17 Best Remote Production Apps Used By Hollywood In 2024

Unless you live on a private island (which if you do, congratulations!) you’ve probably had to make the transition to working from home. This can be a bit of a culture shock for an industry that is so used to bouncing ideas off each other. While nothing can beat the energy of working with your team, there are plenty of production apps to help us all get through this time and keep working. Here are the must-have remote production apps for Hollywood.

Zoom burst onto the scene this month with video and audio calls, instant screen sharing, and cross-platform instant messaging – for free. With Zoom you can invite up to 100 people to join you on video! Connect with anyone on iPad, iPhone, other mobile devices, Windows, Mac, Zoom Rooms, H.323/SIP room systems, and telephones. Zoom also has fun virtual backgrounds, co-annotating on screen sharing, and real-time whiteboard collaboration.

The #1 app used on thousands of productions worldwide is now Hollywood’s go-to software to read and mark up scripts from home.

Created by writers’ assistant turned TV writer Steve Vitolo, Scriptation is a PDF annotation app for your Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Windows device that allows you to read scripts, make notes, share notes, and even intelligently transfer those notes into new script revisions.

Scriptation’s collaborative Layers feature is the perfect work-from-home tool, allowing you to keep multiple sets of notes on a single PDF script and toggle them on/off just like a layer in Photoshop. Most importantly, you can share Layers with other users. There’s no need to juggle between two or three PDFs of the same script. Instead, you view multiple users’ notes on a single PDF.

You can get started with Scriptation for free in the App Store.

Miro is the online collaborative whiteboard platform that enables teams to work together, from brainstorming with digital sticky notes to planning and managing agile workflows. You can easily digitize handwritten sticky notes, add them to an online whiteboard, invite your team to collaborate just like on a physical whiteboard, upload images, docs, spreadsheets, and more to an infinite canvas.

Slack is a team communication platform that allows you to create chat threads for specific teams, projects, or topics. Tag people into conversations with a quick @ sign and direct ideas for separate threads with a # topic. For example, you might have an idea for casting, and be able to quickly “#casting” without leaving your current conversation. And Slack has a complete archive so you can quickly search through all messages to find old ideas and conversations. Slack also has document sharing and calling abilities. Integrate into your workflow, the tools and services you already use including Google Drive, Salesforce, Dropbox, Asana, Twitter, Zendesk, and more.

Trello is the project management system that lets you track goals through boards, lists, and cards. Track tasks and a project’s overall progress with checklists, labels, due dates, and assign them to members of your team.

WriterDuet is a favorite screenwriting software among many in the industry because it was built for collaboration with features like real-time co-writing and in-app text and video chat. Work between different devices, visualize your outline with index cards, organize with custom tags, and more. And, WriterDuet has auto-sync capabilities so you can go from desktop to mobile device without missing a beat.

Everyone hates those cumbersome email chains trying to decide upon a time for a meeting. Calendly helps you schedule meetings without the back-and-forth emails by giving your team a simple link to let you know their availability and preferences. Just share the link, get responses, and the decided upon time is automatically added to everyone’s calendars. Easy peasy.

Screen has a simple mission: make remote work simpler, more pleasant, and more productive. In addition to voice and video-conferencing, Screen has screen sharing capabilities and multiplayer drawing and control, where anyone in the meeting can draw on the shared screen and also control it with their own mouse and keyboard, together. Schedule meetings via Google Calendar and start Screen meetings from within Slack.

Asana allows you to look at everything at a glance from immediate projects to major milestones. View tasks, teammates, and progress in list form, as a timeline, or as a calendar. Create multiple boards for different areas of focus.

StudioBinder is a new way for filmmakers, production companies, and agencies to streamline their production workflow for the 21st century. Offering web-based filmmaking software, Studiobinder can create and send personalized call sheets, organize calendars, create script breakdowns, build shot lists and storyboards, develop schedules, and send all of these to cast, crew, and clients.

Basecamp boasts that they are the all-in-one app for working remotely. They’re so confident in their tools that even their team works entirely remotely. Every project includes the tools all teams need to work together; message boards, to-dos, schedules, docs, file storage, real-time group chat, and automatic check-in questions. You can rename them, turn off the ones you don’t need, or integrate with third-party tools like time trackers to tailor things to the project at hand.

Everyone knows Skype, the OG of video chatting software. Host video meetings, voice calls, chat, share media, and do it all for free via wifi. You can even call landline and mobile phone numbers and send SMS messages anywhere in the world at affordable prices using Skype.

Frame.io is a collaborative space for filmmakers and clients to work together and give feedback. No more email chains with vague time stamps. Frame.io offers time based comments and video annotations so you can draw directly on video frames to accurately communicate your feedback. Likewise, video transcoding in the cloud allows you to upload any video format and never worry about playback compatibility.

Frame.io also features version control so you can see all of your past versions of projects and Comment Replay, which loops a 4 second range around any comment so you can get a sense of what it means in context.

Join.Me is a hosting platform for conference calls and video meetings. Chat, collaborate on whiteboards, share documents or your screen, record a meeting, give presentations with several presenters, and access anywhere from your computer, iPhone, or iPad.

Use Doodle to find the best time for any event. Suggest a number of times and invite participants to select their preferences. You can get a consensus without all the hassle.