Script to shooting day
Film scheduling software.
A plan the crew can shoot from.
Film Logic runs in a browser. Import the screenplay, break it down, build the board, and print the day. The schedule, the reports and the call sheet all read from one copy of the production.
One production, from the first slugline to the last call sheet
A shooting schedule is a stack of decisions. Who is available, what a location costs you in time, which scenes can share a setup, what happens to the day if one of them moves. Film Logic keeps the script, the breakdown, the board and the paperwork in the same workspace, so you can see what a decision costs before you commit the crew to it.
Writer-directors use it to plan a short. First ADs use it to build a feature. Coordinators use it to get tomorrow out the door. Everyone you invite joins for free: collaborators are not charged per seat.
Scheduling is the middle of a longer job. If you are looking at the whole run from script to shoot day, the production management overview covers it end to end, including what does not carry through.
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01 / Script
Start with the screenplay
Import .fdx, PDF, or our own .fls format, or write it here. Scenes, headings and characters come across on import. Read a PDF import through before you build on it: PDFs are inconsistent about formatting.
How breakdown works → -
02 / Breakdown
Tag what the scene needs
Cast, props, costume, vehicles, effects: whatever a department has to bring. Location, interior or exterior, time of day and page eighths stay attached to the scene, and that is what the board sorts on.
Free breakdown sheet → -
03 / Stripboard
Build the shooting order
Move strips into days. Drop in banners for meals and company moves, watch the day totals, and check cast and location availability before you promise anyone a date.
The scheduling guide → -
04 / Shoot
Hand it to the crew
Shooting schedule, one-liner, Day Out of Days. Build the call sheet, get it reviewed, send it. On the day, the AD dashboard and Crew Live keep everyone looking at the same plan.
How call sheets work →
Worked example
The cafe is only free on Monday
Scenes 4 and 18 both shoot there. Scene 18 is on Wednesday. You move it into Monday's block, and then you check the four things a move always disturbs.
- Is everyone in scene 18 free on Monday?
- Do the pages and the estimated scene times still fit inside the day?
- Did that change anyone's first or last day, and what they are owed for the gap?
- Do the shooting schedule, the DOOD and Monday's call sheet still describe the same day?
The point is being able to answer all four in one place instead of four documents. If Monday's call sheet has already gone out, reissue it with a new revision and say which version it replaces.
The paperwork the plan turns into
- Stripboard. The shooting order and where the days break.
- Shooting schedule. Every day in full, scene by scene.
- One-liner. The whole shoot on as few pages as possible.
- Day Out of Days. Who works, holds and travels, and when.
- Call sheet. One day, for the people shooting it.
Try the free DOOD template, or the shooting schedule template. No account needed for either.
Check the fit before you switch
Run the trial on a script of your own. It is the only test that tells you anything useful, and it costs nothing.
If you are coming off the industry-standard desktop application, scheduling a film without Movie Magic covers what that actually costs you.
Two things worth knowing first. We import screenplays, not other applications' schedule files, so an existing board gets rebuilt rather than opened. And if your production depends on a particular report layout, an accounting export or editing with no signal, check that before you move a live show across.
Before your first schedule
What does it cost?
Everything is free for 30 days, no card. After that, Individual Production is US$19.99 a month for up to 3 active productions, with unlimited projects and unlimited collaborators. The public templates stay free and need no account at all. Current plans and regional pricing.
Is there anything to install?
No. It runs in a browser, and that includes the phone in your pocket: the board, the breakdown, availability, the reports and the call sheets are all editable there, not just viewable. Script Supervisor is the one module that stays on desktop. Separately, Crew Live opens from a link on any phone with no login at all, which is what you want on a set. Editing the production itself needs an account and the right project role.
Could I just use a spreadsheet?
For a stable two-day shoot, honestly, yes. Start with one of our free templates. It stops being a good idea the moment scenes start moving, because every move has to be copied by hand into the schedule, the DOOD and the call sheet, and one of those copies is eventually wrong. We set out exactly where that line falls.
Does the schedule give me a budget?
No. It gives you the inputs a budget is built from, scene counts and cast days among them. A DOOD is not a payroll calculation and should not be handed to an accountant as one.
Film Logic
Put your own script on the board
Thirty days, every feature, unlimited collaborators, no card. Import a screenplay and see what your first week actually looks like.
Start your free trial →