The fields of a call sheet
| Section | What goes in it | Who provides it |
|---|---|---|
| Header | Production title, company, shooting day number (day 3 of 8), date | Production office |
| General call | Crew call time, shooting call, estimated wrap, meal time | First assistant director |
| Key contacts | Producer, director, first AD, production coordinator, with phone numbers | Production office |
| Locations | Address of each set, parking, base camp, nearest hospital with address | Location manager |
| Weather and light | Forecast, temperature, sunrise and sunset | Second assistant director |
| Scenes of the day | Scene number, set, interior or exterior, day or night, pages, short description, cast numbers | First assistant director |
| Cast | Number, performer, role, pickup, make-up call, on-set call | Second assistant director |
| Crew | Department by department: name, role, individual call time | Production coordinator |
| Special notes | Equipment arriving that day, vehicles, stunts, minors, safety notes | Departments |
| Advance schedule | The scenes planned for the next shooting day | First assistant director |
How to fill it in
- Start from the latest schedule. Check its date. A call sheet built from last week's version is the most common cause of a bad morning.
- Set the general call from the first shot. Work backwards: time to light, time to unload, travel.
- Give each performer their own times. Pickup, make-up and on-set are three different moments.
- Write addresses that a navigation app finds. Add the entrance to use and where to park.
- Have two people proofread. One checks times, the other phone numbers and addresses.
- Send once, to everyone, the evening before. If something changes, send a clearly marked revision.
Mistakes that cost a morning
- Two versions in circulation. Name the file with the day number and a revision letter, and say which one replaces which.
- No hospital. It takes one minute to add and it is the line you need when nobody has time to search.
- Call times that ignore rest periods. Check last night's wrap before fixing the morning call.
- Contacts missing for day players. People who join for one day are the ones who get lost.
The same call sheet from an application
Everything in the table above already exists somewhere: the shoot date in the calendar, the cast and their phone numbers, the crew, the gear arriving. In CrewDesk these facts are entered once. The demo keeps the finished call sheet with the project; a version built for your company can produce the sheet in your layout and send it to the day's crew.