A shooting schedule is a film production board composed of color-coded and organized strips with relevant production information that is created and updated by the Assistant Director (AD). Originally, it was composed of physical strips of paper that were manually organized on a board. Now shooting schedules are made digitally. A shooting schedule is vital because it is the backbone of each production day. It states exactly what’s being shot, who is being shot, where everyone is, and more. So here are a few tips in having the BEST shooting schedule.
1. Format it correctly.
Although the 1st AD is in charge of making sure the script is formatted correctly, format consciousness should begin with the screenwriter just to avoid as little human error as possible.
2. Label it.
Make sure you accurately and tediously label important details like cast, location, scene heading, page counts, etc.
3. Color-code it.
Scenes should also be color-coded based on interior/exterior and day/night.
4. Assign cast and location for each scene.
Don’t forget to include non-speaking characters too!
5. Reorder scenes.
Sometimes location is the best way to organize shooting days, so make sure you reorder the scenes by the location.
6. Add “day breaks”.
A daybreak is when it is the end of a shoot day. Daybreaks are great because it will also contain information like day of days (i.e Day 1 of 5), shoot date, and total page count for that day.
For an online shooting schedule platform and how to, visit Studio Binder.