Every tool on this list was judged on the same five things a 1st AD cares about when building a board: how the script gets in (and how much of the breakdown comes with it), how the stripboard behaves when you drag strips around, whether it produces a Day Out of Days from the schedule, how many people can work in the same schedule at once, and what it costs a small production. Prices below come from each company's own pricing page. Where a vendor doesn't show a price publicly, we say so.
Last reviewed September 2026.
1. Storiara - script to stripboard for indie producers
Storiara reads a PDF, Word (.docx), or Final Draft (.fdx) script and pulls out the scenes, characters, locations, props, wardrobe, and music and effects cues. Scene headings are parsed for INT/EXT and day or night, and each scene gets a page count in eighths measured from the PDF layout. Those scenes land on a drag-and-drop stripboard where you place day breaks, set times and durations, and build shoot days yourself.
It ranks first because one $39.99 plan takes a script through breakdown, a board, a cast DOOD, and call sheets, and the same scene data feeds the budget. When you set a maximum shooting-day length, Storiara blocks drops that would push a day past it and marks durations that would run over as overtime. The Day Out of Days view sits inside Schedule and fills in SW, W, WF, SWF, H, and I codes for cast automatically. You can override any cell and set travel, rehearsal, or drop and pickup codes by hand. Call sheets are built per day from the schedule and go out by email, now or scheduled, or as a shareable link.
Pricing: new accounts get a 7-day free trial with unlimited stories, after which a paid plan is needed. Producer is $39.99 a month, plus $19.99 a month for each extra collaborator.
Drawbacks: Storiara won't arrange your strips for you. There is no auto-scheduler, and cast availability shows in a sidebar as information rather than as a hard conflict warning. The DOOD tracks cast only, and the Movie Magic hand-off is a tagged .fdx you import as a script rather than a schedule file. Every page works in a phone browser, and the on-set pages keep working with no signal. See the scheduling feature page for how the board works.
2. Movie Magic Scheduling - the file format studios still expect
Entertainment Partners' Movie Magic Scheduling is the tool most union ADs learned on, and studio production offices still ask for the file. The current version adds split-screen views, drag and drop, multi-episode schedules in one file, sub-boards for additional units, conflict detection, and a calendar for events that aren't tied to breakdown sheets. The DOOD now displays on screen and can include rehearsals, fittings, and travel. Reports export to PDF and Excel, and elements transfer to Movie Magic Budgeting.
Pricing: sold as a monthly subscription, listed at a limited-time introductory $29.99 a month (regular price shown as $39.99). It installs on Windows or macOS.
Drawbacks: it is desktop software, so sharing means passing files or reports around, and the depth that makes it the standard also makes it slow to learn. Our Movie Magic comparison and Movie Magic Scheduling alternatives go further.
3. Gorilla Scheduling - desktop depth at a lower price
Jungle Software's Gorilla has been the cheaper desktop alternative to Movie Magic for years, and it now comes in a browser version too. Both import Final Draft or PDF scripts into breakdown sheets, build stripboards, and produce one-liners, shooting schedules, DOOD reports, and SAG Exhibit G. Gorilla exports to Movie Magic Scheduling, which matters if a studio later wants the file.
Pricing: Gorilla Scheduling Desktop is $24.99 a month, $64.99 a quarter, or $199 a year on Mac and Windows. The Premium tier with Breakdown Assistant AI is $39.99 a month or $269 a year, and the scheduling plus budgeting Combo Pack is $39.99 a month or $369 a year. Gorilla Online plans are sold separately from the desktop subscriptions.
Drawbacks: the desktop interface looks its age, and some reports (the DOOD summary, daily category totals) are desktop only according to Jungle's own comparison chart. See Gorilla compared with Storiara.
4. Filmustage - AI breakdown with a scheduling agent
Filmustage started as an AI script breakdown tool and has grown into scheduling, budgeting, and call sheets. The schedule organizes scenes by location, character, INT/EXT, and day or night, sets shooting days by hours or pages, and handles multiple units. The actor DOOD and unit DOOD come straight from the schedule. Its AI scheduling agent reads the stripboard, DOOD, and availability calendars and flags hold days, conflicts, overtime risk, and company moves.
Pricing: a free plan covers one active project with AI breakdown on 20% of scenes. Director's Cut is $55 a month or $660 a year and includes 1,700 coins per cycle for AI features. Enterprise is custom. Exports include PDF, Excel, and Movie Magic Scheduling and Budgeting formats.
Drawbacks: the coin system means heavy AI use on several scripts can run past a single month's allowance, so budget for it. More in our Filmustage comparison.
5. StudioBinder - scheduling inside a full production suite
StudioBinder puts breakdowns, stripboards, shot lists, storyboards, and call sheets in one web app. Its stripboard supports drag and drop with auto sorting by location and time of day, alternate schedules for what-if versions, and reports that include shooting schedules and DOOD. The call sheet tools are among the most complete here.
Pricing: there is a free plan limited to one project. StudioBinder's pricing page loads inside its web app and didn't display plan prices when we checked, so confirm current tier costs on the pricing page before you commit.
Drawbacks: scheduling features sit on paid tiers, and teams pay more as they add seats and projects. If all you need is a board and a DOOD, you are paying for a lot of suite you won't open. See StudioBinder vs. Storiara.
6. Yamdu - cloud production office for European crews
Yamdu, based in Germany, covers script import and breakdown, shooting and production scheduling, DOOD reports, call sheets, budgeting, time cards, and iOS and Android apps. It imports from Final Draft, Movie Magic, and Fuzzlecheck, which helps crews moving schedules from older tools.
Pricing: Yamdu Flex is $45 a month for one user and one project, plus $22 a month per extra user and $45 per extra project. Yamdu Studio is $265 a month, or $199 a month billed annually, for 10 users and unlimited projects. Signature pricing is on request.
Drawbacks: Flex gets expensive quickly once a coordinator, AD, and producer all need logins on more than one project. Compare it in our Yamdu page.
7. Fuzzlecheck - multi-unit scheduling on Mac and Windows
Fuzzlecheck is widely used on German productions. The desktop app imports screenplays, calculates sunrise and sunset for a location, warns about cast availability conflicts, and prints shooting schedules, DOOD, and call sheets to PDF, Word, or Excel. The Pro edition adds shoot duration estimates, rest period checks, and automatic boards, and the Units edition handles second and third units and episodic numbering. Online Projects let up to 20 people edit the same schedule from the desktop app.
Pricing: single-user licenses last five years and are listed at €99 (Standard), €299 (Pro), and €559 (Units). Online Projects start at €45 for three months with four users.
Drawbacks: prices are in euros and the product is little known on US sets, so incoming crew may not know it.
8. Dramatify - scheduling for drama and TV teams
Dramatify is a Swedish platform built for TV drama, entertainment, and branded content. Its shooting schedule offers strip, column, and calendar views, multiple scenarios you can publish when agreed, up to five simultaneous teams, and bulk scheduling that places scenes by location, set, characters, or time of day within a maximum daily hours limit. Workdays flow into cast and crew scheduling and a character and cast DOOD.
Pricing: scheduling comes with Fiction Standard at $13 per seat a month billed annually (minimum five seats, so from $65 a month) or $18 per seat billed monthly.
Drawbacks: the seat minimums make it poor value for a two-person indie team. See Dramatify compared.
9. Celtx - scheduling for writers who already use it
Celtx connects its script editor to a breakdown, catalog, and stripboard. The Schedule tool fills strips from the script, lets you drag and drop scenes, adds End of Day strips to form shoot days, and pushes those days to a project calendar. Celtx is now a Backlight business.
Pricing: the Team plan, which includes production planning tools, is $44.99 a month billed yearly for up to three members. Writer Pro is $18.74 a month billed yearly, with Schedule as an optional add-on, and the Student plan is $79.99 a year. A seven-day free trial is available.
Drawbacks: Celtx's schedule page doesn't list a Day Out of Days report, and its boards are lighter than the dedicated tools above. See Celtx vs. Storiara.
10. Google Sheets - a free stripboard you build yourself
Plenty of short films are still scheduled in a spreadsheet: one row per scene, columns for scene number, INT/EXT, set, D/N, pages in eighths, and cast IDs, with fill colors for the white, yellow, blue, and green strip convention. Sharing and simultaneous editing work well, and anyone on the crew can open it.
Pricing: free with a Google account.
Drawbacks: nothing is connected. Page totals, the DOOD, and call sheets all have to be rebuilt by hand every time a strip moves, which is where spreadsheet schedules go wrong. Start from our stripboard template and read the Google Sheets comparison before you commit to it for a feature.
Side by side
| Tool | Starting price (September 2026) | Platform | DOOD from schedule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storiara | 7-day free trial; Producer $39.99/month | Web | Yes, cast only |
| Movie Magic Scheduling | $29.99/month introductory | Windows, macOS | Yes |
| Gorilla Scheduling | $24.99/month or $199/year desktop | Windows, macOS, web | Yes |
| Filmustage | Free; Director's Cut $55/month | Web | Yes |
| StudioBinder | Free (1 project); paid prices not shown publicly | Web | Yes |
| Yamdu | $45/month (1 user, 1 project) | Web, iOS, Android | Yes |
| Fuzzlecheck | €99 five-year license | Windows, macOS | Yes |
| Dramatify | $65/month (5 seats, billed annually) | Web | Yes |
| Celtx | Team $44.99/month billed yearly | Web | Not listed |
| Google Sheets | Free | Web | Manual |
If you schedule for a studio or a union series, learn Movie Magic or Gorilla, because someone will ask for the file. If you are a producer or AD on an indie feature and want the breakdown done for you before you start moving strips, try the tools at the top of this list on your own script and see which board you would rather live in for six weeks. For a wider look beyond scheduling, see our ranking of film production management software.