SlateDesk: Film & TV Talent Submission Management — From Public Pitch Link to Structured Deal Pipeline

Production executives at studios and production companies receive submissions from dozens of agents and managers per project — each with PDF samples, video reels, cover letters, and talent bios arriving via email. Tracking which talent has been reviewed, shortlisted, flagged, or passed — and coordinating meeting scheduling — was managed manually in spreadsheets with no visibility for the representatives on the other side. Agencies and management companies needed a platform where executives could share active projects with selected representatives, receive structured submissions with all required materials, schedule meetings, manage contacts for targeted outreach, and export filtered submission reports — all in a traceable, auditable system with role-based access control.

We built SlateDesk as a full-stack SaaS platform with a five-domain architecture. The Project model captures the full production metadata: title, format, genres, development stage, deadline, network partners, production companies, showrunners, directors, writers, producers, talent, file attachments (scripts, pitch decks), distribution lists, and attributes. Status workflow covers Private → Publish → Draft → Completed → Archived → Submission Log. The internal Submission pipeline links a Client (talent) to a Project via an executive, with PDF samples and video reels, weekend_read and shortlist flags, SubmissionStatus timestamped change log, SubmissionNote with is_public flag (visible to representatives), and MeetingEmail with CKEditor-rendered rich body. The public submission system generates UUID public links per project. PublicSubmission tracks is_active, max_submissions, and submissions_used — has_remaining() gates new submissions. PublicSubmissionData stores every inbound submission in full. The contact snapshot pattern on PublicMeetingContact freezes first_name, last_name, company, and position at meeting time — preserving attendee accuracy even if the contact record changes later. Contact management supports multi-email contacts, 5-stage phone sheet workflow, tag-based segmentation, distribution lists linked to projects, and bulk Excel/CSV import with template download. The ExAgent (external agent) system shares specific projects with representatives with Full Access or View Only permission.

Django 5 + DRF API. Stripe subscriptions with three event webhooks (created/updated/deleted). JWT authentication with multi-step OTP email verification. django-ckeditor for rich-text emails. PostgreSQL multi-workspace database. React + Redux + Material UI + Vite frontend. Excel/CSV bulk import via openpyxl/csv. Contact snapshot pattern for meeting participants. UUID-based public submission URL system.