The work that happens before the first shot: reading the script, tagging it, building the board, and getting a call sheet the crew can act on.
8 guides
Tag the script so the schedule has something to stand on.
AI script breakdown really does save hours. It also really does miss things. Here's exactly which categories to trust, which to check, and the review pass that catches the rest.
The producer breaks down a script for the budget. The AD breaks it down for the schedule. Here's the method: what to tag, the color code, and the 20% AI can't catch. Plus a free template.
Stripboard, DOOD, and the constraints that decide the day.
One-eighth of a page is the unit your entire shooting schedule runs on. Here's how to count it, write it, and turn it into a day that actually finishes.
Your producer wants a DOOD before you've finished your coffee. Once you know the codes, cast down the side, days across the top, it takes ten minutes, not an hour.
A stripboard is one strip per scene, color-coded and arranged into shoot days. Here's how to read it, build one, and the constraints that decide whether it survives Day 1.
Turnaround is the rest between wrap and the next call. The math is simple. It is the NIGHT-to-DAY swing that quietly turns into a forced call.
Back-timed calls the crew can trust at 7pm.
Sides look like a simple export: pull today's scenes, print, done. The part that actually keeps a set running is the manifest, the revision stamp, and knowing who gets which copy.
A call sheet looks like a list. What it actually is: call times worked backward from the first shot, under a deadline, with fifty people's mornings riding on the math being right.