Clicking through the sample board
Click a strip type in the list on the left. The matching strip on the sample board gets an outline, and the line under the board repeats that strip's text so you can read it without squinting at the mono type. The sample board uses one fictional shoot day, with a diner scene, a motel night, a company move banner, and a day break.
The convention
| Strip | Color | Sample text on the board |
|---|---|---|
| Interior, day (INT / D) | White | 14 INT. DINER - DAY Maya confronts Joe 1, 2 2 3/8 |
| Exterior, day (EXT / D) | Yellow | 15 EXT. DINER PARKING LOT - DAY Joe leaves 2 4/8 |
| Interior, night (INT / N) | Blue | 22 INT. MOTEL ROOM - NIGHT Maya reads the letter 1 1 6/8 |
| Exterior, night (EXT / N) | Green | 23 EXT. MOTEL POOL - NIGHT Ruth finds Maya 1, 3 7/8 |
| Day break | Black | END OF DAY 6 Tue Oct 6 Total pages 5 4/8 |
| Banner (move, holiday, note) | Red or pink | COMPANY MOVE TO MOTEL Travel 25 min |
Reading a scene strip left to right: scene number, the scene heading, a one-line description, the cast numbers from the cast list, and the length in page eighths. The day break total is the sum of the strips above it back to the previous break: 2 3/8 + 4/8 + 1 6/8 + 7/8 = 5 4/8.
The colors answer the first two questions a 1st AD asks about a scene, inside or outside and day or night, before anyone reads the heading. A run of blue and green strips means a night week is coming.
What the colors tell you when you board
A day that goes yellow, yellow, blue is fine: exterior work while the light lasts, then inside after dark. A day that goes blue, blue, yellow is a problem unless it's a planned split day, because the daylight scene is scheduled after the night ones. In the sample board, the diner (white and yellow) and the motel (blue and green) are separated by a red banner for the company move, which is the kind of thing the banner is for.
Green strips cluster in night exterior weeks, and those weeks need turnaround checked every night. The turnaround calculator does that math. Yellow strips on an exterior-heavy day are the ones that need a weather cover plan.
Where the convention varies
- The tool shows the most common US practice. Some boards use other colors for day exteriors or night scenes.
- Banner colors vary more than anything else on the board.
- Scheduling software lets you set your own colors, and exported PDFs may not match the defaults.
- Printed in black and white, every strip looks the same. Keep the INT/EXT and D/N text on the strip for that reason.
Whatever colors you use, print a legend on the first page of the board so a new 2nd AD or a producer can read it.
Related pages
The stripboard entry explains the board itself, and stripboard colors explained covers the colors in more depth. How to read a stripboard is the next read for anyone new to scheduling. For a printable board, use the stripboard template; day break and banner strip cover the two non-scene strips.
Storiara's Schedule module is a drag-and-drop stripboard of scenes, shots, and day breaks, and it prints.