Free call sheet generator

Fill in the day and take away a call sheet: an A4 PDF, or plain text for the group chat. No account, no email, and nothing you type leaves this browser.

The day

ProductionDayDateCrew callUnit base

Scenes, in shooting order

Setups means camera positions, not shots. The day's length is computed from them, so this is the number worth getting roughly right.

SceneInt/ExtLocationDay/NightCast in itSetups

Locations

Name a place exactly as you typed it on a scene and the two join up. The nearest hospital belongs here rather than on the day, because a unit that moves at lunch changes hospitals at lunch.

NameAddressAccessParkingPowerNearest A&E

Cast

Three times, because an actor's morning has three moments in it and only one of them is the one they are late for. Leave any of them empty and the sheet says nothing rather than guessing.

CharacterArtistPickupMakeup and hairOn setContact

Crew

Department groups the sheet. Anybody without one prints at the end under no heading, which is deliberate: Other is a heading that reads as a judgement on the runner.

RoleNameDepartmentPhoneOwn call

Timing

Fifteen minutes a setup is a defensible middle for a small narrative unit and deliberately round enough that nobody mistakes it for knowledge. Change it to your own speed.

Minutes per setupSetup after call (minutes)Meal afterMeal length (minutes)Meal note

The rest of the day

WeatherSunrise and sunsetTransportBackground

Contacts and emergencies

Notes

What it does that a template cannot

The schedule works itself out

A spreadsheet template gives you the boxes. This gives you the arithmetic: each scene takes its number of camera positions times your minutes per setup, the setup block and the meal sit where you put them, and the wrap is whatever that adds up to. Change a scene from three setups to five and the whole afternoon moves.

It is the same code that builds a call sheet inside Frameboard, which is deliberate. A free tool that quietly produces a worse document than the paid one is a trap, and there is only one implementation here to go wrong.

What it does not do is know anything. Every field is something you type. Inside a production, four fifths of this sheet is already known before anybody opens it, which is the whole argument for planning the film somewhere the call sheet can read.

What comes out

PDF: A4, print-ready, with the schedule, the scenes, the cast table, the crew by department and the emergency box
Text: The same sheet as plain text, for pasting into the group chat the night before
Private: The draft lives in your browser. Nothing is uploaded and there is nothing to delete
Kept: A refresh or a closed tab does not lose it. Another machine will not have it

Questions

Is this call sheet generator really free?

Yes. No account, no email address, no trial. The PDF carries one line in the footer saying it was planned in Frameboard, which is the only thing it asks in return.

Do I need an account to use it?

No. Nothing you type is sent anywhere: the draft is saved in your own browser and the PDF is drawn there too.

What format does the call sheet come out in?

An A4 PDF for printing and emailing, and plain text for pasting into the group chat. Half of every unit is told the plan in a chat the night before, so both matter.

Can I save the call sheet and come back to it?

The draft stays in the browser you typed it in, so a refresh or a closed tab does not lose it. It does not follow you to another machine, which is what an account is for.

How does it work out the timings?

From your setups. Each scene's length is its number of camera positions times your minutes-per-setup, and the breaks are anchored to the scene they follow. The wrap is the sum, and it is labelled an estimate because that is what it is.

Or plan the film, and stop typing call sheets

Scenes, locations, cast, crew and gear are all things a production already holds. Frameboard reads them, so the only thing left to type is the date and the crew call.

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