Call sheet vs shooting schedule: what each one is for

The shooting schedule is the plan for the whole shoot. The call sheet is the instruction for one day of it. The schedule is made weeks ahead and changes as the production changes; a call sheet is issued the day before and tells a specific group of people where to be, when, and what happens there. One is drawn from the other, never the other way round.

Side by side

What the shooting schedule is for

The schedule turns the script into days. It groups scenes by location, then by lighting state and cast, and puts them in the order that wastes the least time: everything at one location before the company moves, everything in daylight while the daylight lasts, everything with the child actor before their hours run out. It is almost never script order.

A useful schedule carries, for every day:

• The scenes, with a slugline, a page count in eighths and the cast numbers in each.
• An estimate of how long each scene takes to shoot, from setups rather than pages alone.
• The company moves, meal and breaks, as blocks of time rather than gaps.
• An estimated wrap, labelled as an estimate.

Its readers are the people who plan: the producer checks it against the budget, the DP against the light, the location manager against permits. The guide to shooting schedules goes through the arithmetic.

What the call sheet is for

The call sheet is the schedule for one day, rewritten for people who were not in the planning meetings. A runner, a day player and the client all read it, often on a phone, often in a car. So it leads with the things they need first:

• Crew call, big, at the top, with individual call times further down for anyone who differs.
• Where: the location address, unit base and parking, which are often three different places.
• The day’s scenes, in shooting order, with the cast needed for each.
• The meal, when and for how long.
• Safety: the nearest hospital with emergency care, and any hazards on the day.
• Contacts for the producer and AD, plus weather and sunrise or sunset for exteriors.

What goes on a call sheet, block by block, and a free call sheet maker if you need one for tomorrow.

How one becomes the other

1. The script is broken down: scenes, locations, cast and anything special.
2. The 1st AD builds the shooting schedule from the breakdown and the locations.
3. The schedule is locked, as much as a schedule ever is, before the first shoot day.
4. Each evening, the day’s actual progress updates the schedule, and tomorrow’s call sheet is issued from it.

Step four is where productions come apart. If today ran an hour over and a scene slipped, tomorrow’s call sheet has to know. When the schedule lives in a spreadsheet and the call sheet in a document, somebody retypes the day at 10pm, tired, and the call time that goes out is yesterday’s plan.

Rules of thumb that belong on both

• The meal falls around six hours after crew call on most agreements. Schedule it rather than discover it.
• Leave around eleven hours between wrap and the next call. A late wrap costs the following morning too.
• A company move is rarely under half an hour. It is a block, not a gap.
• Exteriors go where the light is. Sunset does not move.

Check the rules that actually apply to your production: union agreements and local law set the real numbers, and they differ by country and by department.

On a small shoot, do you need both?

On a one-day shoot the schedule and the call sheet can be the same page, as long as it answers the call sheet questions first. From two days up, keep them separate: the schedule for the people planning, a call sheet each day for everyone else. The pre-production checklist puts both in the order they are due.