A web series has the paperwork of a TV season with the resources of a short film. You might have six eight-page episodes, a crew for eight days, and a cast of friends and working actors with other jobs. The way to afford it is to shoot the season as a single block, and that decision shapes everything else in prep.
Deciding how to board the block
Take a first season of six episodes at about 8 pages each, 48 pages total, with three main locations: the apartment, the coffee shop, and the office. Here's what the two approaches look like:
| Approach | Apartment visits | Coffee shop visits | Office visits | Rough days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Episode by episode | 6 | 5 | 4 | 10 to 11 |
| Cross-boarded by location | 1 (3 days) | 1 (2 days) | 1 (2 days) | 8 |
At 48 pages over 8 days you're averaging 6 pages a day, which is doable for dialogue-driven comedy and tight for anything with action. Cross-boarding saves the load-ins and gives the art department one dress per set. The cost is that actors play scenes from different episodes back to back, and every department has to track which episode and story day they're in. Block shooting vs cross-boarding and the cross-boarding entry cover the tradeoff.
Numbering and paperwork for a mixed day
Once episodes mix on a single day, scene numbers need to show the episode. Prefix them: episode 2 scene 5 becomes 205, episode 5 scene 1 becomes 501. Use those numbers on strips, call sheets, slates, and in the editor's bins. The scene numbering rules post has conventions for inserted and omitted scenes.
Assign a story day to every scene and count them across the whole season. If episode 2 happens on a Tuesday and episode 3 picks up that night, wardrobe needs to know the lead is in the same outfit. A season-long wardrobe breakdown organized by story day, plus a continuity log with photos, is what keeps a cross-boarded series from looking cheap. Hair is the other giveaway: a haircut in the middle of the block will show up on screen.
Cast days across the block
Build the Day Out of Days as soon as the board exists. Series regulars might work six of eight days. The guest actor in episodes 3 and 5 is the one to watch: if their scenes land on day 2 and day 7, you're asking them to hold or come back, and either costs money or a favor. Moving one coffee shop scene can often put all their work on consecutive days.
If you're using union performers, SAG-AFTRA's New Media Agreement is the usual starting point for series released online, though the right agreement depends on budget and distribution. Get the paperwork filed before the first day and budget fringes on performer pay.
Where the money goes
Web series budgets are mostly shoot days and food, then post. Because cross-boarding blends episodes, budget the season as a whole and divide by episode count only for pitch decks or crowdfunding pages. Costs that catch series producers:
- Standing sets. If you're dressing an apartment for three days, you may need to rent it for four to include the dress and strike.
- Continuity photography and a dedicated person to track it.
- Post for six episodes, including a sound mix and color pass per episode, plus titles and deliverables for each platform.
- Marketing assets: key art, trailers, and vertical cutdowns for social.
The short-form series budget post goes line by line.
Mistakes on web series
- Writing episodes before deciding on locations. Rewrite scenes into your three best locations before you board.
- Skipping a table read for the full block, which is when continuity problems across episodes surface.
- Treating each episode's shoot day as a separate call sheet world. Mixed days need call sheets that list the episode for every scene.
- Losing an actor between seasons without having any release or option language in their agreement. Talk to an entertainment lawyer before season one wraps.
How Storiara works for a series
Combine a block's episodes into one script file and upload it so every scene sits on the same stripboard. Storiara pulls scenes, characters, wardrobe, and props from the pages, gives you a manual board to cross-board by location, and fills the cast Day Out of Days from it. Call sheets go out by email or link, and collaborators can be given roles that limit which pages they see.