Where spreadsheets come in
Most productions already have a sheet before they have software: a crew contact list the UPM started in prep, a location scout's tracker with addresses and day rates, a rental house quote pasted into Excel. This import gets those into Storiara without retyping. It works from a downloaded file: Storiara has no live connection to Google Sheets, Excel online, or any other spreadsheet app.
What each import accepts
The importer reads the first worksheet of an XLSX file, or the whole CSV, and treats row 1 as headers. It then maps your columns to these fields.
| Page | Fields it can fill | Needed on every row |
|---|---|---|
| Locations | Name, INT / EXT / INT/EXT, description, address, time of day, estimated fee, fee unit, scene numbers | Name and type |
| Cast | First name, last name, email, phone, union affiliation, union contract, daily rate, weekly rate, rate unit | First and last name |
| Crew | Same as cast, plus role | First name, last name, role |
| Equipment | Name, category (Camera, Lenses, Lighting, Sound, Grip, Other), description, estimated rate, rate unit | Name and category |
Fee and rate units are per day, per week, per hour, per use, or purchase for locations and gear. For cast and crew they're per day, per week, per hour, or per project.
Scene numbers on a locations sheet are matched to Storiara's scene numbers, so a row listing "4, 11, 12" links the location to those scenes. Remember that Storiara numbers scenes in script order, which may not match a locked shooting script.
Header names don't have to match. The mapper is told to handle variations like "First Name" or "Email Address", to turn "1,2,3" or "Scene 1" into scene numbers, and to normalize equipment categories. Say a crew sheet has the headers "First", "Last", "Position", "Cell", and "Day Rate". You'd expect "Position" to land in role, "Cell" in phone, and "Day Rate" in daily rate, with values like "$650" converted to 650. Because an AI does the matching, read the review table before importing, especially on sheets with unusual headers.
Importing a file
- Open the page you're importing into: Locations, Equipment, or the Cast or Crew tab of Cast & Crew.
- Click the upload icon next to the add button. Its tooltip reads, for example, Upload crew from CSV/XLSX.
- In the Upload Crew Data dialog (the name changes by page), click Click to upload or drag and drop and choose the file.
- Click Parse File. The summary shows Total Rows, Successfully Mapped, and Needs Review, plus any Warnings.
- In the table, untick rows you don't want and use the trash icon to drop junk rows such as subtotal lines. Rows with problems show Fix, which opens the normal cast, crew, or equipment form.
- Click Import with the count shown, for example Import 23 Items. Only rows that are selected and marked Valid are imported.
The how-to for importing contacts walks the Cast & Crew version with a sample sheet.
Limits
- CSV and XLSX only. Old .xls workbooks get past the file picker, but the reader expects the newer format, so save as .xlsx first.
- One worksheet per file (the first). Move the tab you need to the front.
- Imports add records. Nothing is updated or merged, and duplicates aren't detected.
- Imported cast and crew don't receive availability requests automatically, and cast aren't assigned to characters. Do both after import.
- Location rows with errors can't be fixed inside the dialog. Correct the file and upload it again.
- Parsing counts as an AI feature. On the free Beginner plan it draws on the monthly AI allowance, and "Upgrade Required" appears when that allowance is used up.
- There is no export back to CSV or XLSX from these pages.
Troubleshooting
- "Excel file has no column headers" means row 1 is empty or holds a title like "CREW LIST - THE LONG DRIVE". Delete the title rows so headers sit in row 1.
- "No data rows found in file" appears when the sheet has headers but every row below is blank, or when your data is on a second tab.
- If rows are split in odd places from a CSV, a cell probably contains a line break (common in address and notes columns). Remove the line breaks or upload the XLSX instead.
- When many crew rows come back needing review, the role column is usually missing or empty. Add it and parse again.
- To bring in a single actor with a headshot, Backstage import is faster than a one-row sheet.