
Post schedule with the DGA’s cut periods worked out from your shoot days, ADR lists and session notices you send
Delivery per recipient with QC and acceptance; delivery lists for Netflix built from its public partner help pages (check the current page)
Music cue sheets from the locked cut’s EDL or XML; VFX bids, money, exposures and hand-offs
Every report as PDF, Excel, CSV or a web page
Files in and out
Bring your work with you, and take it with you when you leave.
Scripts in: Final Draft (.fdx, with tags), Fountain, Fade In, Highland, Celtx, PDF and scans
Schedules in: Movie Magic Scheduling breakdown exports and .sex exchange files; Gorilla schedule and breakdown exports; one-liners and call sheets from PDF, scans, CSV and Excel
Budgets in: Movie Magic Budgeting XML, EP Vista XML and text; Showbiz Budgeting .ubx and CSV; Gorilla budget exports; Excel budgets
Out: Final Draft (.fdx) with tags; a scheduling exchange (.sex) file (beta); Movie Magic Budgeting XML (beta); PDF, Excel, CSV, web pages and calendar files
A published file format, and Export Everything, so your work is never locked in
Coming from another program
An alternative to Movie Magic Budgeting, Movie Magic Scheduling and Gorilla, bought once. Tours inside the app for people who know other scheduling and budgeting software: each step names the other program’s word and shows where Cinewright’s is. Side by side: Movie Magic, Gorilla and Showbiz.
Coming from Movie Magic (12 steps), Gorilla (7 steps) and Showbiz (5 steps), in Help ▸ Tutorials and on the welcome screen
An optional Movie Magic–style key set in Settings ▸ Keyboard; Cinewright’s own shortcuts never change
Search Everything (⌘K) understands the words other programs use
Send each shoot day to the phones and iPads: calls, scenes, shot list and places
Progress, actual times and takes come back, with the projected wrap date
A shared production folder on the cloud service you already use, or live on the set’s network
Shared editing (beta): several people on one production at once, with no server and no accounts
Department heads approve budgets, timecard hours and POs on their phones
Bought once, yours to keep
Budgeting and Scheduling for Mac is $299, bought once, with no subscription, no account and no sign-in. Each licence is for one person on two computers, in any mix of Mac and Windows (Windows included when it ships). Budgeting and Scheduling for Windows is in development.
On Kickstarter in late 2026 or early 2027: $199, or $149 for the first 300 backers. After the campaign: $249 for owners of Cinewright Pro on iPhone and iPad, 5 seats for $1,199, and an Education licence for $99. Prices in US dollars. See every price and Kickstarter tier.
Without a licence, the whole app works on the sample production and one real production of your own, with no time limit.
CW Office for iPad and Cinewright Reader are free, so the rest of the office and the crew can open the same production.
Movie Magic, Gorilla and Showbiz are trademarks of their respective owners. Movie Magic Budgeting and Movie Magic Scheduling are products of Entertainment Partners; Gorilla is a product of Jungle Software; Showbiz Budgeting is sold by Cast & Crew LLC. Cinewright is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by these companies. Comparisons are based on information published on each company’s own website as of 21 October 2026. Cinewright™ is a trademark of Damon Winters.
Cinewright™