A night on the call sheet
Here is day 12 of a fictional feature, a night exterior at a parking garage in mid-October:
| Time | Item |
|---|---|
| 5:00P | General crew call, Hill St. garage |
| 6:15P (approx.) | Sunset. First shot after dark, Sc. 42 |
| 11:00P | Lunch (walkaway) |
| 11:30P | Resume. Sc. 44, 45 |
| 5:00A | Camera wrap (target) |
| 6:30A (approx.) | Sunrise |
Sunset and sunrise times depend on date and place, so pull them from the sunrise sunset planner and print them on the call sheet. Here the usable dark window is roughly 6:15P to 6:00A, and everything the director wants to shoot has to fit in it.
Turnaround and the week's shape
The real schedule problem is the day after. SAG-AFTRA's theatrical rules give performers a 12-hour rest period between dismissal and the next call in the studio zone, with some reductions on location (SAG-AFTRA rest periods). If an actor is released at 5:30A, the next legal call is 5:30P. Crew agreements have their own rest periods, so use the turnaround calculator for each group.
That is why ADs cluster nights. A board that goes day, night, day, night pushes every call later and loses light on the day exteriors. A common shape is a night block at the end of a week, so the weekend rest absorbs the flip, or a run that starts with a split day to ease into nights.
Nights that cost more than planned
Night work adds costs that a day doesn't: bigger lighting and generator packages, location fees for overnight access, and sometimes a neighborhood notification and permit conditions about noise and lights after a certain hour. Minors have limited permitted hours and usually can't work late, so scenes with kids at night often become day for night or move to a stage.
The other failure is the late-week drift. Each wrap runs 30 minutes over, each call slides later to protect turnaround, and by Friday the call is 8:00P and wrap is Saturday morning. Plan the week's calls on paper before day 1 of the run, and the scheduling night shoots guide has more detail.