A small DOOD, filled in
Here are four cast members across the first eight shoot days of a fictional feature:
| # | Cast | D1 | D2 | D3 | D4 | D5 | D6 | D7 | D8 | Work | Hold | Travel | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MAYA | SW | W | W | W | W | W | W | W | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 2 | ROSIE | SW | W | W | H | H | W | WF | 5 | 2 | 0 | 7 | |
| 3 | JOE | T | SW | W | H | WF | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |||
| 7 | GUARD | SWF | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Rosie starts day 1 and finishes day 7. She works five days, but days 4 and 5 are holds, so she is on the payroll for seven. Joe flies in on day 3 (a travel day), starts day 4, and finishes day 7: three work days, a hold, and the travel day make five paid days. The guard is a one-day player, so his only cell reads SWF.
Reading it the way a line producer does
The totals column is what matters for money. Every H between a performer's SW and WF is usually a paid day, so the goal when adjusting the stripboard is to squeeze each actor's work into a tight run. If moving scene 15 from day 6 to day 4 would let Rosie finish on day 5, that one strip saves two paid days.
When an actor has a long gap mid-schedule, the AD looks at whether a drop and pickup is allowed under the performer's contract. For how the codes work in more detail, see start work finish and hold day.
Mistakes that cost money
Two errors come up often. The first is building the DOOD once in prep and never re-running it after schedule changes, so the budget carries the wrong cast days. The second is forgetting non-shooting days that are still paid, such as rehearsals, fittings, and travel. Those belong on the grid as R, F, and T.
Where it connects
Casting uses the DOOD to quote days in deal memos, and the production office checks it against the Exhibit G sign-in on union shows. You can build one in a spreadsheet with the day out of days template or generate one from a schedule with the DOOD generator. Storiara's DOOD view populates from the schedule and tracks SW, W, and WF for each cast member.