The shooting schedule
What order the scenes get shot in, how long each is expected to take, and what the day looks like when you add it up. Including the blocks people forget, which are the ones that cost the afternoon.
Ten rules, and three of them are about time nobody counted
Most schedules are wrong in the same three places: the company move, the relight, and the turnaround into tomorrow. None of them is a scene, so none of them gets a row, so none of them gets counted.
- You shoot everything at one location before you leave it, everything in one lighting state before you turn around, and everything with the child actor before their hours run out. The script's order is what the script is for.
- Eighths of a page is the oldest estimate in the business and the fastest to read: a first AD hears 4 2/8 pages and knows the shape of the day. Then check it against setups and minutes, because a two-line scene with a crane move is not a small day.
- A setup is a camera position. Three sizes from one position is one lighting state and three quick shots; three positions is three relights. The relight is the time.
- A defensible middle for a small narrative unit, and deliberately round enough that nobody mistakes it for knowledge. Correct it per day: a run-and-gun pickup day and a dolly day on the same film are different speeds.
- Not a gap between scenes. Wrapping a location, loading, travelling, unloading and re-rigging is rarely under half an hour and often an hour, and it is the single most underestimated block on any schedule.
- A break stored at "position 3" detaches from the move it describes the first time somebody reorders the day. A break stored "after scene 14" travels with that scene.
- Six hours from crew call on most agreements, and it moves the whole afternoon when it slips. Schedule it rather than discovering it.
- Sunset is the one deadline nobody can negotiate. If an exterior is last, it is the scene that gets cut, so put the light-critical work where the light is.
- Eleven hours between wrap and the next call on most agreements. A day that wraps late does not cost overtime once, it costs the following morning too.
- It is the sum of your own guesses. Print it as a fact and the crew will hold you to it, and the one day you were an hour out is the one they will remember.
Three scenes, two locations, one move
Every time below is computed from the shots, not typed. Change a scene’s coverage and the wrap moves, which is the entire argument for deriving a schedule rather than drawing one.
Northbank — brand film
- 07:30Crew call
- 07:30Setup · unload, rig the workshop45m
- 08:15Scene 145m
- 09:00Scene 230m
- 09:30Meal · hot lunch at unit base45m
- 10:15Company move · walk to the quay, sparks drive30m
- 10:45Scene 330m
- 11:15Estimated wrap
3 scenes · 7 setups · 0:51 of screen time planned. The wrap is the sum of the rows above it and is labelled an estimate, because that is what it is.
The setup block at the top and the company move after lunch are not scenes and would not appear on a schedule built by listing scenes. They are 75 minutes of this day.
The schedule is a view of the shot list
A scene belongs to a shoot day, and the day derives everything else: its running order, its scenes, its locations, who is in it, what gear has to be in the van, and the timetable above. Nothing is typed twice, so nothing can disagree.
Scene lengths come from the shots on them: 15 minutes a setup until you say otherwise, per day or per scene. Breaks are anchored to the scene they follow rather than to a position in a list, so reordering the day carries the company move with it.
Then the day prints as a call sheet, and runs on a phone in On Set: one shot at a time, takes logged, and a count of what is still owed.
- Running order, scene lengths, the timetable, the estimated wrap, cast, locations, gear
- Crew call, minutes per setup, the breaks and what they are for
- Breaks follow a scene, not a position, so a reorder carries them
- The call sheet, a shot list PDF, and On Set on a phone
What is a shooting schedule?
The order the scenes get shot in, with how long each is expected to take, grouped into days. It is built from the script breakdown and it is what the call sheet is drawn from each morning.
Who makes the shooting schedule?
The first assistant director, with the producer and the line producer. On a small unit it is whoever is producing, usually the night the locations are confirmed.
How many pages can you shoot in a day?
Three to five on a small narrative unit, one to two on something heavily covered or effects-driven, and considerably more on a documentary or a fast commercial. The number is a property of your unit and your coverage, not of the industry.
How long does one setup take?
Ten to twenty minutes on a simple coverage day, which is why fifteen is a defensible default. A relight, a lens change on a dolly, or a move to a new position is longer than the shots that come out of it.
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 unit for how much film a day holds and it predates every tool that uses it.
Should the schedule show an estimated wrap?
Yes, and it should be labelled an estimate. A crew that can see the arithmetic can argue with it in prep, which is the only useful time to argue with it.
Plan the shots and the day adds itself up
Shoot days, the schedule and the call sheet are on every plan.
Related: what belongs on a call sheet, the pre-production checklist, and what belongs on a shot list.