Shooting Schedule Template

The planning of a film production is an exercise in time management. Producers may talk about budgets, but the actual currency is the ten-hour workday.  No matter how many ten-hour days are required to shoot the film, all scenes in the script must be organized to maximize productivity during the production process.  

To make your shoot day and stay within budget, you need skill and smart planning. This is why it's important for production teams to maintain an up-to-date shooting schedule. An adaptable and customizable shooting schedule template is crucial to a successful production and we’ve got you covered.

To begin, click Use Template now, or read on to learn about all the information included in a film shooting schedule template.

Why You Need a Film Shooting Schedule Template

The work in pre-production, such as finalizing the budget, hiring talent and crew members, breaking down the script, securing the film equipment (see our film equipment list template), locations, permits, and insurance leads to this moment in production; capturing the footage.  As soon as the assistant director has the director's storyboards, the day-out-of-days chart, and shot list, the daily shooting schedule can be created. 

The importance of a film shooting schedule template to the success of the production planning cannot be overstated. Some benefits to utilizing Assemble’s template and software include:

1. Real-Time Updates

There are always changes to shoot schedules due to input from various people, so a real-time shooting schedule is advantageous.  As a result, you’ll want to have a customizable template that can address the adaptive needs of production scheduling.

2. Distribute to Crew Instantly

Production managers face a complex process when organizing a film shoot. Taking into account crew union rules, locations, cast members, weather conditions and the artistic needs of the director, it's a balancing act to make your days and stay on budget.  But distribution should not be part of that stress and burden. By creating a shooting schedule with Assemble, you can distribute it instantly.

3. Access the Shoot Schedule Anywhere

The production shooting schedule is accessible on any device without requiring registration or logging in, so anyone on the crew can access it, even during a company move or while at the shooting location. In the event that anything changes during the workday, updates are delivered to everyone in real time.

When to Use a Film Schedule Template

As soon as you have your script breakdown and budget finalized, you can begin creating the production schedule. Choosing how many pages of a screenplay to shoot each day is the first step in scheduling. A higher budget usually means more time in the production calendar, which allows you to schedule fewer pages and scenes per shoot day. 

However, money is not the only factor to consider.  Do you only have a prominent actor for a certain period of time?  Does your location have limited availability?  Does a half-page action sequence actually require several days to shoot?  Film schedule templates allow you to plug and play many variables to produce the most economical and feasible shooting schedule.

Our Production Schedule Template for Film: What’s Included

A film production schedule template outlines what is being shot that day and how long each scene will take. This will include a breakdown of each scene, talent, crew, meal breaks, and all relevant filmmaking details. The production schedule resembles a call sheet in many ways, but details about when each scene will be captured and how long it will take are more specific.

Here are some of the elements you’ll find in Assemble’s shooting schedule template:

• Crew Call Time and Meal Breaks

• Day out of Days

• Stripboard of the Daily Schedule (including scene number, page count, etc.)

• Company Moves

• Cast Numbers

• Advance Schedule

In addition, Assemble provides you with advanced tools to help you create, collaborate and share your call sheet:

• Sort and filter the schedule by completed shots or other options

• Easily re-order the schedule by dragging and dropping

• Collaborate with others in real time

• Create new versions and manage version history

Shooting Schedule Examples

A shooting schedule involves the concentrated time during principal photography. In general, whether you are filming a feature film, a video production, or a TV show, the basic elements are the same. However, we’ve singled out a few shooting schedule examples where you can easily make adaptations to our provided template.

Film Shoot Schedule Template

Our film shoot schedule template is designed for a film shoot, but it can be expanded or streamlined to suit the individual needs of your production.  How about a project that requires a large amount of special effects?  Set up your doc to include a column that indicates if blue or green screens are needed, when tracking markers will need to be placed, or if elements should be shot separately.

Daily Schedule for Filming

The daily schedule for filming is simply another phrasing of a shoot schedule. Important to note, the daily schedule is usually created by grouping locations for maximum efficiency on the shoot day. However, sometimes the needs of the cast or the storytelling can affect the daily schedule.  For instance, in order to gain the best performance you may need to schedule more intense, emotional or intimate scenes earlier in the day even if it means an additional company move or additional lighting set-up.

TV Production Schedule Template

A TV production schedule template can be adapted for a single-cam or multicam type show.  

Since multi-camera shows are more often filmed on a single day than single-camera ones, this affects the schedule, as will the number of scenes and whether you are shooting in a studio or on location. 

Usually, multi-camera TV shows have a few key “standing sets” or “fixed sets” that are used in most episodes of a TV show with less frequent “swing sets” that are quickly swung (or wheeled) on set to facilitate filming. Typically, single cam shows have more exterior shots, so the schedule is built to accommodate more company moves.

Video Shoot Schedule Template

Everything you need for a film shoot applies to a video shoot schedule template, the only difference is in scope and budget. With a narrative video production, your film shoot schedule will include all relevant contact information, a stripboard of scenes, page count, cast and crew.  If the video project is simply an interview, your shoot schedule might be very brief and even included on your call sheet or shot list document.

How to Make a Shooting Schedule With Assemble

Get started today with our fully customizable shooting schedule template. Follow these steps to open, customize and distribute the shooting schedule to your cast and crew.

1. Open the Template

Open this template by clicking Use Template. The template will be created within a new blank project in Assemble.

2. Edit the Template as Needed

Click anywhere within the text to begin adding to or editing the template.

3. Share the Document

Click Share and select Share Document to easily distribute the document to your entire team with one click. You can even track who has viewed the document.

4. Save the Updated Template for Future Projects

Once you've updated it based on your needs, click the menu in the top right and select Save as Template to save it into your your personal template library.

Producing a Film with Assemble

Assemble enables producers to create a centralized hub to manage their entire project from start to finish - including documents, calendars, task management and asset management.

By using this shooting schedule template, you'll get access to all of Assemble's powerful features so that you can not only utilize this document, but keep production moving quickly and efficiently with our advanced collaboration tools built for producers.

Get started today for free by clicking Use Template to begin exploring all of Assemble's powerful features.