The download is a long-form shooting schedule: every shoot day as its own block, scenes in shooting order, and the breakdown elements printed under each scene. The example is the first four days of SALT FLATS, a road drama with 44 scenes and 70 pages shooting in 12 days around Bakersfield. The same production runs through the stripboard, one-line schedule, and call sheet templates, so you can follow one day across all of them.
If you want the reasoning behind how a schedule gets built (sorting by location, constraints, pages per day), read the shooting schedule template guide first. This page covers the columns and how to fill them.
Reading one day of the schedule
Each day block opens with a header that says the shoot day number, the date, the location, and the crew call. Under it, scene rows run in the order the 1st AD intends to shoot them, which on Day 1 means the three day interiors first and the tented night interior (Scene 3) last. The block closes with an END OF DAY row carrying the page total.
The columns, left to right:
| Column | What goes in it | Day 1 example |
|---|---|---|
| Sc. | Scene number from the locked script, including letters like 14A | 4 |
| Set | Scene heading without the time of day | INT. RUIZ HOUSE - LIVING ROOM |
| D/N | Day or night as the audience sees it | D |
| Pages | Length in eighths | 1 6/8 |
| Script day | Story day, for continuity | D2 |
| Synopsis | One line, what happens | Dell finds June asleep on the couch |
| Cast | Character numbers from the cast list | 1, 2 |
| Elements | Breakdown items departments act on | afghan, June's duffel, wardrobe #1 |
| Notes | Anything that changes how the scene is shot | Windows tented for night |
The D/N column describes the scene, not the clock. Scene 3 is marked N even though it shoots at 4 PM on Day 1, because the art and electric departments tent the windows. That is also why the schedule lists it last: the tent goes up after the day interiors are done.
How to fill in the template
- Start from finished breakdown sheets. Every row here is a summary of one script breakdown sheet, so do those first.
- Enter the schedule header: version color and date, shoot dates, number of days, and the cast key. The cast key stops people guessing what "5" means.
- Lay out the stripboard and settle the order of days before typing anything into this document. Moving strips is easy. Retyping element lists is not.
- For each day, write the header line with the date, location, and crew call from the production calendar.
- Add scene rows in shooting order. Copy set, D/N, pages, script day, and cast from the breakdown.
- Condense the elements. Print what a department needs to prep for that day: props with dupes, picture vehicles, background counts, wardrobe change numbers, makeup continuity. Leave out set dressing that never moves, like the clock on the kitchen wall.
- Add notes that affect the shoot: tenting, location restrictions, a performer's first or last day, a rig.
- Total the pages for each day in eighths. Day 2 is 6/8 + 1 4/8 + 2 1/8 + 1 1/8 + 5/8, which is 6 + 12 + 17 + 9 + 5 = 49 eighths, or 6 1/8 pages.
- Check the sum of all days against the script. For SALT FLATS the twelve days have to add to 560 eighths, which is 70 pages. If they don't, a scene is missing or a page count was changed on only one document.
- Stamp the version and date, and send it to department heads with a list of what changed.
Checking the pace
Seventy pages over 12 days is 5.83 pages a day, a little under 5 7/8. That's quick for a feature. The schedule gets away with it because most days stay at one location with two or three cast members. The heaviest day is Day 4 at 6 7/8 pages, and it also has a company move, so it's the day the 1st AD watches most closely. The shoot days estimator and the article on how many pages you can shoot in a day are useful when you're deciding whether a number like that is realistic for your script.
What goes wrong when the schedule is thin
Script days left blank. On Day 4 Dell wears wardrobe #1 at the salvage yard and #2 at the diner, because the office scene is D2 and the diner is D3. If the script day column is empty, the costume department finds out on set.
Element lists that go stale. A prop added in the blue revisions has to be added here, in the breakdown, and on the call sheet. Keep one master breakdown and regenerate from it.
Scene order that assumes the day will go perfectly. On Day 4, Scene 17 is ordered before 16 so the deputy can be released early. If 17 were last and the morning ran over, the production would pay Curtis Vail to sit in a diner booth.
Not flagging firsts and lasts. Pace starting on Day 4 and Hollis being dropped after Day 4 both belong in Notes, since they drive the day out of days and payroll.
Where the schedule sits between breakdown and call sheet
The shooting schedule sits between the breakdown and the daily paperwork. It comes from breakdown sheets and the stripboard, it generates the one-line and the DOOD, and each day block becomes the scenes section of that day's call sheet. For a finished example of a whole schedule, see the shooting schedule example.
Scheduling from the script in Storiara
Storiara reads an uploaded PDF or Final Draft script into scenes with INT/EXT, time of day, and page length in eighths. You then drag them into shoot days on a stripboard, and the schedule and DOOD follow from that. The scheduling feature page has more.