Time a move from the last shot to the first shot
People talk about a move as "a 25-minute drive." The drive is the smallest part. Take Day 9 of TIN ROOF, a fictional feature shooting around Atlanta on Tuesday, October 20, 2026. The morning is at a diner in Decatur. The afternoon is a rail yard exterior 25 minutes away. The 1st AD asked each department how long its piece takes, and the transportation coordinator drove the route at the same time of day.
| Clock | What happens | Minutes |
|---|---|---|
| 11:45A | Abby Singer at the diner. Departments start wrapping what isn't in the last shot | |
| 12:00P | Camera wrap at the diner | 0 |
| 12:00P to 12:40P | Grip, electric, camera, and sound wrap out and load trucks | 40 |
| 12:15P | Cast released from set, to vans with wardrobe and makeup kits | |
| 12:40P to 1:05P | Trucks and crew drive to the rail yard | 25 |
| 1:05P to 1:25P | Park, unload, stage carts | 20 |
| 1:25P to 1:55P | Lunch at the rail yard, served by catering sent ahead | 30 |
| 1:55P to 2:30P | Light and rehearse the first rail yard setup | 35 |
| 2:30P | First shot, Sc. 77 |
From camera wrap at 12:00P to first shot at 2:30P is 150 minutes. Take out the 30-minute lunch, which the crew would have had anyway, and the move itself costs 120 minutes of camera time. That's two hours for a 25-minute drive.
A few pieces of that table deserve a second look. The 40-minute wrap-out assumes the diner was shot with a modest package; a big lighting setup takes longer. The 35 minutes to first shot assumes someone already knows where the camera goes, because the director and DP walked the rail yard on the tech scout. If nobody did, add time.
Put a price on those two hours
TIN ROOF's line producer carries a daily cost for a shoot day: crew, equipment, cast, locations, catering, and transportation, which on this show is $52,000. The day plans 600 camera minutes. Dividing one by the other gives a rough value of $86.67 for each camera minute. A 120-minute move uses about $10,400 worth of the day.
That figure isn't money that leaves the account. The crew is paid whether the camera rolls or not. It's a way of asking whether the move buys more than it costs. On Day 9 the move lets the production shoot 2 3/8 pages at the rail yard on the same day as 2 6/8 at the diner. Without the move, those pages would need room on another day, and adding a shoot day on this show costs $52,000.
So the move looks cheap next to a new day. The better question is whether the board can make it disappear.
Try to remove the move from the board first
Look at where else the rail yard appears on the stripboard. On TIN ROOF, Day 14 is already a full rail yard day with 3 pages. Moving scenes 77 and 78 (2 3/8 pages) to Day 14 gives that day 5 3/8 pages with no move at all. Day 9 now has an empty afternoon at the diner, which is where scenes 12 and 13 from Day 11 (a diner interior and the parking lot, 2 4/8 pages) can go. Day 11 loses a move of its own.
| Version | Day 9 | Day 11 | Day 14 | Moves |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Before | Diner 2 6/8, move, rail yard 2 3/8 | Motel 3, move, diner 2 4/8 | Rail yard 3 | 2 |
| After | Diner 2 6/8 + 2 4/8 = 5 2/8 | Motel 3 | Rail yard 3 + 2 3/8 = 5 3/8 | 0 |
The page arithmetic for Day 14: whole pages 3 + 2 = 5, eighths 3, so 5 3/8. For Day 11, the production now has a light 3-page day, which is a good home for a scene that was squeezed somewhere else.
This doesn't always work. The rail yard scenes might need an actor who isn't available on Day 14, or the rail yard might only be free on Day 9. Check cast on the day out of days and dates in the location agreement before you celebrate. When the board can't remove a move, keep it and plan it well.
When the move stays, plan it like its own scene
Put it next to lunch. In the TIN ROOF plan, catering goes ahead to the rail yard and the crew eats when they arrive. Lunch isn't served and struck twice, and the meal break doesn't have to fit between two shots at the first location. Watch the meal clock, though. TIN ROOF's crew call is 7:30A, so a 1:25P lunch lands just inside six hours. With a 7:00A call, the same plan would put lunch late. The meal penalties guide covers what happens when it slips. Note that when an agreement uses a walkaway lunch, which IATSE Local 80 describes as a one-hour period that starts when employees are released, the crew isn't working during it, so the move can't overlap the meal.
Pre-rig the second location. A small rigging crew, or a best boy and two electricians sent ahead at 10:00A, can have the rail yard's first setup lit before the company arrives. That turns the 35-minute setup into a quick check.
Check the light at the new location. The U.S. Naval Observatory gives Atlanta's sunset on October 20 as 6:58P, with civil twilight ending at 7:23P. From a 2:30P first shot, the rail yard has about four and a half hours of daylight. If the move ran an hour late, the day exterior would lose almost a quarter of its light. The sunrise sunset planner gives you the numbers for your own date and address.
Never move the whole company for one small scene. An insert of a hand on a rail switch belongs to a splinter unit with a camera operator, an assistant, and a van.
Remember the permit windows. The rail yard permit and the location agreement need to start by the time the rigging crew arrives at 10:00A. The location manager should confirm both in writing.
Count minors' travel. If a child actor rides from the diner to the rail yard in California, Section 11759 counts that travel as part of the minor's working day. A 25-minute drive and loading time come out of a very small number of work hours. See scheduling around child actors.
What the move looks like on paper
On the board, a banner strip sits between the diner's last scene and the rail yard's first: "LUNCH. COMPANY MOVE TO PEACHTREE RAIL YARD." On the call sheet, the move gets its own block so nobody has to find it in the notes:
| Item | Day 9 call sheet |
|---|---|
| Move time | 12:00P camera wrap at Starlite Diner. Trucks roll 12:40P |
| New location | Peachtree Rail Yard, gate 3. Enter from the service road only |
| Route | Printed map attached. No left turn into gate 3 |
| Crew parking | Gravel lot west of gate 3. Shuttle not needed |
| Base camp | Stays at the diner lot. Cast vans run every 30 minutes |
| Lunch | 1:25P at the rail yard |
| First shot | Sc. 77, 2:30P (est.) |
| Sunset | 6:58P |
Deciding whether base camp moves is a separate question. If the second location is close and has no room for trailers, base camp stays and cast shuttle back and forth, which adds van runs to the transportation plan and time to every wardrobe change. The transportation coordinator makes that call with the 1st AD.
Planning checklist
- Before prep ends, list every move on the first draft board and try to remove each one by regrouping scenes by location.
- For the moves that stay, get time estimates from grip, electric, camera, sound, and transportation, and drive the route at the hour the trucks will actually travel.
- Convert the total into camera minutes and check the day's setups still fit.
- Place the move beside the meal, and check the meal clock.
- Send a rigging crew ahead if the first setup at the new location is large.
- Confirm permit start times, parking, and base camp with the location manager and transportation.
- Check the sunset at the new location against the real arrival time.
- Put a banner on the board and a move block on the call sheet.
In Storiara
Storiara's Locations module shows each location on a map and holds an uploaded parking map, which helps when you're working out routes and crew parking. The stripboard doesn't calculate travel time or flag company moves, so leave the move's time open between scene start and end times when you build the day.