How to Schedule a Film Shoot with Arnon Shorr

What is a Shooting Schedule?

Hi, my name is our Arnon Shorr. I’m an indie filmmaker, been doing this for a while, dozens of shorts and web series episodes and micro-budget features and I’m here to talk to you about stripboards and production schedules.

Stripboards are a really important piece of your production planning process. They’re a great way to visualize the shooting schedule and eventually to communicate it with the rest of your team.

Stripboards are called stripboards because they used to be actual boards with little strips of paper or cardboard that you’d write each scene on, and rearrange by hand.

We’re fortunate now that most of this process is done digitally.

Step 1: Importing a Final Draft Screenplay

Most of these programs will accept a script in Final Draft format. They’ll read that script and break it down into scenes and get your process started for you.

So let’s start that here. We’ll hit Import Script button. With StudioBinder, you can drag-and-drop so let’s drag our script — it’s an FDX file from Final Draft.

And there’s our strips!

I prepared the script before I imported it.

I numbered the scenes.

I made sure all the slug lines are consistent.

I made sure the character names are consistent.

If you don’t do that there are ways to fix it after the fact, but it’s much better to have the script kind of audited and clean and ready to go before you drag it in.

Step 2: Assign Cast to Scenes

You see where the software identified characters in this column here, the Cast ID column.

Each of these numbers corresponds to a different character. If you click on that, you can see. For example here in scene two, characters 1 and 2 the first two characters that appear in the script are in this scene.

But, if you have a scene in your script where characters appear but do not speak, the software might not pick up on that. So let’s take a look down here at Scene 8. It’s “Exterior – Los Angeles Freeways.” It’s an eighth of a page, it’s a very very short scene. Really it’s just a shot of this car driving through the freeways, but we might want our characters visible in the car!

So let’s add Kelly and Robert (characters number 1 and 2) to that scene.

There we go. Now Kelly and Robert characters 1 and 2 appear in that scene, so when the scheduling is happening, people know “Okay, we need the actors for that scene.”

Step 3: Assign Shooting Locations

The next thing we’re going to do is take a look at the shooting location column.

That’s this column right here next to cast ID. For each of the sets in your script you can assign a shooting location. Now, this can be handy because the sets in your script might not correspond to real places. For example, in this script we have several different desert settings. There’s a winding desert road, and there’s a straight flat stretch of desert and those are going to be two different locations.

To identify all that, we’re going to go to the shooting location column for each scene. We can hit “Assign Location” and assign a location to that scene.

I’ve already written in the locations that are used in this script, but let’s say I forgot one or I need to add more.  Click “Add Location.” We can give the location name — we’ll call this “Winding Desert Road.”  You can even put in an actual address, and it will give you a link to map locations.

Step 4: Reordering Scenes

3:29we’re going to start reordering the strips on our strip

3:32board now and getting them closer to a

3:34point where we actually have a schedule

3:36if you’re in a location you’re going to

3:38shoot all the scenes that take place in

3:40that location together in order to do

3:43that the first thing we want to do is to

3:45reorder the strips let’s order by

3:47shooting location this is we’re putting

3:50in the shooting location information can

3:52be really handy because there are sets

3:54that have different names but they’re

3:56being shot in the same place so now

3:58we’ve reordered by shooting location

4:00that’s much better so for example on

4:02this project we know if we’re going out

4:04to the desert we really want to shoot as

4:06much of the desert stuff at the same

4:08time as possible maybe we’ll go to one

4:10desert location and then do a company

4:12move to another desert location but if

4:14we’re out there we want to shoot

4:14together so let’s take a look at scenes

4:161 2 3 & 4

4:17these are exterior scenes in the desert

4:19at night take them and move them

4:21together you can select multiple

4:23stress you’re one and to hit command X

4:28select another strip and when you hit

4:31command V which is the paste command

4:33those scenes that you cut earlier get

4:36pasted after the strip that you

4:39subsequently selected we have some

4:42exterior desert day scenes in slightly

4:46different desert area this scene v on

4:48the desert flats let’s take that and you

4:51can click and drag and drop move that

4:52down this scene is listed as sunrise the

4:56way we have it right now we could shoot

4:57from night into dawn another way to do

5:00it is reorder it so that you start with

5:02the sunrise scene but shoot it at sunset

5:04because sunrise and sunset look the same

5:06on camera and start with that scene and

5:09then shoot into the night ok so our

5:11Delta teens are together we have a bunch

5:13of scenes on the freeways we have seen 6

5:15& 8 which are just basically shots of

5:18the car driving through we want those

5:22together because when we shoot one we

5:23want to shoot the other now we’ve got

5:25all these scenes in the college we have

5:27an exterior smooth that up to the top

5:30and we have a bunch of interiors the

5:32science and math building entry hall

5:35we’ve got two scenes there and we have

5:37an office I’m going to move the office

5:40to the end we’ll keep these kind of in

5:41script order for now it’s kind of

5:43convenient to shoot where we start

5:46outside the building and then move into

5:48the hall and then move into the office

5:49so we have really three blocks of scenes

5:53we have a college we have the roads and

5:56we have the desert one of the things

6:01that I like to do to help me see where

6:04these bits and pieces are I like to put

6:06in a banner so let’s hit B create a

6:10banner and the first banner is going to

6:13be college these banners probably will

6:16not remain in your strip board all the

6:19way through the end these are for you

6:21just organizational tools so you can at

6:24a glance see where things are on your

6:26strip board these are really handy if

6:28you’re boarding a feature and you’ve got

6:30150 strips and 20 different locations

6:34it’s really helpful to add these banners

6:36to see where your various scenes are

6:40this script has about 10 pages in it so

6:43we know we’re not going to try to

6:44squeeze them all into one shoot day

6:46we’re going to split this up into two

6:48shoot days with daytime scenes and

6:50nighttime scenes it’s generally

6:53advisable to shoot daytime stuff first

6:55and then the next day shoot nighttime

6:59what happens if you reverse it you shoot

7:01nighttime first everybody’s exhausted

7:03they drag home at 4:00 in the morning

7:06whenever it is and then they’ve got a

7:08few daytime a few hours later there’s

7:10not enough time in between so let’s

7:12start with our daytime scenes and then

7:14go to the nighttime stuff we’ve got some

7:16daytime stuff at a college we’ve got

7:17some daytime stuff in the freeways and

7:19then we’ve got a bunch of stuff in the

7:21desert how should we split this up

7:23adding a daybreak hit the describe this

7:27as our College day and assign a shoot

7:33date okay here we’ve got our day break

7:36let’s take a look end of day 1 of 1

7:38because we haven’t put in our second day

7:40break yet it’s our College day it adds

7:42up the pages in the scene it says total

7:45pages 7 there’s 7 pages on the college

7:47day see it’s kind of a lot but it’s all

7:50in one place so you know for for this

7:53project I think it’s it’s kind of

7:55reasonable it shows us our our shooting

7:57date as well now we still have all this

8:00other stuff that needs to get shot let’s

8:03add another day break we select that

8:05last slug line hit D and this is our

8:09freeways and deserts day two of our

8:13story freeways and deserts it added up

8:16the scenes tone pages seven and seven

8:20eighths you know on a 14 page script if

8:22you want to try to squeeze it into two

8:23days splitting it seven pages and seven

8:25in a bit not that another thing that can

8:29be kind of useful here is we’ve got all

8:31this traveling stuff on the freeways you

8:32can shoot that on the way to the desert

8:35shoot so that you’re actually utilizing

8:38some of the transportation time as

8:39production time which is kind of handy

8:42with bigger scripts with feature

8:45projects things like that it can be very

8:47very useful to use this feature right

8:49here

8:50which adds date brakes automatically

8:52what that does for you is it puts the

8:54day breaks in based on number of pages

8:56let’s say you want to shoot you’ve got a

8:58120 page script and/or let’s make the

9:01math a little easier you’ve got a

9:02hundred page script and you can afford

9:0520 shoot days so you know you want to

9:06average about five pages a day so you

9:09click this button you add a day break

9:11every five pages click Add date breaks

9:14and you’ll see every five pages or

9:17before it hits five pages it throws a

9:19day break into your schedule now we can

9:26start to think a little bit more

9:27specifically about the logistics of

9:29production itself we can put in banners

9:33for things like company moves or meal

9:36bricks select the strip after which you

9:39want the banner to appear you hit B call

9:42this our meal break and there we go now

9:47we have a meal break right in the middle

9:48of the day there is no company move on

9:51our first day but there’s a lot of

9:52traveling in the second day very very

9:55different kind of environment so there’s

9:57a company move in there select scene

10:00five hit B add another banner company

10:04move and there we go now we know you

10:07shoot three pages there’s a move now

10:10we’re on these winding desert roads

10:13we’ve got some stuff in Kelly’s car

10:14we’ve got a big scene at the on the road

10:16itself and then we’ve got these other

10:19two scenes in the desert in a kind of an

10:21open area if you take a look at the

10:23shooting location sites I differentiated

10:26between the winding desert road in the

10:28desert crash area we can put another

10:30banner right in here so there we go this

10:36day is starting to look kind of

10:37complicated

10:38we’ve got driving stuff and we’ve got

10:41company moves we really should think

10:43about where our meal break should be

10:45what I recommend here do the meal break

10:48before dusk so that in the event that

10:53you’re running a little bit late on the

10:56driving scenes you can push the meal

10:58break to after dusk but you have some

10:59flexibility around sunset because the

11:01sunsets not going to wait for you

11:03but the meal break could so we’ll put

11:05our meal break in right here and with

11:14the understanding that if if the Sun is

11:17setting and you got to chase it you can

11:18move the meal break to after dusk before

11:21the before it gets to be full night when

11:23it’s kind of hard to shoot stuff anyway

11:24so before I save this and send it out I

11:33want to go through it one more time just

11:35take a very close look make sure there

11:37aren’t any opportunities to make

11:39adjustments to the order of scenes

11:42within each day and within each part of

11:45the day so for example taking a look at

11:48the the beginning of day 2 starting with

11:52scene 6 doesn’t make sense and now we’re

11:55thinking a little bit more logistically

11:56it’s the Tejon pass freeway it’s a shot

12:00of the car going through that mountain

12:02pass into the desert it doesn’t make

12:04sense to shoot that first before we

12:06shoot stuff at the Los Angeles freeways

12:08so let’s flip this around let’s do the

12:10Los Angeles freeways scene 8 first and

12:13then while we’re driving between the Los

12:17Angeles freeways in the Teton Pass we

12:20can shoot scene seven which is the

12:22conversation in the car then we get to

12:24the T on pass we can get out of the car

12:25and get that shot of the car driving so

12:27geographically the order makes a little

12:29bit more sense now

12:34so master Ward’s done now we can share

12:38it with the rest of the team to export

12:40to PDF you hit this print strip board

12:42button and instead of printing to your

12:45printer you print to a PDF printer most

12:48computers have some form of save as PDF

12:50option so you do that save as PDF save

12:55it asks for a location will save it to

12:58the desktop for now and there you go

13:01you’ve got your PDF say it you can email

13:03it to people very very convenient now

13:09another thing that’s very very

13:11convenient is you can spin off call

13:15sheets from your shooting schedule hit

13:17this button here says create a new

13:20coffee let’s do coffee for day one hit

13:23that button call shoot title it’s a

13:25shoot day next this allows you to add

13:29recipients hit a button and the coffee

13:32goes out to to your team and the call

13:35sheet is going to list the scenes that

13:36are shot that day it’s going to list who

13:38is in those scenes it’s going to list

13:40the shooting location and it’ll give you

13:43opportunities to edit the coffee feed as

13:45well if you need to add or augment or

13:46change any of that information later on

13:48and that’s it I hope you found this

13:51information helpful and go out there

13:53break a lens

13:55you

13:57[Music]