The last shot of principal photography isn't the end of the production office's work. Trucks go back, lenses get checked for scratches, the location owner walks the house looking for damage, and the accountant waits on invoices. The wrap report is where all of that ends up in one document, so a producer, a financier, or a post supervisor can see what happened without calling eight people.
The wrap report glossary entry covers what the document contains. This guide is about how to produce one, in order, using a fictional 20-day feature called MILE MARKER. Use the wrap report template for the layout.
The order of work
A wrap report written in one sitting three weeks after wrap is mostly guesses. Break it up by when the information exists.
| When | What to collect | From |
|---|---|---|
| Last shoot day, at wrap | Final production report with to-date totals | 2nd AD |
| Wrap days (usually one to several days per department) | Rental return slips, damage notes, purchases kept | Each department head |
| Before department heads' final day | Signed department close-out sections | Each department head |
| First week after wrap | Location walk-throughs, deposit status, vehicle returns | Locations, transportation |
| First weeks after wrap | Open invoices, loss and damage invoices, insurance claims | Production accountant |
| Once post has viewed the footage | Shots still owed, pickup day plan | Post supervisor, 1st AD, director |
The hard deadline is the department heads' last day. A gaffer who has moved onto another show will answer a question about a missing cable, eventually. Get the close-out section signed while they're still on your payroll.
Step 1: the schedule numbers
Start from the final daily production report. Its "total to date" lines already contain most of what you need.
| Scheduled | Actual | Variance | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shoot days | 20 | 21 | +1 (Day 21 added for Sc. 57, 58 after Day 9 was lost to wind) |
| Scenes | 128 | 127 | Sc. 102 omitted in pink revisions |
| Pages | 96 | 95 1/8 | -7/8 (Sc. 102) |
| Average pages per day | 4 6/8 | 4 4/8 | |
| Setups | 812 |
Show the arithmetic so anyone can check it. 96 pages is 768 eighths. Scene 102 was 7/8 of a page, so 768 - 7 = 761 eighths shot, which is 95 1/8 pages. Divided over 21 days, 761 eighths is about 36.2 eighths a day, or roughly 4 4/8 pages. The scheduled average was 768 over 20 days, 38.4 eighths, or about 4 6/8.
Put the reason for each variance on the same line. "+1 day" means nothing to a completion guarantor. "Day 9 lost to wind, Sc. 57 and 58 moved to added Day 21" tells them it was weather, which may matter to insurance.
The daily production report guide explains where each of those to-date numbers comes from.
Step 2: the labor and incident summary
Pull these from the daily reports and the hot cost reports, not from memory.
| Item | MILE MARKER |
|---|---|
| Days over 12 hours | 5 (Days 3, 9, 14, 15, 18) |
| Days with meal penalties | 6, totals by day from hot costs |
| Forced calls | 1, Day 15, one performer |
| Weather days | Day 9 (wind), cover set not available |
| Company moves | 7 |
| Accidents and injuries | Day 11: set PA, sprained ankle at base camp, first aid on set, clinic visit. Workers' comp claim filed 10/23 |
| Property damage | Day 17: scuff on hallway paint at the Ferris house, repaired by production 11/4 |
| Pickups owed | Sc. 91 insert (badge on dash). See Step 5 |
Each incident line has a date, what happened, and what was done about it. Insurance and the accountant both need the claim dates. Leave dollar amounts to the accountant's section unless the number is final.
Step 3: department close-outs
Send every department head the same short form early in the last week, and ask for it back on their last wrap day:
- Rentals: every item returned, the date, who signed the return slip, and any damage the rental house noted.
- Purchases: what was bought, what is being kept (and for what), what was returned for credit, sold, or donated.
- Loss and damage: anything lost, broken, or missing, with the date it happened.
- Open items: anything still out, with an owner and a date.
- Signature and date.
A single loss and damage line from camera on MILE MARKER reads: "1x 50mm prime, chipped front element, noticed at check-in by rental house 11/2, likely Day 19 (car rig). Rental house quote pending." Notice what it doesn't say. Nobody has guessed a dollar amount yet, and the date is marked as likely. The accountant adds the invoice amount when it arrives.
Departments with the most to report are usually camera, grip and electric, art (set dressing and props), wardrobe, locations, and transportation. Wardrobe and props should list what's being held for pickup shots or reshoots, because those items can't be sold or returned yet.
Step 4: locations and deposits
Every location gets a line: date of the final walk-through, who attended for production and for the owner, any damage claimed, the status of the security deposit, and a signed release of claims if your location agreement uses one. The location agreement spells out what production promised to restore.
On MILE MARKER, the Ferris house walk-through found the hallway scuff. Production repainted it, the owner signed off on November 4, and the deposit came back. The ranch location's owner reported ruts on the road from the Day 14 water truck, and that line stays open with the location manager as owner until it's resolved.
Step 5: what post needs to know
The editor will find missing coverage eventually. The wrap report should tell post first. List every owed shot with its scene, what's missing, whether it needs cast, and what's being held for it.
| Sc. | Owed | Cast | Held items | Plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 91 | Insert: sheriff badge on dashboard | None | Badge (props), sheriff unit booked through vendor | Second unit half day, date TBD with post |
If nothing is owed, write "No owed shots per script supervisor's final notes" and attach those notes. A blank section looks like nobody checked.
Step 6: the paperwork archive
Say where every document lives. Somebody will need an Exhibit G or a location release years from now, and the wrap report is where they'll look first.
| Document | Where filed |
|---|---|
| Call sheets (final sent version per day) | Production drive, /Paperwork/Call Sheets |
| Daily production reports, signed | Production drive and originals in box 1 |
| Exhibit Gs, signed | Originals in box 1, copies with payroll |
| Crew time cards | Payroll company, copies in box 2 |
| Talent and location releases | Production drive, originals in box 3 |
| Permits, certificates of insurance | Production drive, /Legal |
| Camera, sound, and script supervisor reports | Production drive and with post |
| Accident and incident reports | Production drive, /Insurance |
Crew time records have legal retention rules. California's wage order for the motion picture industry, for example, requires time records showing when each work period begins and ends, and says required records must be kept on file for at least three years. Other states, unions, and financiers have their own requirements, so ask the payroll company and production counsel which apply to your show, and note them here.
Mistakes that make a wrap report useless
Writing it from memory. If the numbers don't trace back to a signed production report, nobody can rely on them.
Collecting department sections late. The information is still there, spread across people who have stopped answering email.
Hiding the variances. A wrap report that shows 20 scheduled days and 21 actual days without saying why invites the question anyway, usually from someone who's paying for the extra day.
Listing returns without return slips. "Returned" with no signature is how a rental house bills you for a light you gave back.
Ending the report without owners. Every open item needs a person and a date, or it stays open indefinitely.
Storiara at wrap
Storiara doesn't track actual costs, returns, or deposits, so the wrap report itself is built outside it. It can print a full project (locations, cast and crew, assets, equipment, the shot list, and the schedule) and export the budget to Excel, which gives the archive a record of what was planned to compare against the final cost report.