How to Schedule a Film Shoot With a Stripboard

To schedule a film shoot, you turn every scene from your script breakdown into a strip, then arrange the strips into shoot days on a stripboard: grouped by location first, then by cast, then by day or night. Check each day against actor availability and a realistic page count, put the hardest scenes early, and leave a buffer. The finished board then produces the one-line schedule, the day out of days and the call sheets.

What is a stripboard?

A stripboard is a visual shooting schedule where each scene of the script is a thin, color-coded strip that you can move around until the order of shoot days makes sense. Before software, assistant directors wrote each scene on a strip of card and slotted the strips into a folding production board. Scheduling software kept the same idea, and most ADs still call it the strip board or production strip board.

Strips are colored so you can read the board at a glance. The usual code is:

Strip color	Meaning
White	Day interior (INT. DAY)
Yellow	Day exterior (EXT. DAY)
Blue	Night interior (INT. NIGHT)
Green	Night exterior (EXT. NIGHT)

Two other kinds of strip hold the board together. A day break (usually a black strip) marks the end of one shoot day and often shows the day number and total pages. A banner is a strip of text for notes the crew must see in sequence, such as "Company move to diner", "Weather cover" or "Day off".

What information is on a strip?

Each strip carries the few facts the scheduler needs to group scenes, all taken from the script breakdown.

Field	Example
Scene number	Sc. 14
INT or EXT	INT
Day or night	NIGHT
Set	Maya's apartment, kitchen
Page count in eighths	1 3/8
Cast ID numbers	1, 2
Short description	Maya finds the letter

Page counts use eighths of a page, so a full page is 8/8 and a scene of one and a half pages is 1 4/8. Cast appear as numbers instead of names: the lead is usually 1, the next biggest part 2, and so on. The header of the board lists which number belongs to which actor, so you can spot every day an actor works. If you have not broken down your script yet, start with our guide to script breakdowns.

How do you build a shooting schedule from the breakdown?

You build the schedule by sorting the strips in a fixed order of priorities, then adjusting for people and time. A good working method:

1. Make one strip per scene. Check each has its location, day or night, pages and cast.
2. Group by location. Moving the whole unit costs hours, so put every scene at the same location together, even if they are far apart in the story.
3. Group by cast inside each location. Bunch an actor's scenes so they work as few days as possible, especially paid or hard-to-get cast.
4. Split day from night. Shoot day scenes together and night scenes together. Interior nights can sometimes be shot in daytime with the windows blacked out.
5. Check actor availability. Move strips off any day an actor cannot work. One unavailable actor can reshape the whole board.
6. Balance pages per day. Many indie features plan around 4 to 6 pages a day. Action, stunts, children, animals and night exteriors take longer, so those days carry fewer pages.
7. Limit company moves. One move in a day is often workable; two usually costs you a scene.
8. Put difficult scenes early. Schedule the emotional or technically hard scenes early in the day and early in the shoot, while the crew is fresh and there is still time to reshoot.
9. Respect turnaround. When the shoot flips from days to nights, push the next call time later so cast and crew get their usual rest between wrap and call.
10. Add a buffer. Hold a weather cover set for exterior days and, if the budget allows, a pickup day at the end.

The schedule also drives the budget, since every extra day means more crew pay, rentals and food. See budgeting in pre-production for how the two connect.

What does a 3-day stripboard schedule look like?

Here is a short film with ten scenes, four cast members and four sets at three locations: Maya's apartment and the street outside her building, a diner, and the diner parking lot. Cast IDs are 1 Maya, 2 Dev, 3 Nana, 4 Officer. Nana's actor can only work Day 1, and the Officer is a day player.

Day	Scene	Strip	Set	Pages	Cast
1	2	White (INT. DAY)	Maya's apartment	2 2/8	1, 3
1	7	White (INT. DAY)	Maya's apartment	4/8	1, 3
1	1	Yellow (EXT. DAY)	Apartment street	1	1
1	4	Blue (INT. NIGHT)	Maya's apartment, windows blacked out	1 3/8	1, 2
End of Day 1: 5 1/8 pages
2	3	White (INT. DAY)	Diner	2 4/8	1, 2
2	9	White (INT. DAY)	Diner	1 1/8	1, 2
2	10	Yellow (EXT. DAY)	Diner parking lot	6/8	1
End of Day 2: 4 3/8 pages
3	6	Blue (INT. NIGHT)	Diner	1	2
3	5	Green (EXT. NIGHT)	Diner parking lot	1 6/8	1, 2, 4
Banner: company move to apartment street
3	8	Green (EXT. NIGHT)	Apartment street	5/8	1, 2
End of Day 3: 3 3/8 pages

Why it is ordered this way: Day 1 is built around Nana's single available day, and her biggest scene (Sc. 2) goes first while everyone is fresh. Day 2 stays at one location with no move. Day 3 is all nights with a late afternoon call to protect turnaround, and carries fewer pages because night exteriors and a company move are slow. If Day 2 runs over, scene 10 is short and can move to Day 3 before the night work starts.

What are common stripboard scheduling mistakes?

• Scheduling in story order, which means returning to the same location again and again.
• Wrong page counts, which make every day look easier than it is.
• Forgetting that an actor in one short scene still costs a full day.
• Booking an actor's scenes on days they told you they were out.
• Following a long night shoot with an early day call.
• Leaving the hardest scene for the last hour of the last day.
• Planning exterior days with no weather cover.

How does the stripboard feed the one-line schedule, day out of days and call sheets?

The stripboard is the source; the other scheduling documents are views of it. The one-line schedule lists the strips in shooting order, one line per scene, with day breaks, so department heads can read the whole shoot on a page or two. The day out of days (DOOD) turns the board into a grid of cast against shoot days. From the example above, Dev's row reads SW on Day 1, W on Day 2 and WF on Day 3, while Nana is SWF on Day 1 and the Officer is SWF on Day 3. That grid is what the producer uses to book and pay actors. The call sheet takes one day of the board and adds call times, locations, crew and notes, and usually goes out the evening before.

Because all three come from the board, any change to the board has to flow through to them. For the wider picture, see the pre-production checklist.

How to schedule a film shoot in Lowerated

Lowerated builds the stripboard from your script breakdown, so you start from strips that already carry the scene details.

1. Review the breakdown. The breakdown is built from your screenplay with cast, props, wardrobe and locations. Check and adjust it before you schedule.
2. Open the stripboard. Every scene is a strip.
3. Filter and drag. Filter the board, for example to night scenes, and drag scenes onto shoot days.

1. Mark availability. For each cast and crew member, mark days as free, out or on hold.
2. Fix clashes. If a scene lands on a day someone is out, Lowerated warns you so you can move the strip.

The clip shows marking the days people cannot make and the warning that appears when a scene lands on one of those days.

1. Generate the paperwork. The one-line schedule is generated from the stripboard, the day out of days from the schedule with each actor's work days and costs, and call sheets from the schedule with call times, locations and crew filled in.

Scheduling is part of the Producer plan ($30/month). See pre-production tools and pricing, or create an account to try it on your own script.

FAQ

Who makes the stripboard?

The 1st assistant director usually builds it, working with the director and producer. On small shoots the producer or director often does it.

How many pages should you shoot per day?

Many indie features plan for around 4 to 6 pages a day. Plan fewer for action, night exteriors, children, animals or days with a company move.

Do I have to use the standard strip colors?

No, but most crews expect white, yellow, blue and green for day interior, day exterior, night interior and night exterior. If you change the code, put a key on the board.

Can I schedule a short film without a stripboard?

Yes, a spreadsheet works for a few scenes. A stripboard helps once you have several locations, cast with limited availability, or more than a couple of shoot days. Our short film pre-production guide covers the rest of the prep.

Key takeaways

• A stripboard is a shooting schedule made of color-coded scene strips, separated by day breaks and banners.
• Each strip holds the scene number, INT or EXT, day or night, set, page count in eighths and cast IDs.
• Group by location, then cast, then day or night, then adjust for availability, pages per day and company moves.
• Put hard scenes early and keep a buffer for weather and pickups.
• The one-line schedule, day out of days and call sheets all come from the board, so keep it current.