The sheet above is Day 4 of SALT FLATS, a 12-day indie feature shooting around Bakersfield. It's a useful day to learn on because it has most of the things that make call sheets go wrong: two locations with a company move after lunch, a performer starting, one on a one-day contract, and one being dropped until the second week.
For the broader view of what a call sheet is and who reads it, see what every call sheet must include and the annotated call sheet example. This page is about the document itself and how to fill in each block.
What each block on the sheet does
Production info
This is what people look at when they wake up: which day it is, crew call, shooting call, and who to phone. Crew call (7:00 AM) and shooting call (8:00 AM) are different lines on purpose. Crew call is when the crew arrives and breakfast is out. Shooting call is when the 1st AD expects to be rehearsing the first setup. List lunch as a time, and on a move day, say where lunch is.
Sunrise and sunset belong here even on an interior day. Scene 12 is an exterior in the yard, and the DP will want to know the sun is behind the office roof until mid-morning. The sunrise and sunset planner gives you the times for any location and date.
Locations and safety
One row per location, numbered, so the scenes block can refer to "Loc. 1" and "Loc. 2" instead of repeating addresses. Put parking and base camp in plain words. "Crew parks on the side street, one side only" saves the location manager a dozen phone calls. The nearest emergency room goes on every location row, with a phone number.
Scenes
Scenes go in shooting order, with the set, a short description, day or night, cast by number, and page count in eighths. Scene 13 is listed before 12 because it's an interior with all three actors, and Glenn Hardesty (Hollis) is released once both salvage scenes are done. At the diner, Scene 17 comes before 16 so Curtis Vail (Deputy Pace) can be dismissed as soon as his scene is covered.
Add the pages and check the total against the schedule: 2 5/8 + 1 3/8 + 1 + 1 7/8 is 21 + 11 + 8 + 15 eighths, which is 55/8, or 6 7/8 pages. That has to match Day 4 on the one-line schedule. If it doesn't, one of the two documents is wrong.
Cast
Cast are listed by character number, the same numbers used on the breakdown and the stripboard. The status column uses day out of days codes: Pace is SW (first day), Bev is SWF (her only day), and everyone else is W. Hollis is still a W today even though he doesn't work again until Day 10. The remark column is where you say he is being dropped.
Background, crew, and department notes
Background get a report time and an on-set time, plus wardrobe instructions. Crew calls are listed by department with staggered times. Hair and makeup comes in at 6:30 so June can sit at 6:50, and the driver's call is set by the hotel pickup. Department notes hold anything a department would otherwise have to ask about: hero props and dupes, picture vehicles, safety, and the location agreement terms that matter today.
Advance schedule
The next two days, so departments can prep. Day 6 is a 4:00 PM night call, and it needs to be on this sheet two days early so nobody plans a normal Saturday.
How to fill it in for tomorrow
- Copy the day's scenes from the current shooting schedule, then ask the 1st AD for the shooting order. Don't assume it follows scene numbers.
- Fill in the scene rows and total the pages. Check the total against the one-line.
- Pull the cast for those scenes and copy each performer's status code from the DOOD for that day.
- Work backward from each actor's on-set time. June is needed at 7:55 AM with a 65-minute hair, makeup, and wardrobe, so she sits at 6:50. The hotel is about 35 minutes from the salvage yard, so the van picks her up at 6:15.
- Set crew calls with each department head. Camera and props often come in 30 minutes early; the location manager is usually first in.
- Confirm each location with the location manager: address, parking, base camp, any restrictions in the agreement (the crusher schedule on Day 4).
- Look up the nearest ER for every location and phone it once to confirm the address and that it's a 24-hour emergency department.
- Add the weather and sunrise and sunset, then the background counts from the extras casting confirmation.
- Fill the advance schedule from the next two days of the one-line.
- Get the 1st AD's and UPM's approval, then send it and track who has confirmed receipt.
Where Day 4 can go wrong
The company move is the biggest risk. If the salvage scenes run long, lunch slides, the move slides, and Bev and the background are sitting at the diner being paid. Put the move on the sheet as its own row so everyone can see it's planned.
Status codes copied from yesterday's sheet cause payroll errors. If Pace is marked W instead of SW, the accountant may look for a start date that doesn't exist. Copy codes from the current DOOD every time.
A hospital that's right for the first location may be a long drive from the second. On a move day, have locations check the drive time from each set rather than listing one ER out of habit.
Actor calls that don't include the drive to set are common on location. Cast arriving at the diner report to hair and makeup there, not at base camp at the salvage yard, and the remark column should say so.
What feeds the call sheet, and what it feeds
The call sheet is built from the shooting schedule and the DOOD. At the end of the day, the daily production report records what actually happened against it: first shot, meals, scenes completed, and cast times from the Exhibit G. If you want to see the whole chain from script to this sheet, the script to call sheet walkthrough follows one scene through every step.
Building it in Storiara
In Storiara, a call sheet is generated from the day's schedule. It pulls the scheduled scenes, the call times for assigned cast and crew, and addresses from the Locations module, and it adds the weather forecast. You type in the nearest hospital yourself, with address suggestions to speed it up, and send the sheet by email or as a link. The call sheets feature page shows the layout.