Shoot Dayrequired
Production title, day number out of the total, the date, and the general crew call.
Include the full date and day number so the crew can distinguish this shoot day from other days in the production.
CallSheetSign inFree template
A call sheet template, and what each block is for.
The blank is on this page. Print it, or save it as a PDF from the print dialog, and you have the same document the rest of this page explains. Below it: all fifteen blocks a production call sheet carries, what goes in each one, and what actually goes wrong on set when it is left out.
The blank
Print this page for a blank call sheet.
Printing hides everything except the form below. 8 blocks are marked required — those are the ones worth filling even on a one-location day.
Production
Day
Date
Crew call
Shoot Dayrequired
Location & Safetyrequired
Nearest Hospitalrequired
Additional Locations
Company Moves
Weather & Daylightrequired
Key Contactsrequired
Department Callsrequired
Run of Dayrequired
Equipment Notes
Catering
Transportation
Production Notes
Advance Schedule
Emergency Contactsrequired
Block by block
What each block holds, and what it costs to skip.
Location & Safetyrequired
The shooting address, parking instructions, and the safety notes specific to that place.
Parking is where the day is actually lost. An address with no parking line sends twenty people circling a block that has none, and they arrive late in a way that reads as their fault.
Nearest Hospitalrequired
Name, address, and distance from set.
This is the block nobody reads until the one time it matters, and then nobody has time to search for it. It belongs on every sheet including the easy days.
Additional Locations
Any second or third location the day touches, each with its own address.
Crew read the top address and stop. A location that only appears in the schedule column gets missed by whoever is loading a truck.
Company Moves
When the unit moves, from where, to where, and how long the move takes.
Allow time for loading, travel, and setup at the next location. Pay and billing treatment follow the production's agreements.
Weather & Daylightrequired
Forecast conditions, temperature, and sunrise and sunset for the shooting location.
Exteriors are scheduled against the light, not the clock. Sunset is a hard out that no amount of pushing changes.
Key Contactsrequired
Producer, director, first AD, and the location contact, each with a phone number.
When someone is lost or late, they call one number. If that number is not on the sheet they call whoever they happen to have, which is usually the person least able to help.
Department Callsrequired
Each person, their role, their department, and their individual call time.
The general crew call is not everyone's call. Camera pre-lighting at 6:00 and talent at 10:00 on the same sheet is the whole point of the document.
Run of Dayrequired
The ordered blocks of the day with start times and what happens in each.
This is the part people photograph and keep on their phone. Order matters more than precision — a schedule that is honest about sequence survives a day that runs late.
Equipment Notes
Anything unusual arriving, and who is responsible for it.
Named ownership is the point. Gear listed with no name attached is gear that three people assume someone else is bringing.
Catering
Meal times, where food is, and how dietary needs are being handled.
Give the crew a clear meal plan. Pay, meal penalties, and billing follow the applicable production agreements; the call sheet does not determine them.
Transportation
Shuttles, drivers, call times for pickups, and where vehicles stage.
Anyone without their own car is stranded by an unwritten transport plan, and they are usually the crew with the least power to fix it.
Production Notes
The day's specific instructions — dress code, closed set, client on site.
This is where "client is on set today" goes. It changes how people behave and it belongs in writing rather than in a group text.
Advance Schedule
What tomorrow looks like, in one or two lines.
It lets crew arrange childcare, a second job, or a drive home. Omitting it is how a production loses good people to a competing booking.
Emergency Contactsrequired
Local emergency number, and the production's own emergency line.
Distinct from Key Contacts. This is the block that assumes the producer is the person who is unreachable.
Worked example
One filled day.
A commercial shoot, second of three days, one location with a golden hour block at the end. Fictional production and address.
- Production
- NORTHVIEW — Spring Campaign
- Day
- Day 2 of 3
- Date
- Tuesday, 14 April
- Crew call
- 07:00
- Location
- Verity Mill, 4400 Foundry Row, Rockwall TX
- Parking
- Gravel lot off Foundry Row. Do not park on the residential side.
- Nearest hospital
- Baylor Scott & White — 1097 E Ralph Hall Pkwy, 8 min
- Weather
- Partly cloudy, high 74°F, 10% precipitation
- Daylight
- Sunrise 06:52, sunset 19:48
Department calls
- 06:30Director of PhotographyCamera
- 06:30GafferElectric
- 07:00Production DesignerArt
- 09:30Talent — leadCast
Run of day
- 06:30Camera and electric pre-light, interior mill floor
- 07:00General crew call, breakfast on set
- 09:30Talent arrives, hair and makeup
- 10:30First shot up — wide, interior
- 13:00Lunch, 30 minutes, catering in the north bay
- 18:30Exterior golden hour block — hard out at sunset
Template or app
When a template is enough, and when it stops being enough.
A template is the right tool for a one-day shoot with a crew of six. It stops being the right tool at the first revision, because that is the moment you need to know who is working from the current version.
Question
Template
CallSheet
Cost to start
Free, and it opens in something you already have.
Free to build. Sending to crew is a paid plan.
Learning curve
Fill and review the fields in your chosen document tool.
Use the editor, preview the document, and review the recipient selection before publishing. Learning time varies.
Personal call times
One document for everyone. Individual times live in a column people scan past.
Each person's own call time leads their view of the sheet.
Sending a revision
A new attachment. Whoever missed the email is working from yesterday's version.
Publishing updates the shared crew page. You choose which recipients receive a new email.
Knowing it arrived
The document itself does not collect delivery or response records; use your distribution process.
Link opens and explicit responses are tracked per recipient. An open does not prove someone read the sheet.
Sunrise and sunset
Looked up by hand and pasted in, correct on the day it was pasted.
Native lookups use the primary production location and shoot date. After either changes, refresh and review daylight details before publishing.
Working offline
A saved local copy can be opened offline in a compatible document tool.
Native local drafts are editable offline. Browser drafting and saving, lookups, and publishing need a connection.
Download CallSheetiPhone and iPad. This link opens the iOS App Store product page.
Download for MacMac. This link opens the Mac App Store product page.