The call sheet

One page that tells a crew where to be, when, and what happens if it goes wrong. Here is everything that belongs on one, why each block is there, and a worked example nobody typed.

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What goes on one

Sixteen blocks, and what breaks without each

A call sheet is not a form. Every block on it exists because something went wrong on a shoot once and somebody wrote a line to stop it happening again.

The header: The production, the day, and where this day sits in the schedule. Day 3 of 5 is not decoration: it tells somebody arriving on their first day how much film is behind them and how tired everybody is.
Crew call: The one time everyone reads first, and it belongs at the top at a size that survives being read on a phone in a car park. Individual calls override it further down. A sheet that can only state one time for everyone is a sheet with a thread of corrections behind it.
Unit base: Where the unit meets, which is very often not where you are shooting. Separate from the location for exactly that reason.
The meal: When, how long, and whether it is hot or a bag. The second question of every shoot morning, which is why it belongs in the header as well as in the timetable. Nobody reads a schedule to find out when lunch is.
The schedule: The day as a timetable: setups, scenes, the company move, the meal, the estimated wrap. Every time on it after the call is an estimate and the sheet should say so. A stated wrap reads as a promise, and it is arithmetic.
The scenes: In shooting order, not script order. Scene number, slugline, page count, and who is in it. Shooting order is the point of the document: script order is what the script is for.
Page counts, in eighths: A page of screenplay is divided into eight, and a scene is measured in those eighths. It is the oldest estimate of the day's size in the business and it is still the fastest: 4 2/8 pages means something to a first AD that 51 seconds of planned runtime does not.
Cast, numbered: Each actor gets a number for the whole production and the scene rows print the numbers. The names go in one table with the artist, the contact and the times. On a sheet with nine speaking parts this is the difference between a scene table you can read standing up and a wall of text.
Three times per actor: Pickup, makeup and hair, on set. They are different questions with different answers, and on a prosthetics day they are three hours apart. A sheet printing only the on-set call has told somebody the wrong time.
Crew, by department: Camera together, electrical together, sound together, each with their own call where it differs. Grouped because that is how a unit thinks about itself and how somebody finds their own name.
Background: How many, when they are called, and what they turn up wearing. One line, because it is never as simple as a count and a time.
Locations: The address as the satnav needs it, how to get in, where the vans go, and what there is to plug into. Not as the script names the place: nobody has ever found a location by typing INT. WAREHOUSE into a phone.
The nearest hospital: The block nobody wants and every professional sheet carries. It belongs to the location rather than to the day, because a unit that moves at lunch changes hospitals at lunch. It should be findable without reading, because the moment it is needed is not a moment for reading.
Weather and light: The forecast, sunrise and sunset. An exterior day lives and dies by the second one, and a sheet that says the light goes at 20:04 has already answered the argument about whether scene 3 makes it.
Contacts and emergencies: Who to ring, and what to do when it goes wrong. The assembly point, the first aider, the producer's actual mobile number.
Tomorrow: The next day previewed at the foot: date, call, what and where. It answers the two questions asked at wrap, and it means nobody has to wait for tomorrow's sheet to know whether to book the babysitter.

A worked example

One day, two locations, a small unit

Nothing below was written for this page. Every time, total and page count is computed from a production document by the same code that builds a customer’s sheet, so the example cannot flatter the product and cannot go stale.

Northbank — brand film

Day 1 of 2

Monday, 14 September 2026

CALL 07:30Meal 09:30 · 45 minUnit base Havenstraat yard, gates open 07:00

3 scenes · 7 shots · 0:51 planned · 3/8 pages

Schedule

07:30Setup · unload, rig the workshop
08:15Scene 1
09:00Scene 2
09:30Meal · hot lunch at unit base
10:15Company move · walk to the quay, sparks drive
10:45Scene 3
11:15Estimated wrap

Every time after the call is an estimate, and the wrap says so.

Scenes, in shooting order

Sc	Slugline	Pages	Shots	Cast
1	INT. NORTHBANK WORKSHOP - DAY	1/8	3	1
2	INT. NORTHBANK WORKSHOP - DAY	1/8	2	1, 2
3	EXT. NORTHBANK QUAY - DAY	1/8	2	1

Cast

#	Character	Artist	Pickup	MU/H	On set
1	MAKER	Sanne de Groot	06:40	07:15	08:00
2	APPRENTICE	Tobias Meijer	—	—	10:30

Crew

Direction

Director Marieke Visser
1st AD Joost Hendriks

Camera

DP Femke Groen
1st AC Tom Bakker

Electrical

Gaffer Ilse de Vries · call 06:30
Spark Joris Peeters · call 06:30

Sound

Sound recordist Nour Haddad

Runner Sam

Locations

Northbank workshop: Address: Havenstraat 44, Rotterdam; Access: Side door, code 4823. Shutter opens from inside only.; Parking: Two vans in the yard, third on the street; Power: 16A on the back wall, nothing on the mezzanine
Northbank quay: Address: Rijnhaven west, by the crane; Parking: Unit base only, no vehicles on the quay

The day

Weather:: Overcast, 14°, clearing after three. Rain risk 20%.
Sun:: Sunrise 07:12 · sunset 20:04
Transport:: Minibus from Rotterdam Centraal at 06:55
Background:: 4 background for scene 2, call 09:30, own workwear, no logos

Contacts and emergencies

Nearest A&E — Northbank workshop: Erasmus MC, Doctor Molewaterplein 40 — 9 minutes
Nearest A&E — Northbank quay: Erasmus MC, Doctor Molewaterplein 40 — 14 minutes

Producer: Daan, 06 1234 5678 First aider: Ilse (gaffer) Assembly point: the yard gate, by the skip

Tomorrow

Day 2 · Tue 15 Sept · call 09:00 · 2 scenes · Havenstraat, Northbank quay

The parts that go wrong

Five mistakes a template will not warn you about

A wrap time stated as fact: It is the sum of your own estimates. Print it as an estimate or the crew will hold you to it, and the one time you were an hour out will be the one they remember.
A page count covering half the day: If four of six scenes came from a script and two were boarded by hand, a total that silently omits the two reads as the whole day. The day looks two pages shorter than it is, which is one of the ways a unit runs late before it starts.
One call time for an actor: Their morning has three moments in it. Print the one you mean and label it.
Empty fields with labels: A line reading "Parking:" with nothing after it is a question wearing the clothes of an answer. Nobody at six in the morning can tell the difference between not recorded and none. Leave the block out.
A sheet that disagrees with the shot list: The most expensive one. If the sheet is typed separately from the plan, the two drift, and then everybody on set is holding a different film. This is the whole argument for deriving it.

Where it comes from

Four fifths of a call sheet is already known

By the time anybody sits down to make one, the plan already holds which scenes shoot, in what order, at which locations, interior or exterior, day or night, how many shots each takes, how long they should run, who is in them, and what has to be in the van. All of that is the shot list seen from a different angle.

Frameboard derives it. The fifth that is genuinely new information about the physical world — the date, the crew call, the unit base, the weather, the hospital — is entered once, on the day or on the location, and nowhere else.

That split is the whole design. Anything the sheet states that the plan already knows has to be read from the plan, or the two will disagree, and a call sheet that disagrees with the shot list is worse than no call sheet at all: everybody on set is holding the wrong one.

Derived: Scenes, order, locations, cast, shots, runtime, page counts, gear, the timetable, tomorrow
Entered once: Date, crew call, unit base, weather, sun, transport, background, contacts
On the location: Address, access, parking, power, nearest hospital
On the person: Artist, contact, pickup, makeup, on set, department

Questions

What is a call sheet?

The document that tells a crew where to be, when, and what is being shot. It is issued the evening before each shoot day and it is the only piece of paper on a film set that everybody reads.

Who makes the call sheet?

The first assistant director, from the schedule, with the production coordinator filling in the practical detail. On a small unit it is whoever is producing.

When does the call sheet go out?

The night before, and late enough to be accurate rather than early enough to be provisional. A sheet that goes out at six and is corrected at nine has cost more than it saved.

What is a page count in eighths?

A screenplay page divided into eight strips. A scene running a third of a page is 3/8. It is the standard measure of how much film a day holds, and it predates every scheduling tool that uses it.

Does a call sheet need the nearest hospital?

Every professional sheet carries one, and on a unit with any insurance or health-and-safety obligation it is expected. It is the block you never use and cannot be without.

Is there a free call sheet template?

Frameboard's free plan exports the call sheet as a PDF and as plain text for pasting into a group chat, with no limit on exports. The worked example on this page is generated by the same code.

Plan the film, and the call sheet is already written

Every plan exports the call sheet, as a PDF and as plain text for the group chat. There is no export limit on the free plan.

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