Building a grid
Type each cast member's number and character name in the left column, the way they appear on the call sheet (1. MAYA). Then click each shoot day that performer works. Clicked cells turn solid, and the codes for every other cell in that row update as you go. Click a cell again to unmark it.
Add cast member puts a new row at the bottom, numbered for you. Add shoot day adds a column to every row, and Remove last day drops the last column. Export CSV downloads day-out-of-days.csv with the cast, one column per day, and the work, hold, and total counts. Nothing is saved in the browser, so export before you close the tab.
How the codes are assigned
For each row, the generator finds the first and last marked day:
| Situation | Code |
|---|---|
| First marked day | SW |
| Last marked day | WF |
| Marked day in between | W |
| Unmarked day in between | H |
| Only one marked day | SWF |
| Before the first or after the last | blank |
Work days are every cell coded SW, W, WF, or SWF. Hold days are the H cells. Total is work plus hold, the number of shoot days the performer is on the payroll.
Worked example: the starting grid
The fictional cast that loads with the tool comes out like this:
| Cast | D1 | D2 | D3 | D4 | D5 | D6 | D7 | D8 | D9 | D10 | W | H | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. MAYA | SW | W | W | H | W | W | W | W | H | WF | 8 | 2 | 10 |
| 2. JOE | SW | H | H | H | H | W | WF | 3 | 4 | 7 | |||
| 3. RUTH | SW | WF | 2 | 0 | 2 | ||||||||
| 4. SHERIFF DALE | SWF | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Joe is the row to look at. He works day 1, then sits on four holds before coming back on days 6 and 7, so he's paid for seven days to work three. On a Monday to Friday week, day 1 is a Monday and day 6 is the following Monday, 7 calendar days later. SAG-AFTRA's theatrical rule lets a day performer go unpaid for a gap only with a firm pickup date more than 10 calendar days after the initial employment ends, so a drop doesn't help here. The fix has to come from the schedule: if Joe's day 1 scene can move to day 5, his row becomes SW on day 5 and three days total.
A 1st AD shrinks rows like Joe's by moving strips on the board, and each hold removed is a day of pay the production no longer owes.
Codes and cases the grid skips
- Travel, rehearsal, fittings, and drop and pickup codes. Add T, R, and D/PU in the exported sheet.
- Dates and days off. Columns are shoot days only. A weekly performer's guarantee covers the whole week, including days the company doesn't shoot, which the grid can't show.
- Contract type. Daily and weekly performers are totaled the same way.
- Scheduling logic. The grid doesn't read a stripboard, so after any schedule change you have to re-mark it by hand.
- Crew and elements. It's built for cast, though you can type a stunt double, an animal, or a picture car into a row and use the same codes.
- Sorting. Rows stay in the order you add them.
Where the DOOD goes
Casting uses the totals to quote days in deal memos, and the line producer uses them to budget cast. On union shows the production office checks the DOOD against the Exhibit G sign-in. For a formatted sheet with blank rows, use the day out of days template. The hold day and drop and pickup entries cover the pay rules, and the day out of days template guide walks through a full feature.
In Storiara, the Day-Out-Of-Days view inside Schedule fills in cast codes from the stripboard, lets you override a code by hand, and prints.