Concepts — the philosophy behind every screen

Read this first. The screens make a lot more sense once you understand the four ideas underneath them.

Co-Pilot, not Autopilot

Grace is built to help film professionals do their job faster — not to replace their judgment. The script you upload, the scenes Grace breaks out, the rates Grace suggests on the budget: these are all first drafts. You're the editor. Grace does the typing; you decide what's right.

The whole interface is designed around this idea. When Grace suggests something, it's clearly marked as Grace's suggestion. When you change it, the marker flips. The system never silently overwrites human work, and never claims authority it hasn't earned. The film industry handles confidential scripts, $50M+ budgets, and union contracts — AI autonomy isn't acceptable here, and we don't pretend otherwise.

If that framing matters to you, you're in the right tool. If you wanted a robot to make production decisions for you, you'll be disappointed.

The dot system

Every editable value in Grace has a tiny dot next to it. The color tells you who put it there.

  • 🔵 Blue — Grace suggested it. Could be from script parsing (cast pulled from your screenplay), a rate card (LA IATSE day rate), an industry default (15-minute hair and makeup for a clean shave), or AI inference (this looks like a VFX shot). Blue values are visible and editable — they're a starting point, not a commitment.
  • 🟡 Gold — A human entered or changed this. The moment you touch a blue value, it turns gold. Once gold, Grace doesn't second-guess it.
  • 🟢 Green — Verified from a signed document. Deal memos, executed contracts, signed exhibits. Green values are locked from further edits — the source of truth lives in the document.

The dot system is the trust layer. It exists so a producer scanning a budget can see at a glance which numbers came from the system and which a human stood behind. It exists in every module that mixes Grace and human input: breakdown, budget, schedule, timecards, character looks, call sheets, the works.

When you see a blue value, that's an invitation: "I took my best guess — does this match what you know?"

Role tiers

Grace's permission system has three tiers, plus owner. Every role you can assign falls into one of them.

  • T1 (full access) — Producer / UPM. They run the production at the top level; they see and edit everything.
  • T2 (curated) — Director, AD, DP, Script Supervisor, VFX Supervisor, Camera Operator, Department Heads. Each role gets a tailored set of permissions — for example, DPs can read scenes but write shots; Script Sups can read schedule but write continuity. Producers can grant additional permissions per crew member ("DP also needs access to the vault") via per-section overrides.
  • T3 (minimal) — Other crew, cast, cast guardians. By default they see only their own call time and today's scenes. Producers can grant additional read access if a specific person needs it (e.g., set decorator viewing locations).
  • Owner — Singleton per organization. The owner is whoever created the org (and is on the Stripe billable account); they always have full access. There is no transfer flow — each Grace org has exactly one permanent owner. If you need a new owner you create a new org.

T1 producers can invite anyone, customize anyone's access, and unlink anyone. T2 directors and DPs cannot. T3 crew can do their own work but can't see (or change) anyone else's.

See Access control & role tiers for the full matrix.

The beachhead user: the 1st AD

This isn't a permission tier — it's a product strategy. Grace is built around the 1st AD's workflow first because the AD is the production member who feels the most daily pain: they assemble the call sheet every night, manage minor hours and turnaround compliance, run the set clock, and field a thousand questions per day from every department.

Every call sheet Grace generates is Grace-branded. Every department head who receives one sees Grace as the source. The 1st AD wins → the rest of the crew gets exposed → adoption follows. That's why so much of the app's depth lives in the call-sheet + set-dashboard flow.

If you're an AD, this entire system is shaped around your workflow. If you're another role, you're benefiting from the AD's adoption — the call sheet you receive each morning was built faster, with fewer errors, on Grace.

The design system

Grace's interface uses a deliberately stripped-down film-industry aesthetic. A few conventions to know:

Light theme — what you see in screenshots. The dark theme is also available (toggle in your user menu).

Colors with meaning:

  • Gold (#D4A843) — accents, calls-to-action, "approved by the AD" cues
  • Green — captured / wrapped / approved
  • Red — danger, compliance violations, archive
  • Orange — company move, attention-needed
  • Purple — pre-pro layer (shot list, VFX), schedule strips

Strip colors (in the schedule and set dashboard):

  • 🔵 Blue — INT DAY
  • 🟢 Green — EXT DAY
  • 🟣 Purple — INT NIGHT
  • 🟠 Orange — EXT NIGHT

Monospace labels — Courier New for numbers, scene numbers, labels. Helps the eye scan tables and ensures times like 06:45 always line up.

Fonts — Segoe UI for body, Courier New for monospace labels.

How the rest of the docs are organized

Now that you know the philosophy:

  • Quickstarts per role for 2-minute orientations
  • Workflows for "I'm about to do X, walk me through it"
  • Reference for "tell me everything about how Y works"

If you forget something, the README is the index.