Building a schedule

You need scenes first. Import a script on the Scripts tab, or add scenes by hand on Scenes. Give each scene a location and a page count, or the strips come out with no place and no length.

Make the first pass

1. Press Generate Schedule

   The app groups your scenes into strips and packs them onto days. Day scenes go first and night scenes after. Scenes at the same location stay together. A day holds up to 3 pages and at most one company move. A strip longer than 1 1/2 pages is split at a scene break.

2. Regenerate if you need to start over

   Once days exist, the button reads Regenerate. It asks first, because it clears every day and builds the schedule again from scratch. Any hand edits are lost.

3. Add a day by hand

   + Add Day puts an empty day at the end. Drop strips on it.

Arrange the days

1. Drag strips

   Drag a strip onto another day to move it, or up and down inside a day to change the shooting order. To take it off the board, drop it in Unscheduled.

2. Reorder whole days

   Grab the dotted handle to the left of Shoot Day and drag the day to a new spot.

3. Read the day

   The day header shows its call times, its length in hours and its page count. Inside, each strip shows its start time. The app adds a one-hour lunch after four hours of work, a 30-minute company move when the location changes, and a WRAP line at the end.

Set dates and call times

1. Click the day title

   Click Shoot Day 1 to open Edit Day 1.

2. Fill in the fields

   Set the Date, Crew Call, Cast Call, On Set and First Shot times, typed like 06:00. Notes is free text for that day.

3. Save

   Press Save, or Enter. Escape closes without saving. The call times and notes show up on that day’s call sheet.

The day’s strips start at First Shot. With no first shot set, they start at 10:00 AM.

What a strip shows

Each strip lists its cast in colored tags. Under them, outlined tags list its Breakdown elements: the cars, animals, props and effects its scenes need. An element tagged to two of the strip’s scenes shows once.

Check hold days

1. Open Day Out of Days

   Day Out of Days appears once you have at least one day. It opens a table with one row per character and one column per day. A second table below it has one row per Breakdown element.

2. Read the codes

   S is their first day, W a work day, H a hold day between work days, and F their last. W and H count each kind. Days shows their first and last day.

3. Cut the holds

   A performer you pay to wait shows a run of H. So does a rented car or a hired animal: you pay for those days too. Move strips until those runs shrink, then open the table again.

4. Export it

   Export PDF and CSV download both tables. The table is read-only. Change it by changing the board.