How to make a call sheet

Every other time on the sheet is relative to the general call, whether or not you write it that way. Camera prep happens before it, the first setup happens after it, and talent pickups are counted backwards from when they are needed on set.

Set it once, deliberately, and let the rest hang off it. The common mistake is fixing individual times first and then discovering the general call has to move, which means editing every row you already wrote.

Scenes or setups, meals, and company moves, in sequence. Meals are part of the schedule rather than a footnote: crew plan around them, catering needs the time, and a lunch that moves changes the afternoon.

Be honest about how long things take. A schedule that assumes everything goes right is not a plan, it is a wish, and the people reading it know the difference by the second setup.

Company moves deserve their own line with their own duration. A move that appears as a gap between two scenes will be read as slack.

Most of the unit works to the general call. The exceptions are what the sheet is for: hair and makeup starting early, a department prepping ahead, talent with a pickup, a specialist arriving for one setup.

Write the exception against the person, not in a note at the bottom. A note is something a reader has to find; a time in their own row is something they cannot miss.

A reusable crew list reduces repeated entry between jobs. Check each person's role, contact details and personal call for the current day; reuse should not carry an old instruction into a new production.

The address alone is rarely enough. Where crew park, where unit base sits, which entrance is unlocked at 6am, and whether a truck can physically get there are the parts people call you about.

If the day involves more than one location, treat each as a full entry rather than a note appended to the first. Everyone who has to drive between them needs both, in order, with the move timed.

Nearest hospital, emergency contacts, weather, sunrise and sunset, and any hazard or stunt notes. Nobody reads these on a normal day, which is exactly why they have to be there on the abnormal one.

Confirm the hospital rather than trusting a lookup. Software can find the nearest facility by distance; it cannot tell you whether that facility has an emergency department open at 3am. That is a production decision and it stays one.

If this is not the first version, the sheet has to say so, and it has to say what moved. Crew are working from something they already read; the useful information is the delta, not the document.

Mark the version, and put the change where the affected person will see it. A revision marker in the header tells the whole crew that something changed somewhere, which is enough to worry everyone and inform nobody.

An emailed file is a snapshot. When you revise it, recipients may still have the older download. Explain which version applies and give people a clear path to the revised document.

A private link can return recipients to the current published sheet and record opens and responses. When the plan changes, publish the update and decide who needs a new notification. A recorded open does not prove who read it.

Whatever you use, the test is simple: at 6am tomorrow, can every single person get to the current version from their phone without asking you for it?